Mentor Quartet….Another kind of Ashley Madison casualty….One HR Dept. is Not Enough….Econ Recon: 2016 and Beyond….SPECIAL EVENT FOR UPSTATE SC – Three Legends of Internet Access September 14th at The George

“No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

Theodore Roosevelt

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”

Albert Einstein

Mentor Quartet

A recent article makes the case that young people not only need a mentor to advance in their career, they need four of them. A great mentor provides coaching, connection, challenge and some cheerleading. These are four distinct needs not always found in the same mentor. Help a young adult in your life assemble their own “personal board of directors” by sharing this short piece from Inc Magazine  ….and If you’re already well into your career at the C-Level,  you still need mentoring. You can get all four mentors, and more, in one of our Vistage Programs.

Another Kind of Ashley Madison Casualty

The recent hacking of the Ashley Madison site, which offered to match its members with others looking for extramarital affairs, has exposed many to possible exposure and unpleasant consequences. This week there was one more casualty at Ashley Madison: the CEO, Noel Biderman. Mr. Biderman is not the first CEO to lose his or her position due to a data breach, nor will he be the last. However, there is no reason for you to be the next!

If you are a C-Level executive who can directly or indirectly affect the level of IT security at your company, this brief article from the Recode Website: Ashley Madison Breach Proves Hackers Can and Will Take Away Your CEO’s Job   is required reading.

 One HR Department is Not Enough

Increasingly, the only sustainable competitive advantage is finding and hiring great people, and then retaining them. In a recent article,  Ram Charan, author of the best seller “Execution” a few years back, suggests that successful companies should split HR Departments into two different functional areas: what he calls  HR-A (for “Administration) and HR-LO (for “Leadership and Organization”). Check out this very brief, but provocative article from HBR which outlines Mr. Charan’s suggestions.    

 Econ Recon

Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics gives you a quick overview of the key note he’ll be delivering to the Supply Chain Management Summit in November. Check out his forecast for the next two years and the implications for your supply chain.

SPECIAL EVENT FOR RESIDENTS OF UPSTATE SC

On Monday, September 14^th The George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics in Spartanburg is presenting, as part of the Johnson Innovation Speaker Series, Pioneers in Innovation – Three Legends of Internet Access (Esther Dyson, Dennis Hayes, and David Pensak) at the Chapman Cultural Center (next door to The George on East Saint John Street in Spartanburg).

Esther Dyson was the founding chairman of the organization (ICANN) that registers web addresses; Dennis Hayes (a Spartanburg native) invented the hardware and software instruction set that connected personal computers to each other (remember the dial-up “Hayes compatible” modem), and David Pensak developed one of the first computer firewalls to make surfing the web safer.

Meet these legends of the internet age at the Book Signing and Welcome Reception in the lobby (4:30 – 5:00), followed by Pioneers in Innovation On Stage Conversation 5:00-6:00 and a BBQ starting at 6:15. Register at http://www.uscupstate.edu/upstateinnovates/