Saturday, May 5, 2012
ING Study Reveals Challenging Retirement Realities for Women
ING Study Reveals Challenging Retirement Realities for Women
An ING study found that, among single women, less than three-in-ten (28%) have calculated how much they'll need to retire, compared to half (50%) of men.
Women are less prepared for retirement than men – with nearly $41,000 less saved on average
Windsor, Conn., May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — ING U.S. today released key findings from a study1 commissioned by the ING Retirement Research Institute that sheds light on the distinct realities women encounter when saving and preparing for retirement. The study, Retirement Revealed, underscores that women on average are significantly less prepared for retirement than men. To view the report, visit http://ing.us/rri/ing-studies/what-about-women.
According to the study, among those who have savings in or outside of an employer-sponsored retirement plan, men have substantially more saved than women, a striking $149,000, on average, compared to women, who averaged $108,000 in total savings. For women with children at home2, this retirement savings figure dropped even further to $88,000.
A key driver of total retirement savings is the percentage of salary that individuals contribute to their employer-sponsored retirement plan. ING’s study found that more women (42%) than men (34%) contributed just one to five percent of their salary into their plans. Fewer women (25%) than men (33%) have a formal investment plan to reach their retirement goals. In addition, well over half (56%) of women do not feel financially prepared for retirement, compared to only 42% of men.
“It is clear that manywomen – regardless of their age or life stage – must do more to save for their retirement,” said Maliz Beams, CEO of ING U.S. Retirement. “The combination of living longer and saving less can hamper a woman’s ability to reach her goals. Through this study and the work ING U.S. is doing to better understand women’s distinct needs, we are focused on providing meaningful guidance so that more women take action to increase their retirement savings and, in turn, become more secure and confident about their future.”
Mothers Are Challenged in Retirement Savings
ING U.S.’s study found that mothers face additional hurdles when it comes to building their retirement security. While the income gap between men and women has narrowed in recent years, mothers tend to spend more time out of the workforce due to caregiver responsibilities. This reality reduces their earning and savings potential and also lowers Social Security benefits. ING U.S.’s study found that:
The majority (60%) of mothers do not feel prepared for retirement and almost half (46%) don’t know how to achieve their retirement goals.
Just over half (53%) of mothers have less than $25,000 saved in their employer-sponsored retirement plan.
Less than two-thirds (65%) of mothers are receiving their employer’s full company match compared to more than three-quarters (76%) of fathers.
Single Women More Self-Reliant for Financial Planning
The percentage of single women 18 years or older in the U.S. has more than doubled in the last fifty years from 12 to 25 percent, according to the Pew Research Center3. These women may be managing day-to-day household expenses on their own, while also trying to plan and save for retirement. Among this group, ING’s research found that:
More single women (69%) said they relied on their own research or family and friends for financial guidance than married women (63%) and single women were less likely to work with a financial professional (21%) than married, divorced or widowed women (31%).
Less than three-in-ten (28%) have calculated how much they’ll need to retire, compared to half (50%) of men.
Approximately one quarter (26%) of single women spent some or a lot of time thinking about retirement, compared to a greater number (44%) of widowed/divorced women.
The study also found that women across the generations have differences in their approach to retirement and planning.
Gen Y (age 25-34) women are most likely to have barriers to saving (86%) compared to women 35 or older (74%) and more than half of Gen Y women (56%) have outstanding student loans.
Only a small number (6%) of Gen Y women put most of their extra money to retirement savings, whereas close to half (47%) put it towards entertainment or vacations.
More than half (54%) of women ages 50-64 have not calculated how much money they will need to continue their current lifestyle after retirement.
Only one-third (33%) of women ages 50-64 have a formal investment plan to reach their retirement goals.
“We can see that the financial planning needs and retirement savings goals of women reflect the demands of their lives, and for many it is a challenge to identify what needs come first,” adds Beams. “Working with a financial professional can help women address and prioritize their distinct situations so they can be best prepared for retirement.”
As a leading provider of retirement products and services, both at the workplace and through independent financial professionals, ING U.S.’s goal is to help make it easier for Americans, men and women alike, to grow, protect, and enjoy their savings across all major life stages and financial milestones. ING U.S.’s network of financial professionals includes over 2,500 registered representatives, approximately 400 of whom are female, with ING Financial Partners, a registered investment advisor and broker dealer. All advisors, male and female, offer retirement planning services and seminars to help women better prepare for retirement and also have access to ongoing, women-focused training and workshops to help them understand women’s needs and how to better serve women as clients.
A key component of retirement security and comfort for women is securing a dependable income stream in retirement. The need for women in particular to ensure retirement income is magnified by longevity trends. ING Financial Partners provides retirement income materials, tools and education to advisors that help their clients, particularly women, develop a retirement income strategy.
For more information on ING U.S.’s women’s study, please visit the ING Retirement Research Institute at http://ing.us/rri/ing-studies/what-about-women.
1. Findings are from an online survey conducted by ORC International during the period of Oct. 5-13, 2011. Respondents were 4,050 adults between the ages of 25 and 69 who are employed full-time with an annual household income of $40,000 or greater. Data was weighted to make the results representative of the U.S. population.
2. “With children” is defined as “with one or more children under the age of 18 living in your home”
3. “Barely Half of U.S. Adults Are Married – A Record Low”, Pew Research Center, Dec. 2011
About ING
ING U.S. constitutes the U.S.-based retirement, insurance and investment management operations of Dutch-based ING Groep N.V. (NYSE: ING). In the U.S., the ING family of companies offers a comprehensive array of financial services to retail and institutional clients, including life insurance, retirement plans, mutual funds, managed accounts, alternative investments, institutional investment management, annuities, employee benefits and financial planning. ING holds top-tier rankings in key U.S. markets and serves approximately 15 million customers across the nation. For more information, visit http://ing.us.
Press inquiries:
Maggie Dietrich
ING U.S.
Office: 860.580.2699
Cell: 860.335.7528
maggie.dietrich@us.ing.com
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Search Engines vs. News Sites
Optimizing News for Searchers, Search Engines & News Publishers
By Eli Goodman - April 2, 2012
This post contains excerpts from Eli's original story published at SearchEngineWatch on 3/26/2012
News discovery has evolved beyond deciding which TV station to watch or newspaper to read. With a few mouse clicks, consumers can request information on particular subjects and almost instantly, snippets from various sources will appear on your computer screen. Search plays a critical role in this discovery process, and when analyzing the data, some notable patterns emerge.
News Search Optimization – Search Engines vs. News Sites
Keeping up on news search optimization is a daunting task for any news publisher or marketer. With the news business being so dynamic, it's hard enough keeping up on all of the latest news stories, let alone optimizing your search campaigns to capitalize on breaking news at a moment’s notice. SEO and SEM professionals at these organizations are constantly trying to come up with evergreen architecture and techniques to maximize their exposure as events unfold. While news-related searching has ballooned over the past few years, both on search engines and on news sites, it's important to note that how people search on these different sites and what they search for differs greatly.
In February 2012, U.S. searchers conducted 371 million news-related searches on search engines, as defined by comScore’s intent categorization methodology*, which accounted for 2.3 percent of all search engines searches performed during the month. But searches performed on non-search engine news sites actually outdistanced search engines news search, totaling 581 million searches in February. Although search engines play an integral role in the news discovery process, the actual news providers and aggregators are still leading the pack.
Behaviorally speaking, it looks like consumers of news data are still more likely to go directly to a “news” specific search engine than they are to run news searches on search engines themselves. The vertical nature of these sites appears to resonate with the searchers, as news searchers are less interested in the extraneous results that they may get on the broader search engines. For example, a news searcher wants to read an article about Whitney Houston's funeral, not buy a Whitney Houston CD, but both results may appear side-by-side in search engine results.
News Search Behavior Reflects Search Context
When we look at the actual terms that news searchers use, we can see a distinct difference in the intent of the searchers. Search engine news searches focus heavily on a particular news destination. Within the top 25 search terms driving traffic to News/Information sites in February, half referred to specific news destinations, such as “CNN”, “TMZ”, “Fox News”, and “MSNBC.” The searchers clearly want to be taken to a news specific destination to consume their news.
Search.png
Search terms driving traffic to news sites from search engines – February 2012
News site searchers, on the other hand, focus almost exclusively on the content they’re interested in because they're already at their intended news destination. The search term lists pulled from news site search isn’t cluttered with branded news destinations, they are solely about stories and topics of interest.
Celebrity name searching is a particular favorite, dominating the Top 25 list. If this data is any indication, it becomes abundantly clearly why the Paparazzi follow celebrities everywhere they go, U.S. consumers are obsessed with reading about them!
Using Search Intelligence to Win Long Term News Brand Loyalty
Based on the intelligence available, there are opportunities for news publishers and marketers to better allocate their advertising resources that could drive better click-through rates and engagement.
When searchers are on search engines, they focus very heavily on finding a branded news destination first, before searching for a particular news story. So anything that can be done to better brand your news destination site could potentially drive much greater long term value with search engine searchers. This isn't to say that optimizing your news stories for search engines isn’t valuable, but the behavioral inference that they rely heavily on branded news destination search terms can impact your broader marketing efforts.
News searchers type in a news destination first, and then search for specific news stories after arriving on those news sites. Being that the branded destinations are key to the way searchers navigate to news stories from search engines, you have to allocate your marketing resources accordingly across search, display, and video. You don’t want to just be their news destination for today’s stories, but for every day’s stories.
For more search insights from comScore Media Evangelist Eli Goodman, check out Search Strategies for Smartphones vs Tablets and the 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus.
*Search engines are defined as the big 5 web searches – Google web search, Yahoo web search, Bing web search, AOL web search, and Ask web search – while news site search includes the six largest news sites based on their search totals – Yahoo-ABC News Network, Google News, Bing News, NYTimes.com, CNN.com, and MSNBC.com.
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Third Point LLC Letter To Yahoo! Board on CEO Scott Thompson and Director Patti Hart
Third Point LLC Letter To Yahoo! Board Of Directors Regarding Discovery Of Discrepancies In Educational Records Of CEO Scott Thompson And Director Patti Hart.
Scott Thompson
Patti Hart
NEW YORK, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Third Point LLC, owners of 5.8% of Yahoo! shares, sent the following letter today to the Yahoo! (NASD: YHOO) Board of Directors:
May 3, 2012
Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Dear Board of Directors:
According to the Yahoo! Form 10-K/A, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 27, 2012, newly-hired Chief Executive Officer, Scott Thompson, "holds a Bachelor's degree in accounting and computer science" from Stonehill College. This assertion was repeated in the Company's draft proxy statement, also filed with the SEC on April 27, 2012, as well as on the Company's website (http://pressroom.yahoo.net/pr/ycorp/scott-thompson.aspx).
A rudimentary Google search reveals a Stonehill College alumni announcement stating that Mr. Thompson's degree is in accounting only. That announcement is consistent with other documents (including filings with the SEC) that reflect Mr. Thompson received a degree in accounting, but not computer science.
Upon recognizing this discrepancy, Third Point initially assumed that the documents we had reviewed were incorrect and the representations in Yahoo!'s public filings were accurate. However, we were then informed by Stonehill College that Mr. Thompson did indeed graduate with a degree in accounting only. Furthermore, Stonehill College informed us that it did not begin awarding computer science degrees until 1983 — four years after Mr. Thompson graduated. We inquired whether Mr. Thompson had taken a large number of computer science courses, perhaps allowing him to justify to himself that he had "earned" such a degree. Instead, we learned that during Mr. Thompson's tenure at Stonehill only one such course was even offered – Intro to Computer Science. Presumably, Mr. Thompson took that course.
If Mr. Thompson embellished his academic credentials we think that it 1) undermines his credibility as a technology expert and 2) reflects poorly on the character of the CEO who has been tasked with leading Yahoo! at this critical juncture. Now more than ever Yahoo! investors need a trustworthy CEO.
Shareholders must also question how the Board of Directors, specifically the Search Committee chaired by Ms. Patti Hart, could permit the Company to hire a CEO with this discrepancy in the public record. We assumed previously that the Committee would have conducted a thorough background check on Mr. Thompson – and even if not thorough, the most basic of such checks would address Mr. Thompson's education and degrees. Should our concerns about Mr. Thompson's record be accurate, that would call into serious question whether the Board failed to exercise appropriate diligence and oversight in one of its most fundamental tasks – identifying and hiring the Chief Executive Officer.
As we pondered how Mr. Thompson's academic credentials could seemingly be overlooked, we discovered another apparent discrepancy regarding the academic background of Ms. Hart, the Chair of the Search Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
Specifically, Ms. Hart, we are told in various corporate filings (including the aforementioned Form 10-K/A), holds a "Bachelor's degree in marketing and economics" from Illinois State University. However, we understand that Ms. Hart's degree is in Business Administration. She received a degree in neither Marketing nor Economics, (although we understand that she may have taken a small number of courses – not enough for even a minor degree – in each).[1]
The Yahoo! Code of Ethics sets forth a standard of conduct that "applies to all Yahoo! employees (including officers… and directors…)". Page 13 of the Code relates to Accurate Business Communications, Records and Contracts, and states:
"Disclosure in reports and documents filed with or submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and in other public communications made by Yahoo! must be full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable…. Make sure information we disclose about our company is clear, truthful and accurate."
Third Point believes Mr. Thompson and Ms. Hart owe Yahoo!, its Board of Directors and its shareholders an explanation. We also call upon the Board to immediately commission an independent investigation to determine whether these individuals (i) made misrepresentations to the Yahoo! Board and the investing public or (ii) have violated the Company's Code of Ethics. Unless there are satisfactory explanations for these apparent discrepancies, the Board will need to decide whether these two individuals should remain at the helm of Yahoo!. The actions of the other members of the Search and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees who had a hand in the vetting process should also be reviewed and handled appropriately.
If misrepresentations were made, they would confirm yet again that Yahoo! is in dire need of a complete corporate governance overhaul. As we have asserted repeatedly and forcefully, as Yahoo!'s largest outside shareholder and a voice for our fellow investors, we believe the Yahoo! Board requires fresh, outside perspectives from individuals who have no connection to a failed regime and have the expertise to address the serious challenges facing the Company. It is also critical that these individuals possess the highest levels of integrity and exhibit diligence and due care in all their dealings. Third Point has nominated four such individuals to the Board, whose qualifications can be reviewed on our shareholder website: www.valueyahoo.com. Rest assured, our nominees will adhere to the highest standards of corporate governance.
If there is a good explanation for the apparent discrepancies regarding the academic records of Mr. Thompson and Ms. Hart, we are confident that it will be provided promptly. However, in the event that there is no good explanation, we expect the Board to take immediate action. Yahoo! shareholders should not have to wait until the (not yet scheduled) Annual Meeting for our nominees to begin the hard work of truly changing the Yahoo! Board.
Sincerely,
Daniel S. Loeb
Chief Executive Officer
Third Point LLC
About Third Point LLC:
Third Point LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser headquartered in New York, managing $9.0 billion in assets. Founded in 1995, Third Point follows an event-driven approach to investing globally.
Third Point and the other Participants (defined below) have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") a preliminary proxy statement and accompanying proxy card in connection with its solicitation of proxies for the election of Mr. Daniel S. Loeb, Mr. Harry J. Wilson, Mr. Michael J. Wolf and Mr. Jeffrey A. Zucker at the Company's 2012 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "Annual Meeting").
THE PARTICIPANTS STRONGLY ADVISE ALL SHAREHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY TO READ THE PRELIMINARY PROXY STATEMENT, THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT, THE ACCOMPANYING PROXY CARDS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE SOLICITATION OF PROXIES BY Third Point, Daniel S. Loeb, Third Point Offshore Master Fund L.P., Third Point Ultra Master Fund L.P., Third Point Partners L.P., Third Point Partners Qualified L.P., Third Point Reinsurance Company Ltd., Lyxor/Third Point Fund Limited, dbX-Risk Arbitrage 11 Fund, Harry J. Wilson, Michael J. Wolf and Jeffrey A. Zucker (collectively, the "Participants"), FROM the SHAREHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY, FOR USE AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. SUCH MATERIALS WILL, ALONG WITH OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS, BE AVAILABLE AT NO CHARGE ON THE SEC'S WEBSITE AT HTTP://WWW.SEC.GOV. IN ADDITION, THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE SOLICITATION WILL PROVIDE COPIES OF THE PROXY STATEMENT WITHOUT CHARGE UPON REQUEST. REQUESTS FOR COPIES SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO THE PARTICIPANTS' PROXY SOLICITOR, MACKENZIE PARTNERS, INC. AT ITS TOLL-FREE NUMBER (800) 322-2855 OR VIA EMAIL AT PROXY@MACKENZIEPARTNERS.COM.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION RELATING TO THE ABOVE-NAMED PARTICIPANTS IN THIS PROXY SOLICITATION, INCLUDING THEIR DIRECT OR indirect interests in the COMPANY, by security holdings or otherwise, is contained in the preliminary proxy statement filed by Third Point and the other Participants with the SEC on March 21, 2012, which document is available at no charge at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. WHEN COMPLETED, the definitive proxy statement will be available to shareholders of the COMPANY at no charge at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov or by contacting the participants' proxy solicitor, MacKenzie Partners, Inc. at its toll-free number (800) 322-2855 or via email at PROXY@MACKENZIEPARTNERS.COM.
[1] A press release from U.S. Sprint in 1991 stated that Ms. Hart (then Ms. Manuel), recently appointed as Vice President of Great Lakes Area Business Market Group, "received her B.S. in business administration from Illinois State University." However, a press release from Sprint Long Distance in 1998 stated that Ms. Hart "has a bachelor's degree in marketing and economics from Illinois State University". All references we found to Ms. Hart's educational background, dating after 1998, used the same language contained in the 1998 press release.
SOURCE Third Point LLC
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Changing How the World Sees Digital Advertising
To better understand issues associated with display ad delivery and validation, comScore conducted a groundbreaking charter study with 12 of the world’s leading marketers. The eye-opening findings from this vCE Charter Study help to pave the way for a more accurate measure of campaign delivery that relies on validated impressions, rather than served, or gross, impressions, which are currently the established currency for online ad measurement. Ideally, this research will help to promote the broad adoption of new standard measures that reflect the true delivery of a campaign and generate greater visibility and transparency across the industry and across media.
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Journalist Eric Margolis Named in Captured Al-Qaida Documents
Eric Margolis with Robbie.
4 May 2012 22:11 Africa/Lagos
Journalist Eric Margolis named in captured Al-Qaida documents just released by the US military
TORONTO, May 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Veteran journalist Eric Margolis, named in captured al-Qaida documents just released by the US military, says he's not surprised. He was named as one of 20 western journalists who might receive key documents about 9/11.
"I interviewed the founder of Al-Qaida, Sheik Abdullah Azzam, way back during the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan." says Margolis.
"I have written weekly columns for Pakistan's leading newspapers for over 20 years, as well as in Qatar and Dubai newspapers - that are widely read across Pakistan and Afghanistan. Plus two books on the region. After 9/11, I was CNN's go-to commentator with Peter Bergen on bin Laden. I have a reputation across South Asia as a no-nonsense expert on the region who is fiercely independent and can be counted on for truthful reporting."
"Other leading journalists mentioned - including the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, ABC's Brian Ross, and Britain's Robert Fisk - have a similar reputation. Since North American media refused to carry full text message from al-Qaida, it is not surprising that its media-savvy PR chiefs reached out to us."
"None of us were ever sympathetic to al-Qaida but very critical, but we also warned that US policy in the region of was counter-productive. I was one of the first journalists to warn the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would be disasters. One wonder what messages about 9/11 al-Qaida (which today barely exists) wanted to get out."
About Eric Margolis:
Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation - Pakistan, Hurriyet, - Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia. He is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, Lew Rockwell and Big Eye. He appears as an expert on foreign affairs on CNN, BBC, France 2, France 24, Fox News, CTV and CBC.
His internet column www.ericmargolis.com reaches global readers on a daily basis.As a war correspondent Margolis has covered conflicts in Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Sinai, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India, Pakistan, El Salvador and Nicaragua. He was among the first journalists to ever interview Libya's Muammar Khadaffi and was among the first to be allowed access to KGB headquarters in Moscow.
A veteran of many conflicts in the Middle East, Margolis recently was featured in a special appearance on Britain's Sky News TV as "the man who got it right" in his predictions about the dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq.
SOURCE Eric Margolis
CONTACT:
To book an interview contact:
Stephanie Blok
Director of Media Relations
for Eric Margolis
+ 416 254 6037
www.ericmargolis.com
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Cross Media Measurement
In today’s ever-changing media landscape, there are more ways than ever before to engage with consumers through advertising. In order to assess advertising’s effectiveness across multiple media platforms – such as Internet, mobile, TV, radio and print – advertisers, agencies and publishers require sound cross-media insights.
comScore Cross Media Measurement solutions quantify the effectiveness of each media channel on an advertising campaign, including branding impact as well as online and offline behaviors.
Multi-Screen Measurement
comScore Multi-Screen Measurement quantifies the reach, frequency and behavioral impact of ad campaigns across multiple media touch-points and qualifies the size and composition of audiences reached.
Click here to read the full report.
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Friday, May 4, 2012
Nollywood Magic at 2012 African Movie Academy Awards
Nigerians Report was at the 8th African Movies Academy Awards (AMAA) held in Lagos for the first time on Sunday April 22 at the Expo Hall of the Eko Hotel and Suites on Victoria Island, Lagos.
From the red carpet to the stage, it was a night of glitz and razzmatazz with the local paparazzi milling around the famous Nollywood stars.
Collins Talker of Galaxy TV asked me why I did not join the other celebrities on the red carpet. I said it was too rowdy for me. There was too much Nollywood magic that the stars from Hollywood were not even given space to be recognized as many Nollywood wannabes trampled on the red carpet.
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Oprah's OWN Network Set to Lose $142.9 Million
Will Oprah Winfrey lose her OWN Network? The latest reports suggest that with the loss of over $142.9 million dollars in advertising, it may be possible. The Oprah Winfrey Network revealed the figure, and the worst case scenario, is of course, Discovery putting an end to their joint-venture with OWN. The network debuted January 1 of last year, with 80 million homes tuning in, and it actually replaced the Discovery Health Channel. People love Oprah, so everyone figured her new primetime show, Oprah’s Next Chapter, would be a huge hit. SNL Kagan, the investment firm, revealed that there could be a “significant write-down” at OWN for the first quarter of the year. They cited the cancellation of Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show as an end to their attempt to increase ratings. Oprah fired Rosie this week, cancelling her talk show and laying off an additional 30 employees, including executives. There are reports that Oprah is searching for the next star to help save her network, find out who it is.
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The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
A Breakthrough Approach to Execution That Produces Superb Results Every Time! (PRNewsFoto/Franklin Covey)
4 May 2012 02:37 Africa/Lagos
New Book Released:
The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
Franklin Covey Offers Breakthrough Approach to Execution That Produces Superb Results
SALT LAKE CITY, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- It is one thing to establish goals, but quite another thing to execute them. MBA programs focus heavily on strategy, but offer virtually no training in execution -- and it's execution that keeps leaders awake at night.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120503/NY00768 )
Coauthors Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling, and the Franklin Covey Company (NYSE: FC) have spent more than a decade studying why execution so often fails, what can be done to fix it, and what it takes to achieve Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). They have worked with more than 13,000 teams and 200,000 people in hundreds of organizations in every kind of industry, as well as in schools and in government agencies worldwide.
The result of their findings is an essential new book, THE 4 DISCIPLINES OF EXECUTION: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals, by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling (Free Press/April 24, 2012/$28.00 hardcover / www.4dxbook.com). The book provides a simple, repeatable, proven formula for achieving the goals you simply must reach. The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) allow leaders to effectively deal with the most difficult aspect of creating breakthrough results: executing a strategy that requires a change in behavior.
Underlying the 4 Disciplines is the concept of the Whirlwind -- the massive amount of energy necessary just to keep an operation going on a day-to-day basis. The Whirlwind is the real enemy of strategic execution. While a new strategy is important, the Whirlwind is urgent, and urgency wins out every time. THE 4 DISCIPLINES OF EXECUTION shows how to separate Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) from the Whirlwind so that breakthrough results can be achieved, while still sustaining the urgent work necessary to keep the organization running.
Clayton Christensen, Professor, Harvard Business School and author of The Innovator's Dilemma, who wrote the forward for the book said, "The 4 Disciplines of Execution offers more than theories for making strategic organizational change. The authors explain not only the 'what' but also 'how' effective execution is achieved. They share numerous examples of companies that have done just that, not once, but over and over again. This is a book that every leader should read."
J. W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International, Inc., said, "Many of the foundational values of Marriott are embodied within The 4 Disciplines of Execution. By utilizing this process inside our organization, our leaders and teams have been able to set and achieve extraordinary goals, which have had a significant impact on making 'Our Guests' Experience' truly remarkable. Any organization can create these same kinds of breakthrough results if they apply the principles and processes taught in this book."
The 4 Disciplines of Execution are sequential and interdependent -- they must be done in order and done well to achieve breakthrough results. They are:
Focus on the Wildly Important. Give your best effort to those few goals that really matter instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals.
Act on the Lead Measures. Carefully track the lead measures and let the lag measures take care of themselves.
Keep a Compelling Scoreboard. Make sure everybody knows the score at all times so they can tell if they are winning or not.
Create a Cadence of Accountability. Hold frequent, regular accountability sessions whose only purpose is to advance the Wildly Important Goals. These disciplines are deceptively simple to state, but they are not simplistic. They will profoundly change the way you approach your goals, and represent a major breakthrough in how to move teams and organizations forward. When done correctly, the 4 Disciplines of Execution lead to superb results every time.
For more information on The 4 Disciplines of Execution, visit www.4dxbook.com.
About The Authors
Chris McChesney is the Global Practice Leader of Execution for Franklin Covey Co. and one of the primary developers of The 4 Disciplines of Execution. For more than a decade, he has led Franklin Covey's ongoing design and development of these principles, as well as the consulting organization that has achieved extraordinary growth in many countries around the globe and impacted hundreds of organizations.
Sean Covey is Executive Vice President of Global Solutions and Partnerships for Franklin Covey Co. and oversees Franklin Covey's international operations in 141 countries around the globe. As the Chief Product Architect for Franklin Covey, Sean organized and directed the original teams that conceived and created The 4 Disciplines of Execution and has been an avid practitioner and promoter of the methodology ever since.
Jim Huling is the Managing Consultant for Franklin Covey's The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Jim's career spans more than three decades of corporate leadership, from Fortune 500 organizations to privately held companies, including serving as CEO of a company recognized as one of the "25 Best Companies to Work for in America." Prior to joining Franklin Covey, Jim was one of the first leaders to adopt The 4 Disciplines of Execution.
About The Franklin Covey Execution Practice
Franklin Covey Execution Practice provides practical processes to organizations and teams so they know what the wildly important goals of the organization are and how to achieve them, how to track success, and how to be accountable for creating extraordinary results.
About Franklin Covey Company
Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE: FC) is the global consulting and training leader in the areas of strategy execution, leadership, productivity, trust, customer loyalty, sales performance, education and individual effectiveness. Franklin Covey clients have included 90 percent of the Fortune 100, more than 75 percent of the Fortune 500, thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses, as well as numerous government entities and educational institutions. Franklin Covey has more than 40 direct and licensee offices providing professional services in over 140 countries. For more information, visit www.franklincovey.com.
Contact: Debra Lund, 801-244-4474
SOURCE Franklin Covey
Web Site: http://www.4dxbook.com
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