BDS Marketing, Inc. (bds mktg) was awarded a Stevie for Best Marketing Team for their Sony “HD Test Drive Program” at The 2007 American Business Awards. We look at how this premiere retail marketing agency engaged both retailers and consumers with Sony’s HDTV products in stores around the United States.

How do you create sensational success with your High Definition TV products when competitors are undercutting prices by up to thirty percent? Sony's answer was to create a High Definition Consumer Education Program.

Sony research showed that the average consumer made seven store visits as well as investigating online before purchasing an HDTV. This consumer uncertainty was primarily attributed to the complexity of HD technologies and to inconsistent communication at the retail level.

In 2006, Sony developed the HD Test Drive program, encouraging consumers to learn more about HDTV products, better understand HDTV features, and make a more informed purchase. The HD Test Drive was a simple 4-step HD demonstration of "How & Why To Buy" comparisons with tips and point-of-sale tools to help consumers choose the best Sony HDTV. At the same time, Sony launched an online training and consumer website listing when and where to find the HD Test Drive events.

		Read the entire article

The Talent Powered Organization: Strategies for Globalization, Talent Management and High Performance, released in the United States this month, is the latest book to tackle one of the most pressing and challenging issues on executives’ agendas:  winning the battle for talent.

The book is a comprehensive review of trends that are elevating talent management to the top of the corporate agenda.  Whether recruiting young technicians from the developing world, retaining valuable experience from an aging generation of employees, or integrating Generation Y into the workforce, executives today confront a maelstrom of management issues. Such problems bring to mind a remark by Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister in the late 1950s. When asked what was the hardest thing about his job, he replied: “Events, dear boy, events.”

This book provides examples of best practices and critical imperatives for attracting, retaining, and multiplying talent in the new global economy. Authored by three recognized leaders in the field of talent management—Peter Cheese, Robert J. Thomas and Elizabeth Craig, all from global management consultancy Accenture—The Talent Powered Organization is the first book in its field to provide a thorough and holistic perspective on how to respond to these new challenges on a global scale. The book offers numerous case studies that illuminate every dimension of managing people, from defining talent requirements and their critical links to business strategy, to innovative ways of sourcing, building, and deploying talent at the right time and in the right roles, and to accounting for and measuring investments in talent. 

Talent managers today must cope with a world of change and contrast:

• Global abundance but local scarcity of talent
• Fewer young people and more older people, many heading rapidly towards retirement
• Rising demand for new skills aggravated by demographic pressures and educational shortcomings
• New methods of working and new relationships between users and suppliers of talent
• More diverse and remote or even virtual workforces with different attitudes to work across the generations 
• Steady change in the nature of work, with more people working in the fuzzy world of information

		Read the entire review

Shining a spotlight on 43 outstanding women executives, business owners and companies, the winners of the 4th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business, presented by Infiniti, were announced on November 12 in categories including Best Entrepreneur, Best Executive, Most Innovative Company and Best Overall Company.

Winners ranged from corporate heavyweights like Travelocity and UPS– to lesser-known or newer companies such as ExpoTV, a video-based social commerce network; Care.com, a company that connects people seeking qualified caregivers in areas including child care, tutoring, senior care and pet care; and Constant Contact, an innovative email marketing company.  Notable winners include:

Travelocity CEO Michelle Peluso (Best Executive)
ExpoTV (Most Innovative Company of the Year)
UPS (Women Helping Women Award)
Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman (Best Entrepreneur)
Care.com (Best New Company of the Year)
Intern Queen Inc. President Lauren Berger (Best Young Entrepreneur)
Domino Magazine (Community Involvement Program of the Year)
Signature HomeStyles CEO Madolyn Johnson (Infiniti “Woman With Drive” Award)

For a complete list of Finalists and Stevie Award winners, visit: www.stevieawards.com/women.

The winners of the 2007 competition were announced at an awards reception at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  More than 800 nominations were submitted for consideration in over 40 categories this year.

		Learn More About the Stevie Awards for Women in Business

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.

Deadline Hollywood Daily : An "alternative Journalist's Web Site" that has come into the limelight as a result of the writers' strike.
Molecular Voices : Molecular's blog for discussion of the impact of digital media.
Taleo Blog : A blog about developments in Talent Management, from its definition and practices to the latest research in the field.
Cheezhead : Joel Cheesman’s blog is a daily chronicle of how the Internet and technology are shaping human resources and how organizations can attract the talent needed to thrive in tomorrow’s economy.