12-28-2017 Mobile Electronics -- With the new year just around the corner, there are plenty of things worth remembering about 2017. Among them are stories about the people that help make the 12-volt industry so great. Here are the top three most read articles of 2017: 1. May 2017 Bird of Prey – Osprey Boston Truck & Van : https://issuu.com/mobileelectronics/docs/17me_may_for_digital/30 2. October 2017 Partner for All – Automotive Data Systems: https://issuu.com/mobileelectronics/docs/17me_october_new/40 3. April 2017 Rebel Monarchy – KingPin Car & Marine Audio: https://issuu.com/mobileelectronics/docs/17me_april_for_digital/28
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12-20-2017, Forbes -- If you invent a great idea for a new product, others will copy you. It’s just a matter of when. That’s guaranteed. Whether your company is small or one of the largest in the world does not matter. Copycats are the norm now. Run a successful Kickstarter campaign? Factories in China may beat you to market before you’ve shipped a single unit. Selling on Amazon.com? Prepare to do battle with Chinese counterfeiters who steal your original photos, descriptions and even reviews. Congratulations on your success! Copycats do not imitate products that aren’t selling. So… how can you compete? Will having a patent or several patents help you? Not really. Due to changes in our patent laws, it has become enormously expensive to defend one’s intellectual property in the United States. First, take a deep breath. There are other strategies to pursue. Not only can you survive, you can succeed. But you’re going to have to be unemotional and think differently. Early on in my career, I was under the impression that it was possible to own a creative work through patents, copyrights and trademarks. And in fact, the only right referred to explicitly in the U.S. Constitution is to our inventiveness. But it’s more…
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12-20-2017, Entrepreneur -- As part of my job, I regularly work with people who own and run their own businesses. Many of these people are what you might call "thought leaders," highly respected in their fields. They're movers and shakers. And starting a few years ago, they all started saying the same thing: We're firing our millennial employees. This troubled me. Why were they firing them? And why did they feel so strongly about the firings that they felt the need to tell me about them? I asked nearly a dozen experts, influencers and business owners why they thought millennials sometimes struggled in the workplace, and why they were getting fired. As I investigated, trends began to emerge. What I learned didn't change my positive opinions about my generation -- but it did give me insight into why business leaders sometimes complain. Here's what my contacts said about millennials, and why they get fired. 1. Lack of vision Josh Steimle, CEO of MWI, told me that in his opinion, lack of vision was the biggest reason why millennial employees sometimes flare out. "A lack of empathy is hurting many millennials in the workplace, because they're not understanding the circumstances of their…
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12-15-2017, Entrepreneur.com -- How many of us are unhappy with our day jobs? We dream of leaving behind the 9-to-5 and following our dreams; of leading a life where we get paid for doing what we truly want to do. That's the essence of entrepreneurship. The desire to love our work. But how, exactly, do we do that? How do we take a hobby, like brewing craft beer, gardening or photography, and turn it into an income-producing business? For most of us, the answer is not as simple as quitting our jobs and going for it. Instead, there are decisive steps we can follow to realize that dream . . . and still get to eat. On a regular basis. 1. Ask for honest feedback. You're not the best judge of your work, and neither are your family and friends. You need a mentor -- an experienced professional --and honest feedback. Before you can make real money, your work has to be remarkable. Everybody has a camera, but not everybody understands lighting and framing. Even some professional photographers can't seem to capture the drama of a moment. Certainly, no one dreams of being mediocre. That's not what dreams are about. You need…
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12-11-2017, Entrepreneur.com -- From a young age, we're raised to believe that we can accomplish pretty much anything so long as we work hard enough to achieve it. And, for the most part, that makes sense, at least intuitively. If you study for three hours while your roommate studies for one, you'll probably do better on the test. If you spend 50 hours at work every week while your peer spends 30, you'll stand a better chance of getting a raise or a promotion. This idea follows us at every stage of our lives, and it echoes a cornerstone belief of Western culture: As long as you work hard, you're going to be successful. But there's a problem with this philosophy: Hard work isn't always enough. The Netflix approach This idea is hard to accept at first, if you're a hard worker who invests major time and effort to get what you want in life. Perhaps then, it's best to introduce the alternative notion, using a corporate example. Netflix (yes, the company responsible for those late-night television binges) has found success in part because it abolished the idea of hard work being the sole determining factor in an employee's progression within the company.…
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12-10-2017, Forbes -- For some companies, the holidays drive massive revenue. Look no further than this year’s record-breaking sales weekend, and you can see that plenty of e-commerce brands, B2C sellers, and other businesses that take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday do exceptionally well after Thanksgiving. Others, like a lot of B2B brands and service-oriented companies, aren’t quite so lucky. Your sales team’s points of contact and their internal decision makers are out of the office, traveling, and spending time with friends and family. Time is precious, and everyone’s a little harder to reach right now. Plus, all your prospects probably have a million other things to check off their to-do lists before the year ends. Put yourself in their shoes: Replying to your email by the time you’d like them to probably isn’t making the top five for them. All of this can lead to stagnating or slumping sales during the final weeks of the year. While many business leaders accept lower target numbers in December, confident that the pendulum will swing back the other way in January and February, a renewed focus on content marketing can keep leads warm during the winter. That’s because the content your…
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