Sheryl Sandberg’s Inspirational 2010 TED Talk

Sheryl Sandberg is not only a power technology executive, the COO of Facebook, Inc., but also one of the leading activists within the industry fighting for women’s rightful place in the executive room. Below is Sandberg’s powerful, inspirational and thoughtful TED talk from 2010.

It is important to note that Sandberg is cautious in her speech about women in the workforce, making it known that it is ultimately up to the women themselves if and how they are to remain in the workforce. This is an important factor to consider, and Sandberg knows that very well.

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Northern Ireland to Run Restorative Justice Pilot Program

Restorative justice practices are making their debut in Northern Ireland after heavy support from several criminal justice organizations as well as judges. An initial move that began at a Criminal Justice Group event led to what one North Ireland judge calls useful debates. This helped confirm that there was indeed enough organizational and community support for offering offenders alternatives to short stints in jail.

Following this positive discourse, the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Sir Declan Morgan, instructed the Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) to draw up a new model which will now be ready for its trial run starting in October, 2015 at several jurisdictions including Armagh/South Down and Ards.

Individuals guilty of offenses that normally carry sentences that are under 12 months will be assessed for their suitability for these new alternatives by probation officers. What will this Enhanced Combination Order, as it’s being called, focus on? Those who are deemed fit to participate in these new alternatives, a decision which is still ultimately in the hands of judges, will be required to go into rehabilitation for their actions and take part in reparations to those affected by those actions. This will also include face to face meetings with victims or writing apology letters. With this, Northern Ireland’s leading criminal justice groups wish demonstrate how such practices will lead to a decrease recidivism.

This pilot program is already gaining praises from politicians across Northern Ireland including the Minister of Justice, David Ford, who said: “The Enhanced Combination Order is one of a number of positive developments currently underway which have the potential to improve the effectiveness of our criminal justice system, and are being supported and informed by the involvement of the judiciary working in close partnership with others.”

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Woman in Leadership: Indra Nooyi

Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi has built a career that many people are envious of. One of the most influential women leaders in today’s society, Indra credits much of her success to a tough love atmosphere growing up. Her mother, despite Nooyi’s position running a multi-billion dollar company, affectionately tells her to “leave that damned crown in the garage” when she goes home. Such an outlook on life contributes to some of the best career advice she has to give others.

Embrace Tough Assignments

The woman who ranked at the number 14 position in the 2014 Forbes World’s 100 most powerful women says that the path of least resistance doe not take you to the promised land for any career. Common practice says to take the easiest assignments, and excel at them. This will push you up the corporate ladder faster. Unfortunately for those who have been following this wisdom, the inverse is closer to the truth.

Management and bosses understand when a task is a difficult one, and take note of a good job done on such tasks. By challenging oneself to a more difficult problem, you not only stand out from the crowd, but train yourself for difficult tasks in the future.

It pays to be a contributor to an organization, not just a taker. In order to show those in charge you are worth your weight in gold, it is going to take some elbow grease.

Indra Nooyi has been named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report in 2008 as well as being elected to the Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has ranked on Forbes 100 most Powerful Women in Business seven times, and Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Business five times.

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Restorative Justice in the Cloud

As cloud computing continues to gain adoption in our personal and professional lives, a new take on this concept is also gaining mass appeal. The Turning Point Justice’s Cloud Justice platform harnesses the power of the cloud that we interact with in our daily lives, be it to upload photos from your mobile device or uploading documents to collaborate on a project with co workers. In a similar fashion, the Cloud Justice platform allows retailers across multiple locations to share information relevant to loss prevention efforts.

Instead of having to rely on separate databases and case management systems to handle all loss prevention needs, retailers can integrate all relevant databases into this cloud computing platform for easy access across multiple venues. Cloud Justice collects data that is needed for law enforcement and justice system reports and becomes available to other retailers with the proper system. Since the platform is flexible and customizable, all data also integrates with whatever existing system may be in place which removes the need for duplicate information.

Prior to innovations like the Cloud Justice platform, it has been increasingly difficult and costly for a retail chain to share information which detracts from even the best efforts to curb shoplifting. Paying for physical storage space is not the most cost effective method, not to mention that our current increasing demand for data and storage space is harmful to the environment. Cloud computing, on the other hand, offers large amounts of data storage space at a much lower price point than traditional data centers. Turning Point Justice, in working to develop Cloud Justice, has realized that for retailers to adopt more modern loss prevention tools, that it would need to avoid being costly.

To that end, TPJ is offering the Cloud Justice Platform for free to retailers. Costs associated with the platform are instead passed onto the offenders, who pay offender participation fees. Of course, all of that relies on the offender being a first time, petty shoplifter and choosing to participate in the Court Alternative Program provided by Turning Point Justice in partnership with the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP).

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Restorative Justice in Schools

Restorative justice practices seem to have been making impacts on schools who formerly used “zero-tolerance” approaches to discipline. For years schools have used suspension and low tolerance approaches to curb students from participating in wrongful behavior. Since beginning a restorative justice approach to these offenses, Ed White Middle School in San Antonio, Texas has seen favorable results. After changing their discipline tactics, their school was ranked in the top 25% for improvement in state math and reading tests.

In Oakland, California schools who have incorporated restorative justice tactics have seen significant increases to key performance statistics. Chronic absentee numbers have reduced 24%, along with a 128% increase in 9th grade reading levels and a 56% decrease in high school dropout rate. This shows that more people are performing better, staying longer and graduating at a higher frequency.

Studies have shown that the age old practice of suspension does not only hurt the academic performance of those being kicked out, but of the entire student body. Schools with higher suspension rates have performed worse than those with lower rates.

What this shows is that former practices for dealing with misbehavior may not be the most effective for preventing future behavior, which in turn can affect overall performance is an alarming ripple effect. With such success being seen in educational studies, restorative justice practices seem to have been catching on across industries and state borders. Teaching offenders of the impact their actions have on the surrounding community is effective in changing future behavior and educating the public as to why certain rules are in place.

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Woman in Leadership: Hillary Clinton

From her role as first lady to President Bill Clinton, to now a presidential candidate herself, Hillary Clinton has transformed into a role model for women across the United States. She has showed strong determination, willpower and persistence to get herself where she is today. Hillary likes to look back to her past and reminds herself of the hard times which helped make who she is. She also has a few secrets which she uses to make a great leader.

Be authentic to yourself

Hillary understands that it is very easy to get lost in the bustle of politics and lose focus on what really means a lot to her and go with what is popular. She claims “toughing it out” is important in politics. Being able to face the adversity and hold ground on what you believe is important and will give the general population more of a reason to believe in you and what you are trying to prove.

Communicate to impact and inspire

One staple she believes is important while being a leader is to communicate impactful thoughts and beliefs. Rather than throwing promises and communicating with the wrong demographic, it is important to take the time to focus on the target and positively speak with them and hope they truly understand the viewpoint you are trying to get across while getting them engaged.

Build connections and bridges

An important aspect of leadership with Hillary finds key is being able to build strong bridges and connections in order to gain support and broaden your level of intelligence. This secret is the most difficult to accomplish since it is tough to go out and meet various people and have them have the same viewpoint as you. If you can accomplish this, you can be a great, successful leader.

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Women Leader: Marissa Mayer and Yahoo!

March 8, 2015 marked this years International Women’s Day, a multi-national holiday since the early 20th century. Honoring the women who paved the way for women’s rights, we take a look at yet another woman who has made an impact on the business world by breaking through the glass ceiling. Marissa Mayer is the current sitting CEO of technology company Yahoo!. She has been at the helm of the company since 2012, attempting to reinvent the crippled structure of the business. Making her way from search engine and technology pioneering firm Google, Mayer held an executive, usability leader and spokesperson position for years prior to Yahoo!.

Since beginning her career, Mayer has an ambition that knows no limits. The 20th employee at now gigantic Google, she was not comfortable in just building a radically new business and powerhouse. She found her next undertaking in Yahoo! and their struggling platform. Search and media has become out of touch for the once dominant site and she was enthusiastic about pulling this staple of the internet back up to its appropriate perch. She has pursued its reinvention by acquiring the likes of Tumblr, as well as employing high profile journalist, Katie Couric. Her constant vision for capturing the young target market has led her to place conduites on apps such as Snapchat where users can see the latest news from the desk of Katie Couric, for deeper insight viewers will visit the site. This type of cerebral marketing and broad spectrum touch points may prove to be what it takes to pull Yahoo! out of the dog house. While stock prices have not been too kind to the firm, her strategic mind is always planning the next move with a cool confidence that is enviable.

A mom and a CEO, Mayer has set the bar for how young women see women in business. She is breaking down barriers by showing her taste for fashion, innovative thinking, and caring for her child. The balance between all three is a sight to cherish, as young girls who know who Marissa Mayer is can envision what it will be like to run a bigtime Silicon Valley company and raise a family.

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Oprah’s Road To Success

Everyone knows Oprah. No matter where you are in the world, everyone has heard of Oprah Winfrey in one way or another. Many of these people do not understand or know how Oprah came to be. Nothing was handed to her, it was hard work and determination that got her to where she is today.

Growing up, Oprah lived with her grandmother since her parents were only teenagers at the time. This lasted until she was the age of six, when her grandmother passed away and when she moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her mother. While with her mother, Oprah rebelled as she transitioned into a teenager. She acted just as any other teenager, running away from home, breaking her things to get newer things, and even getting pregnant at the age of fourteen, even though the baby sadly passed away at birth. With her mother being fed up with Oprah, sent her to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father. This move was a turning point for Oprah as she found herself in Tennessee.

When Oprah arrived to Nashville she found, unlike her mother, her father was very strict and made sure Oprah focused on school and going to college. This push by her father helped Oprah become an honor roll student, and help mold her into the social butterfly she is today. Her grades and outstanding ability to speak publicly earned Oprah a scholarship to Tennessee State University. At TSU, she blossomed in her communications program which landed her jobs on talk shows, radio shows locally and shortly after in Chicago.

Her success while working for a talk show in Chicago came quick. Before anyone knew what had hit them, the station changed the name of the show to the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show.’ She went on to own her own magazine, talk show and even book club. But her most impressive accomplishment was after she earned success.

Oprah always gives back to her communities and to the less fortunate who are going through the same struggles she had gone through. She built schools, programs, and donated money to various foundations. Her biggest accomplishment in her mind was when she started a school in Africa called the Oprah Leadership Academy. Her hopes are that the girl’s in the academy will become Africa’s and the worlds future. Oprah continues to help the less fortunate and ultimately hopes to see a change.

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Mitigate Shrinkage

Are you a retailer who is fed up with continued shrinkage? Shoplifting affects the bottom line of any retail brick and mortar business. Being able to mitigate this offense is of the utmost importance to a business’s health. Shoplifters are not often caught and with an enormous volume of cases flooding courts, the offenders are often not held responsible for their actions. What Lohra Miller and her team at Turning Point Justice aim to do is congregate the interests of retailers as well authorities by educating offenders of the seriousness of their crime and helping them to see the impact of their decisions.

 

With court rooms packed to the gills, judicial time is spent hearing cases from petty crimes to serious offenses. If a young boy steals candy from a corner store, he should not be waiting to plead his case, sitting next to an offender for a much more serious crime. It is an irresponsible expense of the tax payers money to flood court rooms with such offenses, and in some cases, jail time. In an effort to relieve court system and police efforts from unnecessary expenditures, TPJ can bear the weight of the misdemeanors that can are taking up space in a court house.

 

In order for offenders to grasps the seriousness of their actions, Lohra Miller and her team are working with law enforcement to enforce a restitution program. Those who steal will be able to pay back the institution they took from, as well as learn the severity of their actions.

 

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Leda Braga A Top Hedge Fund Manager

Hedge funds have long been run by a mostly male majority but to kick off the year 2015, we have seen one woman take over a well known, large firm. Leda Braga takes the reigns at Systematica Investments after she left her long time European firm, BlueCrest Capital Management. Braga will be managing $8.5 billion, a figure similar to what she managed at BlueCrest. This will make her the most influential female manager in charge of her own firm.

Systematica ranks among the top 100 hedge funds by assets. Well known funds are managing $18.3 billion (Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management), $16.5 billion, (Dan Loeb’s Third Point), $10 billion (Larry Robbins’ Glenview Capital Management).

Braga is a 48 year old Brazilian who has climbed the financial latter quickly using her elite business practices. A recipient of an engineering Ph.D. from Imperial College London, where she also lectured, Braga worked at JP Morgan Chase as an analyst on their derivatives research team. She joined the BlueCrest ranks in 2001 after a short tenure at Cygnifi Derivatives Services, and by 2004 she was managing the firms largest fund named, Bluetrend. BlueTrend manages futures of stocks, currencies, bonds, and commodities by looking for trends within each respective market.

Her qualifications for her new title comes from BlueTrend’s success and growth. It is now a sub $8 billion fund while averaging 11.2% net increase in fees over the 10 year span from 2004 to 2014. This beat the Absolute Return Managed Futures Index over the 10 year period, beating their 4.91% growth.

Her position as the top woman hedge fund manager marks her as a force to be reckoned with in the investment world. It will be a pleasure to watch Braga continue to succeed in her profession and prove there is no limits to what women can achieve.

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