Seeing as how The Avengers had the best opening weekend in history, it is clear that there is something enticing about the idea behind this film. And there is! For one thing, Marvel Comics has built up character backstories for years that people identify with either through comic books or the movies. But that is only one aspect that is appealing. The other is the interplay between these powerhouse characters and the fact that, though incredibly powerful on their own, only by combining their unique strengths can they overcome a massive, world-altering threat. It is this characteristic that businesses can learn from, particularly as it relates to the tools they use to solve their business problems. Can businesses really learn from comics characters? Absolutely! Lets delve a little deeper.

The Avengers Are Mighty Individually

Though it can be argued that certain Avengers are more powerful than others (Hulk, anyone?), it nevertheless remains true that each can stand on their own and still represent a potent and efficient fighting force. The same can be said of most quality business software. If a program is entirely dependent on another to be of value, then it is subject to weaknesses that might not befall a more independent system. Further, many programs like this do not represent a significant value, and are often upsells for a core product. While they might increase the functionality, they normally do so at a disproportionate cost. If a business chooses to abandon the core-product, the add-on will become worthless as well. Sunk costs like this can be very damaging.

They Work Better With A Leader

[Minor Movie Spoilers] In the beginning of The Avengers, the heroes are all tossed together and almost everyone gets in a conflict. These characters are all used to being at the top of their game, and they are all strong leaders. However, once they fall in line behind a certain spangly-bannered someone, they become much more organized and effective. In business, there are going to be certain programs that the organization is more comfortable working with. If other programs are proprietary and do not play nice with the programs that the business already feels comfortable with, then their value decreases dramatically. It is always easier to access information in just a few places. The more dashboards that employees have to go through, the more difficult it is to understand and execute on the information available.

Avengers Cover Their Weaknesses

The best part about the avengers is that, when they team up, they can overcome weaknesses. The Hulk has a group that can keep him in check and point him in the right direction. Iron Man has a moral authority to keep him grounded. Hawkeye has people to distract enemies while he shoots arrows from afar. The point is, they accentuate and enhance strengths while minimizing weaknesses. Business tools can and should do the same thing. If there is a facet of a comprehensive program, such as Microsoft Dynamics, that doesn’t quite work to solve your needs, another piece of software can be configured to jump right in so that you can keep going and get your work done. In the end, it’s all about minimizing problems and boosting efficiency.

Are you business tools super-powered? If not, take a look and see what will give them the juice they need to take on problems you face every day. That way, when a metaphorical planet altering invasion of space monsters occurs, you will be able to handle it.

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Marc Mathieu: topped Power 100 ranking

Unilever’s senior vice-president of marketing, Marc Mathieu, has been named the most powerful marketer in Britain, topping Marketing’s annual Power 100 ranking, sponsored by Engine.

Mathieu inspired the marketing community last October with his strategy urging a ‘more magic, less logic’  approach. The former Coca-Cola marketer called on  Unilever’s agencies to move away from numbers-led thinking, instead rewarding those prepared to take risks and support creative ideas.

Mathieu pipped Amanda Mackenzie, Aviva’s chief  marketing and communication officer, to top spot. Despite boardroom woes at the insurer, Mackenzie has continued to show her commitment to the broader marketing industry.

Marketing’s annual Power 100 celebrates the marketers who have had the biggest impact over the past 12 months.

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We’ve made the argument before that Twitter is effectively a media entity, distributing news and entertainment and other content to millions of readers in real time — although unlike traditional media entities, Twitter does this with anyone’s content rather than content it creates in-house. So far, the company has shied away describing itself as a media company, or exercising much editorial control over what it distributes, but there are some tantalizing signs that it may be moving in that direction. Could Twitter become a media player in its own right?

One element of Twitter’s potential mission appeared on Monday with the announcement of a weekly curated email that is designed to show users content they might be interested in from elsewhere in their social graph. The email is clearly an extension of the move towards curation that Twitter made when it acquired Summify earlier this year — and it both looks and sounds an awful lot like the missives that Summify sent out with similar highlighted content, a feature the company said was one of its most popular (News.me offers a similar type of daily newsletter).
Is Twitter hiring editors and producers to curate?
The second sign of what Twitter might have in mind came last week, when a job posting started making the rounds of journalism mailing lists and Twitter streams: namely, an opening for a “sports producer” who could help curate interesting news-related content around sports events. A Twitter spokeswoman suggested that the job was just another part of the media-evangelism task force that works with the company’s various potential media partners to highlight best practices — in other words, nothing special.

Still, it’s interesting to think about what might come next: Is Twitter planning to hire other types of editors in different fields? Does it want to try and create a BuzzFeed-type of offering, where it highlights interesting content being shared by users? The company isn’t saying, but it wouldn’t be a crazy idea — as we’ve discussed before, people desperately need better filters and curation to sift throughthe massive streams of information that are flowing past us all day every day, and Twitter is in a perfect position to provide them. But does it want to do that, or is it happy to leave that to others?

If it really wanted to, Twitter could not only use its own algorithms to generate aggregated content in interesting ways, it could start to accumulate a suite of tools that allow users and even journalists to do the same — whether it’s something like Storify or Storyful (which has a paid-for Pro version that helps media companies verify and fact-check the content they are collecting) or another curation/discovery service like Prismatic or Percolate, or even a consumption and recommendation app like Flipboard.

Being a platform is good — but Twitter may want more
At the moment, Twitter seems to be trying to walk a tightrope of sorts between being a media entity and being a platform that is used by other media players. Being a platform or a tool is good, because it means that the company can form all kinds of valuable partnerships with traditional media entities such as broadcasters and TV networks and movie studios — the kind that Chloe Sladden, head of Twitter’s media group, has gotten a lot of attention for. But platforms don’t always generate large amounts of revenue.

Part of the sales job for the media deals it strikes with broadcasters is that Twitter makes a great “second screen” experience for things like the Olympics, etc. So media conglomerates can incorporate Twitter into shows like The X Factor, and it increases the engagement between the audience and the content, and everybody wins. If Twitter were to start looking and acting too much like a media company itself — producing content or curating it in such a way that it added a lot of value — some media partners might theoretically see it as competition rather than a platform partner.

In a sense, this is the same kind of tightrope that YouTube has had to negotiate: it used to be just a carrier of content, and most of it was user-generated and of little interest to major media players — the only time they cared about YouTube was when it infringed on their copyright and they could launch a lawsuit. But then the network started creating its own channels and content, at the same time as it was trying to sell the networks and studios on its value as a place for long-form video.

Obviously, Twitter isn’t likely to suddenly start producing movies or books based on tweets, so the competitive aspect at least for TV networks is minimal (which could be why that was the first place Twitter started looking for media partnerships). But when it comes to the kind of content that newspapers and magazines are interested in, Twitter looks more like a potential competitor — especially if it gets really good at either aggregating/curating information in real time and/or recommending it.

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Nike: training club iPhone app

Speaking at the launch of Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital, which he co-authored with AKQA chairman Ajaz Ahmed, Stefan Olander, vice-president of digital sport for Nike, said brands should stop focusing on clicks or “likes”.

He said: “A whole industry is stuck on trying to force old metrics on to new channels.

“Too many businesses are thinking ‘I need to sell inventory’, rather than ‘How can I add value to a smartphone, or a new device?’”

On the topic of social media, Olander questioned the recent valuation of digital companies such as Facebook, commenting that a $100bn valuation of a company based upon an advertising model is “a little risky”.

He said: “Advertising is an old model that is being squeezed into the new framework of social media, when the fact is that people don’t want to be interrupted.”

According to Olander, Google AdWords is the only commercial model that is proven to work.

He said: “You look at the Instagram $1bn valuation – and Instagram doesn’t make money.

“But it will be interesting to see, when it is combined with Facebook’s platform, what value that creates.”

Nike has moved away from investing in advertising to the creation of digital services such as Nike+. According to Olander, “once you have established a direct relationship with a consumer, you don’t need to advertise to them”.

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An exciting opportunity has arisen to join Business & Commercial Chief Operating Office working in London

The role is to co-ordinate and manage the delivery of change activity across Business and Commercial. We work directly with the front line business to enhance the customer experience while also supporting the regulatory and mandatory change programmes that affect B & C’s staff and clients
The successful candidate will form part of a pool of resource which will be deployed to deliver an extensive programme of change.

We are ideally looking for an experienced Change Management professional although this role may involve the supplier management of an external vendor and we will also consider applications from those with relevant recent experience in this regard

· Scope, plan and manage projects through the entire life cycle, ensuring delivery to time, cost and quality. This includes ensuring that the solution is capable of enabling the business to achieve benefit realisation

· Responsible for accurate and timely reporting against the project plan and budget in line with agreed Programme governance

· Identify and evaluate project risks and issues and devise and implement effective mitigation strategies

· Stakeholder, people and relationship management
Promotion of an environment of continuous improvement ensuring a QA process is applied through the project lifecycle

We are looking for an experienced Project Manager well versed in large scale technology implementations ideally within the banking or financial services sector. The successful Project Manager will be able to work to defined project management methodologies and any exposure to AML (Anti Money Laundering) would be extremely beneficial.

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Job Description:
Due to expansion of our brand portfolio, we are seeking a professional marketing executive to support a wide range of marketing activities, including high profile advertising and promotional strategy for some of the UK’s brand leading supplements.

Experience:
The successful candidates will ideally possess 2-3 years marketing experience, be educated to degree level in a marketing or scientific discipline, and must have good technical and consumer writing skills. Knowledge of the VMS or healthcare industry would be a strong advantage. A fantastic opportunity to develop your career within healthcare marketing.

Qualification:
Educated to degree level ideally in a marketing or scientific discipline.

Please send C.V. with Covering letter to: kjenkins@vitabiotics.com
(Strictly No Agencies)

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A highly motivated individual with an ability to work within a team as well as on their own initiative. The successful candidate will be progressing through their marketing career and currently working in a marketing role covering all aspects of the marketing mix.

You will have a strong track record in delivering programmes and activities with measureable and demonstrable results and outcomes.

Qualifications, knowledge and skills required:
Marketing / business studies graduate or professional
Sound understanding of performance measurement: ability to track/monitor project process against plan
Good commercial acumen
Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to build good relationships at all levels
An excellent team player
Proactive and knows when and how to take initiative
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Strong organisational skills with ability to prioritise an often conflicting workload
Excellent attention to detail
Good peer networking capability
Proficient in Word, Excel, Powerpoint and database management

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“LIEMEA”
“EUMO”

relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and work experience
- Senior level Java developer with extensive hands-on design and development experience on Java 6, Spring, Hibernate, Web Logic, JSP, Struts, XML processing, Oracle, Multithreading
- Experience in using design patterns, event driven architecture and staged pipeline architectures
- Experience of test driven development, refactoring, use of static analysis tools for code quality, code profiling, performance tuning
- Experience on working on high volume / high transaction projects
- Experience of both front-end and back-end development
- Experience on banking/financial platforms will be advantageous.
- Senior level Java developer with extensive hands-on design and development experience on Java 6, Spring, Hibernate, Web Logic, JSP, Struts, XML processing, Oracle, Multithreading
- Experience in using design patterns, event driven architecture and staged pipeline architectures
- Experience of test driven development, refactoring, use of static analysis tools for code quality, code profiling, performance tuning
- Experience on working on high volume / high transaction projects
- Experience of both front-end and back-end development
- Experience on banking/financial platforms will be advantageous.

UI Development Experience (AJAX, JQuery, Tiles, JSTL Tags, CSS, HTML5)
Performance Management Experience including Profiling Experience and Database Tuning. (Loadrunner, JProfiler, JProbe, JVM Tuning)
Experiences in Latest Development and CI Tools and Frameworks (Eclipse, IntelliJ, Maven, Ant, Bamboo, Cargo)
Unix and Linux Operating System and Shell Scripting
Sun Java Programmer Certification
Must be willing to travel and in some instances be based on Customer site for the duration of the project

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Location: Belgravia, South West London (SW1)
Employer Type: Hotel
Recruiter: The Lanesborough
Salary: Meals on duty and excellent benefits package
Job Reference: Caterer/Events Manager
Date Posted: 02/05/2012 12:00:18

We are currently looking for an Events Manager

As an Events Manager in our Professional Events team, you will ideally have:-

Previous experience within Private Events within a 4 or 5 * hotel as an Events Manager.
Ability to communicate at all levels.
Excellent knowledge of Wedding Planning with proven track record
Knowledge of floristry and theming events (cultures, perceptions etc..)
Computer skills essential
Organised and methodical
Food and Wine knowledge or WSET.
The Lanesborough is a 5* Deluxe hotel with an award winning restaurant. With 6 Event rooms, 2 Destination Bars, 95 rooms and just over 270 employees it is renowned for high levels of service.
As an Events Manager we would be delighted to welcome you to The Lanesborough. Over the years, The Lanesborough has created a reputation of exceptional level of service and friendly staff. As a member of the team you would be proud of the reputation it has earned, but we recognize that it is only through the hard work and dedication of our employees that we can enhance this reputation and ensure future success.

We are committed to fulfilling your personal development needs with training, coaching and support. We make every effort to ensure that employment at The Lanesborough is fruitful and that you are able to achieve your personal goals.

For the Events Manager a competitive salary is offered along with some of the following benefits*:

5 Complimentary Nights in a St Regis Hotel per year
50% off Food & Beverage
Discounted Rates in Starwood Hotels
Life Assurance
Private Medical Insurance
Private Dental Cover
Stakeholder Pension Scheme
Childcare Voucher Scheme
…….and much much more.
* Terms apply.
Please contact Karen Watson with your CV and Covering Letter outlining your salary expectations.

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