What's new and notable? Our top picks Just Think What if you charged people for being late to meetings? MicroAge Computer (Tempe, Ariz.) decided to do exactly that: Latecomers pay $1 each, money which is then distributed to those who were on time.
Source: Bob Nelson's Rewarding Employees newsletter
Need a Read? In Learning in Action (2000, Harvard Business School Press), David A. Garvin puts aside the generalizations about learning organizations and instead, presents hundreds of specific examples of how companies share information--often through informal meetings. For example, Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont, holds a phone conference every other week with his top 20 managers around the globe. Instead of giving answers, he asks questions, and everyone learns simultaneously from each other. And GE's "Work-Out" meetings use a town meeting approach to bring together employees and managers to flesh out problems and share information. As Garvin says, "Learning is the best way to bridge gaps."
Consider This "Corporations spend a lot of money encouraging people to be creative, while tacitly ensuring just the opposite."
--Arno Penzias, Venture Partner, New Enterprise Associates, Menlo Park, Calif.
New Sensation New York City's chic SoHo Grand Hotel has a brand-new sibling: the Tribeca Grand Hotel, which opened with 203 rooms in March. Owner Emanuel Stern envisions the new hotel as the "town square of Tribeca" and is targeting not only the residents of this booming downtown community but also meeting groups and business travelers with technological sophisticatication. Rooms have TV Web access via wireless remotes, fax/copier/scanners, high-speed Internet access, and--a nice touch--remote-controlled Bose Wave radio/CD players. Spaces for groups include a 98-seat screening room and two conference rooms that accommodate 75 theater-style or, when combined with the prefunction area, receptions of up to 200.
BookMark www.ftf-tokyo.com/index.html
Do you have a group of executives in Hong Kong, another in Tokyo, and others in five U.S. cities who need to videoconference? The Video-conferencing Directory at www.ftf-tokyo.com/index.html lists contact information for more than 950 public videoconferencing sites around the world, including universities, all of which can contact each other and all of which charge for their rooms, plus a communications fee. Links to several compatible public-access videoconferencing sites provide a network of thousands of locations. Also helpful for your planning: a currency calculator and around-the-world clock.
