May 4, 2012
Vocation or Exploration? Pondering the Purpose of College
By ALINA TUGEND
OUR oldest son is finishing up his junior year in high school, and we’re already overwhelmed by what I’ve been calling the college challenge — trying to figure out what college he can get into and what we can afford.

But there’s also a bigger debate raging that hovers over all our concerns. What exactly is a university education for?

Is it, narrowly, to ensure a good job after graduation? That’s how Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, views it. He has made waves by wanting to shift state financing of public colleges to majors that have the best job prospects. Hello science, technology, engineering and math; goodbye psychology and anthropology.

And Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, has introduced the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act, which would require, among other things, that students have access to data on university graduates’ average annual earnings.

Or is the point of a university degree to give students a broad and deep humanities education that teaches them how to think and write critically? Or can a college education do both?

A little background: Before 1983, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in just about any subject “opened up lots of jobs,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. “You could get a B.A. in history and become an accountant. Then the economy underwent a cultural shift.”

Why the early 1980s? It was a combination of the deep recession of 1980-82 and the growth of computer-based technology.

“We started to see a widening distribution of earnings by majors,” said Professor Carnevale, who also served as chairman of the National Commission on Employment Policy under President Bill Clinton.

And that trend has continued. “I was raised to think what you needed was a college degree,” he said. “That’s not the game anymore. It’s what you major in.”

So does that mean I should urge our son to pursue a degree he doesn’t have any interest in because it may provide him with a higher-paying job — or any job, for that matter — after college?

No, Professor Carnevale said, because if you don’t like what you do, you won’t do it well. The point is that “young people now need to have a strategy,” he said. “If you major in art, realize you will have to get a master’s degree. The economic calculus has changed.”

Alex Tabarrok, an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and author of the e-book “Launching the Innovation Renaissance” (TED Books), is not just worried about students finishing four years of college with no jobs, but also that they may never get to the graduation podium at all.

“At least 40 percent of students drop out of four-year universities before graduation, and it’s even higher out of community colleges,” he said. “We have the highest college dropout rate in the industrialized world. Everyone recognizes that something is not quite right.”

Mr. Tabarrok said that we, as a country, needed to look more closely at emulating apprenticeship programs offered in European countries that turn out highly skilled workers.

“We tend to look down on vocational training in the United States, but in Europe, that’s where the majority of the kids go,” he said. “The U.S. mind-set is that there is only one road to an education and to do anything else admits defeat.”

There are two main arguments against pushing more students into vocational training. The first is that it pigeonholes them in careers at a young age.

“We don’t want a system where people are tracked from early on,” said Andrew Delbanco, a professor of humanities at Columbia University and author of the new book “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be” (Princeton University Press).

The second is that a good liberal arts degree isn’t simply a luxury when economic times are good, but a necessity at all times to create an engaged citizenry, he said.

“The university should be a place for reflection for the young to explore areas of the human experience, to be fully aware of history and the arts,” Professor Delbanco said. “We don’t want to have a population that has technical competence but is not able to think critically about the issues that face us as a society.”

Professor Tabarrok argued, however, that the way the system was set up now, “We’re denying students a hands-on education.” A lot of high school students, he said, “would love to be paid to work alongside adults and learn.”

Do we have to land on one side or another? Not necessarily. To Anne Colby, a consulting professor at Stanford University and author of “Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education” (Jossey-Bass, 2011), the idea that we have to choose between vocational training and the rich, deep learning we associate with liberal arts is a false dichotomy.

She and her colleagues studied undergraduate business programs around the country — which more college students major in than any other field — and discovered that the best programs combined major elements of a liberal arts education and professional training.

One example, she said, is the Pathways program at Santa Clara University in California, in which students in all majors take thematically based sequences of courses that draw together several disciplines. Sustainability, the idea that the current generation can meet its needs without sacrificing future generations’, can be studied, for example, from the point of view of business, history, philosophy and politics. And at Indiana University, the Liberal Arts and Management Program offers interdisciplinary courses like “The History of the Automobile: Economy, Politics and Culture.” This program enables students to learn their specialty in the context of history, literature and other liberal arts.

“Universities need to be more creative in their thinking,” she said. And while internships can help bring a practical piece, faculty members need to oversee what is being learned and connect it back to the rest of the academic learning — something that is not done enough, she said.

José Luis Santos, an assistant professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles, also said it was possible for four-year institutions to offer a solid humanities base along with specialization.

“Colleges and universities eventually respond to market needs all the time,” he said. One example, he said, was how they stepped in to offer Arabic language training when the demand rose for it after Sept. 11.

“That’s a very good example of realigning to meet market needs,” he said. “Colleges and universities eventually respond. It’s just at a slow pace. The critique is that they don’t do it in a timely manner.”

Although much of this is out of an individual student’s control, a student (and his parents) can try to think strategically. That doesn’t mean entering a major you have no interest in, but using all the resources your institution offers to help think about a career before graduation rolls around.

“Some colleges and universities have pretty creative career placement offices that provide events with people in the field,” Professor Colby said. “Take advantage of all the extracurricular activities and speakers. And look for coursework that involves the application of knowledge and real-world themes.”

And be a part of the debate. Things are changing, and that’s not necessarily bad. As Professor Tabarrok said, “Just because something worked in the past doesn’t mean it’s going to work in the new world we have now.”

E-mail: shortcuts@nytimes.com

The 7 Characteristics of Good Domain Names
by Daniel Scocco

Domain names are the real estate of the Internet. Just as a good location is vital for a bricks and mortar business, a good domain name will be the corner stone of your website’s success. But how to identify them? Below you will find the 7 characteristics of good domain names.

1. They are short
Good domain names are short. It is not a coincidence that all the three-letter and four-letter .com domains are already gone, and that the five-letter ones are going fast as well.
There is no definite number of characters that you should aim for, just remember that the shorter the better. If you really need some guidance, try to go below 10 characters, and never exceed 20.
As for the number of words, one-word domains are gold, two-word ones are good, three-word domains are average, and above that it is usually a bad idea.
Example: Quotes.com is a superb domain and probably worth millions of dollars. ProQuotes.com is a good two-word domain worth thousands of dollars. ProQuotesNow.com is an average domain and could be used for a website. YourProQuotesNow.com is plain worthless.
2. They are easy to remember
Many Internet users do not use bookmarks. They just memorize the domains of their favorite websites and type them whenever they wan to visit one. Guess what, if your domain is complex and not easy to remember you will lose these visitors along the way.
Example: Brcwr.com is a short domain name, but is not easy to remember at all, so it would be a bad idea to use it for your website (unless the initials represent the name of the website or a memorable message).
3. They are easy to spell
The last thing you want is visitors misspelling your domain and ending up somewhere else.
Avoid unusual foreign words, words that have complex pronunciation, strange combinations of letters and anything else that might cause someone to misspell your address.
Example: CappuccinoBar.com might be problematic for English speaking visitors. Cappuccino is an Italian word, and not everyone is aware where the doubles are placed.
4. They have a .com extension
Organizations might prefer to register a .org domain, and companies targeting very specific geographical regions might want to register a local domain (e.g. .it, .co.uk, .cn and so on). Apart from these cases, however, a .com domain is always the best way to go. This extension is the most popular around the around, and it is already stuck in people’s mind.
Visitors coming to your site via search engines or organic links will pay attention mostly to the name and not to the URL. The next time they want to visit your site it is very likely that they will just type its name followed by a .com. Guess what, if you are not there when they hit enter they will just go somewhere else.
Example: Darren Rowse created his popular blog on Problogger.net. Despite having a strong brand, some visitors were still going to Problogger.com. After a couple of years Darren decided to buy the .com version for $5,000 and redirect it to his site, so that no more visitors would leak.
5. They are descriptive
Many visitors will come to your site through the search engines and via direct links on other websites. That is, they will come if the domain that they will see will be appealing.
Having a descriptive domain name will give visitors an idea of what your site is about even before they enter it. If related keywords are present in the domain it might also help your search engine rankings.
Example: You would be able to guess what TelevisionGuides.com is about even before visiting it right?
Put it in another way. Suppose you are searching for a movie review. You make a quick search in Google. The first result comes from MikesLair.com. The second result comes from MoviesCentral.com. Which one would you rather click?
6. Or brandable
A brandable domain will have a nice pronunciation, an interesting combination of letters or simply an appealing visual effect. Sometimes they will not be descriptive, but they can be equally efficient.
Brandable domains will make your visitors associate the name with your website and its content. (Notice that brandable domains can be descriptive at the same time, but that is not always the case.)
Example: Kotaku.com is one of the most popular gaming blogs on the Internet. The domain is not descriptive at all, but the brand is so strong that gamers immediately recognize it across the web.
7. They don’t contain hyphens or numbers
Domain names containing hyphens and numbers are cheaper for a reason. They suffer the same problem of domains not using a .com extension or with complex spelling.
Consider Tech-World.com. The names that will stick in people’s mind are “tech” and “world.” Many visitors will just forget the hyphen along the way. Eventually they will try to access your site by typing TechWorld.com, in vain.
Numbers, on the other hand, will confuse people with the spelling. Suppose you registered Tech5.com. Visitors might mix it with TechFive.com, if they manage to remember the number in the first place!
Example: Coolest-Gadgets.com is an extremely popular gadget blog, with over 70,000 RSS subscribers. With such a huge readership you get people often typing the domain directly on the address bar. Needless to say that many of them would just forget to add the hyphen. The owner of the site bought CoolestGadgets.com afterwards to fix the problem.
Final remark
Do not get discouraged if your current domain doesn’t have all these characteristics; or if you can’t find one that does. These are just factors that you should consider when evaluating domain names.
There are plenty of examples of popular websites with domain names that lack in one or two points covered on the list. Just make sure that your domain has most of the characteristics and you should be fine.

3 Simple Ways to Get People to Listen to You – Forbes

I just spent the week with three of my Proteus colleagues, teaching management and leadership skills to a group of 60 smart, dedicated professional women through a program called Rising Leaders. One of the core management skills we taught them (this was the group’s choice) was listening. I was thrilled they chose this skill. I dedicated the entire first chapter of Growing Great Employees to listening; I believe it’s foundational to success for both managers and leaders.

During the program, which we conduct twice yearly, I offer 30-minute individual mini-coaching sessions to the participants. One of the women I spoke with told me that, though she had found the listening segment dramatically useful, she also wanted to know how to get people to listen to her.

I suspect a lot of people have that question, so – here you go:

Michael D Brown

1. Listen. This may seem counter-intuitive, but by far the most effective way to get people’s attention is to give them yours. When you truly listen to someone – when you offer them your undivided focus, summarize their main points to make sure you’re tracking, ask curiosity-based questions to find out more – you’re demonstrating openness and respect in a powerful way. Most people automatically want to hear what someone who seems interested in them might have to say.

Whenever you feel like someone isn’t listening to you, try really listening to him or her first, and then see what happens. It doesn’t always work (some people are truly self-involved), but it usually does. [Note to parents – this often has good results even with teenagers.]

2. Cut to the chase. I was facilitating a meeting a few years ago for a senior operating group, most of whom were quite talkative, and at the same time quite good listeners. There was one guy, though – he would start talking, and within a minute or two, people’s attention would drift. I found I kept interrupting him (respectfully), trying to summarize for him, and he’d simply go off in another direction. It was really chewing up the group’s time, and breaking their focus.

I pulled him aside at a break, and told him I thought he had important points to make, but that people were having a hard time listening to him. “That always happens to me!” he exclaimed. “People don’t understand me, so I try to explain more.”

“Try to explain less,” I advised. He looked puzzled. “When you say something complex, and people aren’t getting it, it’s not going to help, generally, to say additional complex stuff. Before you start talking, take a minute to think about how to communicate the essence of your message in a simple way.” Happily, he made a real effort to follow my advice, and people were better able to listen to him. I read a really great article today by Kare Anderson in the Harvard Business Review blog, talking about just this situation. If you have a problem communicating in a simple, compelling way, I strongly suggest you read it.

3. Read the Room. If you’re talking to someone or to a group, and they’re not giving you their attention (surreptitiously looking at their phones, doodling, looking out the window, writing emails), they’re not listening to you. As above, you talking more is probably not going to help. Stop talking. Ask a question; find out what they’re interested in hearing. Even if you’re the most compelling speaker in the world, people won’t listen to you if they’re not interested in your topic. The depth of your passion for taxidermy is not going to engage your vegan friends – I don’t care how articulate you are.

To boil it down: if you want people to listen to you, first listen to them. And when you do talk, focus on topics they find interesting, and paint a vivid picture – use clear, compelling words and images.

1.Your Final Exam is comprised of two parts and makes up 25% of your final grade.
Part 1: Write a paper that answers the following: What did you most get out of this program and why should I invest in your business? The paper which should not be longer then two pages double spaced can include everything we did in class including the guest speakers,the Young Entrepreneur Video Series, Students speeches, Buying Trips, Selling Days, text book and my lectures on successes and failures.

Part 2: On May 9th we will be having our graduation ceremony at Applebees and each student will be asked to come in front of the class and in three (3) minutes or less do a speech on : What did you most get out of this program and why should I invest in your business? Basically this is the oral presentation of your final paper.

Please e-mail me if you have any questions or comments.

http://www.nyreport.com/awards

The New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards is the annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of the 500,000+ small businesses throughout the tri-state area. The Small Business Awards will recognize 5 small businesses for their best practices and a seperate category of awards that fall under the “Best of the Year Awards” will recognize 3 small businesses.

A panel of experts in the related fields will judge all award packages. Awards will be presented to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages, revenue profits and/or long-term value.

The Small Business Awards program will be featured throughout a multi-month campaign in The New York Enterprise Report (and select media partners). All finalists will be mentioned in the September issue of The New York Enterprise Report. Winners will be announced at the Gala and featured in the November 2012 issue of The New York Enterprise Report (both in print and online).

TOP 5 REASONS TO APPLY

1. All finalists and winners get recognized in The New York Enterprise Report (100,000 readers!)

2. Give your clients yet another reason to do business with you

3. Get recognized in front of 400+ industry leaders in the small business community

4. Provide your employees with a sense of accomplishment and pride

5. Affirm your reputation as an industry leader

BEST OF THE YEAR AWARD CATEGORIES

- International Operations of the Year
- Non-Profit of the Year
- Supplier Diversity Program of the Year

BEST PRACTICE AWARD CATEGORIES

- Customer Service
- Green Business
- Leadership
- Sales & Marketing
- Technology

Apply for an award at www.thesmallbizawards.com.

Now in its 7th year, the Awards gala (held in October) attracts more than 400 business owners and executives and is often referred to as “the networking event of the year.” Don’t miss the chance to do business with the “who’s who” of the New York small business community.

More Than 200K Merchants Have Signed Up For PayPal Here
LEENA RAOposted 25 mins ago3 Comments
During eBay’s earnings call today, eBay CEO and President John Donahoe said that over 200,000 merchants have signed up for PayPal Here, the company’s Square-like mobile payments hardware and software platform for small businesses. We haven’t seen any sign-up numbers for the mobile payments service since PayPal revealed it was seeing 1,000 new registrants per hour for the new service.

As you may have heard, PayPal Here offers a triangular add-on that plugs into the headphone jack on your smartphone. Merchants can then accept payments by swiping cards with the thumb-sized card reader or can use the smartphone’s camera to scan credit cards (powered by Card.io), scan checks, etc. PayPal Here offers a flat rate of 2.7 percent for card swipes.

Donahoe says the reader will launch to the public in the second quarter, and will be available in the US, Canada, Hong Kong and Australia at launch. He adds that he’s not sure they can manufacture enough PayPal Here devices to keep up for demand.

Donahoe also said during the call that eBay would be improving the marketplace checkout experience, search and discovery on the platform.

For basis of comparison, over 1 million merchants currently use Square to accept credit cards (which is a data point that was released in December, so this number could be higher).

Liebowitz Entrepreneur Program
Homework # 10
April 4, 2012

Read Chapter 12 in the text book Hiring and Supervising Workers starting on Page 147. Make a list of the tasks you feel qualified to perform well that may be pertinent to your business, or the business you’d like to start. Now make a list of all the tasks you feel you will need to have performed for your business by someone—whether it’s you, a partner, or a worker (employee or independent contractor). There is no class next week due to Spring break! Please e-mail me your homework to: Ted.liebowitz@gmail.com

The next time we meet is on April 18 and it is our Buying Day Trip. We will meet in front of Final Touch jewelry at 54 West 29th at corner of Sixth Avenue at 10AM SHARP! Many trains stop at Herald Square a couple of blocks from where we are meeting. This will be a great experience for those of you interested in selling retail. This trip is optional since some of you may have other classes that day. The trip will be a critical buying experience and should be attended by all those that could. Please let me know if you can or cannot make this trip as we will be taking attendance.

Remember there is no class next week due to Spring Break ! The following week on April 18th we meet at 10 AM Sharp at 54 West 29th St. Final Touch Jewelry.

A great article and samples on your video going viral:

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted

dlcp/www.youtube.com/en/us/creators/content/The_YouTube_Creator_Playbook_gPresentation.pdf

Youtube offers the creators playbook here: http://www.youtube.com/creators/playbook.html

Liebowitz Entrepreneur Program
Homework # 9
March 28, 2012

Read Chapters 10 and 11 in our Textbook on Marketing. In two pages or less, make a marketing plan for your business. Please be specific: Don’t just write “newspaper” but give the name of the paper that you think will work for your business. Don’t just write “TV” but give the name or at least the type of program (news, drama, sitcom, reality show) you’re interested in advertising on, and the channel or network. And for radio, give the station call letters and the time of day: morning drive, midday, and afternoon drive, late evening, overnight, DJ, Sirius Radio, etc. What websites and blogs would you advertise on and how? Which ones are most appealing and why? What would be your Facebook and Twitter strategy and other Social Media? How about out door billboards and other alternative marketing such as sponsorships? How about PR campaigns? What about Promotions and Premiums such as key chains or Frisbees with your logo?

Next week PR Legend Ronn Torossian or 5WPR is coming to class. Please come to class prepared to ask him questions. See more on Ronn Torossian at : http://www.5wpr.com/about5wpr/management.cfm
I will be picking students out randomly so please be prepared to ask him PR questions or anything else relevant to his lecture.

Next week we will hear from Anastasi Andreyeva, Alina Isenko, Michelle Perricone, Anthony Congemi, Giaz Khan and Eniola Ogbodo. Please limit
Speeches to five minutes as these are our final speakers for the year

6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers
You’re the boss, but you still spend too much time on the day-to-day. Here’s how to become the strategic leader your company needs.

In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and it’s time for you to “be strategic.”

Whatever that means.

If you find yourself resisting “being strategic,” because it sounds like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack off, you’re not alone. Every leader’s temptation is to deal with what’s directly in front, because it always seems more urgent and concrete. Unfortunately, if you do that, you put your company at risk. While you concentrate on steering around potholes, you’ll miss windfall opportunities, not to mention any signals that the road you’re on is leading off a cliff.

This is a tough job, make no mistake. “We need strategic leaders!” is a pretty constant refrain at every company, large and small. One reason the job is so tough: no one really understands what it entails. It’s hard to be a strategic leader if you don’t know what strategic leaders are supposed to do.

After two decades of advising organizations large and small, my colleagues and I have formed a clear idea of what’s required of you in this role. Adaptive strategic leaders — the kind who thrive in today’s uncertain environment – do six things well:

Anticipate

Most of the focus at most companies is on what’s directly ahead. The leaders lack “peripheral vision.” This can leave your company vulnerable to rivals who detect and act on ambiguous signals. To anticipate well, you must:

Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industry
Search beyond the current boundaries of your business
Build wide external networks to help you scan the horizon better
Think Critically

“Conventional wisdom” opens you to fewer raised eyebrows and second guessing. But if you swallow every management fad, herdlike belief, and safe opinion at face value, your company loses all competitive advantage. Critical thinkers question everything. To master this skill you must force yourself to:

Reframe problems to get to the bottom of things, in terms of root causes
Challenge current beliefs and mindsets, including your own
Uncover hypocrisy, manipulation, and bias in organizational decisions
Interpret

Ambiguity is unsettling. Faced with it, the temptation is to reach for a fast (and potentially wrongheaded) solution. A good strategic leader holds steady, synthesizing information from many sources before developing a viewpoint. To get good at this, you have to:

Seek patterns in multiple sources of data
Encourage others to do the same
Question prevailing assumptions and test multiple hypotheses simultaneously
Decide

Many leaders fall prey to “analysis paralysis.” You have to develop processes and enforce them, so that you arrive at a “good enough” position. To do that well, you have to:

Carefully frame the decision to get to the crux of the matter
Balance speed, rigor, quality and agility. Leave perfection to higher powers
Take a stand even with incomplete information and amid diverse views
Align

Total consensus is rare. A strategic leader must foster open dialogue, build trust and engage key stakeholders, especially when views diverge. To pull that off, you need to:

Understand what drives other people’s agendas, including what remains hidden
Bring tough issues to the surface, even when it’s uncomfortable
Assess risk tolerance and follow through to build the necessary support
Learn

As your company grows, honest feedback is harder and harder to come by. You have to do what you can to keep it coming. This is crucial because success and failure–especially failure–are valuable sources of organizational learning. Here’s what you need to do:

Encourage and exemplify honest, rigorous debriefs to extract lessons
Shift course quickly if you realize you’re off track
Celebrate both success and (well-intentioned) failures that provide insight
Do you have what it takes?

Obviously, this is a daunting list of tasks, and frankly, no one is born a black belt in all these different skills. But they can be taught and whatever gaps exist in your skill set can be filled in. I’ll cover each of the aspects of strategic leadership in more detail in future columns. But for now, test your own strategic aptitude (or your company’s) with the survey at www.decisionstrat.com. In the comments below, let me know what you learned from it.