Persuasion in business is more than just getting other people to be receptive to your opinions and beliefs. Leaders understand that persuasion is a core aspect of communication that is needed for strong relationships and performance in business.

Psychological needs illustrate a basic way of reaching people. Based on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, once people have food and shelter, they must receive safety, belonging and mattering. “Without these three essential keys, a person cannot perform, innovate, be emotionally engaged, agree, or move forward,” according to Inc. “Safety, belonging, and mattering are essential to your brain and your ability to perform at work, at home, and in life overall. The more we have of them the greater the success of the company, the relationship, the family, the team, the individual.”

Leaders can not only persuade people by being aware of these needs — it’s vital for simply connecting with others. People won’t be persuaded, be able to work or be able to build a meaningful professional relationship if they don’t feel safe in taking risks (safety), feeling connected (belonging) and feeling like they’re valued (mattering). Three influencing phrases create safety, belonging and mattering in communication.

• “What if…?” This removes ego and reduces emotion. You’re not forcing a position, which enables someone to brainstorm a solution more easily with you.
• “I need your help.” This engages the subordinate person in a temporary transfer of power. It can be effective in changing a person’s behavior or for taking on more responsibility.
• “Would it be helpful if…?” This shifts the focus from the problem to a possible course of action or positive action.

Persuasion doesn’t necessarily require  bold tactics that change people’s minds and exploit their thoughts and feelings. Leaders can learn how to meet people where they’re at. The following sections explore some persuasion methods and techniques.

Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion

Robert Cialdini, best-selling author and an expert in the science of influence, established six famous principles of persuasion in his classic book Influence. Leaders can adopt these principles ethically to connect with and persuade people.

1.    Reciprocity

People are obliged to give back in the form of a behavior, gift or service that they have first received.

In a series of studies at restaurants, researchers found that when servers provided a single mint along with the bill to diners, tips increased by about 3 percent. When the gift was doubled to two mints, tips quadrupled to 14 percent. Interestingly, if the waiter provided one mint, started to walk away from the table, but paused, turned back and said, “For you nice people, here’s an extra mint,” tips increased to 23 percent.

The key is being the first to give and ensuring that what is given is personalized and unexpected. Leaders can use this principle for project outcomes and professional development plans.

2.    Scarcity

People want more of what may not be available.

In 2003, British Airways announced that they would no longer operate the twice daily London to New York Concorde flight due to economic reasons. Sales for available flights increased dramatically the next day.

The key is helping people understand what is unique about your proposition and what they stand to lose if the proposition is not considered. Leaders can use this principle for limited opportunities/roles in the organization.

3.    Authority

People follow the lead of credible, knowledgeable experts.

The key is indicating the importance of signaling to people as to what makes someone an authority before making an attempt at influencing that person. One real estate group saw a 20 percent rise in the number of appointments and a 15 percent increase in the number of signed contracts by using the following type of statements.

• (for customers interesting in letting/renting a property) “Lettings? Let me connect you with Sandra, who has more than 15 years’ experience letting properties in this area.”
• (for customers interesting in information about selling properties) “Speak to Peter, our head of sales. He has more than 20 years’ experience selling properties. I’ll put you through now.”

4.    Consistency

People like to be consistent with things they have previously said or done.

One study found that few homeowners would erect an unsightly wooden board on their front lawn to support a Drive Safely campaign in their neighborhood. This wasn’t the case in a similar neighborhood, where four times as many homeowners were willing to do this. The reason is that 10 days prior, they agreed to place a small postcard in their front window supporting the campaign.

The key is finding voluntary, active and public commitments (ideally in writing) to start on the path of consistency. Leaders can use this principle by aligning proposals with others’ goals and priorities.

5.    Liking

People prefer to say yes to those they like. People like people who are similar to them, people who pay them compliments and people who cooperate with them towards mutual goals.

Studies conducted with MBA students at two business schools involved group of students told two separate things.

• “Time is money. Get straight down to business.” Around 55 percent came to an agreement.
• “Before you begin negotiating, exchange some personal information with each other. Identify a similarity you share in common then begin negotiating.” In this group, 90 percent were able to come to successful and agreeable outcomes that were worth 18 percent more to both parties.

The key is finding areas of similarity and genuine compliments to give before getting to business.

6.    Consensus

People will look to others’ actions and behaviors to determine their own, especially when they’re feeling uncertain.

Small cards in hotels that persuade guests to reuse their towels and linens have about 35 percent compliance. When the card changes the text to reflect a simple fact in the industry — “75 percent of our guests reuse their towels at some time during their stay, so please do so as well” — towel reuse rises by 26 percent. A final iteration, stating a simple fact without any attempt at persuasion, leads to a 33 percent in reuse: “75 percent of people who have stayed in this room have reused their towel.”

The key is instead of relying on the ability to persuade others, pointing to what others (especially “many similar others”) are already doing can be effective. Leaders can use this to point out what successful workers are doing in similar roles to be more productive.

Persuasion Methods and Techniques

Leaders need to focus on and develop skills that help with persuasion. As seen from the psychological needs that people have and Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, a lot of it involves soft-skills and relationship building. Leaders should be working to connect to people, build relationships with them and see mutual connections to establish common ground. Then expressing ideas comes more naturally and the person will be open to hearing them.

Fast Company illustrates another way to persuade others, from Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Here are the table of contents, which are effective strategies and ideas for persuasion.

• The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
• Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
• If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
• Begin in a friendly way.
• Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
• Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
• Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
• Try to see things from the other person’s point of view.
• Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
• Appeal to the nobler motives.
• Dramatize your ideas.
• Throw down a challenge.

These techniques transform persuasion to a deeper, more personal level, which is arguably what needs to happen if persuasion will occur at all.

Advancing Your Career

Influencing others can lead to success for everyone involved. An online bachelor’s in business administration or online MBA from Concordia University Texas will give you the necessary skills to succeed in helping organizations thrive. Learn in a flexible, convenient online environment with a schedule that fits your life.

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Voice technology has become a  part of daily life for consumers. Forty percent of adults now use voice search once per day, and according to Google, 72 percent of people who own a voice-activated speaker — like the Amazon Echo or Google Home — say their devices are used often in their daily routines.

Voice-activated speaker owners told Google that talking to their devices helps them get things done quickly and efficiently. Here are the top reasons people are turning to these devices:

1. It allows them to easily multitask.
2. It enables them to do things faster than with other devices.
3. It empowers them to get answers and information instantly.
4. It makes daily routines easier.

As voice technology and its associated devices, apps and other solutions increase in popularity, so, too, will the impact voice tech has on business.

Voice Tech Is Becoming Standard

By 2020, 50 percent of all searches will be voice searches, and there will be 21.4 million smart speakers in the United States. The global speech and voice recognition market, valued at about $6 billion in 2017, is likely to reach $18 billion by 2023.

Voice tech is present in several products. Consumers can control products and services with their voices to shop, stream music, change lighting and thermostats, lock doors, interact with vehicles and use alarm systems, televisions, appliances and more.

Users are implementing voice tech for purchasing products. Nearly 50 percent of people use voice search when researching products. Google found that owners of voice-activated speakers are open to receiving information and offers from brands.

• 52 percent would like to receive information about deals, sales and promotions
• 48 percent would like to receive personalized tips and information to make life easier
• 42 percent would like to receive information about upcoming events or activities
• 39 percent would like to receive options to find business information (such as store locations and hours)
• 38 percent would like to receive access to customer service or support

Voice-activated technology is “a new playground for brands,” according to Google.

Voice Technology and Government Regulations

Privacy and data concerns surround voice technology. Personalization helps voice tech systems be as useful as possible, according to The Economist, and devices have access to calendars, emails and other sensitive information. One complication is that these devices are always listening, just waiting to be activated.

“Police investigating a murder in Arkansas, which may have been overheard by an Amazon Echo, have asked the company for access to any audio that might have been captured,” according to The Economist. “Amazon has refused to cooperate, arguing (with the backing of privacy advocates) that the legal status of such requests is unclear. The situation is analogous to Apple’s refusal in 2016 to help FBI investigators unlock a terrorist’s iPhone; both cases highlight the need for rules that specify when and what intrusions into personal privacy are justified in the interests of security.”

In addition to these types of challenges for businesses, there is also opportunity. Regulations in the auto industry have helped advance hands-free driving, leading to voice-activated systems in vehicles. Forbes reported how voice tech in vehicles could soon lead to systems becoming personal assistants, travel companions and even a sympathetic ear to drivers.

Branding, Voice Tech and Emotional Connections

Google has found that people are saying “please,” “thank you” and “sorry” to their voice-activated speakers, and 41 percent of owners say it feels like they’re talking to a friend or another person. “People perceive the devices as more than just an electronic toy, they’re more akin to another person or a friend.”

This is reflected in other findings. “In our research, when people voiced a question involving a brand name, their brain activity showed a significantly stronger emotional response compared to people typing that same question,” Ida Siow, head of planning, Singapore and SEA at J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, told Forbes. “There is no doubt that voice builds emotional affinity, and a resounding 72 percent of users [in Singapore] wanted brands to have unique voices and personalities for their apps. The implication for brands is huge — it’s no longer just about right time, right message, right place — brands need to ensure they are developing the right voice, too.”

Understanding the Technological Challenges of Modern Business

Understanding the nuances of technology in business today can lead to success. An online bachelor’s in business administration, online applied business degree or online MBA from Concordia University Texas can give you the necessary skills to succeed in helping organizations thrive. Learn in a flexible, convenient online environment with a schedule that fits your life.

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Companies tend to struggle with organizational disparities between “design thinking” and “business thinking.”

Often, executives “don’t want to get involved in the [creative] process,” said Derrick Kiker, a partner at McKinsey and the CEO of design firm LUNAR, according to Fortune. “Any time you create a chief design officer role and give them a lot of resources, there’s inherently pressure from the executive team. They want to see results almost immediately. And they don’t understand the progression of what has to happen.”

This disconnect exists because many companies are successful due to delivering predictable products by repeatable means. They “almost instinctively resist bringing fuzzy, messy, and abstract visions into the equation,” according to the MIT Sloan Management Review.

Nevertheless, as Fortune observed from more than a dozen top executives and founders at the 2017 Innovation by Design conference, good design is essential for any industry. “This is the great era of design,” said Barry Wacksman, executive president and chief strategy officer for digital agency R/GA.

Design thinking ideation and principles can help businesses stand out from the competition and pursue innovation.

What Is Design Thinking?

Definition

Design thinking is an ideology supported by a process, according to Nielsen Norman Group. Both are necessary to understand design thinking.

The design-thinking ideology asserts that a hands-on, user-centric approach to problem solving can lead to innovation, and innovation can lead to differentiation and a competitive advantage. This hands-on, user-centric approach is defined by the design-thinking process and comprises six distinct phases, as defined and illustrated below.

Stages of the Design Thinking Process

The design thinking process follows an overall flow: understand, explore and materialize. Within these larger buckets, there are six stages of the design thinking process.

1.    Empathize

Conduct research to understand what your users do, say, think and feel.

Speak to a range of actual users. What are they doing? How do they think? What do they want? Ask yourself what motivates and discourages them. Gather enough observations to begin empathizing with them and their perspectives.

2.    Define

Combine research and observe where your users’ problems exist. As you start pinpointing your users’ needs, begin to highlight opportunities for innovation.

Use data gathered in the empathize stage to gain insights. Organize your observations and look at similarities to your users’ current experiences. Are there common pain points? Identify any unmet user needs.

3.    Ideate

Brainstorm all types of crazy, creative ideas that address unmet user needs from the define phase. Stress quantity; no idea is too farfetched.

Bring your team members together and present many ideas. Have team members share ideas with one another, and look to combine and re-combine different ideas.

4.    Prototype

Create actual representations for a subset of your ideas. The goal of this phase is to understand what components work and do not work. This is the phase where you begin to look at the impact vs. feasibility of your idea through feedback on your prototypes.

It’s important to make your ideas tactile. If the idea is a new website, develop a mockup of the website. Make changes based on feedback you receive and then create a new prototype. Then you can share it with a new group of people to obtain more feedback.

5.    Test

Return to your users for feedback. Gauge whether your solution will meet their needs and if it has improved how they feel, think or do their tasks.

Verify this by putting it in front of real customers. Determine whether their perspectives have changed and if the new solution will meet organizational goals (such as profitability or time on site for a new website). Continue to test as you execute your vision.

6.    Implement

Put the vision into effect. Ensure that it will impact your end users.

“This is the most important part of design thinking, but it is the one most often forgotten,” according to Nielsen Norman Group. This can be a long and difficult process, but it is essential to reap the benefits of design thinking iteration. “As impactful as design thinking can be for an organization, it only leads to true innovation if the vision is executed. The success of design thinking lies in its ability to transform an aspect of the end user’s life. This sixth step — implement — is crucial.”

How to Take Advantage of Design Thinking Ideation

Research from MIT Sloan Management Review resulted in five steps that can take full advantage of the potential of design thinking.

1. Encourage top managers to champion design thinking initiatives. Managers are spread too thin, yet design thinking teams require two kinds of attention by top management: proactive and follow-up. Proactive attention includes many forms like launching an initiative, taking part in the design thinking process, developing and submitting ideas and removing obstacles. Follow-up attention refers to energy the leader invests after the design thinking team does its work, like pushing ideas through the organization.
2. Balance the teams. It can be difficult to allow people freedom while ensuring they don’t lose focus on other business objectives. One key is recognizing and appreciating the diversity of their experience and skills. Some members should focus on certain aspects of the process.
3. Set ground rules. Design thinking teams should be empowered to work without getting permission for every step. Minimal rules can help reinforce the autonomy they need to function well.
4. Integrate design thinking into product-development processes. “Design thinking is often treated as yet another assignment from headquarters — just one more box to be checked,” according to MIT Sloan Management Review. “To change that perception, the teams responsible for design thinking should look more closely at their existing product-development processes. It can be helpful to integrate specific design thinking deliverables, such as early customer feedback in the problem-definition phase, larger-scale customer feedback in the market-solution phase, and prototypes and mock-ups throughout the process.”
5. Redefine the metrics. Design thinking teams should not focus on profit, but on learning. This is captured through defined learning outcomes and questions. Even if the overall project fails, insights will be gained through learning, which can then be applied to better questions or another project.

Pursuing a Career in Business

Understanding design thinking ideation can stimulate creativity and innovation in business. An online bachelor’s in business administration, online applied business degree or online MBA from Concordia University Texas can give you the skills to succeed in helping organizations thrive. Learn in a flexible, convenient online environment with a schedule that fits your life.

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Market research is an essential part of launching a new product. “A lot of companies skim over the important background information because they’re so interested in getting their product to market,” marketer Donna Barson told Entrepreneur. “But the companies that do the best are the ones that do their homework.”

Market research is also necessary for gauging customer feelings about existing products and for new marketing plans. There are two types of market research that businesses should be familiar with and employ.

Primary Market Research Methods

Primary research concentrates on information that comes directly from the source — current or potential customers.

“The goal of primary research is to gather data from analyzing current sales and the effectiveness of current practices,” according to author Lesley Spencer Pyle in Entrepreneur. “Primary research also takes competitors’ plans into account, giving you information about your competition.” A new product will rely more on competitors’ plans and data, while existing products will rely more on their own sales.

There are several ways to collect data in primary research.

• Interviews
• Surveys
• Questionnaires
• Focus groups that include a sample of potential clients or customers

Questions might include the following.

• What factors do you consider when purchasing this product or service?
• What do you like or dislike about current products or services currently on the market?
• What areas would you suggest for improvement?
• What is the appropriate price for a product or service?

Many companies make the mistake of ignoring primary research, Pyle notes. Primary research gives companies a full picture; the insight from actual customers can be extremely valuable.

Another common mistake is surveying only friends and family members. Companies need to “talk to real customers about their needs, wants and expectations,” according to Pyle.

Secondary Market Research Methods

Secondary market research involves gathering statistics, reports, studies and other data. This encompasses the vast majority of research that companies can find, according to Entrepreneur, and secondary market research encompasses a variety of sources. The local library and the internet are the best places to conduct secondary market research.

• Associations: Industry trade associations can produce information such as market statistics, lists of members and books and reference materials. Most libraries have the Encyclopedia of Associations that can help find relevant associations. Customers’ trade associations can help provide information to market to customers.
• Government Guidance: Most county governments publish population density and distribution figures in widely available census tracts. The U.S. Census Bureau has a lot of information available online, including the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, the Census Product Update, County Business Patterns and the Economic Census.
• Maps: Maps of trading areas are available from chambers of commerce, trade development commissions, industrial development boards and local newspaper offices.
• Colleges and Universities: “Local colleges and universities are valuable sources of information,” according to Entrepreneur. “Many college business departments have students who are eager to work in the ‘real world,’ gathering information and doing research at little or no cost. Finally, local business schools are a great source of experts. Many business professors do consulting on the side, and some will even be happy to offer you marketing, sales, strategic planning or financial information for free.”
• Community Organizations: Businesses should look at their local chamber of commerce or business development agency for useful information on site selection, demographic reports and directories of local businesses.
• D&B: The financial and business services firm D&B offers reference sources that can help startups.
• Online-Only Resources: Good starting points include KnowThis.com’s marketing virtual library, BizMiner.com’s national market research reports for 16,000 industries and MarketResearch.com’s more than 250,000 research reports.

Pursuing a Career in Business

Understanding market research methods is pivotal for launching a successful business or improving an existing organization. An online bachelor’s in business administration, online applied business degree or online MBA from Concordia University Texas can give you the skills to succeed in helping organizations thrive. You can learn in a flexible, convenient online environment with a schedule that fits your life.

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How is a business doing? Can the organization be more effective? What can the company do to make operations faster and more efficient?

These are the types of questions that organizations ask under a continuous improvement mindset. When organizations strive to always look for better ways to do things, they can evolve their products, services, workflows and more to become more optimal and efficient over time.

Continuous Improvement Tools

Here is a quick look at some of the most common continuous improvement tools.

• Six Sigma: This model for continuous improvement uses methodologies, tools and workflows to minimize faults and effects for any established process. Six Sigma uses different methodologies for improving an existing business process (DMAIC, which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) or a new one (DFSS, which stands for Design for Six Sigma). Within these methodologies, tools and workflows are used including the “five whys,” axiomatic design and cost-benefit analysis.
• Lean and Kaizen: These inter-related terms define two popular continuous improvement tools and methods. Kaizen is a philosophy of continuous improvement that uses small, incremental changes applied over a long period to result in significant improvements, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is a building block for Lean production models focused on removing “waste,” which fail to create value for the end customer. Analytical techniques like the five whys and value stream mapping are used.
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Model: This simple strategy focuses on setting aims and teambuilding to achieve change. It promotes improvement by asking three questions.
  • What are we trying to accomplish?
  • How will we know that a change is an improvement?
  • What changes can we make that will result in improvement?

Where Is Continuous Improvement Used?

Continuous improvement ideas and tools have been used across industries like manufacturing, education and healthcare.

Ford

Ford Motor Company used Six Sigma to reduce costs, improve quality, increase customer satisfaction rates and lower environmental impact by reducing solvent consumption. Beginning in the 1990s, Ford implemented the Six Sigma model, but it had to overcome obstacles like employee commitment, a lack of key resources like time and money and underwhelming data for its processes. According to Six Sigma, it helped Ford eliminate more than $2.19 billion in waste in more than 15 years. Six Sigma has helped the company complete nearly 10,000 improvement projects since the early 2000s, and customer satisfaction has increased by five percentage points.

Toyota

“Kaizen is the heart of the Toyota Production System,” according to the automaker’s website. Toyota’s people and customer-oriented philosophy strive for the absolute elimination of waste, overburden and unevenness to allow employees to work smoothly and efficiently. Thus, kaizen is naturally “applied to every sphere of the company’s activities,” given kaizen’s focus on removing waste and its role in making small, incremental changes.

Healthcare

The IHI model of continuous improvement is used by a wide range of individuals, teams and organizations to implement change. This is true for Pierre Barker, chief global partnerships and programs officer at IHI, when he began a 12-year role as medical director at UNC Children’s Hospital clinics.

Until this point, I had had no exposure to improvement science, but I soon joined a Collaborative led by NICHQ [National Institute for Children’s Health Quality] on cystic fibrosis that became my introduction to IHI and improvement methodology. During the Collaborative, I met [IHI Senior Fellow and Improvement Advisor] Lloyd Provost, who told me IHI was looking for someone to test the IHI methods in a low- and middle-income country; ideally, they wanted a physician to try this out in Africa.

That was all I needed. Within about 24 hours, I had secured the job. I applied for a sabbatical leave from the University of North Carolina and returned to South Africa for a year with my family. It was an amazing experience. I started applying improvement science to the HIV epidemic in South Africa, and very quickly I could see how powerful this methodology could be in an area with such staggering challenges. I got totally hooked. And things have taken off from there. In addition to its foundational programs in North America, IHI now has vibrant programs in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East/Asia Pacific, and Europe.

Lean and Kaizen

Kaizen is an important philosophy within the Lean process. Lean is used by successful startups as well as major manufacturers in the world, like Nike, Intel, Caterpillar and Textron, in addition to Ford and Toyota. Many hospitals have applied Lean to reduce or eliminate waste, become more efficient and improve healthcare delivery.

There are three basic steps or phrases for implementing a kaizen “event,” as outlined by the EPA.

Phase 1: Planning and Preparation

The first challenge is identifying an appropriate target for a rapid improvement event. Areas might include an administrative process or production area with significant bottlenecks or delays, areas with quality or performance concerns and/or areas with significant market or financial impact.

Then a more specific “waste elimination” problem within the chosen area can be the focus for the kaizen event. Once the problem area is chosen, assembling a cross-functional team of employees is the next step. Teams should include some members from the targeted administration or production process area.

Kaizen events last from one to seven days and team members should shed most of their operational responsibilities during this time to focus on the kaizen event.

Phase 2: Implementation

The team should develop a clear understanding of the “current state” of the targeted process. There are two techniques commonly used to define the current state and identify manufacturing wastes.

• Five Whys: Toyota developed the practice of asking “why” five separate times, answering the question each time to reveal the root cause of a problem.

• • Q:Why did the machine stop?
    A: There was an overload and the fuse blew.
  • Q: Why was there an overload?
    A: The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated.
  • Q: Why was it not lubricated sufficiently?
    A: The lubrication pump was not pumping sufficiently.
  • Q:Why was it not pumping sufficiently?
    A: The shaft of the pump was worn and rattling.
  • Q: Why was the shaft worn out?
    A: There was no strainer attached and metal scrap got in.

• Value Stream Mapping: This technique helps an organization identify non-value-adding elements in a targeted process. Similar to process mapping, value stream mapping involves flowcharting the steps, activities, material flows, communications and other process elements involved with a process or transformation.

Typically, it’s necessary to collect information on the targeted process. Team members are assigned specific roles for research and analysis, and once more information is gathered, they can add detail to value stream maps of the process and conduct time studies of relevant operations.

Data is then analyzed and assessed to find areas for improvement. Team members can brainstorm improvement options and test them on the shop floor or in process “mockups.” The most promising ideas are selected and implemented.

Phase 3: Follow-up

A key in this phase is making sure improvements are sustained, not just temporary. Team members routinely track key performance measures to document improvement gains. Follow-up events are sometimes scheduled at 30 and 90 days following the initial kaizen event to assess performance and consider modifications needed to sustain the improvements.

Advancing Your Business Career

A strong understanding of business principles and how to apply them to real-world situations is essential for continuous improvement tools and philosophies. An online bachelor’s in business administration, online applied business degree or online MBA from Concordia University Texas can give you the skills to succeed in helping organizations thrive. You can learn in a flexible, convenient online environment with a schedule that fits your life.

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Smart cities are a new approach to urban development. They hope to “solve tangled and wicked problems inherited in the rapid urbanization,” according to research from the Center for Technology in Government at the State University of New York at Albany.

Rapid urbanization is a crisis. Half of the world’s population lives in cities, with 10 percent living in the top 30 metropolises. Although cities occupy less than 2 percent of the landmass of the Earth, urban residents consume more than three-quarters of the world’s natural resources and are primarily responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. Rapid urbanization leads to problems such as difficulty in waste management, scarcity of resources, air pollution, human health concerns, traffic congestion and inadequate, deteriorating and aging infrastructures.

Smart cities hope to solve these types of problems. Smart cities are cleaner and more efficient, and they enable population growth more easily. But they also help grow innovation through technology, organization and policy.

The Business of Smart Cities

The smart city industry is projected to be a $400 billion market by 2020, with 600 cities worldwide, TechRepublic reports. These cities are expected to generate 60 percent of the world’s GDP by 2025.

Examples of Urban Tech

There are several types of technology in smart cities that impact business and benefit local economies. Here are two of the most effective implementations for urban technology.

Smart Energy

Smart energy in residential and commercial buildings helps enhance efficiency, minimize energy use and enable the collection and analysis of energy use. LED lights specifically represent an easy entry point for cities, because they save money immediately and pay for themselves within a few years. Buildings can reduce their costs by reporting energy use actively, improving grid management and optimizing power production through different sources and distributed energy production.

“Smart grid solutions play an important role in the development of smart cities,” Mike Zeto of AT&T Smart Cities told TechRepublic. “From prepaid energy applications to advanced metering infrastructure, there are several solutions to enhance energy services. With a smart grid, you can improve outage detection, speed of data capture, continuing and disaster recovery, field service operations and overall grid modernization techniques.”

Smart Transportation

Cities are seeing a very fast return on investment from transportation, traffic monitoring and parking. Smart traffic lights and parking, as well as multi-modal transportation, not only reduces the cost of monitoring parking and collecting fines, but helps lessen traffic congestion.

• Smarter parking leads to people spending less time looking for parking spots and circling city blocks.
• Connected city buses enable people to have real-time information on when buses will arrive at a bus stop.
• Traffic lights can be prioritized based on bus schedules to allow traffic to flow more freely during rush hours.

“It’s using sensors to collect data about the movement of people, all forms of vehicles and bikes,” Herman Chandi, co-founder of analytics company CommunityLogiq, told TechRepublic. “A smart city is one that greatly reduces vehicle traffic and allows people and goods to be moved easily through various means. Intelligent traffic systems are an example of this and the achievement of autonomous vehicle transportation would be a prime example of success for a smart city, as this could reduce vehicle related deaths. All these efforts would reduce pollution as well as time stuck in traffic, resulting in a healthier population.”

Examples of Smart Cities

Smart cities have been developed to try to inject life in the country’s economy through innovation. Here are two noteworthy examples of integrating urban technology.

• Skolkovo Innovation City in Russia has been recognized as an attempt to emulate Silicon Valley. The project began in 2010 and has been backed by billions of dollars and many of the world’s most successful corporations, including Boeing, Cisco Systems, EADS, GE, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Siemens, Nokia and Samsung. Skolkovo is focused on five “clusters” specializing in different areas: information technologies, energy-efficient technologies, nuclear technologies, biomedical technologies, and space technologies and telecommunications.
• The Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (SSGKC) in China serves as a “strategic development platform and a model for economic transformation and industrial upgrading.” In 20 years, SSGKC, in an area of 123 square kilometers, is expected to house a live-in population of 500,000. In 2016, the city agreed to add a smart eco technology center to showcase sustainable development, The Straits Times reported. SSGKC is the third project of the Sino-Singapore cooperation, following Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco City in China.
• The local government in Austin, Texas, home to CTX, has also set its sights on becoming a Smart City, “one that uses cutting-edge technology to address mobility, safety, equity and environmental challenges for all its residents,” according to the city’s official website. Austin was one of seven finalists for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Smart City Challenge, a $50 million grant prize that went to Columbus, Ohio, in 2016. The city plans to continue moving forward with smart city initiatives.

How Technology Facilitates Urban Management

Smart cities are embracing innovation to help solve the rapid urbanization crisis. Technology, as the tool for innovation, plays a leading role in developing these cities, along with organization (to manage innovation) and policy (to create an enabling environment).

Urban management is a natural fit for technology, according to entrepreneur Gideon Kimbrell in Forbes. From automatic street light dimming in Reykjavik, Iceland, for viewing the northern lights to needs like flood prevention and air quality reporting and advising, technology can make a big impact. Managing environmental factors can lead to better safety, such as by decreasing air or water pollution to reduce disease.

Urban technology can also enhance safety by targeting crime. “Web-based Crime Stoppers programs and real-time crime mapping via sensors can inform better policing and allocation of resources as well as increase citizen caution through automated broadcast alerts,” according to Kimbrell.

From the environment to safety and areas like entertainment and business, urban technology in smart cities can make improvements. Smart cities are producing massive amounts of big data, and if analyzed quickly and properly, this data can reap further rewards for urban management and beyond.

“The pervasiveness of technology and the expansion of open data policies is about to unleash an economic growth engine for urban innovation that we have never seen,” John Gordon of GE Digital told TechRepublic. “We are moving from analyzing data that exists within city hall, to generating new data from sensors that are deployed all across cities for use by multiple departments and people for multiple uses.”

Pursuing a Career in Business

You can advance your future in business by earning a fully online business degree from Concordia University Texas. Choose from an online bachelor’s in business administration or an online MBA. Both programs offer a real-world, focused curriculum that you can apply to your career.

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Increasingly, there are ways that businesses can get involved in the global healthcare industry. Companies often have the means and scale to participate in global healthcare in ways that have a major impact. For those interested in entering the business of global healthcare, it’s important to understand some of the health issues facing the world right now.

Global Healthcare Issues

Global Health Risks

While the business of global healthcare must focus on a variety of different risk factors and kinds of treatment, these 10 risk factors are responsible for 33 percent of deaths worldwide:

• High blood pressure
• Tobacco use
• High blood glucose
• Physical inactivity
• Overweight and obesity
• High cholesterol
• Unsafe sex
• Alcohol use
• Childhood underweight
• Indoor smoke from solid fuels

Those involved with global healthcare must focus not only on risk factors for loss of life, but also risk factors for loss of quality of life. The WHO uses a metric known as Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) to measure this form of loss. According to the WHO, “One DALY can be thought of as one lost year of ‘healthy’ life. The sum of these DALYs across the population, or the burden of disease, can be thought of as a measurement of the gap between current health status and an ideal health situation where the entire population lives to an advanced age, free of disease and disability.”

Poverty

Demographics play an important role in determining the relative importance of these risk factors. Different issues affect populations in varying ways based on their relative wealth and access to nutrition, education and healthcare. For example, according to the WHO, high blood pressure is a significant risk factor among high- and middle-income populations and is the leading cause of death among those populations. In low-income populations, however, unsafe sex and children being underweight are much more pressing issues; in fact, both are the leading factors in DALYs in those populations.

Preventative Care

Preventative care for risk factors in global health takes many forms. Businesses promoting global healthcare must work with governments to fund necessary programs such as hospitals and clinics, but also education and programs that grant access to food, clean water, and safe work environments and places to live.

The WHO’s mission is “To provide leadership and direction for urgent global, regional and national efforts to promote health and to prevent and control major chronic diseases and their risk factors.” To that end, the WHO focuses on four core functions, which businesses promoting global healthcare can also adopt:

• Advocacy. The first step in promoting global healthcare is raising awareness of the challenges being faced. This helps to ensure funding and attention, as well as promoting education about issues in global health.
• Health promotion. By promoting healthy, safe lifestyles, healthcare providers can mitigate some of the leading risk factors. Businesses can work to provide populations with access to necessities for health, such as clean water, nutritious food, hospitals and exercise facilities.
• Surveillance and population-based prevention. In order to prevent chronic and communicable disease as well as other threats, businesses must be aware of the current state of global health. This means monitoring the spread of disease through populations, in addition to tracking factors like diet, exercise and workplace safety.
• Prevention and management. Businesses can help fund and promote preventative programs. This might take the form of cancer research, anti-smoking campaigns or workplace exercise programs.

Care Delivery

Care delivery all over the world involves ensuring that at-risk populations have access to life-saving or life-improving treatments. People, especially in poor populations, die of preventable diseases on a regular basis, often because of limited access to proper care. There are a variety of factors that contribute to this, some on the caregivers’ side and some on the patients’ side. Hospitals and clinics, for example, operate under budget constraints, and an increase in spending on treating a particular risk factor may come at the cost of reduced spending on another. Healthcare providers also often operate under staff constraints; simply put, a hospital doesn’t always have the staff available to treat everyone. Patients in poor populations, at the same time, deal with limited access to transportation, poor nutrition, social norms with negative health impacts and limited ability to pay for treatment.

Cost

Providing healthcare to remote or low-income areas is expensive, and finding ways to reduce that cost  is necessary to providing care to those who need it. Many companies are focusing on reducing administrative waste or increasing efficiency, and new financial models that incentivize providing care to the most at-risk areas are also emerging. In addition, promoting good health management in populations can reduce the overall cost of providing healthcare, as these preventative measures put less burden on treatment.

Innovation

There are many ways businesses can innovate to help bring down costs and ensure better care. New technologies, like 3-D printing, artificial intelligence and biosensors, can help deliver higher-quality care and can be used to treat conditions and diseases that are otherwise untreatable. Telehealth services can be used to deliver care to people in remote areas or people in at-risk populations who don’t have easy access to healthcare services.

Innovation isn’t always about pushing the latest technology; sometimes it’s about ensuring access to basic needs like nutrition, clean water and safe jobs that pay enough to allow people to seek treatment when they need it.

Ethics

It’s important to recognize that global healthcare is both a practical and an ethical concern. From a practical perspective, focusing on global healthcare can help limit loss of life, the spread of disease and other risks that affect large populations of people and travel between populations. From an ethical perspective, access to healthcare is intrinsically tied to issues of justice and opportunity. Populations with more ready access to healthcare have more access to opportunities to improve their situations, so pursuing equity in global healthcare has a direct impact on the overall welfare and prosperity of disadvantaged populations.

Operational and Regulatory Concerns

Innovation and ethics both impact the operational and regulatory realities of global healthcare. Increased competition within the global healthcare marketplace and the emergence of market disruptors create a need for systems that reduce waste, improve safety, promote standardization and require evidence-based changes. Regulatory agencies become increasingly necessary in the large, complex global healthcare environment in order to guard against additional risks like counterfeit drugs, cyberthreats, safety hazards and corruption within the industry.

Starting a Career in Global Health

Engaging with the business of global healthcare requires a firm grasp of both health issues and business principles. An online bachelor’s in business administration from Concordia University Texas, with a concentration in global health and economic development, can help graduates get the start they need. Learn in a rigorous online environment that accommodates your schedule.

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Companies, especially new startups, succeed or fail based on the strength of their talent, but good talent is getting harder to find. In an Indeed survey of more than 1,000 HR managers, 86 percent of respondents indicated that they found it difficult to find good technical talent, and 83 percent of respondents believed that the talent shortfall was hurting their businesses.

In the survey, HR managers said they focused on work experience, soft skills and a good computer science education. More HR managers are hiring candidates who attend coding bootcamps as well. Despite this, 42 percent of respondents felt they couldn’t identify HR employees with the training necessary to find quality candidates, and more than half reported hiring candidates who didn’t meet the job’s requirements because they needed to fill the position immediately.

Talent acquisition is becoming an increasingly vital skill for HR personnel to have. In tech, jobs like software architect, mobile developer and QA engineer have significant talent shortfalls, and knowing how to identify quality candidates who can fill these positions and excel in them is necessary for HR staff.

Talent Acquisition vs Talent Recruitment

“Talent acquisition is the process of finding and acquiring skilled human labor for organizational needs and to meet any labor requirement,” according to Recruiter.com. Many companies have dedicated talent acquisition teams that take charge of finding and hiring candidates based on company needs and goals, while other companies contract with talent acquisition firms to meet their staffing needs.

The key difference between talent acquisition and recruitment is that, while recruitment focuses primarily on filling vacancies, talent acquisition is a long-term strategy for building the talent pool within an organization and takes into account candidate assessment, compliance, corporate branding and the overall strategy of the company and its growth. For many positions, recruitment is a useful tool. However, for certain kinds of positions like those in tech, medicine, law and finance, a talent acquisition strategy can save a company money, create potential leaders within the company and strengthen employee cohesion and corporate culture within the company.

A talent acquisition strategy typically has the following components.

Talent Forecasting

Talent acquisition teams typically start by analyzing the current talent pool and determining what factors might affect the availability of talent in the future.

Talent Pipelining

Talent pipelining is an acquisition strategy that involves building relationships that allow easy access to future talent. Instead of being reactive when a vacancy opens, talent pipelining emphasizes proactive recruitment, seeking out talent for positions that might need to be filled in the future.

Strategic Talent Assessment and Development

Talent assessment tests are often used during the hiring process to determine if a candidate is a good fit for the company. These assessments are often used in an ongoing way to help inform job growth, training and other facets of talent development.

HR and Talent Acquisition Salaries

There are several positions within a company that work with talent acquisition teams and strategies.

Human Resource Specialist

Median Salary: $59,180

Human resource specialists work with employment records related to promotions, hiring and firing, transfers and other functions necessary to talent acquisition. HR specialists typically require a bachelor’s degree.

Human Resource Manager

Median Salary: $106,910

Human resource managers oversee many of the functions related to hiring and firing talent, including job interviews and resume review. HR managers typically hold a master’s degree or higher.

Advancing Your Human Resource Career

Talent acquisition requires a firm understanding of business principles and what businesses need to thrive. An online bachelor’s in business administration, online applied business degree or online MBA from Concordia University Texas can give you the skills to succeed in human resources. Students pursuing their Bachelor of Business Administration can choose a concentration in human resource management. Learn in a dynamic, convenient environment with a schedule that fits your life.

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“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person — not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” -Anne M. Mulcahy, Former CEO of Xerox Corporation

Companies work best when their employees perform at high levels, find motivation and are given chances to excel. All these factors arise from a successful performance management process. According to the HR Council, performance management is the “process by which managers and employees work together to plan, monitor and review an employee’s work objectives and overall contribution to [an] organization.” Understanding this process allows employees and supervisors alike to more effectively (and happily) function in their workplace.

The Performance Management Process

Performance management is complex, requiring numerous steps and considerations. But generally, it is organized into the following phases.

1.) Planning

During this first phase, employees and managers decide together on goals for an employee’s future performance. This is usually done face to face in a private setting. During this meeting, they might:

• Review and revise an employee’s job description to ensure it accurately reflects the employee’s actual responsibilities.
• Identify the employee’s desired or expected goals and tasks, as well as the standards required to meet them.
• Define long-term career objectives and work out how they might be addressed via short-term responsibilities.
• Identify other factors that may help an employee’s performance, such as the connections between the employee’s responsibilities and overarching company goals.

2.) Monitoring

Once objectives are defined, managers and employees are then able to observe the actual work performed. Although “monitoring” might suggest “micromanaging,” this should hardly be the case in effective performance management. Instead, managers and employees should have regular conversations about work performance. They may discuss items like:

• If employees are making progress on their goals.
• Identifying barriers in work.
• Determining if an employee requires extra support.
• Identifying responsibility changes that may be necessary due to shifting company goals.

Monitoring is not characterized by a top-down approach. Employees should feel free to discuss their own vision of their challenges, barriers and accomplishments.

3.) Developing

Through monitoring, employees and managers are better able to identify areas for growth. The developing phase enables this growth to occur. This stage might include:

• Finding and implementing opportunities for formal or informal training.
• Coaching or mentoring.
• Delegating new responsibilities.
• Providing regular feedback.

4.) Rating

Rating is the official documentation of an employee’s progress. In performance management, this practice must adhere to a number of principles to be considered effective.

• The characteristics of each performance level (Unsatisfactory, Satisfactory, Above and Beyond, etc.) on the rating scale should be clearly defined.
• Rating scales should be tailored to particular job titles, if possible.
• Employees should have the chance to self-rate and veto their supervisor’s final ratings if they feel as though they are inaccurate.
• Supervisors should be educated about possible biases they might hold, so that they can provide more objective feedback.

Occasionally, companies choose to rate employee performance based on the opinions of multiple sources including peers, customers and higher-level managers. These are called 360-degree evaluations and may or may not be the right choice for every organization.

5.) Reward

When employees meet or exceed their goals, rewarding them is common, particularly in the form of a promotion, bonus or raise. Best practices include:

• Making clear distinctions between performance levels and rewards received.
• Ensuring that employees’ performance and reviews support decisions regarding their compensation.
• Keeping general consistency in all practices.

At their best, performance evaluation processes should lead to a company characterized by a high-performance culture.

Approaching Employee Performance Management

Performance management is more than a process; it is also defined by its adherence to certain best practices. Some include:

• All organizations should tailor their performance management processes to their unique needs.
• Clarity and transparency are crucial.
• Feedback should be specific and timely.
• Aligning employee goals with the company’s goals is ideal.

Most importantly, companies should understand that performance management is a process that requires long-term commitment. Although it may take time and work, the outcomes are ultimately worth the effort.

Sources: U.S. Office of Personnel Management, SHRM Foundation

Starting a Career in Human Resources

The value of getting the most out of employees can’t be overstated. For those interested in making a career out of helping others in the workplace, the online BBA with a Human Resource Management Concentration from Concordia University Texas can help guide them to a rewarding career. Concordia offers rolling enrollment, allowing students to begin classes at a time that’s right for them.

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Managerial Economics

Leaders use managerial economics to ensure they are making the best possible decisions for their organizations. Problems they might look to solve include:

• Selecting or developing products
• Deciding on product output and pricing
• Creating an internet strategy
• Organizational design
• Promotional strategies
• Worker hiring and training
• Investment and financing

 
Specifically, managerial economics utilizes particular concepts and quantitative methods to ensure the maximal use of resources and minimization of waste. Practical applications might involve:

• Marginal analysis. As the study of changes caused by economic decisions, using marginal analysis might help a company understand whether or not a customer will decide to still buy a product if its price increases.
• Public choice theory, which (according to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics) helps companies understand the decision-making behavior of the public.
• Theory of the firm, which describes the basic model of any business enterprise.
• Game theory techniques. As the study of how groups of people interact, they may help companies understand broad-based customer behavior based on the behavior of the consumers that surround them.
• Optimization techniques, or how to make the most of a company’s available resources.
• Forecasting procedures, or attempts to understand future conditions such as sales.

 
Once leaders understand concepts such as these, they can be practically applied to almost any financial scenario they might face.

Applying Managerial Economics to Business Decisions

Although theoretical in nature, managerial economics is ultimately meant for real-world use, such as in the scenarios below.

Scenario 1:

A company has been plagued over the past few years by financial scandals involving top management. Devoid of effective board oversight, CEOs and other high-ranking individuals have embezzled large quantities of money from shareholders and engaged in other immoral financial practices. The company is trying to ensure that a new board of directors will have the backbone and impetus required to effectively prevent these incidents from happening in the future. Consultants argue that in order to get the right people, board member compensation — particularly for those on the company’s audit committee — will have to increase. But critics say this will create unrealistic expectations among investors that every act of fraud will be caught. By using the managerial economic concept of the theory of the firm, company leaders can measure the relative value of increasing board member pay in order to stave off potential fraud versus the risk loss from another potential incident.

Scenario 2:

A country provides free health services for its citizens. However, the government faces the challenge of meeting increasing healthcare demands using finite resources. The government must decide how to best use its money. Using the managerial economics concept of optimal combination of inputs, it can decide what combination of equipment, staff, drugs and facilities will best meet the public need and keep costs at a minimum.

With a thorough understanding of managerial economics, business leaders set themselves up for long-term financial success.

Furthering Your Business Career

Effective leadership comes from understanding the financial realities of the business world. When students earn their online MBA from Concordia University Texas, they are preparing for careers that allow them to influence the companies of tomorrow. Concordia’s program gives students the opportunity to develop the advanced skills they need to thrive as managers in any field of work.

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