4 Out Of The Box Investment Ideas

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Investment Ideas|4 Out Of The Box Investment IdeasOne of the truest statements in investing is that if there is no risk, there is no reward. There are a million ways that people make money around the globe daily from manufacturing to retailing to providing services, which goes to show that there are no wrong ideas when it comes to investing. Over the generations, ideas that were seen as too radical have proven to be some of the most genii, so with a balanced portfolio, there is always a little merit in investing in some out-of-the-box ideas that you believe in.

International property

Many people feel comfortable investing in property markets that they are familiar with but property is a big investment to make that involves long-term mortgages that take decades to pay off. For those willing to do the research and to travel to new destinations, international property investment has a lot to offer. Many international housing markets are considered to be much more affordable, from small villages in Italy to high rise apartments in the Philippines. With an affordable cash injection upfront, investors could be looking at a quality return on investment from a property that is affordable enough to be purchased outright, not to mention having the option of a beautiful holiday destination to jet off to.

Coins

It might sound like a hobby that your grandfather was passionate about but coin collecting can pay some serious dues. With currency increasingly becoming digitised around the world, the value of older coins is beginning to escalate. As physical money begins to fade away, coins will become rarer and rarer and we all know that anything rare equals value. Look into the value of coins in your country. It will be surprising how much you could be looking at for something that appears no more interesting than an old penny.

Overseas shares

There are numerous stock markets in countries all around the world. If you are into buying stocks, day trading or just looking to grow and diversify your investment portfolio, the digital age means that you are no longer only limited to one market. Global digitization has opened up access between markets in different countries in ways that have never been seen before so if you want to check out Wall Street, buying US shares from Australia is now entirely possible. With online brokers that have developed easy-to-use apps and unprecedented competition on previously unaffordable brokerage fees, there has never been a better time to consider investing in international markets.

Start-up capital

The investment bankers on Wall Street sure had it right when they began investing capital into start-up companies back in the day but this is not necessarily a million-dollar business only. There are a multitude of new business ideas out there in the world at any given time and if you think you have the ability to spot something good when you see it, then you can bet on yourself and invest in it. Small and medium enterprises often lack the capital they need to start up their businesses and take on silent investors in exchange for a share of the business returns. Whether you choose to do this privately with friends, family or associates, or you opt to work with a larger financial firm, this is an option for you to invest on the ground level of the next big idea.

Is Outsourcing The Solution You Need It To Be?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Outsourcing|Is Outsourcing The Solution You Need It To Be?Is outsourcing the solution that you need it to be? You have likely heard a lot about outsourcing in your time on the market, but is it actually what you think it is? Are the benefits as good as you have heard? This is all information that you are going to need before you decide whether or not outsourcing is what you are looking for. In this article, we’re going to be looking at some of the information that you need about outsourcing to help you make the right decision. Keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.

Cheaper

The first thing about outsourcing that you need to know is that it is the cheaper option. There are a lot of ways to lower costs in your business, but this is one of the best because of the other benefits that come with it. When we say it’s cheaper to outsource, we mean that hiring another company to complete certain tasks for you, or to take over the tasks of a department is cheaper than hiring a full-time team to manage this in-house.

For example, if you are looking for IT support, it can be expensive to hire an entire team to provide the solutions that you need. The reason for this is that you have to pay a salary to each employee that works for you. When you outsource and hire a business, this isn’t the case. You only pay for the work that is completed, or you pay a set, flat fee that has been agreed upon by both parties prior to the commencement of services.

Professional Help

Another thing about outsourcing is that it guarantees you get professional help. You should always look through reviews before you decide to hire anyone for your business, so you will be able to find out what the company is like before you even hire them to work for you. It might take a little time to go through all the companies and all of their reviews, but you will find the right company for you sooner rather than later.

Getting professional help means that your business is only going to go from strength to strength in this area. You won’t have to worry about people lying about their ability or getting silly things wrong, you can have complete confidence in what is coming out of your business. Of course, you get everything run by you before things go any further so you can have final approval.

Time Effective

It’s also more time effective to outsource as opposed to hiring an entire in-house team. You don’t have to go through the hiring process multiple times to hire the team, and the same if someone leaves and they need replacing. You hire the business to provide a service for you, and it’s their job to make sure this happens. All you have to do is find this one business, and the rest will be taken care of by the business. Therefore, you have more time to focus on the other parts of your business that need your attention, knowing the others are taken care of.

Promote Business Growth

The final thing that you need to know about outsourcing is that it promotes business growth. The quality of work coming from the business you hire is going to be helpful, as well as the time that it frees up for you to work on other things. You will have more time to dedicate to growing the business, and the increased level of customer service should aid this.

If you want to take your business to new heights but you don’t want to hire more employees, outsourcing is a fantastic solution. It gets you the help you need without the extensive hiring process, but still keeps all of the employees that are already working hard for your business.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you should think about when trying to decide if outsourcing is the solution that you need it to be. If you are going to be outsourcing, then you need to make sure that it is right for your business. To do this, you need to know all of the benefits so if you don’t fully understand yet, give this article another read just to be sure. We wish you the very best of luck, and hope that you make the best decision for your business.

Trust Begins with You

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Trust | Trust Begins with You®Trust is a topic that is most often taken for granted … until it erodes or breaks down.

Then what happens?

Across the board, in teams around the world, we’ve discovered research and practice, that when trust breaks down, people tend to wait for others to step in and restore it. While people wait, they withhold. They build barriers around themselves and their areas of responsibility.

Work gets slower and harder. Energy plummets. Business objectives are not achieved.

Sound familiar?

When trust is compromised, nobody wins.

We, at Reina Trust Building® have been supporting leaders, teams and organizations to transform their workplaces through trust for over 31 years.

Our intention is to help you understand trust, talk about trust, and strengthen trust in your relationships at work. We’re going to help you learn how to build trust – and work productively again.

You want to be trusted at work. We all do. We all want others to believe we’re good, capable people, guided by the best intentions.

A truth about trust? It’s reciprocal. To get trust, you have to give it first.

What does it look like when you give trust?

You ‘walk your talk’, tell the truth, and tap into others’ talents and skills.

You also give people the benefit of the doubt when they let you down. You suspend judgment and criticism and make the effort to discover why they disappointed us. Your inner voice shifts from “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him!” to “I wonder what happened to keep him from delivering on his commitment?”

When you give trust, you embrace the complexity of life. You extend compassion… approaching each situation with sincere interest and concern, rather than with suspicion and readiness to blame. The result?

You experience the people around you mirroring your efforts. You receive back the support, understanding, and compassion you’ve given.

Trust begets trust.

How about the flipside? What does it look like when you withhold trust?

You approach let downs very differently. You’re more likely to judge, criticize, and jump to conclusions. You tend to withhold information, keep our ideas and concerns close to our chests, and not ask for help when you need it. You may refrain from delegating even minor tasks, because you fear no one else can do handle the work as well as you can. The result?

Communication breaks down. Stress, doubt, and fear take over. Your work and relationships suffer. You suffer.

Distrust begets distrust.

Yet, when people are supported to take the initiative to rebuild trust, a shift occurs. People reconnect. Misunderstandings are worked through. Incorrect assumptions are cleared up. Barriers are broken down.

Work picks up pace and gets easier. The buzz returns. Together, people achieve more than they’d dreamed possible.

Everybody wins.

Building trust is not easy, but is necessary. Giving trust is more than just a ‘nice thing to do.’ It’s a vital component to building meaningful, productive relationships.

We can all benefit from reversing our thinking about who ‘owns’ trust in our workplaces. The truth is…trust begins with each one of us.

What can you do to build trust in your relationships, with those you work with and serve and those you live with and love? What small steps can you take to connect with another person, and make that person feel confident and trusted?

Remember, Trust begins with you®.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |Michelle Reina, PhD and Dennis Reina, PhD.Michelle Reina, PhD and Dennis Reina, PhD. are considered pioneers in organizational trust by their clients. For over 31 years, they have helped leaders integrate trust-building behaviors into strategic initiatives to achieve outstanding business results and transform their cultures. The Reina’s co-foundered Reina Trust Building® based in Stowe, Vermont. As sought-after consultants, speakers, & executive coaches, they co-authored best-selling books: Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace, 3rd ed. & Rebuilding Trust in the Workplace. Their awards include: Global Strategic Leadership Award, at the World HRD Congress, top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business by Trust Across America. Their global clients: American Express, Ben & Jerry’s, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Johnson & Johnson, Harvard, Kimberly Clark, Lenovo, Lincoln Financial, MillerCoors, Turner (CNN), Yale, Voya Financial, US Army & US Treasury & Walt Disney World.

Contact us at www.reinatrustbuilding.com, or [email protected].

Disappearing Displays: Can You See Me Now?

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Disappearing displays|Disappearing Displays: Can You See Me Now?For those of us in the tech industry, inventions from the iconic Star Wars saga and Star Trek series have led to decades of inspiration – some of which we are still trying to build today. Even over the last few years, I have been thrilled to see many of my colleagues pushing the envelope on next generation digital display technologies. One segment of this industry I see opportunities for innovation is what I call “disappearing” displays – displays that don’t get in the way when they aren’t being viewed, so to speak. Sort of like the character Jeeves in P.G. Wodehouse’s popular novels who could appear and disappear at will.

Let me give you a little bit more context around this. Have you noticed people turning towards their Alexa/Google Assistant devices to ask a question? Or noticed people in a conference room on an audio call, staring at the phone while speaking? How about in the car where people turn to the GPS display while speaking on their hands-free phone? Why is this? Humans are visual creatures. But we also want to see displays when we need them; the rest of the time we would prefer for them to be out of the way, merged with the background, virtually disappearing until we need them again.

When CRTs were replaced with flat panel LCD TV’s we reclaimed substantial floor space in our living rooms, conference rooms and hotel rooms. But TVs moved from the floor to the wall, while they are thinner, the monstrous mounting brackets and swiveling arms cause these ugly beasts to jut out. If you have bumped into the TV while navigating around the conference room table or into the massive TV larger than your bed in your hotel room, you know what I am talking about. We love those screens, but they are in the way, they are inconvenient after we are done with our video call or movie. They gotta go, they ought to get out of the way.
Sometimes all you want is the screen to stop flickering, dim down, disappear into the background when you no longer need it. They don’t need to physically disappear in all instances.

Disappearing displays already exist, we don’t think of them that way, until today. I came up with four buckets to put them in. Let’s review them and then I will get into more futuristic stuff.

  • Physically Disappearing Displays: These include old style TV’s inside a cabinet where you can shut the doors to make them “hidden,” to the more recent LG TV that retracts into its base, or even projector screens that can retract to the ceiling. These displays physically disappear or remain hidden when they aren’t being used.
  • Shrinking Displays: These are displays that can be folded or rolled or otherwise shrunk from their original size to something smaller in the X-Y dimension so they are less obtrusive after use. One example is a foldable phone or foldable laptop/tablet. (These are obviously not like your old school flip phones).
  • Quiet Displays: Here, the display does not physically retract or shrink; it just goes into a quiet mode. When not in use they are about as distracting as a piece of printed paper. A good example is Joan, which includes an ePaper display that doesn’t flicker or distract like its LCD counterparts when not in use, and uses 99% less energy as well.
  • Metaphoric Displays: The users lose themselves in the display such as with an Amazon Kindle where you no longer “see” the display when you are engrossed in reading. As then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos described it, the top design goal for the Kindle device was “to disappear in your hands – to get out of the way – so you can enjoy your reading.” Another cool example is Samsung’s Wall TV, which just blends into the background.

Some other cool examples of disappearing display technologies include:

  • Boogie Board, the pioneering reusable writing tablet using cholesteric liquid crystal technology; the Boogie Board does not go into screensaver mode like a tablet, it does not flicker or distract when you pause your writing. There are also examples of ePaper single-purpose writing tablets that fit this description as well.
  • Microsoft’s Surface tabletop becomes the table and could be used to place food dishes when you are done ordering or paying in the restaurant.
  • The world’s thinnest watch is an example of a shrinking display
  • Kuori Oy’s Yeti Tablet causes both the display and technology to disappear for senior citizens and kids with learning disabilities
  • Electronic shelf tags that look like printed labels, don’t look out of place like a monitor or TV in the grocery store, they ‘disappear’ into the shelf
  • Noctiluca is enabling OLED display lampshade that causes the “bulb” to disappear or the entire lamp stand to disappear
  • Digital signage that looks indistinguishable from paper posters

And don’t ask me ‘how ‘bout them scrolls?”, those disappeared long before any electronic display was invented. So fuhgeddaboudit, that is ancient history.

Now, without sounding too out-of-this-world, I’d like to take a dive into where I see disappearing display technology going in the not-too-distant future.

  • Transparent displays to replace building and shop windows or a car’s sunroof. These displays will have sparse transistors, on a very thin sheet of plastic-like film, powering Mini or MicroLED. SmartKem is already making such a film using Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFT). For example, your “TV” becomes transparent – when you are finished watching a movie, the screen becomes your window, the display disappears. In other words, you can see through the display. Also, think of your car’s roof as a screen. Imagine if I parked my car and pushed a button and my seat reclined and the roof became a screen. We could literally build such a prototype today. Just look at what NBC’s studio did during the Beijing 2022 Games using MiniLED displays, they brought the ski slopes into their studio.
  • AR glasses. Imagine wearing a pair of glasses that have the ability to collect and display data that can, for example, alert you that a colleague is walking into the room and inform you that you owe her money from a Super Bowl bet. The display disappears into the glasses and does not impair your vision like, let’s’ say, VR glasses. eMagin is already building 10,000 cd/m2 bright OLED Microdisplays that disappear into AR glasses.
  • Large color changing ePaper displays. Have you seen BMW’s color-changing car wrapped in ePaper? Imagine using this E Ink display technology on military aircraft that disappear into the sky. The possibilities are endless.
  • NFTs and artwork disappearing displays: Ok, you paid an insane amount of money to purchase a NFT. How will you show it off? What if you had a display that “disappears” into the wall as art? Check out what Canvia is doing and you’ll get the ‘picture’. Omniply is making sticker electronics that might allow you to peel off the display and stick it elsewhere.
  • Digital “bricks”: In the future I see more buildings with blocks of displays on the facade rather than traditional bricks that might resemble this outdoor LED display on the Gold House. X Display Corp could enable this inside the building.
  • Holographic display: Let’s go back to Star Wars for a minute, where holograms were a hallmark, including the famous scene where R2D2 projects Princess Leia, who pleads, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” Now envision holographic displays that project 3D images that could have useful application in several industries, such as healthcare, entertainment and auto. Looking Glass Factory is already headed in that direction with 3D Holographic displays.

Do some of these ideas sound a bit far-fetched? If so, that’s the point. Wild ideas often lead to breakthrough innovations. As George Lucas said, “Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.” Or, if you’re more of a Star Trek fan, creator Gene Roddenberry said it best: “It isn’t all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.”

I expect customers to demand “disappearing displays” as a feature in most applications where the display is not ON all the time. I love electronic displays of every kind but they gotta disappear when we are done viewing them. See if you can discover new disappearing displays at SID’s DisplayWeek 2022 in Silicon Valley during the month of May.

Keep dreaming and stay inspired friends.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |Sri Peruvemba Sri Peruvemba is CEO of Marketer International Inc. in California. He has also served on the Executive Board and was former Chair of Marketing for many years for the Society for Information Display (SID’s Display Week 2022 will be held in San Jose, CA, May 8-13, 2022). With over 30 years of experience in the technology industry, Peruvemba has been an influential advocate in the advancement of electronic hardware technologies. He is an acknowledged expert on sensors, electronic displays, haptics, touch screens, electronic materials, and related technologies; and consults, writes, and presents on those subjects globally. Contact Mr. Peruvemba at [email protected].

How To Ensure A Safe And Healthy Workplace For Your Employees

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article Safe workplace|Safe Workplace|How To Ensure A Safe And Healthy Workplace For Your EmployeesA safe and healthy workplace is essential for the well-being of your employees. Unfortunately, many businesses do not take the necessary steps to ensure a safe and healthy work environment. This can lead to serious health problems for your employees. This blog post will discuss some of the most important things you can do to create a safe and healthy workplace for your employees!

1. Establish Clear Health And Safety Policies

It is essential that you have clear health and safety policies in place to protect your employees. These policies should be communicated to all employees and enforced consistently. Some examples of important health and safety policies include:

  • Proper ergonomics in the workplace
  • Using personal protective equipment (PPE)
  • Reporting unsafe conditions

If you do not have clear health and safety policies in place, your employees may be at risk of injury or illness. Furthermore, if an employee is injured or becomes ill due to a lack of safety precautions, you could be held liable.

2. Keep It Clean

Another important way to ensure a safe and healthy workplace is to keep it clean. A dirty workplace can lead to a number of health problems, including respiratory infections, skin diseases, and even food poisoning. To keep your workplace clean, you should:

  • Regularly clean all surfaces
  • Encourage employees to wash their hands often
  • Prohibit eating in areas where food is prepared or stored

A clean workplace will help keep your employees healthy and reduce the spread of illness. You can even consider biohazard cleaning services if the situation dictates it.

3. Promote A Healthy Lifestyle

You can also promote a safe and healthy workplace by encouraging your employees to live healthy lifestyles. There are many things you can do to promote a healthy lifestyle, including:

  • Providing healthy food options in the workplace
  • Encouraging employees to exercise regularly
  • Offering smoking cessation programs

Promoting a healthy lifestyle will help reduce the risk of health problems for your employees and make them more productive.

4. Provide Training

Another important way to ensure a safe and healthy workplace is to provide training for your employees. Employees should be trained on how to safely perform their job duties and how to identify and report unsafe conditions. Furthermore, you should provide first-aid and CPR training for your employees. This will help them stay safe in the event of an accident or medical emergency.

5. Regularly Inspect The Workplace

It is also essential to regularly inspect the workplace for safety hazards. You should look for things like trip hazards, electrical hazards, and chemical hazards. If you find a hazard, you should fix it immediately. Furthermore, you should create a system for employees to report hazards so they can be resolved quickly.

6. Invest In Safety Equipment

Investing in safety equipment is another important way to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. Some examples of safety equipment include:

By investing in safety equipment, you can help keep your employees safe in the event of an emergency.

Creating a safe and healthy workplace is essential for the well-being of your employees. By following these tips, you can help create a work environment that is free from hazards and conducive to good health.