Designing a System That Works

Some 75 million young people around the world are unemployed, yet most employers say they cannot find enough qualified candidates for entry-level jobs. What skills will help young people find work, and what is the most effective way of delivering them?

A new McKinsey report finds that employers, education providers, and young people live in parallel universes with dramatically different perspectives and little engagement. Drawing on a survey of some 8,500 stakeholders in 9 countries, as well as an analysis of more than 100 education-to-employment approaches across 35 countries, the research also finds that three junctures are critical for taking action to address the crisis: enrolling in postsecondary education, developing skills, and seeking employment.

URL:

http://mckinseyonsociety.com/education-to-employment/report/

The 2013 Annual Meeting of the

Service Management and Science Forum

A Joint Meeting of the Art & Science of Service, the Service Operations Management Forum of EurOMA and POMS College of Service Operations

August 4-6, 2013
Harrah’s, Las Vegas, NV

Theme: Customer Centricity

Meeting Announcement:

The Service Management and Science Forum is a truly transdisciplinary meeting involving academics and practitioners from all disciplines and organizations that focus on the service delivery process and the service systems that support it. Some of the academic disciplines that participate in this meeting include operations, marketing, information technology, design, and human resource management.
Advances in technology, especially information technology, have dramatically shifted the power in the marketplace from the providers to the customers. The causes for this shift in power are many, including (a) increasing customer knowledge and awareness, (b) growing emphasis on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that allow customers to voice their satisfaction and, more importantly, dissatisfaction literally to the world, and (c) increasing ease of access that customers have to new suppliers of goods and services from the four corners of the globe.
As a result, companies and organizations are recognizing the importance of providing their customers with outstanding service by taking a customer-centric perspective. Such an effort requires an integrative approach that transcends the traditional functional areas. In addition, senior management must acknowledge that adopting a customer-centric philosophy for an organization doesn’t occur overnight, but rather requires commitment for a significant period of time before the benefits start to accrue. With the theme for the 2013 conference, service researchers and practitioners are invited to share innovations in customer-centricty and their implications for service value-creation.

For the 2013 conference, we seek submissions that include, but are not limited to, the following topics as they relate to customer-centricity:

Self-service technologies and other technology-enabled service innovations Customers and co-production: setting the service process task boundary Managing stakeholder relationships: customers, service providers, and the service supply chain Unlocking value co-creation in service design and delivery processes Applications of customer-centric service design in different industries and across countries

Tentative Keynote Speakers:

Patrick Jordan, COO Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, MA

Doug Woodard, Vice President, Customer Service Operations, Card Capital One

Information for Contributors:

Individuals from academia, business and government are invited to submit refereed research papers, non-refereed research abstracts, and proposals for workshops, panels, and symposia. All submissions should have a clear customer-centric focus and are encouraged to be transdisciplinary in nature; that is, they should involve more than a single traditional discipline.

Submission Deadlines:

The submission deadline for refereed research papers is March 30, 2013. The submission deadline for non-refereed research abstracts and proposals is April 30, 2013.

For more information on the conference, contact:

Program Co-Chairs:

Gaby Odekerken
Maastricht University School of Business and Economics PO Box 616, 6200MD Maastricht The Netherlands
Email: g.odekerken@maastrichtuniversity.nl
TEL: +31 433883618

Joy Field
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 USA
Email: fieldjo@bc.edu
TEL: 1-617-552-0442

Crowdfunding

Many attendees at the first annual Next Generation Entrepreneurship and Global Crowdfunding Forum at Santa Monica on Nov. 16 saw crowdfunding as the clearest path to an economic comeback.

One of the distinguished speakers, Howard J. Leonhardt, founder of the California Stock Xchange, predicted: “Crowdfunding will bring the grandest expression of human creativity and economic growth ever seen in the history of human civilization and will unleash the dreams, will and burning desire of people who want to show what they can do – particularly those who have never been given a chance before.”

Others pointed out how crowdfunding has the potential to transform and democratize the funding industry by putting a lot more capability into the hands of the public – who have already proved their financing power. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2010, while $9.4 billion was committed by angel investors, $41.6 billion in private capital came from friends and family.

More recent data reveals further insights: In 2011, 4.8 percent of the U.S. population personally provided funds for new businesses

URL:
http://www.labusinessjournal.com/news/2012/dec/03/tapping-group-effort/?page=1&

Viral Videos That Matter

Leading thinkers from around the globe will gather in London this March for the inaugural Global Grand Challenges Summit. They will brainstorm worldwide collaborations for addressing some of our planet’s most pressing issues…and you could earn the opportunity to be a part of it.

The US National Academy of Engineering, with sponsorship from Genentech and IBM, is launching a video contest for US residents age 18-27. We’re looking for game-changing ideas, shown in creative and compelling ways. We want you to make a viral video that matters.

Find out more at this website: http://www.nae.edu/?id=65183

Please forward this to anyone who might be interested.

Questions? Contact Nicole Flores: nflores@nae.edu

Randy Atkins
Director, Communications/Media
Reporter, “Engineering Innovation” on WTOP Radio
Director, Grand Challenges for Engineering project (“Because Dreams Need Doing”)
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academies
tel. 202-334-1508
e-mail: atkins@nae.edu

The U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an elected group of our nation’s (and the world’s) most accomplished engineers.  Its mission is to “promote the technological welfare of the nation by marshalling the knowledge and insights of eminent members of the engineering profession.”  The NAE is part of the National Academies (along with the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council), an independent non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress to provide objective analysis and advice to the nation on matters of science and technology.

*******

GSN Weekly Update: 4 December 2012

URL:

http://globalservicesnetwork.com/updates

ENGINEERING ACADEMIES IN US, UK, AND CHINA ANNOUNCE GLOBAL GRAND CHALLENGES SUMMIT

Washington, DC, November 14, 2012 – The US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) today announced a major international summit to explore new approaches for solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The summit, to be held in London on March 12-13, 2013, will bring together many of today’s leading thinkers and innovators with the next generation of engineering talent from around the world.
The inaugural Global Grand Challenges Summit is a new collaboration of the NAE and the national academies of engineering in the United Kingdom and China. This two-day event will spark discussion and debate, with a goal of identifying opportunities for global cooperation on engineering innovation and education to address common technological goals. More than 400 people—from industry, research, education, and policy—will participate at the event, which will also be webcast to a worldwide audience.
Sessions will focus on issues of sustainability, health, education, technology and growth, enriching life and resilience. Participants will discuss ways of developing the collaborations, networks and tools to take on complex global issues.
Speakers include: Caltech’s Frances Arnold, Imperial College professor Lord Darzi, University of Cambridge professor Dame Ann Dowling, former DARPA head and present Google/Motorola exec Regina Dugan, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Stanford University president John Hennessy, prolific inventor Dean Kamen, MIT bioengineer Robert Langer, and genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter. Many more speakers will be announced in the coming months.

The academies are organizing this event with the support of Lockheed Martin and the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The summit was inspired by the NAE’s 2008 report “Grand Challenges for Engineering,” findings of an international panel of leading scientists and engineers which are already having wide-ranging impacts, particularly in US education through initiatives like the Grand Challenges Scholars Program. The Global Summit builds upon a series of US summits.
“Engineers hold the key to addressing many of the world’s greatest challenges, but we will only solve these if we become more systematic in the way we educate, innovate, and collaborate,” said Royal Academy of Engineering president Sir John Parker. “This major international event will push for a sea change in the way engineers interact with each other, with other disciplines, with policymakers and with society at large. It will also highlight the excitement of cutting-edge engineering and showcase the central role engineers will play in delivering a safe, sustainable and prosperous future.”
“The prosperity of future generations relies on unprecedented levels of interdisciplinary and international cooperation in pursuit of solutions to global challenges,” said NAE president Charles M. Vest, President of the US National Academy of Engineering. “Whether the task is providing clean water for a rising global population or developing the resilience of our infrastructure to climate change, solutions demand more than isolated scientific breakthroughs. Instead, it is time to explore what could be accomplished with a globally-integrated systems approach.”
Founded in 1964, the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. The mission of the National Academy of Engineering is to advance the well-being of the nation by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and by marshalling the expertise and insights of eminent engineers to provide independent advice to the federal government on matters involving engineering and technology.
Founded in 1976, The Royal Academy of Engineering promotes the engineering and technological welfare of the country. Our fellowship – comprising the UK’s most eminent engineers – provides the leadership and expertise for our activities, which focus on the relationships between engineering, technology, and the quality of life. As a national academy, we provide independent and impartial advice to Government; work to secure the next generation of engineers; and provide a voice for Britain’s engineering community.
The Chinese Academy of Engineering is the Chinese national academy of engineering and technological sciences. Its missions are to initiate and conduct strategic studies, to provide consultancy services for decision-making on key national engineering and technological sciences issues, and to promote the development of engineering and technological sciences in China for the benefit and welfare of society.

Contact:
Randy Atkins
Director, Communications/Media
National Academy of Engineering
202.334.1508, atkins@nae.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

URL:

http://www.raeng.org.uk/international/global_grand_challenges_summit.htm

The International Society for Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP), a global non-profit consortium of industry, academia and governments has launched a research project to co-develop curricula guidelines for all forms of education in service with educators, government agencies and industry representatives around the world. As a first step in this project we have produced a brief survey for the purpose of discovering the extant breadth and depth of service education and the needs for service education in the future.

We ask you, as a professional with interests in service or service industries, to take a few minutes to complete this survey. Results of this survey will be posted on the ISSIP web site (www.ISSIP.org). Participation in this survey is entirely voluntary and you may quit the survey at any time. If you have any questions about this survey, please contact: Ralph D. Badinelli Professor, Virginia Tech, ralphb@vt.edu.
The survey can be accessed at https://survey.vt.edu/survey/entry.jsp?id=1333571936356
Thank you for assisting this research.
—
Ralph D. Badinelli
Professor
Business Information Technology Department 0235
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-7688

University Venture Fund

USA has 23 million unemployed and 3.7 million unfilled jobs.

According to a survey earlier this year of over 38,000 employers in 41 countries, 34% of companies worldwide reported finding it hard to fill open positions.

If you ask, employers are more than happy to provide a laundry list of capabilities that students lack.

Read more here.

URL:
www.universityventuresfund.com

http://www.universityventuresfund.com/publications.php?title=jobs-capabilities-and-the-new-digital-divide