Personified is the talent acquisition and management-consulting arm of Careerbuilder.com. Mary Delaney has won a Stevie® Award for Best Sales Executive in The American Business Awards.

What book are you currently reading?
Being near the end of an MBA course at the Kellogg School of Management, I don't have much time to read anything other than course books, but I can really recommend one of these: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Finance & Business: Wealth Creation Techniques for Growing a Business. It's an easy read and provides a good understanding of what an entrepreneur needs to know to be successful. Apart from course books, I've also started reading Outsourcing: The Definitive View, Applications, and Implications. After I graduate June 14th I've got another book I'm looking forward to reading: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

What was the last movie you saw, and would you recommend it?
I almost hate to admit it, but P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank, which was a perfect study-break movie last week when I watched it in a hotel room on the road traveling as part of my course. I am absolutely loving being a student again, and studying for an MBA has given me an amazing global perspective through sharing the experience with people from five continents.

What is your favorite sport or hobby?
Golf. It's a great sport for business networking, and it's also a great family sport. My husband and three kids all play, which we really enjoy because it's one of the few sports where you can play and talk at the same time.

Who is your favorite historical figure?
Mother Teresa, because she loved and embraced all beings. She was tireless and unselfish in caring for others. If we all could be like her the world would be a far better place.

Who is your favorite living person?
The living person I most admire is my father.  He wakes up every day believing today is going to be better than yesterday.  My parents are about to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary, but three years ago my mother was paralyzed from the neck down, so my father had to change from the one cared for to being the caregiver.  He has been magnificent, and thankfully my mother now has some of her mobility back, though she still has a long way to go.

My father has always had a passion for life.  He is a voracious reader and is always willing to learn or change an opinion.  He has been an inspiration to those who work with him, and so far as I know has never said a bad word about anyone in his life.

If you could choose another profession, what would it be?
I have worked for various companies in the past and have started new businesses within companies or as the second in command.  So instead of being an intrapreneur, one day I’d like to be a true entrepreneur and start a business of my own from scratch.

What do you think is the worst bad habit to have at work?
My pet peeve is smoking, which is bad for you anyway. But apart from that, one of the worst things people can do is to take a problem they are having at work to everybody except the one person who can solve the problem.  I call this cancer v. candor.

What quality or qualities do you most value in your business associates?
There is a simple equation in business that candor/honesty + optimism + curiosity = innovation.  Curiosity is important because it means continuing to learn as opposed to thinking you know it all. Optimism is equally important because employees should play to win, which in turn encourages business growth.  As for candor and honesty, the CEO of a large company once gave me some great advice. He wanted to learn the problems and obstacles facing the front line employees in his organization, but no one would tell him.  People should learn that their bosses or leaders actually want employees to come forward to discuss problems, or even better, to put forward ideas for improvement.

Is there anything you’d like to improve about your own work practices?
There was a hit years ago by Barbara Streisand called Everything with the following lyrics:

“I'd like to have the perfect twin, One
who'd go out as I come in.”

Those lines epitomize my desire to live life 24/7.  No one can, however, so at work I am trying to improve my ability to give my employees focused roles, skills, and the filters necessary to make critical decisions on their own.  My objective at Personified is to have leaders working for me who, while sharing my goals, can work independently.  This is something I am always trying to develop .

As someone at the top of your profession, what keeps you inspired or makes you hit the ground running in the morning?
Being able to make a difference in people’s lives, helping them to grow professionally.

What do you consider has been your greatest achievement in business?
Early in my career a young woman I hired (who is still working for me) told me her goal was to buy her father a set of new golf clubs.  My response was: you will be able to do that very soon, so we need to set bigger goals you can hit long term.   She was able to buy those golf clubs within three months, and has gone on to give her parents many things, including a golfing trip to Ireland.  Another woman who came to work for me as a young single mother has gone on to be an executive in charge of a division, has married a business colleague, and is now going to grad school.  Being able to see the dreams of my employees fulfilled—being the first one in their family to own a house, or the first to graduate—gives me great joy.
 
What advice or useful tip would you give to someone who is just starting out in business?

1. Find a workplace you can call “home.”  You are going to spend a lot of time there, so spend time doing some research.  Look for a company that is outpacing industry growth in a growing industry.  Research the CEO: Is he or she someone with similar values?  What are the core values of the company and its leadership?  Look for people who will invest in you, as well as demand more of you.  Use the personal trainer analogy:  Will they make you stretch, push you further than you thought you could go?

2. Work hard.  In the first years you should work your tail off.  Today, everyone in the office looks the same, but your leaders will notice you if you work harder. Success is not free.  You need to continue studying and reading about current events and business.  Find a mentor outside your place of work.  Set yourself annual, monthly, and daily goals, and don’t go home until you’ve completed them.  It is well documented that successful people not only set goals, they also track them and work out how they can perform better tomorrow.

About Personified.com
Personified is the leader in a new era of talent management--one in which the Internet plays a critical role. Through its dedicated partner, CareerBuilder.com, Personified has unmatched access to the behaviors, needs, and opinions of talent, which allows it to provide fresh insights.

Personified also provides benchmarking based not only on a company’s marketplace competitors but also on its talent competitors. Personified.com can determine who the rivals are for your future top employees, and it can help make your employees your strongest competitive advantage.

About Mary Delaney
Mary Delaney is president of Personified.com, a subsidiary of Careerbuilder .com specializing in talent acquisition and management consulting.  Delaney manages the day-to-day operations of the company, drawing on twenty years of expertise in sales and marketing leadership, business development, and start-ups to drive strategy and revenue.  

Delaney has played a key role in helping CareerBuilder.com rise to the top of its industry and to consistently outpace competitors in revenue growth.  Most recently, Delaney served as the Chief Sales Officer for CareerBuilder.com, leading the Enterprise and Recruiter Business Unit teams of the company’s sales force and tripling revenue for those units in five years.  In 2006, Delaney started the company’s Human Capital Consulting Division—the springboard to Personified—that successfully delivered strategies for talent acquisition, recruitment processes, and employment branding to Fortune 1,000 clients.  
 
Delaney is an employment expert who regularly appears on TV and radio to discuss hiring trends and workplace issues.  She has appeared on CNN, Headline News, FOX, and CBS National Radio, and has also contributed to the Harvard Business Review.  Prior to joining CareerBuilder.com, Delaney managed the merger of Headhunter.net and CareerBuilder.com.  In this capacity she oversaw two acquisitions and orchestrated launches in new vertical markets.  Before that, Delaney was senior vice president for InterCall Inc., a conference services provider, where she developed the long-term company vision and national sales strategy.  While Delaney was at InterCall, sales revenues grew from zero to over $200 million.  Early in her career, Delaney held a variety of sales management positions at Nestlé Corp. and at Async Corp., a voice-mail service company.
 
Delaney is completing her MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of
Management.  She received the 2006 Stevie Award for Best Sales Executive from the American Business Awards.  She is a fellow at Leadership Greater Chicago and a board member of the Business Marketing Association of Chicago.     

Novartis Turkey in Istanbul was the winner of a Stevie Award for Best Corporate Social Responsibility Program in the Middle East and Africa at the 2007 International Business Awards.

The Novartis Health Wagon Projectwas an extensive training and public awareness campaign on chronic diseases through which Novartis offered treatments in cardiology, respiratory diseases, oncology, dermatology, rheumatology, neuroscience, and ophthalmology.

Objectives
The objectives of the Health Wagon Project were to increase public awareness of Novartis and its products, to strengthen its reputation among stakeholders, and also to increase public awareness of chronic diseases and to provide free screenings. Additionally, Novartis Turkey wanted to encourage GPs and specialists to support continued medical education (CME).

Getting On Track
The first Novartis Health Wagon visited twenty different cities around Turkey on main railway routes between November 2005 and August 2006.

The car of a train was refurbished as a health unit complete with examination rooms and a meeting room for educational purposes. Two physicians and one nurse worked full-time on the project. At each stop, Novartis held training sessions on diseases such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, asthma, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and depression. The symptoms of these ailments were discussed, along with health precautions and health maintenance. In addition to the Novartis professionals on board the Health Wagon, local specialists and family physicians also helped with the training.

In addition, the Health Wagon provided metabolic syndrome screenings, which were conducted as part of the “Cardio-Metabolic Risk Factors in Turkey” survey being supervised by the Metabolic Syndrome Association. This survey resulted in the first report on etiological factors of coronary artery disease among Turkish adults, researching dislipidemia prevalence and the relation of dislipidemia with insulin resistance, postprandial glycemia, and kidney functions.

Impact and Results
To help promote the Novartis Health Wagon and its objectives, an opening ceremony was organized in each city with the participation of the local government, non-governmental and health-office representatives, physicians, academicians, and the media. Posters and brochures were distributed around the city before the arrival of the Health Wagon. Billboards, radio programs, telephone/sms messages, and public announcements were also used to promote the project. Novartis Turkey developed a page on its web site that was updated daily to provide details of the activities on the Health Wagon, along with photos.
 
The Novartis Health Wagon Project made a huge impact:
-  5,000 people received training over the nine-month period;
-  1,317 people were screened for their metabolic risk factors;
-  the Metabolic Syndrome Association and Ministry of Health worked with Novartis as a partner;
-  coverage in the local media was considerable.

Ten days after the visit of the Health Wagon, a tele-survey was conducted with the participants in each city to evaluate the success of their training. Effectiveness was measured by behavior change following the training.  The survey showed that:
- 91% found the trainings beneficial;
- 44% decided to visit a doctor later on;
- 25% changed their eating habits or started a diet;
- 85% shared the information with their family;
- 37% started exercising;
- 10% quit smoking.

Recall of Novartis as a pharmaceutical company providing products for chronic diseases was high among those who participated in Health Wagon training.  The project increased public awareness on a wide range of diseases and encouraged participants to take action related to their health problems.  Contributors to the success of the Health Wagon included the Ministry of Health (and health offices of the Ministry in each city), national security offices, governors, municipalities, medical universities, the Metabolic Syndrome Society, and local media.

Project Expansion
The success of the Health Wagon has led to its expansion and development into the Health Angel Project.   “There were certain limitations to the Health Wagon project”, said Dr. Aylin Gürer, Director of Public Relations and Communications, Novartis Turkey. “We needed to reach more people in a wider area, so we developed the Health Angels concept, which runs training sessions in much larger meeting rooms at municipalities around the country.”

Health Angels is targeted more toward women, and partners with the Turkish Women Association. “Women are fundamental to the health of families,” says Dr. Gürer.  “They are responsible for caring and curing the family.  Health Angels, which grew out of the Health Wagon project, aims to support and educate women and their families around Turkey.”

About Dr. Aylin Gürer
Dr Aylin Gürer graduated from Hacettepe University, completed her MBA at Bilkent University, and received her PhD at Istanbul University’s Labor Economics and Industry Relations Department in 2001.  After leaving university, Gurer worked for the United Nations (Ankara) as International Projects Coordinator.  She joined Novartis in 1997 and was appointed Corporate Relations and Communications Director in 2005.

About Novartis Turkey
Novartis Turkey operates in the pharmaceutical and consumer health industries, offering a wide range of therapeutic treatments in cardiovascular and metabolism, respiratory, oncology and hematology, dermatology, rheumatology, neuroscience and ophthalmology.  It is a market leader in the region, with around 2,000 employees working in production, marketing, and clinical research based at five manufacturing locations.  For further information go to www.novartis.com.tr.

About Novartis
Novartis AG provides healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Focused solely on growth areas in healthcare, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines and diagnostic tools, and consumer health products. Novartis is the only company with leading positions in these areas. In 2007, the Group's continuing operations (excluding divestments in 2007) achieved net sales of USD 38.1 billion and net income of USD 6.5 billion. Approximately USD 6.4 billion was invested in R&D activities throughout the Group. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Group companies employ approximately 98,200 full-time associates and operate in over 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs that we think might be of interest to you.

Eater: The NYC restaurant & nightlife blog (also links to Eater LA and Eater SF).
The Filter : A new entertainment search site due to launch in May to "find the good stuff without the grief" according to partner Peter Gabriel.
Novel Action : Changing the way book lovers share books®.
HumorFeed.com : HumorFeed offers the web's best, most consistent satire news feed so you can organize your laughter.