Accenture is evaluating its senior executives based on innovation and is spending more than $900 million a year on training, as the global IT giant looks at growing the amount of business it gets from newer technologies.
Digital already contributes over 50% of Accenture's revenue and it has trained about 70% of its technology workforce to be able to deliver those technologies, a far higher proportion than its Indian rivals. “For the past 18 months, we have been focusing on measuring innovation as a metric. We measure the end result for a client because it is all about tangible outcomes. Then with the training that we provide and the acquisitions we make, create a combination that keeps us ahead,“ Mohan Sekhar, senior managing director, Technology -Delivery Centers for Technology in India, Accenture, told ET. Accenture employees, about 1,40,000 of whom are in India, are each assigned 80 hours of classroom training a year, in addition to online courses. Managing direc tors can spend up to a week in training sessions, Sekhar added. The company will spend over $1 billion in acquisitions this year. The IT company has been running innovation competitions for its employees for the past three years, but has now also added a competition in which clients and employees pitch their innovations together -a client-centric co-innovation challenge. The company has received 384 co-innovation submissions. Innovation has become the top buzzword for IT executives over the past three years. Infosys touts its zero-distance programme -which aims to innovate in each of the company's projects. Accenture says it has conducted 250 co-innovation workshops in the first half of FY17 and could end the year with over 400 workshops. The co-innovation not only gives the customers a better outcome but also boosts Accenture's revenue. “In some cases, the innovation workshops result in a change request, which is an add-on to the contract. In other cases, they are part of the ongoing innovation that Accenture offers its clients,“ Raghavan Iyer, innovation lead -Accenture Delivery Centers for Technology in India, said. The company has also focused its innovation challenge on India-specific problems. The latest challenge asked for innovations that would tie-into the Digital India programme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “One of the ideas being presented is for a mobile application that will help users pinpoint the nearest clean toilet. If you think about the uses, it is not restricted just to India. The application could have uses in other countries as well,“ Sekhar said. He added that the reason for the innovation contests, which received 13,700 submissions, was to make innovation a part of every employee's life. In FY17, the company tripled the number of people thinking about innovation to 40,000.
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Can a remote Canadian island become a potential refuge for Americans trying to escape the current administration? The emails started coming into Cape Breton Island just after Donald Trump won his first presidential primary last year. They still arrive from Americans who think they might be willing to relocate to a place with short days and frigid temperatures five months of the year.
“I am so sick of what has happened to my beautiful country,” one resident of the Lower Forty-Eight wrote. The first sign of what Rob Calabrese would come to think of as America’s unmooring began last year. Just after Donald Trump won his first presidential primary, Calabrese published a $28 website that he’d designed in 30 minutes. “Hi Americans!” What followed was a sales pitch for an island where Muslims could “roam freely,” and where the only walls were those “holding up the roofs” of “extremely affordable houses.” “Let’s get the word out!” Calabrese wrote, adding a photo of an pristine coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. “Move to Cape Breton if Donald Trump Wins!” It was initially a joke but seven hours after Calabrese linked the site to the Facebook page of the pop radio station where he works as a DJ, in came an email from America. “Not sure if this is real but I’ll bite.” And then another: “It pains me to think of leaving, but this country is beyond repair.” Yankees quickly realized Calabrese’s effort was not a joke. The Calabrese response about housing: “You’ll find it one of the, if not the most, affordable in North America! If you want to take a look at some of the latest listings,” he emailed to The States some websites of Cape Breton Island real estate companies. He started answering questions about immigration...“The process has changed, some people say it is much less complex, let’s get started”...and dual citizenship...“Every country decides whom it considers to be a citizen. If more than one country recognizes you as a citizen, you have dual citizenship. Find out more here.” Some asked if Cape Breton Island was offering a special program. “No,” said Calabrese. “There is no special program. The immigration process would happen in the conventional way. The purpose of the web site is to show that if you are interested in coming to Canada, that Cape Breton Island would be a place where you would be welcomed with open arms!” Calabrese started answering questions about retirees immigrating, (“There are many paths to permanent residency and citizenship) and the economic climate in Cape Breton Island. He was candid: “Cape Breton’s economy has suffered for many years. In the past we depended on coal mines and steel production but those industries are gone. We have a burgeoning IT sector and some great new tech businesses are starting here.” Calabrese increased his trolling: “Want more information, Google Cape Breton Island if Donald Trump Wins.” The U.S. side of the phenomenon was “unsettling,” according to the Washington Post: “The toll of the president’s proposals has been swift on the nation’s tourism industry, with tour group organizers saying that people suddenly have an unsettling sense that the United States isn’t as welcoming a place as it once was. One industry expert projected lost revenue for 2017 at $7.4 billion.” A-E will apprise Greater Jasper residents of any mass emigration to a beautiful but chilly destination. Google Cape Breton Island Tourism website for stunning photographs of the beautiful part. The future of coal The quick erosion of most markets for U.S. and Cape Breton Island coal are inescapable. Just look at markets for West Virginia and Kentucky coal. Despite the President’s campaign pledges, the first two sentence in this paragraph are inevitable. More insight into inevitability: earlier this month, the Harlan County, Ky., Coal Museum switched to solar power. Sam Khorramian and Oliver Graf give us their three tips on what to do when an enterprise goes south, and how you can turn your vision into a reality.
After years of honing their craft as master salesmen, Sam Khorramian and Oliver Graf have turned the business of real estate on its head by introducing a brokerage that not only lets agents keep 100 percent of their commission, but also provides 24/7 support. At Big Block Realty, the agents are the customers, and the customers are treated like family. Clearly, this all-new business model is working! Big Block Realty has been named San Diego’s Best Real Estate Brokerage four years running. While munching on the epitome of comfort food (a tantalizing Mac ’N’ Cheeseburger) at Grub Burger Bar, Khorramian and Graf give us their three tips on what to do when an enterprise goes south, and how you can turn your vision into a reality. Entrepreneur Network is a premium video network providing entertainment, education and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders. We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre. EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical and provides partners with distribution on Entrepreneur.com as well as our apps on Amazon Fire, Roku and Apple TV. SHENZHEN, CHINA--Huawei Technologies is readying plans to offer public cloud services beyond its domestic market, venturing into some on its own, but its focus on US remains measured and uncertain.
The Chinese networking giant had positioned itself as "an enabler" of intelligent worlds, building more connections, widening data pipes, and facilitating digital transformation, said Eric Xu, Huawei's deputy chairman and rotating CEO. Speaking at the company's annual global analyst summit here this week, Xu noted that an "all-cloud ICT infrastructure" was key to enabling organisations in their digitisation journey and Huawei was looking to help telcos build cloud-based capabilities and run digital operational systems. Noting that cloud services was now a basic business model, he said: "Beginning in 2017, Huawei will focus on public services. We will invest heavily in building an open and trusted public cloud platform, which will be the foundation of a Huawei cloud family [that] will include public clouds we develop together with operators, and public clouds that we operate on our own." A new cloud business unit had been set up to drive such efforts, he said, which also would focus on key verticals including healthcare and financial services. This marked Huawei's first move to offer public cloud services outside its domestic Chinese market, where it launched such services in 2015. In a previous ZDNet report, Xu had said the vendor had no plans to do so, preferring instead to work with overseas telcos including Deutsche Telekom and Orange. Company executives added that Huawei needed to ensure it could properly run public cloud offerings in China before looking towards overseas expansion. Xu acknowledged that Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) already were entrenched in the public cloud market and had strong advantages in the US and other developed markets. However, he pointed to Huawei's strong telco partnerships in Europe and its focus on building "local, secured, and trusted" public cloud, which were key considerations for enterprises in these developed markets. He said Huawei's wide global footprint and capabilities would prove a competitive advantage in emerging markets against the likes of AWS and Microsoft. According to Zheng Yelai, president of Huawei's new cloud unit, plans were underway to hire 2,000 employees for the business group this year. Clement Teo, Ovum's principal analyst who was at the summit, said Huawei also had targeted emerging markets with its mobile strategy and was "smart" to adopt the same strategy for its public cloud services. While developed markets already were crowded with players such as Google and Microsoft, Teo told ZDNet that markets such as Middle East, Africa, and India were "still an open game" and Huawei had well established relationships with telcos that it could leverage to grow its business. He noted, though, that Huawei appeared to be overemphasising its telco services business and should offer more details about how it was driving its enterprise business. And while the creation of a cloud business unit was "interesting", it was still too early to assess what this could mean for the vendor. In addition, he said the Chinese vendor needed to look at establishing further credibility in the enterprise space in order to address any doubts that might have lingered from its legal tussles with Cisco Systems over intellectual property rights. Huawei in 2003 admitted to having duplicated Cisco's source codes in its routers, but said it had done so inadvertently and less extensively than the US vendor had claimed. Huawei previously targeted to hit US$10 billion in global revenue from its enterprise business by 2017, but later revised this to 2018. This was again pushed to 2019, according to a 2016 report. The business unit, though, remained the company's fastest growing, clocking a 47.3 percent year-on-year growth rate last year to hit 40.7 billion yuan (US$5.89 billion) in sales revenue. Yan Lida, president of the enterprise business group, said last month at Cebit 2017 that Huawei was expecting the unit's annual revenue to double every other year and likely to hit the US$10 billion target by 2018. US FOOTPRINT STILL SMALL Teo also highlighted Huawei's small footprint in the US, where it was missing out on a potentially huge revenue stream that could accelerate its target to hit US$10 billion in revenue for its enterprise business. "US will be important for them and, at least, in the long-term, they will need to be in the market. And right now, they're not there or have a very small footprint," the analyst said. The Americas accounted for 8 percent of Huawei's revenue last year, down from 10 percent in 2015, though actual revenue dollars climbed from 38.9 billion yuan (US$5.63 billion) to 44.08 billion yuan (US$ 6.38 billion) in 2016. The region saw the smallest year-on-year revenue growth of 13.3 percent, compared to 41 percent in China. The Chinese market remained its largest market, contributing 45 percent of Huawei's overall revenue last year, up from 42 percent in 2015, while EMEA accounted for about a third. According to Xu, the company's US strategy remained unchanged across its three business units: telco, enterprise, and consumer. Carriers in the US were not a high priority market for Huawei, he said, adding that it would take a "step by step" approach with its US enterprise business. Smart devices currently also were not a priority focus for Huawei in the US, though, he noted that it would be in the future. With the US currently under an administration that favoured an "America first" mentality and protectionist policies that encouraged bringing jobs back to the country, ZDNet asked Huawei executives if the Chinese vendor might be better off diverting its investment from US and towards friendlier markets such as those in Asia-Pacific. Catherine Du, Huawei's director of marketing for enterprise, reiterated Xu's comments on approaching the US enterprise market "step by step". She also noted that Huawei was focused on addressing the needs of its customers and this meant the vendor would do whatever, or wherever, they needed Huawei to be. Asked if that included manufacturing its products in US, Du said it had yet to hear of any request to do so. Huawei in the past had faced significant challenges and security concerns in the US, where the government accused the Chinese vendor of spying on its government's behalf and urged a ban on its products. Furious over the allegations, Huawei in July 2013 described the US market as a ""commercial disappointment" and declared it was no longer interested in it, instead shifting its focus on expanding in Europe. It later backtracked on its claim to leave the US market. Based in Singapore, Eileen Yu reported for ZDNet from Huawei Global Analyst Summit 2017 in Shenzhen, China, on the invitation of Huawei Technologies. As influencer advancing advances from a murmured about push to an exhibited technique, promoters need to take supply of what they know is effective. The changes which came up in the area of influencer marketing are listed below with the steps to be taken in the furtherance.
1) Sponsored posts must be scrutinised for guidelines spell: Government Trade Commission rules require that sufficient displays must be named as commercials, which implies that brands ought to be continuously varied when the influencers post for their purpose. It is still an accepted fact that if the marketing is uncovered then it is good for the marketers. This is myth. According to Kristin Hersant, VP of Linqia, “Sponsors are still under the inclination that if it’s not uncovered when a post is upheld, it’s all the more convincing, which is not the circumstance,” Proceeding, that lead won’t fly. “Sponsors ought to be harder with what they require of their influencers,” she said. 2) The crucial players today are the micro and the centre players. Enormous name backings may work for Super Bowl promotions, however, a couple brands are seeing greater achievement with scaled downscale influencers that have up to 10,000 enthusiasts and “focus” influencers with up to 250,000 followers. Gil Eyal, the originator of influence exhibiting stage HYPR Brands said that “Working with popular individuals has ended up being through and through less capable. Their engagement rates are regularly lower than practically identical influencers with a more diminutive social occasion of individuals.” The reason behind this was deeply explained by Mallorie Rosenbluth in the following way “Purchasers can see straightforwardly through it. A post from a man with countless about a brand they’ve never examined seems, by all accounts, to be misleading”. 3) The most preferred channel today is Instagram. YouTube has since a long time prior ruled as a go-to channel for influencer content, yet Instagram is getting up to speed quickly. In a November 2016 survey, influencer exhibiting motorization firm TapInfluence asked 268 US influencers, with a typical reach of 259,000, which social stage had the most potential for advancement as to influencer promoting. Instagram ascended as the unmistakable victory. Brands share that evaluation. “Instagram is tremendous for us in light of the rich data and because you really turn out to be more familiar with the influencers,” Delilah Nuval, advancing overseer at H2O+ Beauty, said. 4) Sponsored posts are supplemented by videos. There’s no one gauge fits all system for choosing the right substance for a specific influencer advancing exertion, however, brands and influencers are slanting toward video to grow the genuine feel of bolstered posts. “We require influencers to highlight Mezzetta by making content that feels individual and begins from whatever vitality they have for the thing,” Rajiv Doshi, head of cutting edge displaying at CPG association Mezzetta, said. Much of the time, the video is the best course. 5) Effective Content Will Require a Leap of Faith For influencer exhibiting to work, brands need to make sense of how to trust in their influencers—that suggests giving up the reins on substance creation. One of the troubles that publicists have is that they micromanage influencers. That makes the presents show up on be less bona fide, and they end up being basically one more piece of brand publicising. The key is to allow influencers to do what they exceed expectations at. One out of every two passengers who fly from India to the US transit through airports in the Middle East like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and from Saturday they will need to check in all electronic devices sized larger than a smart phone like laptops, tablets, e-readers, cameras, electronic games, DVD players, etc. Apart from not having their personal device for work or entertainment at airport lounges and on board ultra-long haul flights, air travellers will have to worry about the possibility of their e-gadgets getting lost, misplaced or stolen from their checked-in bags.
On Friday, the US department of homeland security banned "all personal electronic devices larger than a cell phone or smart phone'' from the carry on bags (bags carried on board by the flyer) of passengers who board direct flights to the US from the airports in Amman (Jordan), Cairo (Egypt), Istanbul (Turkey), Jeddah and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Kuwait, Doha (Qatar), Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Airlines were notified by the US government at 3am EDT (12.30pm IST, Friday) about the ban and have been given 96 hours within which to comply. As for the passengers who transit from any of these airports, they will have to pack their electronic goods into their check-in bag at their airport of origin. So a passenger booked on a Mumbai-Dubai-Dallas flight will have to check in the laptop at Mumbai itself. The new security measures don't apply to passengers booked on Air India. But those booked on Jet Airways will need to check if their flights will transit through any of the above listed airports. Apart from passengers from the countries that are on the list, it will be those from India who would be the most hit as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are popular transit halts for passengers from India flying to the US. The US National Travel and Tourism office data on international travellers to the US and the countries they come from has Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China and European nations in the top ten list. Passengers from none of these countries would generally transit through any of the 10 listed airports to reach the US. But that's not the case with India, which stands at the 11th position on the list. According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), in the fiscal year 2016, of the 2.69 million passengers who flew from India to the US, 1.3 million flew on airlines like Emirates, Etihad, Qatar that transit through airports like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. Kapil Kaul of CAPA said that he sees the new security measures as a "serious passenger inconvenience and nothing more''. He added that it might result in some business class traffic moving to carriers that are not affected but given the very high demand and high passenger load factors there won't be any significant movement. "It's poorly executed and communicated but we expect it to be a short term measure,'' Kaul added. Anil Punjabi, president of Travel Agents' Federation of India, said: "The restriction, first by the US and then by the UK, has scared travellers. They feel that if intelligence agencies believe that terror outfits may explode a bomb on a plane that originates from the Gulf, they should avoid it altogether. Even elderly people travelling to their children living abroad want to avoid the flights. Though most of them don't carry the restricted items, there is fear of delay at airports in the Gulf." BEIJING — With President Donald Trump pledging to scrap or renegotiate trade deals as part of his "America First" strategy, the door has been left open for China to push ahead with its own agreements. And nowhere are those efforts more apparent than in Washington's own backyard: Latin America.
President Xi Jinping, who will be meeting Trump for the first time in Florida on Thursday, has already made three trips to the region since early 2013 — and business is booming. While trade between the U.S. and Latin America has doubled since 2000, China's trade with the region has multiplied 22 times, according to OECD economist Angel Melguzio. In fact, Beijing is now the biggest trading partner for the major economies of Brazil, Chile and Peru — and Argentina, El Salvador and Guatemala are well-placed to profit from China's booming demand for global food. The U.S. remains Latin America's biggest trading partner, but with Trump vowing to dismantle the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and build a wall on the Mexico border, China could hold the advantage. Meanwhile, China lends the region a lot of money — around $30 billion in 2015, up from $231 million in 2005. And the funds largely come with no strings attached. "China stands to supplant the United States in economic and political influence over time," Gustavo Arnavat, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told NBC News. "My assumption is that their influence will be even more significant in another decade." Many in Latin America feel that the U.S. increasingly focused on other regions, such as the Middle East, under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. During these administrations, Latin American economies looked for ways to diversify economically and help address the widespread need for infrastructure. Enter China. Margaret Myers, a program director with the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, has tracked China's investment in Latin America since the 1990s. Her database reveals that China has signed a slew of deals in everything from energy to fighter jets to infrastructure. "President Trump's Latin America policy is still unclear," Myers said. "Limited or unproductive policy … could leave space for additional engagement from China and other partners." When Trump suggested the U.S. may pull out of NAFTA to keep jobs in America, neither China nor Mexico wasted much time in announcing a new auto partnership. China's JAC Motors has invested over $200 million in a factory in Mexico's central Hidalgo state with Giant Motors, a company backed by billionaire investor Carlos Slim. The newly-minted joint venture plans will produce SUVs for the Latin American market. "We don't depend on NAFTA at all, not for exports or for supplies," Giant's chief executive Elías Massri told the Financial Times. "For us, this is where the opportunity lies." Another sign of Beijing's growing clout is its backing for a planned waterway in Nicaragua that aims to compete with the Panama Canal, long a symbol of U.S. dominance in the region. The new 170-mile facility aims to be to twice as deep as its famous rival and form an important new trade route, although construction is not fully underway. The road for China has not been without obstacles. Cultural divides put it under a magnifying glass with Latin American companies and government officials who may be reluctant to do business. Chinese business transactions have a reputation for being notoriously opaque. In Nicaragua, there have been protests against the proposed canal, which is being financed by Chinese tycoon Wang Jing. But with Trump retrenching on trade pacts, Latin Americans are actively looking east to boost growth. A delegation of Mexican governors just finished a tour of China to drum up backing for projects ranging from gas and rail transport to modernization of airports and highways. They visited top government officials in Beijing and business leaders in Chengdu and Shanghai. "We must broaden our horizons," Graco Ramirez, president of Mexico's National Conference of Governors, told Xinhua, China's state news agency. "This is a great opportunity to no longer only depend on the United States." In addition to leveraging the soft power that comes with commercial ties, China's interests in Latin America are also strategic in promoting the "One China" principle. Since Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, Beijing has considered the island a breakaway republic. If any country wants diplomatic relations with Beijing, they must break official ties with Taiwan. Related: Beijing Says One China Policy 'Non-Negotiable' After Trump China's global clout has successfully alienated Taiwan, which enjoys diplomatic relations with only 20 countries in the world, including the Vatican. But the majority of the countries that do recognize Taiwan are clustered in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Taipei's ties with Washington have allowed it to thrive despite being in the diplomatic wilderness. China's growing economic influence with these countries could impact their support for Taiwan. It was no coincidence that Taiwan's newly-elected leader, Tsai Ing-wen, made a Latin American tour a diplomatic priority to shore up relationships. "China's determination to raise its global profile should concern U.S. officials who appear to be either unaware or indifferent," said Arnavat of the CSIS. "They are now a major player that cannot be ignored." SEOUL, South Korea — Greg Brooks-English used to shrug it off when family and friends asked whether he felt safe living on the doorstep of the world's most fortified and, some say, most dangerous border.
"You know, South Koreans just take it all in stride," he said, even after North Korea last year launched two nuclear tests and some twenty missile tests. "They've been living under this pressure for seven decades now," said Brooks-English, a soft-spoken Portland native. "I've kind of adopted that." Until a few months ago. For the first time in his 12 years living in South Korea, the 46-year-old assistant professor at Yonsei University is now filled with growing dread. "When I start hearing [U.S. President Donald] Trump talk about a preemptive strike, or that all options are on the table [or] try to take out [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un, that would be total war," he said, referring to widespread news coverage suggesting or predicting President Trump might take preemptive action against North Korea. Last month, Secretary Rex Tillerson told a news conference in South Korea that "all options are on the table." The conversation with his parents is now the reverse of what it used to be: "I'm actually telling them this is dangerous." Brooks-English is one of nearly 140,000 Americans living in South Korea, according to the Korea Immigration Service. Of those, 28,500 are U.S. military personnel stationed here to help defend this nation of 55 million against the threat of war with the North. A threat that seems to have grown recently thanks to Pyongyang's "uncertainty of intent," U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift calls it, and its advancement of missile technologies. "I have never seen a greater concern from a regional perspective of the threat that is being posed by North Korea," said Swift. But the overwhelming majority of Americans in South Korea have nothing to do with the U.S. military and are focused instead on making the tiny and densely populated country their home. Take the Rigbys, who landed on the peninsula in 2014 — driven by a dream to teach in Asia but also by one serious practicality. "It was hard, being newly married and working all the time, never seeing each other," said Leah Rigby, a bubbly 27-year-old redhead from Downington, Pennsylvania. She and her 27-year-old husband, Steven Rigby, graduated from Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2012. Not only did they acquire degrees in English and secondary education, they also accumulated school loans in the six figures. "We were both teaching full-time and holding second jobs working in restaurants, but we still couldn't make ends meet," she said. After listening to friends who were teaching in South Korea and were raving about the experience, the young couple decide to move to Asia as well. This month, they are marking their third year in South Korea. They've reduced their college loans by more than a third. The school pays for their apartment in trendy Gangnam neighborhood. They've adopted a dog, Pretzel. And they've embraced Korean life — so much so that Steven Rigby enthuses to his friends about the local cuisine. "Kimchi is a lifestyle. It's not a food, it is a state of being," he said. Documenting their day-to-day in Seoul on a YouTube channel, the couple say they hardly ever give a second thought to regional tensions. "Correctly or incorrectly, I think more about gun violence in the U.S. than I think about a nuclear threat here," said Steven Rigby. "I don't think about North Korea except when I read the headlines." The Rigbys told NBC News that the constant aggressive rhetoric makes the threat seem empty. "It's not like we're ignorant of a threat being there, but because these threats are made so often, it gets to a place where you just roll your eyes and say, 'Oh, it's another threat, okay, we'll see what happens this time,'" Leah Rigby said. Whatever they may think of their own safety, all three Americans — Leah and Steven Rigby and Greg Brooks-English — fear much more for their students. "The biggest impact we see as teachers is that the male students that [are] preparing for college, they have to do military service," said Leah Rigby. "And so they're really frustrated that the effect of North Korea is that they don't get to pursue their education right away." Brooks-English is more blunt. "My students would be the ones being killed," he said. Even possibly his 9-year old son, Noah, who as a dual American-Korean citizen would be expected to serve compulsory military service in South Korea once he reaches the age of 18. But the immediate future is what concentrates Brooks-English's attention. While the Rigbys may speak lightly about having to move, Brooks-English said half of his friends advise him to have a Plan B. "I pray to God that it doesn't come to that," said Brooks-English. "South Korea has given me everything. It has given me my wife, my son, my money, my job. I love South Korea." Simple tips for livening up your drinking water Not everybody has a taste for water, but we all need it to ensure that our bodies continue functioning properly. If you want to drink more water, but aren't crazy about the taste (or lack thereof), here are some tips that can make it more enjoyable: 1. Add fresh fruit. Citrus fruits, such as lemons, limes, and oranges, are classic water enhancers, but other fruit flavors might also tempt your taste buds. Try crushing fresh raspberries or watermelon into your water, or adding strawberry slices. Cucumber and fresh mint are refreshing flavors as well — especially in summer. 2. Use juice. Any fruit juice can be a good base flavor for water, but tart juices, like cranberry, pomegranate, grape, and apple, are especially delicious. Go for juices that are all natural, with no added sugars. And remember: Fruits and their juices don't just taste good — they contain vitamins and antioxidants that can benefit your health too. 3. Make it bubbly. Many people prefer sparkling to still water. If plain old water isn't inspiring to you, try a naturally effervescent mineral water — which will give you the added benefit of minerals. Or try bubbly seltzer, a carbonated water. You can add fresh fruit or natural juice flavors to your seltzer, as suggested above, or look for naturally flavored seltzers at your local market. If you become a seltzer devotee, you might want to consider getting a seltzer maker for your home. 4. Get creative with ice. Some say that ice water tastes better than water served at room temperature. If that's so, flavored ice cubes may make an even better drink. Use some of the flavoring suggestions above and start experimenting with fresh fruit, mint, or cucumber ice cubes. Simply chop your additive of choice, add it to your ice cube tray along with water, then freeze. You may also consider juice, tea, or coffee cubes. If you want to be more creative, use ice cube trays that come in fun shapes, like stars, circles, or even fish. 5. Drink tea. Herbal, fruit, green, white, and red teas are generally considered to be better for you than black teas (or coffee, for that matter) because they contain little to no caffeine. And there are countless flavors of these teas to choose from. Start with the selection at your local market or health food store. If you're interested in pursuing more exotic flavors and sophisticated teas, start researching the vast array of specialty teas that come from all parts of the globe. 6. Try bouillons, broths, and consommés. If your palate leans toward the savory, you may pass on tea and start sipping one of these hot and savory liquids instead. Choose low-fat and low-sodium versions for maximum health benefits. Because soup is water-based, a cup of hot soup will count toward your daily fluid consumption. 7. Add fast flavor. If you're looking for a quick-and-easy flavor booster, you might also consider sugar-free drink mixes, and flavor cartridges that can be used with your faucet filter system. Richard John Luh is an expert in digital marketing who is providing his services in the particular area for over many years. He is an amazing marketing freelancer and has built many successful service businesses using his skills in online marketing and social media.Richard John Luh is a popular personality of Arlington, Texas, noted for his strong hold in the industry of digital marketing providing services nationwide.
Year 2016 was an excellent year for the digital marketing as immense growth has been seen in this field. What about 2017? What are the opportunities and challenges that the entrepreneurs are going to face this year? Richard John Luh is also known for his blogs, articles and seminars where he helps the aspirants and entrepreneurs to stay updated about the trends of digital marketing. Here, in this blog Richard is describing all about the possibilities and challenges in front of digital marketing in 2017. There are plenty of sources about which digital marketing trends will hit the big time in 2017, says Richard John Luh involving live video streaming and data visualization. But, before jumping into the new trends you must not forget the importance of strategies like SEO and Online Reputation Management. Richard suggests entrepreneurs not to overlook the importance of these strategies and flow with the latest trends. He has established one of the popular digital marketing based agency which is still a No.1 agency of Texas. According to him, to be at the top, you need to maintain a proper balance between the latest trends and strategies as well. While making any changes you must have a strong base first. Here are the three topmost opportunities and challenges of digital marketing that entrepreneurs need to know: Online Reputation Management: The foremost challenge in front of the online reputation management companies or aspirants planning to start their business in ORM can be tricky and tough as they have no idea from where they must start. Many companies think they have a handle on their reviews but Google’s autocomplete function could be filled with negative terms and it is a huge blow to potential clients. This is an essential challenge faced by many companies since Online reputation management has been full of “black-hat tactics” making it difficult to know exactly what a startup founder should do. Richard John Luh calls it a biggest challenge and says, I don’t know how to deal with the problem as customers lack confidence on companies selling online reputation management. He adds, newly formed companies have to face much problems as clients can barely trust new companies. Thereby, biggest challenge for companies and entrepreneurs who are planning for startups in ORM is to focus on generating positive information related to them and early buzz about your business. This an opportunity as well as a challenge in 2017. So, invite your existing customers to share feedback on their experience with you on social media. Be careful towards those who are dissatisfied with your services, Richard John Luh says, gain valuable insights from customers prior to their publishing a review. Impress your customers, capture them in the moment before they publish reviews for you. SEO: Another challenge and opportunity that Richard is talking about is the world of SEO. SEO is changing constantly, especially when it comes to local listings, Google maps and mobile optimization. It is an important key of ranking algorithms in Google but not enough to claim your listing. You must clear all fake listing causing confusion among your customers. To be in this field requires to ensure that your information is up to date. Be helpful. Richard John Luh advises that each business should claim and verify its local listings at the time it get started. If you face any problem related to duplicate listing removal, getting help from a digital marketing agency or partnering with them could be helpful. Richard is best known for maintaining and monitoring the programs to make it sure that every duplicate information is removed as well as any potential duplication is checked to make it more trustworthy for the clients and the startups too. Online reputation management and SEO especially local listings are the best used opportunities we have under digital marketing. But due to rapid competition and expansion in black hat techniques people are not able to trust the companies working under the field. So, it is very necessary to change these challenges into opportunities. Besides these two, one more topmost challenge is there i.e. Social media engagement. Social media engagement: Thanks to faster internet and mobile devices, video streaming is predicted as one of the most popular social media tactics in 2017. If you are completely new to this business and you do not know where to start with or how and where to build engaged audience then social media can be a challenge for you. Richard suggests not to jump into social media straight, rather cover all your social media basics first. Work towards engaging the audience on social media and creating something interesting for the people. All the three above mentioned tactics are the topmost opportunities of digital marketing and challenges as well. Richard has helped all the aspirants and entrepreneurs who are looking forward to make their career in digital marketing in 2017. According to him if you pay attention to these challenges and opportunities, instead of directly getting into the business, you can definitely get the best out of it. Undoubtedly, digital marketing is among the topmost area where one can invest and earn vastly, but one must be aware of the challenges it has. Be updated, informed and work according to trends, if you want to make the year 2017, the year of success says Richard John Luh. To get more information on digital marketing and its trends or for any guidance, follow Richard John Luh. He is active in this area since 2001 and has an extensive experience that helps him to be an owner of successful digital marketing agency. |
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