Podcasts about resource planning

Points of Interest1:08 – 2:17 – Why Time Tracking Still Matters: Kristen and Marcel introduce the episode's goal—to reframe time tracking from a frustrating chore into a strategic advantage for agencies.2:28 – 4:59 – Debunking Common Misconceptions: Marcel breaks down the three common arguments against time tracking, particularly the mistaken belief that it's only relevant for time-and-materials billing.5:04 – 6:19 – Understanding the Agency Business Model: Marcel explains why all service businesses, regardless of pricing model, must measure time to truly understand costs and profit margins.6:33 – 8:39 – When Time Tracking Becomes Non-Negotiable: The hosts argue that the ideal conditions for skipping time tracking rarely exist—most agencies operate in too much uncertainty.8:45 – 10:47 – The Cultural Problem with Time Sheets: Beyond logistics, the core issue is lack of transparency—teams don't understand how time data is used or how it benefits them.10:53 – 13:12 – Misuse of Metrics and the Consequences: Marcel describes how overexposing metrics like utilization or budget variance skews behavior, leading to inaccurate and untrustworthy data.14:20 – 16:38 – Time Tracking and Cost Visibility: Even with fixed pricing models, agencies must know how much time goes into work to assess whether it's profitable or sustainable.16:44 – 18:58 – Key Metrics Affected by Time Tracking: Delivery margin, utilization, and average billable rate are highlighted as critical performance indicators that depend on time data.19:04 – 21:58 – The Profitability Flywheel Explained: Kristen and Marcel introduce Parakeeto's four-step framework for building a feedback loop that drives clarity and continuous improvement.24:22 – 27:33 – Modern Alternatives to Time Sheets: They outline a spectrum of options—from traditional time sheets to resource planning and AI-assisted tools—offering flexibility based on agency complexity.28:06 – 32:25 – Sequencing Time Tracking for Success: Marcel shares Parakeeto's phased approach: start with modeling and forecasting before implementing time tracking to ensure team alignment and data utility.Show NotesBoost Agency Profits: Calculate your Profitability TargetsMaximize Project Profit Margins: Boost Returns TodayEssential Agency Metrics & KPIs for Boosting ProfitabilityMaster Agency Time Tracking: Optimize Without TimesheetsRequest demo videos of our reporting platformLove the PodcastLeave us a review here.

Entergy has a plan to provide enough power for everybody with Meta's data center coming to Louisiana, and they're confident customers won't see costs passed on to them. Laura Beauchamp, Vice President of Resource Planning for Entergy Louisiana, joins us.

In the latest episode of People in Power, Abigail Sawyer and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association CEO Duane Highley discuss  threading the needle to satisfy diverse interests across a multi-state territory and the G&T cooperative's decision to join the Southwest Power Pool's RTO West expansion. 

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In the latest episode of Public Power Now, Brian Wright, General Manager for California public power utility Truckee Donner Public Utility District, discusses the utility's resource planning efforts and details a battery energy storage system assessment.We want to make sure that we're providing you with information that helps you do your job and allows your utility to thrive – please take a few minutes to complete our reader survey. It lets us know what type of industry news and information is most meaningful to you, what topics you're interested in and how you prefer to access this information.

In the latest episode of Public Power Now, Austin Energy's Chief Operating Officer Lisa Martin and Mike Enger, Austin Energy's Vice President for Energy Markets and Resource Planning, discuss the Texas public power utility's resource planning efforts and recent news involving Austin Energy and geothermal energy.We want to make sure that we're providing you with information that helps you do your job and allows your utility to thrive – please take a few minutes to complete our reader survey. It lets us know what type of industry news and information is most meaningful to you, what topics you're interested in and how you prefer to access this information

As a product manager, have you ever inherited a messy backlog? In this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel break down 6 useful tactics you can use to tackle this common challenge. Listen as we discuss the challenges of inheriting a product backlog and learn practical strategies for:Aligning with company objectivesEffective stakeholder communicationPrioritization techniquesLeveraging data for decision-makingStreamlining processes and workflowsIdentifying and preparing for skill gapsIf you manage a backlog, this episode provides valuable insights to help you succeed in your role!#ProductManagement #Agile #BacklogManagement #ProductStrategy #DataDriven= = = = = = = = = = = =Watch it on YouTube= = = = = = = = = = = =Subscribe to our YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8XUSoJPxGPI8EtuUAHOb6g?sub_confirmation=1Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agile-podcast/id1568557596Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/362QvYORmtZRKAeTAE57v3Amazon Music:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ee3506fc-38f2-46d1-a301-79681c55ed82/Agile-Podcast= = = = = = = = = = = =Toronto Is My Beat (Music Sample)By Whitewolf (Source: https://ccmixter.org/files/whitewolf225/60181)CC BY 4.0 DEED (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)

In this week's episode, join me as I explore the transformative power of vulnerability. I am sharing my personal journey through a significant life transition, offering insights into how vulnerability can be a form of self-care and emotional wellness. Embracing vulnerability can also lead to personal growth and a more aligned life. By being open with ourselves, we allow our hearts to lead and give our minds a much-needed rest.Whether you're managing a household or caring for loved ones, this episode offers valuable takeaways for achieving a sustainable lifestyle. Tune in now and learn why vulnerability is not a weakness but a strength that allows us to care for ourselves as we care for others and how to embrace your feelings without apology and give yourself permission to be fully human.RESOURCE:Planning to Age in Place?Download my Aging-in-Place Design Considerations + join my email community.FEATURED ON THE SHOW:Come say hello on Instagram Follow me on Facebook See what I'm up to on LinkedIn Join my community at https://www.apleasantsolution.com/ LIKE THIS EPISODE?I invite you to share, rate, review, and follow my show. Also, join the conversation by connecting with me on Instagram @apleasantsolution.

Today we were delighted to host Toni Stojcevski, General Manager of Project Sales & Development at Wärtsilä Marine alongside David Millar, Principal of Markets, Legislative, and Regulatory Policy at Wärtsilä Energy. For those of you who aren't familiar with Wärtsilä, the company is a famous Finnish provider of marine engines and also a large player in onshore power. Toni has served at Wärtsilä for over 20 years ago and specializes in marine engineering and business development, including medium speed combustion engines and alternative fuels. David is an economist who advocates for evidence-based energy policies that prioritize cost-effectiveness and reliability. He holds a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University and previously served as Managing Director of Resource Planning and Procurement Services at Ascend Analytics. We were delighted to connect with David and Toni and talk about Wärtsilä's unique angles on the world.   In our conversation, we discuss the critical role of shipping in the global economy and Wärtsilä's efforts to develop solutions that meet emissions targets, including the creation of engines that can use traditional fuels but also natural gas, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen. Toni shares his insights on the evolution of fuel use in shipping, highlighting the global fleet's historical reliance on bunker fuel and how that has changed in recent years. Toni emphasizes the complexities and costs associated with transitioning to alternative fuels, as well as the technological challenges with new fuels, notably in fuel supply infrastructure, especially for hydrogen and ammonia. We explore the relative differences in different fuel prices and the impact of larger tank sizes on shipping costs and cargo capacity, whether existing fuels can become more efficient, and examine potential future shipping technologies such as marine batteries and micronuclear power. David provides background on Wärtsilä's power solutions including gas engines for peaking and balancing generation, the intricacies of using hydrogen as a long-duration storage medium and the infrastructure needed, as well as the cost of generating electricity with Wärtsilä's engines and how it compares to other generation methods. We also cover the role of modular and efficient energy technologies in reducing costs and risks for utilities and power producers. We circle back with Toni towards the end of the discussion to hit on Wärtsilä's development of carbon capture technology for vessels unable to switch to new fuels and cover the size and growth of the global merchant shipping fleet. We conclude by asking both David and Toni what they think the shipping and power energy mix might look like in ten years. For our COBT history buffs, we previously had the opportunity to host Karl Meeusen, Director of Markets, Legislative and Regulatory Policy at Wärtsilä (episode linked here). Mike Bradley opened the discussion by highlighting three key topics: the East & Gulf Coast dockworkers strike, escalating conflict in the Middle East, and the sharp decline in U.S. natural gas storage surplus. On the dockworkers strike, he noted it was the first one on the East Coast since 1977, with these ports handling half of all U.S. container shipments. Retailers are under pressure as investors assess potential supply chain disruptions during the holiday season and the US Presidential election ramifications of an extended strike. Regarding crude oil, WTI prices rose $3/bbl to $71/bbl due to increasing Middle East tensions following Iran's missile strike on Israel. Despite this, oil prices have been trading sideways, even with bearish Brent crude setups and news of a large Chinese stimulus plan. The upcoming OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting on October 2nd could bring mor

In this episode of Future Finance Show, hosts Paul Barnhurst and Glenn Hopper dive deep into the revolutionary impact of generative AI on industries, with a particular focus on its implications in finance. They explore how AI transforms workflows, enhances productivity, and shifts the focus from tasks to higher-level thinking. The conversation breaks down common misconceptions about AI, such as the overhyped role of “prompt engineering,” and emphasizes how businesses can integrate AI while maintaining data privacy and security. Conor Grennan, the guest of this episode, is the Chief AI Architect at NYU Stern School of Business and the founder of AI Mindset, a company helping leaders adopt AI effectively. Beyond AI, Conor is a New York Times best-selling author, recognized globally for his humanitarian work. His expertise lies not only in AI implementation but also in helping non-technical individuals understand and utilize AI's potential.In this episode, you will discover:The reality behind generative AI myths and why prompt engineering is overrated.How AI transforms jobs by automating tasks, not replacing roles.Ways finance professionals can balance AI efficiency with data privacy concerns.Why adopting an AI mindset is crucial for leveraging its full potential.How embracing AI in your work can give you a competitive edge in your career.For finance professionals interested in harnessing the power of generative AI while balancing efficiency and security, this episode offers practical insights and frameworks. Conor Grennan's unique blend of technical knowledge and relatable, human-centered teaching makes this a must-listen for anyone looking to stay ahead in the AI revolution.Follow Conor:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorgrennan/Website: conorgrennan.comJoin hosts Glenn and Paul as they unravel the complexities of AI in finance:Follow Glenn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiiiFollow Paul:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguyFollow QFlow.AI:Website - https://qflow.ai/future-financeFuture Finance is sponsored by QFlow.ai, the strategic finance platform solving the toughest part of planning and analysis: B2B revenue. Align sales, marketing, and finance, speed up decision-making, and lock in accountability with QFlow.ai. Stay tuned for a deeper understanding of how AI is shaping the future of finance and what it means for businesses and individuals alike.In Today's Episode:[01:59] - Concerns about data privacy in AI[08:32] - Introduction of Conor Grennan[10:10] - Conor's background and AI journey[12:40] - The role of a chief AI architect[16:42] - The truth about prompt engineering[20:54] - The AI mindset and learning curve[27:55] - AI's impact on jobs[35:23] - Conor's AI course and framework[37:29] - Conor's book: Little Princess[42:47] - Conclusion and final thoughts

In the latest episode of Public Power Now, Brad Koehn, the new General Manager of California public power utility Turlock Irrigation District, details a TID effort to install solar panel canopies over various sections of the utility's irrigation canals and discusses how resource planning for Turlock Irrigation District has evolved over the years.

Today, host Saji Sebastian, the founder and principal advisor at FM Future Labs, talks with Manoj Parekh the managing director at OCS Group India, Kiran Rao the President at Peppermint Robotics, and Srikumar Narayan the founder and CEO of WINAIM Limited. Together they discuss the adoption of technology and digital applications in facilities management. They touch on how technology, such as IoT solutions and automation, enhances operational efficiency, resource planning, security, and tenant satisfaction. They also explore emerging trends like mobility, AR/VR, and AI in FM, while addressing the challenges of initial investment costs and the importance of making technology user-friendly to overcome resistance to change.  Connect with Us:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ifmaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/InternationalFacilityManagementAssociation/Twitter: https://twitter.com/IFMAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ifma_hq/YouTube: https://youtube.com/ifmaglobalVisit us at https://ifma.org

Challenges around resource planning and management with Ketan Jahagirdar

Challenges around resource planning and management with Ketan Jahagirdar

In this Earth Day Special of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Mike Rufo, Musician and Energy / Climate Policy Consultant and Activist. Mike has had a long and distinguished career working with energy efficiency and modelling, as well as resource planning and cost effectiveness evaluations. He is now semi-retired, focusing on his career in singing-songwriting, with three albums since 2012 and another recently released. Ted and Mike discuss his background, sharing that he had an untraditional childhood, landing in the flats of Hollywood in the early 70s when he was 12. He shares that there was a moment while living in Hollywood when he became aware of what smog was and how car-heavy LA was. The use of gas and nonrenewable resources didn't make sense to him, which led him down an environmental path in his studies and career.Ted and Mike then dive into his pivot from 30 years in virtually all aspects of energy resource consulting and management, to music and activism. Music, for him, became a vessel to be environmentally active. He shares that he is a Board Member of Music Declares (Climate) Emergency-US, which comprises a group of artists, music industry professionals and organizations that stand together to declare a climate and ecological emergency, and call for an immediate governmental response to reverse climate change. They believe in the power of music to promote the cultural change needed to create a better future.Mike recorded his first album in 2012, and recently released his new album, “living is," debuting a single from the album, “The Reckoning” which is his ode to Earth, live on the podcast for Earth Day! 

In this episode, we chat with Resource and Capacity Planning expert David Preece, Principal Solution Consultant at QStory. David shares his career journey, insights into Intraday Automation at QStory, and its impact on workforce productivity. He emphasizes data-driven decision-making and offers a glimpse into the future of Workforce Management. Join us for a conversation with a true industry master!

Tony is an experienced Contact Centre Consultant, who has lived and breathed contact centres for over 26 years. Since starting as a phone Agent, Tony has moving through a variety of contact centre roles mainly focussed on Resource Planning, but with some Business Intelligence, Recruitment and Reward & Recognition roles too. Over the last 10 years Tony has worked in the Contact Centre technology space, helping develop and deliver innovative solutions, and has spent the last 3 years leading the QStory Customer Success team.

The digital mapping industry is currently experiencing a significant revolution marked by the emergence of location technology companies. These companies are harnessing inputs such as GPS, geolocation, mapping, and navigation to develop innovative solutions for various industries, including transportation, logistics, and retail. With a shift in focus from "route optimization" to "resource optimization," location-based technologies offer numerous use cases that can significantly enhance operational efficiency. Furthermore, with API integration, operators can seamlessly integrate location-based data with their existing ERP systems, enabling them to add a business layer to their operations. This integration allows for better data management and improved decision-making capabilities.Ajay Bulusu is the co-founder of NextBillion.ai, a startup that provides mapping solutions using artificial intelligence for the mobility and logistics industry. Before starting NextBillion.ai, he was leading Geo Data Operations Team at Grab and was working as Senior Director Of Product. He also worked as a product manager at Google and led the development of several key products, including Google Flights and Google Assistant. Ajay is known for his expertise in AI and is part of the Forbes Tech Council. He is also featured as Fortune 40U40.

In deze aflevering praten Jan en Ronald je bij over een aantal belangrijke functionaliteiten en features binnen Kubernetes. We beginnen met Resource Planning; hoe weet Kubernetes of er genoeg resources beschikbaar zijn wanneer een pod op de node wordt gezet? Vervolgens wordt Horizontal Pod Autoscaling toegelicht; het automatisch opstarten van pods bij een bepaalde load. De heren gaan ook in op Node Affinity; pods over verschillende regio's inzetten voor een gemixt cluster.Handige links:https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/taint-and-toleration/https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/assign-pod-node/

Chris Rainsforth and Phil Anderson of The Forum are experts on Resource Planning and bring that to bear in this illuminating episode ! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/get-out-of-wrap/message

In recent months, we've all witnessed the sad headlines containing the dreaded L word: layoffs. It seems that week after week, another major company is doing a big round of layoffs, impacting thousands of people and families. In this episode, Rhys sits down with an expert guest who believes that many layoffs could have been avoided if these companies had processes in place for people planning and needs forecasting. Warren Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Doublefin, an automated and collaborative resource platform that works to bring finance into the digital world, while making it easy for the teams that work with finance to collaborate and be strategic about resource planning. Previously, Warren held positions at Google for over 12 years, collaborating closely with their people teams to plan every aspect of TA and retention. After he realized how broken the system was, he went on to start Doublefin. During their conversation, Warren shares insights into the steps companies could be taking to avoid layoffs, what processes they need to adopt moving forward, and what the true cost of bad people planning really is. Download your free copy of Oyster's 2022 Employee Expectations Report. We want to hear from you! Please take a moment to share your thoughts on the New World of Work Listener Survey. This podcast episode was produced by Quill.

In this episode Matt Lensink and Lisa Katz talk to John Gorman President and CEO at Canadian Nuclear Association and Doug Opseth Director, Generation Asset Management and Resource Planning at SaskPower about their SMR (Small Modular Reactor) project. SMRs are small reactors that are aimed at new markets to tackle global needs for safe, clean, economic energy. In Canada, this could mean new clean energy options for replacing coal, greening mining and improving energy security for remote communities.

Center Director Bob Shrum joins a panel of energy experts and industry leaders to discuss the latest national policies advancing cleaner energy and curbing the effects of climate change, in commemoration of Earth Day.Featuring:Bob Shrum - Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC DornsifeTed Bardacke - CEO, Clean Power Alliance Ivan Penn - Energy Correspondent, New York TimesJason Rondou - Director of Resource Planning, Development & Programs at Los Angeles Department of Water and PowerAura Vasquez - Chair of Climate Action Committee, Sierra Club Los Angeles Chapter; Former Commissioner, Los Angeles Department of Water and PowerAdditional InformationThe Bully Pulpit PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Center Director Bob Shrum joins a panel of energy experts and industry leaders to discuss the latest national policies advancing cleaner energy and curbing the effects of climate change, in commemoration of Earth Day. Featuring: Bob Shrum - Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife Ted Bardacke - CEO, Clean Power Alliance Ivan Penn - Energy Correspondent, New York Times Jason Rondou - Director of Resource Planning, Development & Programs at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Aura Vasquez - Chair of Climate Action Committee, Sierra Club Los Angeles Chapter; Former Commissioner, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Center Director Bob Shrum joins a panel of energy experts and industry leaders to discuss the latest national policies advancing cleaner energy and curbing the effects of climate change, in commemoration of Earth Day. Featuring: Bob Shrum - Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife Ted Bardacke - CEO, Clean Power Alliance Ivan Penn - Energy Correspondent, New York Times Jason Rondou - Director of Resource Planning, Development & Programs at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Aura Vasquez - Chair of Climate Action Committee, Sierra Club Los Angeles Chapter; Former Commissioner, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

DrugPatentWatch publisher Yali Friedman, Ph.D. will be speaking at the 15th Edition Pharma Resource Planning and Portfolio Optimization Conference. The event is from from April 25-26, 2022 at the Sheraton… The post Join DrugPatentWatch at the 15th Pharma Resource Planning and Portfolio Optimization Conference appeared first on DrugPatentWatch - Make Better Decisions.

Here on Power Flow we do a lot of thinking about the future of energy. For Ahlmahz Negash, PhD, it's what she does every day for the City of Tacoma in her job as a long range resource planner. She's helping the city not only plan for clean sources of energy (which they already have in spades) but also plan for electrification - enabling vehicles, buildings, and industrial processes to move to those clean sources of energy. As a futurist, Ahlmahz is passionate about designing for agility and adaptability and counting on the fact that we'll have new knowledge available in the future and should expect our solutions to evolve along with that knowledge.   Ahlmahz is also a self-proclaimed "heart and mind" person and encourages us all to leverage the power of compassion to motivate us to create impact and build a better world. Note: We discuss Episode 1.10 with Janette Freeman on the need to make personal change to find more impactful work. Quotables"We don't have any shortage of technology or economists, but what we could use a whole lot of are people committed to humanity, who want to see a future for everybody and not just themselves.”“Can costs become a constraint and not just the objective all the time?""There is no greater compassion than worrying about the people that are going to be here that you'll never meet.""We're sitting on this stockpile of clean energy. The best way we can move the city forward in its climate action plans is to electrify."“It's critical that we get a lot more input from the folks that are actually being impacted by the decisions that the utility makes.”All above quotes by Ahlmahz Negash This week's guestAhlmahz Negash is currently a Senior Power Analyst at Tacoma Power in the Long-Term Resource Planning and Analysis group. Her role encompasses a wide range of activities including, leading cross functional teams, resource modeling, evaluating policy impacts, and developing innovative demand-side solutions. Prior to joining Tacoma Power, Ahlmahz was a research fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. She received her BS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2010 and 2015, respectively.If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tik Tok. Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!

The three main components to ensure primacy and military superiority: capability, capacity, and readiness. Without capability, there is no capacity. Without capacity, there is no readiness.

In the sport's world, some teams have all the talent they need to win championships, but, oftentimes they can't seem to put it all together to be the last team standing at the end of the season. On the other hand, there have been moments when the most unlikely teams come together to shock the world. But when you look back, their success is not so surprising. It's simply that their culture, their togetherness, was underrated. Championship teams don't just appear; instead they are built. Company cultures are a lot like teams. Winning is the work, and work must get done. This is especially true when complex software products have to be created that solve problems for customers. Himanshu Palsule, the President and Chief Product and Technology Officer at Epicor, explains how the team works together at Epicor.“We operate pretty flat, including our CEO, Steve Murphy, who's a process engineer himself. We  all roll up our sleeves and talk to the person that has the answer versus sort of go down a hierarchy of people. If you want to succeed at Epicor, you need to be comfortable with that.”Part of building a great team is when leaders are members of the team too and not above it, and everyone works together. Another aspect of being on a successful team is being able to define what the team does well, stick to that core identity, and then having respect for other teams for what they do best. Every game is a series of problems and then solutions. Solve enough problems and the game is won. Great teams create cultures that identify each problem correctly and then work together to solve them.On this episode of IT Visionaries, Himanshu discusses how the Epicor team works together to provide enterprise resource planning software. To do their job effectively, he describes a culture of teamwork that extends to even incorporating the fans, the customers, into the team too. Enjoy the episode!Main TakeawaysBeing a Vendor/Coach: Sales go ary when salespeople either push a client too hard to take on more than they need or allow a client to overcommit to more than they require. Rather than thinking from only a sales perspective, it is helpful for a vendor to think of themselves as the client's coach. With this mindset, they seek to help educate and support the customer so that their business can succeed. This mentality allows long-standing relationships based upon respect to develop.Core Identity Versus Respecting Other Players: As a large player in an industry, it's important to identify core company work and stick to that. If there are other players with a specific technology to solve a particular problem, it's good to respect their product and allow them to do what they do best too. A large player in the industry doesn't have to do everything; they just need to do their thing.Creating a Problem-Solving Culture: A constructive culture is essential to solve project problems and get work done. Creating an environment where hierarchy is not rigid and communication is fluid is one key. Another key is providing some guardrails to brainstorming sessions in a group of can-do people. Parameters can drive creativity.Fielding a Good Team: Team building involves creating places for people to learn. Partnerships with academic institutions certainly can help. It's also important to look for potential employees who have a specific skillet that can be adaptable even if they haven't done the exact type of work before. These sorts of workers can be trained to be very productive members of the team.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform 

With a goal of going 100% renewable by 2035, Los Angeles will need to amp up its transmission resources and nearly double its renewable energy production.In this episode of Grid Talk, we talk with Jason Rondou who is the Director of Resource Planning, Development and Programs, at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).“2030 is right around the corner and we have the opportunity and the plans to get to 80% renewable by 2030 which will put us at 97% carbon-free and so we've got the framework of how to achieve that,” said Rondou.“If you look at all the storage, all of the solar, all of the wind, all the geothermal that we have to-day, we're going to have to double it.”The podcast also hits on the importance of long-term storage to ensure the reliability of and all renewable system and how hydrogen may be the answer.“When you have consecutive high heat days and you have the threat of something like a wildfire or earthquake, we need to ensure that we have the ability to provide power for multiple days should we have an outage for multiple days, and hydrogen does provide that opportunity for us.”Jason Rondou oversees LADWP's LA100 Study, which aims to identify the major investments required to reliably and cost-effectively transition LADWP to 100% renewable energy. Mr. Rondou was formerly responsible for LADWP's entry into the California Independent System Operator's Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) as well as its demand response, local solar development, and community solar programs. He previously worked at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation on light rail development and bus rapid transit.Mr. Rondou graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and has a Master of Public Administration from USC and an MBA from UCLA. 

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! .fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;margin-top : 0px;margin-bottom : 20px;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 0px !important;padding-right : 0px !important;margin-right : 1.92%;padding-bottom : 0px !important;padding-left : 0px !important;margin-left : 1.92%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}.fusion-body .fusion-flex-container.fusion-builder-row-1{ padding-top : 0px;margin-top : 0px;padding-right : 0px;padding-bottom : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;padding-left : 0px;} PMI Talent Triangle: Strategic and Business Management .fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:100% !important;margin-top : 0px;margin-bottom : 20px;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 0px !important;padding-right : 0px !important;margin-right : 1.92%;padding-bottom : 0px !important;padding-left : 0px !important;margin-left : 1.92%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}.fusion-body .fusion-flex-container.fusion-builder-row-2{ padding-top : 0px;margin-top : 0px;padding-right : 0px;padding-bottom : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;padding-left : 0px;}Hey there, IMPACT Driver! The feedback from our community has been that resource management is one of the greatest challenges PMO leaders face when delivering projects across the portfolio.What if you could finally demystify resource planning using a simple four part process? In this episode, we're going to talk with Jerry Manas about the role of the PMO in resource planning and introduce a simple framework that will ease this process of resource planning and project delivery for your projects, across the entire portfolio and simplify things for you, the PMO leader, as well.Make sure to listen in to learn how the way a PMO can build a sustainable and easy to implement resource planning process for any organization.   UMT360 Positioned in the 2021 Gartner MagicQuadrant for Strategic Portfolio Management. Latest report is a must-read for any organization interested in understanding the strategic portfolio management capabilities needed to more effectively accelerate business transformation.     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I'd love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     .fusion-button.button-1 {border-radius:2px;}GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES  .fusion-button.button-2 {border-radius:2px;}TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN  .fusion-button.button-3 {border-radius:2px;}PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS       .fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-2{width:100% !important;margin-top : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;}.fusion-builder-column-2 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 0px !important;padding-right : 0px !important;margin-right : 1.92%;padding-bottom : 0px !important;padding-left : 0px !important;margin-left : 1.92%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-2{width:100% !important;}.fusion-builder-column-2 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.

The way California provides funding for students with disabilities has not changed in decades and is the largest remaining categorical program in the state.  WestEd has been researching alternatives that could provide more efficiency in how existing resources are distributed to school districts along with better accountability to enhance services and improve outcomes for students.  The WestEd study on special education finance has been released.  We talk to one of the study authors on their findings and recommendations to rethink the state's funding model and align it with other current accountability systems.Guest: Jason Willis, Director, Resource Planning, WestEd

Failure in resource planning is a controversial topic. Resource planning takes place by taking measurable and quantifiable facts—such as the time it takes one person to complete a task—and dividing th

Failure in resource planning is a controversial topic. Resource planning takes place by taking measurable and quantifiable facts—such as the time it takes one person to complete a task—and dividing them into the required output to determine the resources needed. It is relatively straightforward and can be calculated. Resource planning is a common [...] The post Composed Failures in Resource Planning appeared first on Sopheon.

Failure in resource planning is a controversial topic. Resource planning takes place by taking measurable and quantifiable facts—such as the time it takes one person to complete a task—and dividing them into the required output to determine the resources needed. It is relatively straightforward and can be calculated. Resource planning is a common practice; however, it hardly needs to be utilized for innovation. In today's episode, I share my thoughts and observations on composed failures in resource planning. I discuss how the lack of fixed variables in innovation and the changing nature of technology, market segments, and people working prevent the creation of an accurate, referable history. I discuss whether companies should estimate future resource needs when they are often based on rough estimations. I also highlight the issues with planning on a personal level in innovation and product creation roles. “We are guessing a lot when we are thinking about resources in innovation types of work.” - Paul Heller This week on Innovation Talks: How resource planning for innovation differs from resource planning for regular work How the lack of precision and unknown variables in innovative roles hinders accurate planning and scheduling Why you shouldn't focus on planning on a personal level Why you should only create future statements of resource needs for critical resources and skills How managing resources en masse can be the solution for innovation-led projects Why attempting to be too precise will ultimately lead to failure This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you. For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon's newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://lathateacher.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/human-resource-planning-in-the-digital-economy-part-1/

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://lathateacher.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/human-resource-planning-in-the-digital-economy-part-2/

In the fourth  episode of "The Fleet Success Show," fleet Hall of Famer Steve Saltzgiver, former trucking executive Jeff Jenkins and RTA CEO Josh Turley discuss one of the four pillars of fleet success - Resource Efficiency. The group defines what this mean and why it's crucial for fleet operations to be smart with how they are using their time and money. Have feedback on the show? We'd love to hear it! Send us your comments, questions, and feedback anywhere on social media @FleetSuccess.Don't forget to share the show with your colleagues and friends, and of course, subscribe to The Fleet Success Show anywhere you listen to podcasts!

It's Zach Smith's job to prepare the New York energy grid for the future. Our Vice President of System and Resource Planning manages the team that looks at all potential reliability issues the grid could face, from a week to 10 years in the future. The team also looks at all proposed energy resources that seek to enter the grid via our Interconnection Queue process, and the impact these resources could have on reliability. In the past several years, we've made changes to the process of approving new resources, speeding up the approval process to reduce the cost to developers.  “We've had this comprehensive planning process for many years now,” he said, in an interview with Kevin Lanahan, Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Communications. “Now, with the changes to the grid, it's so much more vitally important. We're encountering all kinds of new challenges.”New York State's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) sets the nation's most ambitious clean energy targets. Under the CLCPA, the grid must get 70% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, as well as be emission-free by 2040. “Some of the challenges are based around what happens when the weather doesn't cooperate,” Smith said.“What if the wind ceases to blow, what if clouds come in and you get less sunshine?” Smith asked. “You are still going to have significant electric demand. You need resources standing, willing and ready to produce, sometimes at a moment's notice.”In addition, the changing climate presents its own grid concerns. We recently published our Climate Change and Impact Study, which offers suggestions on where to strengthen the grid in order to keep it resilient in the face of risks to reliability like cold snaps, heat waves and ice storms. We're evaluating all of the potential conditions and the corresponding economics . The way that we do that is through the interconnection process. Meanwhile, we continue to see a tremendous number of new clean energy resources that developers are seeking to install in the coming years. Planning for these new resources, a process called the Interconnection Queue, is also a vital part of Smith's duties.   “We're evaluating all of that to make sure that the reliability and resiliency of the grid is maintained,” he said. “The New York ISO plays an important role in enabling these new resources and making sure they can interconnect reliably.”Learn more, read our blog: The Road to 2040: Our Interconnection Queue Shows Unprecedented Growth of Clean Energy Investment in NY

Steve Cannon, Head of Global Fleet Management, Swissport John Edmunds, Head of Fleet Management EU, Swissport Paul Holmes – Managing Director - Smart Asset Management The GSE&RAMP-OPS Podcast series will offer listeners the opportunity to learn from industry-leading experts from around the world, focusing on equipment and operations, current industry challenges and topics that are of interest to operators around the world which are as relevant now as they were pre-pandemic and will be in the future. DOWNLOAD: To get all the latest episodes, download the Apple podcast, Spotify or your favourite podcast application and search for The EVA podcast or Chris Notter.

Peter Kelly-Detwiler sits down with Teresa Kanter, from Duke Energy Renewables (DER), and Erika Bierschbach, from Austin Energy (AE), to discuss the City of Austin's leadership in renewable energy procurement and their partnership with Duke Energy.  You'll hear how Duke Energy Renewables and Austin Energy are moving forward and pushing limits in Austin. Listen to this episode of Smart Energy Voices to hear specific insights from both buyer and supplier perspectives. You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... Teresa, and what she does at Duke Energy Renewables [2:31] Erika, and what she does at Austin Energy [4:17] How Austin Energy works with Duke Energy Renewables to be 100% carbon-free [5:52] What part of their portfolio Austin Energy is focused on and why [7:24] How Duke works with prospects to stay on top of what they are looking for [9:02] Advice from an industry leader on moving towards 100% carbon-free goals [11:26] Top risks to be aware of when engaging in a sizable commitment [12:32] How to manage geographic risk [14:08] What should we be thinking about for tomorrow? [16:20] Staying ahead in a competitive market There are a lot of suppliers and developers out there so the energy marketplace is a pretty competitive space. Working with prospects and customers to stay on top of what they're looking for will ensure that you're bringing them something not just today but tomorrow as well. You want them to come back to you and at least engage with you in the future. How do you stay ahead of that moving dynamic? The answer is different for everyone. Duke prides itself on not just putting metal and equipment in the ground and then running off. They hire local people in the area. They stay in the community and stay involved. Customers like Austin Energy always seem to be ahead of the game. They hold themselves to a higher level because they push themselves and their City Council. They commission a lot of studies and want to be on the cutting edge of the next technology, making certain that they're looking under every rock for the best opportunity in affordability, reliability, and reaching the goals of a greener future. Important aspects of the PPA Depending on how a contract is structured, the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) needs to be focused on closely. Congestion and basis risk are huge depending on where you are going to pick up the power, where it's being delivered by the developer, and where that transfer of ownership occurs.  Additionally, pay attention to the market rules that will affect the value of the portfolio and how ERCOT market rules develop over time. It's a very engaged and involved stakeholder process. Some of the smaller cities and municipalities are part of a larger aggregated group, they all vote together. So knowing who your partners are on all sides of the agreement is crucial. It helps to understand what they're doing to transfer some risk, to quantify that risk, and then to manage the risk so that you do not have to pay a heavy price. Just understanding those different aspects of the PPA is very important. Making waves and moving forward The takeaway seems clear. In a complex and evolving market, companies like Austin Energy that do their homework, ask the right questions, and pull the right levers are helping to create a wave that moves the whole market forward. Solar is today what wind was about five or ten years ago and will grow faster than wind did. It's a part of your portfolio that shouldn't be ignored. Resources & People Mentioned Austin Energy Duke Energy Renewables Connect with our guests Teresa Kanter on Linkedin  Erika Bierschbach on Linkedin Teresa Kanter, Business Development Manager, Duke Energy Renewables  A long-term energy professional, Teresa Kanter today heads up municipal, co-operative, and investor-owned utility relationship management for Duke Energy Renewables (DER) commercial business development organization, a non-regulated subsidiary of one of the US' largest energy holding companies, Duke Energy. Since 2019, Teresa has focused on increasing DER's emphasis on customer relationships and expanding renewable energy adoption. She first joined Duke Energy in 2012 working in Regulated Generation Fuels & Systems Optimization. Responsible for the Carolinas regulated generation natural gas physical and financial portfolio positions, she helped the business grow from 150 Bcf/yr of gas burn in 2012 to more than 450 Bcf/yr in 2019. Prior to joining Duke, Teresa managed the Mid-Continent and West gas portfolios for Wells Fargo Commodities, formerly Wachovia, and Odyssey Energy Services. Teresa was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and received her B.S. in Business Management from Oklahoma State University. She serves on the Board of Governors at Pine Island Country Club. Teresa enjoys traveling, hiking, and baking but you can usually find her on a golf course in search of her next hole-in-one. Erika Bierschbach | Vice President, Energy Market Operations & Resource Planning | Austin Energy Erika Bierschbach is Vice President of Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning at Austin Energy. She is responsible for the utility's physical and financial power portfolio in the ERCOT wholesale electric market, including Austin Energy's Real Time, Day Ahead, and Forward Market desks. Erika oversees the origination of the utility's renewable power purchase agreements and manages market operations for Austin Energy's owned and contracted resources. She is also responsible for resource planning at Austin Energy which includes achieving the climate protection and affordability goals established by the Austin City Council and Austin Energy. Erika has more than 25 years of experience in energy markets, including positions in energy risk management at Enron Capital and Trade and Duke Energy Trading and Marketing. She joined Austin Energy in 2001 to develop, implement and later manage the utility's energy hedging program. Erika's prior positions at Austin Energy include Manager of Energy Supply and Risk Management as well as both Manager and Director of Energy Market Operations. Erika has established more than 2,250 Megawatts of renewable energy contracts during her tenure at Austin Energy. Connect With Smart Energy Decisions https://smartenergydecisions.com Follow them on Facebook Follow them on Twitter Follow them on LinkedIn Subscribe to Smart Energy Voices If you're interested in participating in the next edition of the SED Renewable Energy Sourcing Forum taking place on December 7-11, visit our website or email our Event Operations Director, Lisa Carroll at lisa@smartenergydecisions.com Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Demand forecasting and its tie to resource planning.

Jeffrey G. Yockey, PE; Director of Resource Planning Down to Earth: Tucson, Episode 26, In this episode, Jeff Yockey, Director of Resource Planning with Tucson Electric Power (TEP) reveals the plan to build TEP’s cleaner energy portfolio, that will reduce carbon emissions 80 percent and require 70% less groundwater, by 2035

John Casey, an experienced Resource Planning expert, gives a presentation sharing tips on workforce planning in the contact centre, in this new format of The Contact Centre Podcast. In his presentation, John discusses the importance of understanding your shrinkage, building on your contact centre forecasts and experimenting with new planning ideas. This podcast was made possible by our sponsor, Genesys. We now have a new link to visit their website, instead of the link mentioned in the podcast to request a demo. So, to find out more about Genesys, simply visit: www.genesys.com If you would like to read the workforce planning article discussed in this podcast, follow the link: Workforce Planning: 20 Fundamental Rules To watch the full recording of the webinar that this podcast has been sourced from, click here.

Integrated Resource Planning WorkshopMonday, February 3, 202012:30 PM - 4:00 PMCPUC Auditorium505 Van Ness Ave.San Francisco, CA 94102

Doug Casterton, a Senior WFM Manager, shares some key pieces of advice, which he has learned through great experience, in how to increase resource planning efficiency and employee engagement. In our conversation, we also talk about boosting forecast accuracy, designing shift patterns and the personal qualities that make-up a really great contact centre planner. This podcast was made possible by our sponsor NICE. To take a look at their great WFM technology, follow the link: https://www.nice.com/engage/workforce-optimization/workforce-management/

The City of Austin releases its “Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan” for providing affordable, clean energy over the next 15 years. The plan calls for 86% of Austin Energy’s electricity generation to be carbon-free by year-end 2025, 93% will be carbon-free by year-end 2030, and all generation resources will be carbon-free by 2035. Austin Energy commits to advance these goals more rapidly, if feasible given technological developments, affordability, and risks to Austin Energy customers. We discuss the aggressive and leading edge utility Plan with our guests: Erika Bierschbach, Vice President, Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning at Austin Energy. Matt Weldon, Austin Electric Utility Commissioner, and Board of Solar Austin. Al Braden, Member of the Resource Planning Working Group, environmental activist and photographer. Edit

The MRP is a planning system that allows you to manage the production resources of an organization. Here is an overview of Material Requirements Planning (MRP I) and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) differences.   Listen more from this episode or read it from here.

Today’s show starts with a familiar immigrant kid story but very early on pivots to the quest for being happy. Masha talks about how she had to walk through the perfect storm of multiple crises of career, illness and the end of her relationship to drive her to change her life and walk away from the addiction of thriving on chaos that most of us have today.  We talk about how she has never been afraid to pivot and drew upon her inherent resourcefulness to become successful in business several times over, but most importantly we talk about how she drew upon those skills and planning for the unknown to help her not only overcome a cancer diagnosis but also led her to become an innovative leader in the cannabis industry. Masha shares with us great resources on the cannabis industry, how she is working tirelessly to remove the stigma around it, and even has provided special links for free information on products and discount codes but has also selflessly offered to help anyone who wants resume help or coaching to enter the cannabis industry. This episode is a bit longer than usual but worth every minute! ADDITIONAL  RESOURCES:Dr Joe Dispenza: https://drjoedispenza.com/Extract Collective: https://www.extractcollective.co/ Full spectrum HEMP PRODUCTS https://globaladvancedbotanicals.com/  | 10% off discount ExtractCollective Hemp and CBD Analytical Testing https://acslabcannabis.com/blog/   EMAIL: mbelinson@acslabcannabis.com For tutorials on how to read a COA, coaching on launching a new HEMP/CBD product  PAY IT FORWARD:  Masha has offered to provide  resume reviews and career coaching for those interested in getting into the Cannabis industry. Please reach out at: masha@extractcollective.co Guest Bio:Masha Belinson’s roots were planted in the soil of technology and grew through a passion for building businesses in ever-changing markets. For the last 15+ years Ms. Belinson has resolved major challenges for Fortune 500 companies in the areas of Omnichannel Marketing, eCommerce, Application Development, Compliance, Talent Acquisition, Resource Planning and Brand Activations. In the last 12 months, Masha built one of Florida’s most successful cannabis educational organizations with the support from the state’s licensed cannabis brands: Trulieve, Surterra, Curaleaf, Medmen, Alt/Med(Muv), Grow Healthy and VidaCann/Tikun Olam. Extract Collective’s mission is to speak the truth; unite like-minded business leaders, medical professionals, and curious citizens to break through the stigma and promote conscious market growth.  Today Ms. Belinson spends a majority of her time working in-house with ACS Laboratory; corporate development, strategic partnerships, content strategy and education.  As a cancer survivor and medical cannabis patient, Masha is driven to master complex regulations and change the narrative about cannabis through curated content, proper patient navigation and brand experiences.  Charity Highlight:Lotus House Shelter – where hope blossoms Our mission is to improve the lives of homeless women, youth and children by providing sanctuary, support, education, tools and resources that empower them to improve the quality of their lives on every level, achieve greater self sufficiency, and build safe, secure lives. In their dreams come true, we enrich our community with the fruit of their potential realized.To support our mission, we also advocate on behalf of homeless women, youth and children to raise awareness of their special needs; inspire innovative, holistic solutions that truly break the cycle of childhood abuse, domestic violence and homelessness; and advance research and enlightened social policies for greater understanding, social inclusion and resources for homeless women and children. Our vision is that every homeless woman, youth and child will have the opportunity to heal, learn and grow, build the foundation for a brighter future, and blossom into who they are truly meant to be.

Before we discuss the relevance of Manufacturing Resource Planning, also known as MRP II, it is only proper to provide a clear and concise definition of this system.   Want to know more? Listen this episode or read it from here.  

The level of decarbonization required by statutes to combat climate change in New York State, "will result in a grid and power system that are unrecognizable from the one we run today."So says Zach Smith, Vice President of System and Resource Planning at the NYISO. In Episode 4 of the Power Trends Podcast, Smith takes us through the process required to vet new power generation projects in a given ‘class year.'“It's not as simple as addressing each project on its own,” explains Smith. “If you have an area where there are multiple wind farms, solar facilities and batteries all being located in the same vicinity, they're going to have a compounding effect.” The class year allows these development projects to be understood collectively and, as dictated by the FERC tariff under which we operate, how to conduct the process such that it finds the ‘least cost' configuration of upgrades to maintain system reliability.With the 2019 class year of over 100 projects, a three-fold increase over the prior class year, most of them for wind, solar, and battery projects, Smith walks us through:The technical and reliability issues involved in reviewing power generation projectsWays the NYISO is looking to improve and optimize the review processThe eventual impacts the public policy and the new technologies will have on supply and demand for energy

With 10+ yrs in managing Resource planning teams Faye has great skills and experience leading teams in a multi-channel, multi-lingual and multiple location environment. Faye leads a team of 9 Real time analysts responsible for 2000 FTE for SSE. We talk about resource planning challenges, best practice, answer listeners questions & talk about Faye’s own career.

A large part of the City of Austin’s Net-Zero greenhouse gas emissions goals will be met by its municipally owned electric utility called Austin Energy. As a forward thinking utility, Austin Energy periodically updates its strategies to reach Net-Zero in the “Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan”. The last plan was published in 2017, and a new updated version will be out before the end of 2019. We discussed the goals, and plans with Austin Energy folks and community activists. Our guests were: Erika Bierschbach, Vice President, Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning, at Austin Energy. Al Braden, Resource Planning Working Group, appointed by the Electric Utility Commission of Austin. Phoebe Romero, Program Coordinator, Office of Sustainability, City of Austin.

Guest: Niji Sabharwal - Co-Founder & CEO @AgentSync (Co-Founder & CEO @AgentSync; Formerly @Zenefits, @LinkedIn) Guest Background: Niji was the Global Sales Strategy & Operations Manager at LinkedIn (IPO in 2011, $27B Acquisition by Microsoft in 2016), where he led global, best-in-class sales ops teams focused on driving sales pipeline for all of LinkedIn's B2B businesses. Niji then worked with Zenefits ($4.5B Valuation, $584M Raised) as the Head of Sales Strategy & Sales Operations, where he built the Sales Ops & Strategy function consisting of the CRM, metrics & insights, sales compensation, sales productivity, territory design and deployment, and deal desk teams; enabling growth from 20 to 500+ sales employees.  Niji is now the Founder & CEO of AgentSync, an application built on Salesforce.com that automatically enforces state producer licensing & appointment regulatory requirements through an integration to the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) - Minimize your compliance costs and prevent regulatory violations before they occur by letting technology do the heavy lifting. Guest Links: Website | LinkedIn Episode Summary: In this episode, we cover: - The Playbook: Build Your Sales Strategy & Operations Function - Sales Systems & Tools Function - 1st Hiring Profile, Landmines - Sales Capacity & Resource Planning & Analysis Frameworks - Sales Metrics and Reporting - Leading & Lagging Indicators - Tips for Managing Sales Strategy & Operations Stakeholders - Maximizing Your Inbound Lead & Sales Engine Full Interview Transcript: Naber:  Hello friends around the world. My name is Brandon Naber. Welcome to The Naberhood, where we have switched on, fun discussions with some of the most brilliant, successful, experienced, talented and highly skilled Sales and Marketing minds on the planet, from the world's fastest growing companies. Enjoy! Naber:  Hey everybody. Today we have Niji Sabharwal on the show. Niji the Global Sales Strategy and Operations Manager at LinkedIn (LinkedIn IPO'd in 2011, and then were acquired by Microsoft for $27 billion in 2016), there Niji led global best in class Sales Ops teams focused on driving Sales pipeline for all of LinkedIn's B2B businesses. Niji then worked with Zenefits (who have a $4.5 billion valuation on $584 million capital raised). He was there as the Head of Sales Strategy and Operations where he built the Sales Ops and Strategy function, consistency of the CRM, metrics and insights, Sales Compensation, Sales Productivity, territory design, deployment and deal desk teams. They enabled growth from 20 to 500+ Sales reps while Niji was at Zenefits. Niji is now the founder and CEO of AgentSync, an application built on Salesforce.com that automatically enforces state producer licensing and appointment regulatory requirements through an integration to the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR). It helps minimize your compliance costs and prevent regulatory violations before they occur by letting technology do the heavy lifting. Here we go. Naber:  Njii! Amazing to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, thanks for having me. Naber:  Yeah, no worries. We've known each other for a long time, almost nine years now, I think we've known each other. Niji Sabharwal:  A little too long. Naber:  Haha, that's right too long. That's right. We should, we should cut this off. We should actually, before it goes downhill too fast, we should probably cut it off. We really can only go down. So I'm pumped to have you on for so many reasons. We are close enough where I know you personally and professionally, and we've gotten to know each other on many different levels. One of the things I want to do is have people get to know you, a little bit more personally because I want their fascination to grow in you, as my admiration, and fascination, and inspiration from you has grown. So we'll talk a little bit what it was growing up as Niji, what you were like as a kid, all the way through to decisions you made around where you went to school, and some of the things you did, and interests, and some of the first jobs you had. And then we'll jump into the meat of it, which is talking about your roles at some of the amazing fast growing hypergrowth Unicorn businesses that you've been at. Because you've been at some of the fast growing in the world in some pretty senior, significant roles. So, why don't we start with first, Niji as a kiddo. So, I know you grew up in San Francisco, grew up in Palo Alto and your Mom and Dad are amazing. And you had so many different varied interests as a kid. You went to a bilingual school, high school in Palo Alto, you got went to uni at UCSB. Let's walk through some of that stuff. Give us maybe three, five minutes and it's going to be longer, because I'll ask questions, but what was it growing up as a kid in Niji's life? What was Niji life as as a kiddo? Niji Sabharwal:  Yikes. Naber:  Ha, that's a good start. Niji Sabharwal:  First off, my dad's from India, my mom's from France. I was conceived in Maryland, actually that's where they met. And they were both on foreign exchange programs, in Frostburg, Maryland. Quickly after news of conception was heard, they moved to San Francisco for better opportunities. My Dad actually went to Golden Gate State, basically a community college. I was born in San Francisco, basically first generation. And so I was raised speaking English and French, and I started school at Ecole Bilingue, which is a French-American bilingual school in Berkeley, California. Naber:  So tell us a little bit about that. You were learning in French, correct? Or were you learning in English? Niji Sabharwal:  Both, which is kind of crazy to think about now, until probably, when I actually went to high school, I can't remember if I if I thought in French or English. But even to this day, sometimes I'll think of a French word, but...I'll think of a word in French first, and the English word won't exist, for it. Naber:  Haha, that happens in French a lot actually. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, totally. Yeah. The languages come from the same place, but there's a lot of French expressions that you just can't do in English. Naber:  Right, right. So, you and your brother both went to the school, correct? Speaker 5:        Yeah. So five years, five years younger. Naber:  Cool. And then what were you interested in as a kid? What were Niji's interests? What were your hobbies? What were you doing? Niji Sabharwal:  I was really into Green Day, Green Day was my favorite band. Got into rock, and then punk rock in the early days. Naber:  Best best green day album? Dookie? Niji Sabharwal:  Dookie, for sure. Hands down. Naber:  Just making sure. Just making sure. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, and I was always into building things. Legos, and...and Sim City 2000. I don't know if you've ever played that chorus. Naber:  Of course, of course. It's a throwback. Niji Sabharwal:  There you go. Lemmings is my number one favorite game in the entire planet. Naber:  Awesome. So you're into building things, that makes a ton of sense for what you're doing professionally right now, and how your mind works. Tell us about going into high school, and how you were in high school, and some of the things that you're interested in as well. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So going into high school, I had little bit of a tough time. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when I was 13. So I was hospitalized, basically for a summer. It was an autoimmune disease that affected my nervous system. So I lost a ton of weight, had trouble with motor functions for awhile. So it took me a couple of years to get back into it as the beginning of high school. I've been fortunate, but luckily I got through it pretty much unscathed. I have trouble with balance still today. If I closed my eyes in the shower, I don't know which way is up. Yeah. Which it can be challenging sometimes, I still ride a motorcycle today, which, I'm just gonna make sure never to close my eyes. Naber:  And you've always been in a motorcycling, sorry, motorcycle riding. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, there's nothing like being on a motorcycle with wind at your face. It's almost meditative in a lot of ways. When you're on top of a motorcycle, there's nothing else you're thinking other than the moment that you're in, every second. There's something really, really special about that. I've tried to meditate in a lot of ways, and never been been able to fully do it, completely unconnect. Except for on a motorcycle. On a motorcycle, you're not thinking about anything else. It's kind impossible actually, it's actually very dangerous. Naber:  Right, right. I mean, and Niji likes to go fast, on on a bike. Tell us a little about how motorcycle riding has played a role in high school, and as you were growing up. Because you were really good at it, and you did it with a lot of people, it was a big part of your life. Tell us a little bit more. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So, it's a very dangerous sport, first of all. So we would, basically ride in pretty big packs, full leathers. We would go up and down the coast, and all the way out to almost to Nevada and back, through these mountain roads. And yeah, a few guys from the group, broke tons of bones. Luckily we didn't have anyone die on the team, but, had a couple of guys actually helicoptered out of the canyons from crashing. And so it was a pretty intense sport, and intense group to ride with. But, looking back on it now, now that I'm middle-aged and have have a lot more to lose, I would never go back to those days. But in the moment, there was was something just so excited taking life to the edge as much as you can. Putting myself back into my 20 year-old body, there was nothing more exciting. There's nothing cooler that you can do. I'm glad I made it through that period, and didn't die, of course. Naber:  Jenn's glad too, Jenn's glad too. Again, I've known you for a long time, I know you really well, but I always think that those stories are fascinating. And it's such an interesting hobby that so many people don't have, and not a lot of people know that much about. And again, I just think your story is fascinating. So you're in high school. You went to Palo Alto High School, and you're going to go to UCSB. Why UCSB? And tell us a little bit about you there. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So, when I was in high school, I was in California, it was a very competitive time. I graduated in to 2003. It was a very competitive time to be entering the college candidate pool. And I applied to most of the UC's which, in California, they're public schools. They're still ungodly expensive, but, I knew I wanted to do that versus going into private school. It's a difference between $9-10,000 and $40,000 a year. So I was really vying for a state school. Either UC or a state state sponsored school. And there was insane amount of competition, and I didn't have the best grades. I probably didn't apply myself more, as much as I should have in high school, and a graduate with a 3.3 GPA. And my SAT's were pretty average, 1330. But I had a really, what I thought was an amazing essay. And the essay that I wrote was about my second chance at life, going through the autoimmune disease I had. Facing death at a very young age, especially entering high school, and having to really face that head on, and getting through it, and having full capacity coming through it. It really a second chance. And English professor, English is probably my worst subject. I'm terrible at writing, I barely know the English language, and I actually scored way higher. on my French SAT's than I did on my English SAT's, which is pretty funny. Naber:  Wow. Niji Sabharwal:  So my English professor in high school was a UC Santa Barbara Alumni. And he spend some time with me crafting the essay, and giving me notes, and helping me make it, you know, a pretty compelling story. So I think that's what ultimately actually got me over the edge. Because, UC Santa Barbara had a 1% acceptance rate, something crazy that. So luckily, 3.3 GPA, it was decent, but at the time there was they could have easily only accepted 4.0 and still had twice as many applicants as they had spots. And I was pretty fortunate there, it was an amazing school to get into, especially because my focus has been economics and business, and UC Santa Barbara had an economics professor that actually got the Nobel Prize for economics, in Finland. Naber:  Wow, cool. And that's an awesome segue, and it's a really good story for how you got in, and the essay around your second chance at life, and your mindset at such a young age. It's incredible. So let's talk about you at UCSB a little bit. What kind of student were you? And what'd you study? And then we can get into some professional stuff. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So pretty terrible student. Yeah, I hated going to lectures. I hated the whole system of having...because UCSB was on a quarterly system. It was kind of this terrible cycle of just studying your nuts off, the day before midterm or final. And if you can master that you can get through college, no problem. Which is kind of a terrible way to do it because...it's really terrible. I kind of gamed the system in a way, and figured out that, okay, if I just really apply myself the week before midterms, the week before finals, I can get through the whole thing. So to be brutally honest, I kind of squandered my education, and didn't take out of it what I probably should have, had I known what I know now. And we'll spend...I would l ove to go back to college right now. If someone could, like, float my life to learn for four years, there couldn't be anything better for me. Naber:  That's cool, it's an interesting thought process Niji Sabharwal:  Of course. But at the time, the only thing I was concerned about what's next, and partying, and socializing, and all that good stuff. So I spent probably a little too much time partying. We bought a bunch of jet skis and we would, we would basically launch jet skits directly from the beach in Santa Barbara, and just launch them off waves. Tons of fun. But honestly, yeah, I definitely squandered my education there. I didn't spend enough time studying, and spend too much time partying, but got through it nonetheless. Naber:  Nice. Got through it. It sounds the thrill seeker in you still has an unquenchable thirst at that point. And so you graduate from UCSB. What's your first role out of school? Do you go into HP at that point? Niji Sabharwal:  So out of school...I did an internship at HP. It was an emerging markets business unit that they've formed, selling a PC to small villages in South Africa, and Brazil, and some parts of Russia - where it was a shared PC unit to provide internet connection, and the ability to communicate and create an e-commerce marketplace for small businesses within those communities. I did that internship for about two years. So basically two summers It was actually really rewarding, a really rewarding project. HP ultimately ended up sunsetting that business unit, but it was a great launch into tech. And you're coming from...in college, Facebook was just starting to get traction at that point. So at this point people weren't quite...the internet was just becoming a real powerhouse as far as connecting people and creating a a marketplace online. Naber:  That sounds like a really rewarding project. I mean, the goal and the mission of the project must've been really rewarding, especially as you're going through school and had your first types of professional experiences. This must have been really rewarding. Alright, so you go through those projects, and then you end up at LinkedIn. Tell us how you got to LinkedIn, and then walk us through what you're up to at LinkedIn. And I'll stop, and ask a bunch of questions on some of the things that I know you're both good at, as well as some of those experiences you had. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So after I graduated, I graduated in 2009. The worst year that you could possibly graduate with an economics degree, as this was right after the economic crash. I couldn't get a job at Pete's coffee. I applied to two Pete's coffee's with a degree in business economics from UC, and couldn't get a job to save my life. But went on an ggressive job hunt for months after I graduated, and ended up landing a job as, basically, a front desk cashier at rubber stamp company in Berkeley. Yeah, Berkeley Stamping & Engraving. They did rubber stamps and trophy engraving. Naber:  Trophy engraving and rubber stamps. So what were you doing for them? Niji Sabharwal:  So at first I was manning the front desk, taking orders, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and then the owners of the business trained me up on how to actually make the rubber stamps and operate this this old school engraving tool that they had that was run on an old, very old, DOS system that had different fonts for engraving different surfaces. And that was honestly probably the funnest job I've ever had. A whole workshop of rally cool shit to play with. They still made stamps the old fashioned way with a photo emulsion. So, we'd do typesetting digitally, and then we would take the typesetting and convert it to basically a film negative. And then film negative to imprint onto photo emulsion, so that you actually get the crazy amount of detail versus just doing it fully digital. And Berkeley Stamps & Graving was one of the...if you ever look at a bag of Pete's coffee, they don't use stamps anymore, but 10 years ago, if you looked at a bag of Pete's coffee that had a stamp on it that said, dark roast, the odds of me physically making that stamp are like 99%. Naber:  That's cool. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. It's funny that I couldn't even get a job at Pete's coffee, but, they were keeping that business alive, more or less. They were based out of, Oakland, California, and they really invest in local businesses. So they would only use local businesses for things like stamps that they use for all the locations nationwide. And that was the account actually kept Berkeley Stamp & Engraving open for so as long as they were. Naber:  Would it be fair to say you couldn't get a job at Pete's coffee, but you really put a stamp on their business? Niji Sabharwal:  Oh Man. Naber:  I know, I know, I nailed it. Niji Sabharwal:  Typical Brandon. Naber:  Haha, typical. So let's move to LinkedIn. So you hopped to LinkedIn at that point, how would you make the move, and what were you doing while you were there? And just run us through very quickly the jumps you had while you were there. And then I'll ask you a few questions about them. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So, I was working in Berkeley Stamp & Engraving, I was living Oakland with a crazy ex-girlfriend at the time. I was actually at, my parents throw this epic Halloween party every year - my parents are pretty multicultural, and have a pretty eclectic, group of friends - and I was talking to this guy at the party. It was one of my mom's friends, boyfriends at the time, and he just joined a company called LinkedIn. And he was telling me about what LinkedIn was, and at the time LinkedIn was 200 people or less maybe, a small company based out of Mountain View. And I was honestly pretty drunk at the time, and we had a pretty long conversation that I probably only remember half of. And a couple of weeks later, he reached out to me about a potential job for LinkedIn in their Sales department. Yeah, completely out of the blue, and I was obviously looking for a better job to really launch my career, and given where the economy was at the time and the job opportunities that were available to me, it was a really great lead. So, after months of interviews, finally landed a job as a Sales Development Representative selling LinkedIn's Recruiting Solution. Naber:  Love it. And in your Sales Development days, one of my favorite parts about your story is you're relatively self-taught for your jump into Sales Operations and Strategy, learning some of the tools and systems. Talk a little bit that self learning, and then we'll get into your Sales Strategy and Ops role. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So, started off at LinkedIn and in Sales, and we were...and it as the wild, wild West back then. I was a junior Sales rep. At that point Sales Development was kind of a new idea that was really pioneered by a couple of folks at LinkedIn, Brian Frank being being one of them. And the idea was to have a junior Sales function that would do a lot of the lead generation, and tee-ing up qualified leads for Account Executives to run the Sales cycle through. The idea was to, almost like factory line the Sales process, which seems totally obvious today, but at the time it was pretty revolutionary to have this function tee up Sales leads for Account Executives to close. And I think honestly at that point, the issue was that people didn't want to invest in junior Sales folks knowing that the average return on investment for an Account Executive would...industry standard was about eight to one. Meaning, if your business is run really solidly, you can expect to return $8 on every $1 that that you spend on your Account Executives. So you hired junior a Salesperson, you're not gonna get that return out of them. But, the revolutionary idea that turn in Sales Development was that if you can basically make that Account Executive that much more productive, by offloading all the prospecting and lead generation that is, I wouldn't say administrative, but less strategic than runninga full Sales cycle. you can improve those efficiency ratios. And that's really what landed with me, and making Sales Development what it is today. So, at that point, I was doing Sales and realizing that the processes we had in place were pretty inefficient. At the time I was hired, I was I think the fifth Sales Development rep at LinkedIn, and the Sales processes we had in place were all over the map. It was kind of like, whoever could provide the most leads wins, and that was kind of it. You were given a loose lead list, and we were given the opportunity obviously to sell into LinkedIn's subscribers, their members. So that was the raw tools we had available at the time, but there was no real process to how you go get those leads. So at the time I partnered up with our Salesforce Admin, this woman who probably taught me everything I know about Salesforce. And she howed me the ropes of how we can leverage Sales tools to make myself and the team more efficient. And at the end of the day, I wouldn't consider myself to be a type A personality, and as I don't really enjoy selling, I don't see myself doing that everyday, all day long. So I pitched the idea to my boss at the time, that I thought my skills would be best used in Sales Operations, leveraging Sales systems and Sales tools that we had to make the Sales reps that we have more effective. And that whole process was maybe two days to pitch the idea. And he was like, I totally buy into that, let's do it. And two days later I was now in Sales Operations, or the Sales Ops person. Naber:  And how long were you doing that role at LinkedIn? Niji Sabharwal:  Which role? Naber:  Well, you were in Sales Ops, and then you're leading teams after that. How long were you in Sales Ops at LinkedIn? Naber:  Yeah. So, I was doing Sales Dev for a couple months, then converted myself into the Sales Ops function. Grew that function out. We built the Sales Ops team and the Sales Development team out significantly over the next few years. We were providing structure, strategic planning, building Sales territories, Sales process, prospecting process, prospecting tools, and ended up expanding from just a small office in Mountain View to, nine global offices. And from when I took on the Sales Ops role to that point was probably about two years. And then, once we expanded into Asia, Australia, EMEA - the office in Ireland, I pitched to my boss at the time, a new boss, that I wanted to expand my skills, and take an opportunity in Europe to build out the Sales Operations team there. So I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to move to Ireland to build out Sales Operations function, and my pitch was to bring the North American rigor to to EMEA. Naber:  Nice. Awesome. And how long were you doing that? And then, tell us about the next jump as well. Because you were there for a little bit, and then you moved back to San Francisco after that. So tell us about when you were in Ireland, how long you were there, and then tell us about the move back to San Francisco as well. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So, when I moved to Ireland, that's where I met your pretty face. Built out the Sales Operations team there, and learned a ton about how this type of business was done in Europe. And specifically the challenges of operating with multi-languages, multiculture...you know, learning the hard fact that if you have a thick Spanish accent, and you're trying to sell into the UK, that you're not gonna have a lot of luck. Americans are easy, they'll buy from anybody. But learning how to navigate the European cultural differences, was actually the biggest learning for me at that time. Naber:  Niji, let's pause there for a minute. If someone's going to go into, either running global portions of Sales Operations, or put global portions of Sales, what's some advice you would have around the mindset they need to have expanding into Europe and starting to own some of those markets that you learned, and maybe some piece of advice you would give? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, I mean that is a great question. So every market is completely different. I mean, my experience has taught me that if you know how to sell SaaS in the US, that doesn't mean you know how to SaaS anywhere else. Understanding the markets, the cultural differences, the differences in languages and how things translate, and thinking you can scale something from a US market to other markets just because the idea makes sense is not all that that's involved. You need boots on the ground to really understand what's going on. I mean, think of India as an example. Everyone thinks that because of the population and the amount of money that is potentially made in India...it doesn't translate that easily. There's an insane amount of language, cultural, behavioral differences from market to market. Naber:  Nice one. That's great. All right, keep going. This is good. So, you're in Dublin and then you're working on some of these projects. These are some of the things you learned. You're about to make the move back to SF. What are you doing there? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, so I was considering...I was planning on doing a stint of...It was open-ended, I was planning on doing about a year in Europe, or a year in Ireland specifically. I was thinking about my next plan after I'd built the team out there, and I was looking at a role in London for one of LinkedIn's newer business units. But, kind of a tricky situation, before I moved to Ireland, actually right after I made a decision, I started dating this this woman knowing that I was moving to Ireland, it was an eight month timeframe. Because I had to basically build a transition plan, hire a replacement to lead the North America team. So I had an eight month ramp time before I was gonna move. And so, I met this woman who completely blew me away, and we started dating. And knowing that I was gonna move away, it was a tricky...a tough concept to deal with. We ended up breaking up right before I moved over to Ireland. And knowing that the long distance thing is challenging and best - I was 28 at the time? We figured that it was just not worth trying to keep going. But while I was there we stayed in touched, and I ended up having to make this tough decision where, I was going to potentially move to London for this role with the new business unit with LinkedIn, or I could move back to San Francisco and actually make a go at it with this woman. I ended up moving back to San Francisco and moving in with my now wife. It definitely worked out in the end. So came back to San Francisco with LinkedIn, moved in with the wife. At the time, we dated for three or four years before we actually got married. But, I was back in San Francisco for about six months, and I was presented with an opportunity to work in a new startup in the HR technology space, a start up called Zenefits. Naber:  Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So, let's walk through Zenefits quickly - some of the roles that you had...actually let's pause there for a minute. So while you were at LinkedIn, and while you're at Zenefits, one of the things you were known for is building Sales Operations functions, and having an understanding for all the different pieces involved in that. If someone's going to be building out their Sales Ops and Sales Strategy function, what's a framework that they should be using as they're thinking about the different pieces involved, as well as where to start and the phases that they'll go through in order to build that out? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, that's a good one. So, first and foremost, as you start thinking about Sales Strategy and Operations, the first question you've got to answer is what is what is the financial plan, or what is the go to market plan? So I think where a lot of folks get it wrong, is they have a product market fit that makes sense. They have a market that they know has demand, but the amount of demand is completely up to what the CEO's telling you exists. So, one of the key functions that Sales Strategy and Operations play is the ability to quantify that demand, and really put a plan together where you can really make the rubber meet the road. In taking...at an early stage you're not going to have a ton of metrics that you can really pressure test. But, good Sales Ops folks will take the data that you do have, identify the lead volume that you've been getting across the different channels, and put a strategic plan together, a go-to-market plan that quantifies that demand. And we'll extrapolate by channel what your conversion rates are going to look like, should look like. What are good industry benchmarks for those conversion rates? And then taking your Sales capacity, the AE's and Sales Development reps that you're going to hire, based on the amount of revenue that that they're gonna bring in - which is a function of the amount of leads, times the conversion rate, times your average selling price to get to a month over month extrapolation of what your business can actually do, versus just putting your finger to the wind on yeah, I think we could turn this into a hundred million dollar business overnight. Naber:  Okay. So that's the first step. And what are you doing after that? Niji Sabharwal:  So, I would say the core pillars to a Sales Operations team are going to be...Sales systems and the core Sales tools that the Sales team is going need, a function for that...and these functions can be carried by one or one or more people. I think over time you're gonna start to specialize these functions, but right off the bat you're probably going to have one to three people wearing a lot of hats. So Sales Tools & Sales Systems is going to be a pretty core functionality that you're going to wanna to knock out right up front. Second is going to be the strategic planning and analysis function, where you're going to want to want somebody that can think strategically about where the business is going, a solid partner with the Sales lead to understand what's possible and the demand that's out there. And then reporting and analytics. That's a really core function that you're gonna want to keep in place. So somebody that can set the metrics, based on that go to market plan, set the metrics, and provide the visibility to leadership team, and on an operational basis to the Sales team, so that they have a true north. I can't tell you the amount of businesses that I've seen that can't even tell you how much revenue they're generating every month. That's an enormous problem. And there are so many level setting activities I've seen where, I went through this Zenefits a few times, where we didn't set the right measurement capabilities in our system to be able to accurately represent how much revenue is coming in. Because as Zenefits was mostly funded by insurance commissions, and insurance commissions are...you don't fully realize them until month two or month three after you sold the deal. So when you have a situation where the company's in crazy hyper growth, if you can't fully realize those revenues until month three, you could be in a ton of trouble. So having measurements in place and having that true North is absolutely critical, and putting as much emphasis on that as you can. Naber:  Nice. Love it. And so let's go through each one of those things for a second. So you said systems and tools. If I'm going through systems and tools, and building out a SaaS Sales function, what should I be thinking about for the best practices for one, the person that should be doing that, and two, the types of systems and tools that I should putting in place? And your evolution for how that's gonna evolve over time, what you need to be good at in order to get that right? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So that's not an easy question to answer. I think depending on the business, it, I'll have completely different answers. But as a general rule, experience is key. So trying to try to put somebody that has used Salesforce in the past...If you're an early stage company, generally the CEO or Head of Sales doesn't quite appreciate the importance of systems and tools up front. And they will put in place the person who they think has the most exposure to systems. So, putting somebody in place that has used Salesforce in the past, and they're not quite sure what to, what to do with them in that role, is probably the worst idea you can have. So if you're planning on building a business for scale, you're gonna want to put somebody who has war scars and has seen what good looks like, seen what bad looks like. You're gonna want to put that person in the role. And I've realized that by saying this I wouldn't be sitting where I am today because I wouldn't have gotten that opportunity. But, had I been in a decision making role, I never would have put myself into the role that LinkedIn put me into. Naber:  Okay. That makes sense. And what are some of the things that both LinkedIn and Zenefits are really good at from a systems and tools perspective? And maybe you can give a couple of examples. Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So I mean, LinkedIn was a pretty special case. They were a picture perfect example of what good looks like. Naber:  Yeah, describe that. Naber:  They had a very seasoned leadership team. As far as tech companies go, most tech companies do not start with a seasoned leadership team. If you look at the folks that were in charge of making decisions at the time at at LinkedIn, at the very beginning of it's hyper growth, all those guys knew exactly what the fuck they were doing before. They've done this before. They had a very clear vision. They didn't come up to off with with a cool idea, and then got the people that were closest to them to tell them with that. They were very thoughtful about how they put that leadership team together, and scaled the company, and really came up with that. They were true disruptors. Where, I think a lot of companies, like Zenefits which just grew way too quickly without thinking through all the systems and support that was needed to scale a company at the rate that both LinkedIn and Zenefits scaled at, I think that was probably the biggest difference between those two. Naber:  What are some of the mistakes, whether it's specifically or just generally, that most of those types of teams that either grow too fast, and don't take the appropriate amount of account for systems and tools, or they just get it wrong - what are some of the landmines you can step on? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, I'd say the biggest thing is doing fewer things better. And that was something that LinkedIn has imprinted on me, is don't get distracted by all the shiny stuff along the way, and focus on the things that are really going to be core. And if you can't nail on those things, don't do anything else. At Zenefits I was just as much a blame as anyone else for this, it was really easy to get distracted by all the shiny stuff along the way, and we tried to do everything for everyone. And that's not a recipe for success. Naber:  Fewer things done better. Focus. Love it. All right, let's hop into...you had mentioned resource planning and analysis. So let's talk about that. What's output, and what's the goal of resource planning analysis? Walk us through that process where you can give us a vision into how you think about going about the process of resource planning, and what the purpose of it is, and what the best case scenario is with your output? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah. So I mean, I'm assuming the question is specifically for the Sales function, and building out the go to market plan from a Sales capacity perspective. So resource planning is always a pretty tough one, especially when you don't have a lot of data to go off of. So if you're talking about building a financial plan for the next year, when you've had three years under your belt, it's a lot easier to straight line. Naber:  Let's, maybe we should do some examples at LinkedIn. What would that process look like? And then at Zenefits ,differently, what would that process look like? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, so at at LinkedIn I was fortunate enough to be learning from a ton of really experienced folks and getting to take what they built and build on that. At Zenefits, we were doing everything from scratch, and the straight line was insane. It wasn't a straight line. It was an exponential curve where...when I joined Zenefits, the year prior we did just under 2 million revenue. And the year I joined we did 10 million. And plan for the next year was 100 million. So it was just absolute bananas, bananas growth. So we were operating with very little data, and almost, with a gun to the head, how much can we do if we really squeeze as much juice out of the lemon as possible. So yeah, that that planning process was...the best way to describe it was we would take all the different Sales channels that would provide fruit throughout that year. So the key ones I would zero in on are inbound leads - so how much coming Marketing, from both word of mouth, our SEM spend, basically all the contact us leads that we get from our website, chat leads we get from from the website, all in the one bucket. Second would be events - so webinars, trade shows, in person events, those kind of things. That would be our events bucket. And then content. So, we would generate white papers, data sheets, we would try to circulate them through every avenue that we could. And that would make up our requested content bucket. One more I would call out is email. So cold Marketing emails would be the fourth bucket. And that was a really important one at Zenefits, especially as we had one of the most ingenious email marketers, probably on the planet, at the helm of the ship that point. So, we took those four different channels and figured out, okay, how much can we squeeze out of those channels, how many leads, given the size of the market? So we did a total addressable market sizing exercise, and understood that okay, there's 8 million small businesses in the US that fit our demographic. How many do we think we can actually go get, and how many are within the general confines of what makes sense for our targeted demographic. Meaning, we wouldn't consider businesses that don't have email addresses or basic things like that wouldn't make them a good candidate for a technology solution. And that was basically our addressable market. And we figured, okay, well let's say we can get there in the next 10 years. So we would take all the different Sales channels that we have, based on the conversion rates that we knew we can get from those channels, and looked at both the costs and the resources that were needed against each channel to generate those leads. And that would be covered in the cost section in the analysis. And on the capacity side, we would figure out, okay, how many, for example, Sales Development reps who we need to qualify a hundred leads. And based on the conversion rates that we knew across the channel, how many of those leads would turn into wins. And so we would, we would take that analysis of total leads by channel, and have...there's a lot of art and science to this stuff. So it's not always going to be an equation where the left side equals the right. So we would take a total amount of leads that we generate by channel, and figure out, okay, how many, Sales Development reps do we need to generate those leads or even qualify those leads. And then how many Account Executives do we need to be on the other side to, to handle those leads. And what we would do to calculate the amount of Account Executives, which I think was one of the biggest faults to original model, was assuming that, okay, how many hours does an encounter executive have in a day to qualify these leads? And we were thinking okay, well it's not just new leads are qualifying, but how much of their day are they going to spend on the second touch, third touch, fourth charge of their current pipeline. So we, generally in that equation a lot of companies will underestimate the time it takes to actually follow up with the Sales cycle. And just think that you should probably spend most of your time on new leads versus following-up on old pipeline, which is absolutely the wrong way to do it. So a good way to think about it is, okay, a third of your time should be spent on new leads, two-thirds should be spent on following up with the existing pipeline. That's obviously a very peanut butter spread metric. And based on whatever that time spend allocation ratio is, you could figure out, okay, how many new leads can an Account Executive actually handle, based on Sales cycles and everything else. So, taking, taking that equation, you can figure out, okay, this is how many leads can go through the system. This is how much capacity each AE can take, and this is how many Sales Development reps we're going to need to support them. And then you play with both the inputs, mostly the inputs, to figure out, okay, at what point do we hit a breaking point in the system, where either you get diminishing returns by generating more leads...it costs you more money to actually generate those leads than it does to put numbers on the scoreboard. And so that was a very long winded way to answer that but yeah, that makes sense? Naber:  Yeah, of course. That wasn't long winded. It's a lot of detail, which is exactly, what we're looking for. It's great. I was actually hoping you go into some detail because your mind is brilliant, and I I'm glad that we got to see a little bit more into it. Let's say you go through that process, you come over with that Strategy, you've got your numbers, you got your Head count plans, you put the budget against it, you're going to deploy the Strategy next. Then you talked about reporting, metrics, and measurement. So what types of reports, or reporting, or metrics are you building out for each different type of stakeholder in the organization? So Marketing, Sales, maybe C-level, and then subsequently water falling down into management or director level, and maybe even down to rep level, but probably not. What sort of reports, metrics, and measurement are you putting in place, and how do you think about doing that? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, so, the way I usually think reports, and dashboards, and KPIs is leading and lagging indicators. So lagging indicators are pretty straight forward. I'm thinking okay, what was your conversion rate over this period of time? What was your win rate? What your ACV or average selling price? Those things can easily be calculated, based on the results that you see. I think what's a lot more interesting...Obviously those are going to be the key, really the KPIs that you want to put in place that you can measure business against. And those are the gonna be the KPIs that are built into your go to market model. So that if you're starting to miss on certain KPI's - conversion rate, win rate, ACV - you're gonna start to tend to see those results, on the scoreboard very quickly. But, by the time you start to see the revenue dip below where the plan is, you're way too late. So one of the keys is figuring out what those leading indicators are, so that you can suss out problems, and build almost like an early warning system, before it's way too late. What will tend to happen is...let's say your Marketing machine is starting to either hit its point of diminishing returns, or the messaging is just not landing anymore, or there's a new competitor on the market that your old demand, or the demand that used to get, is starting to go into this other competitor. By the time that you know that that lead, which would usually turn into a qualified lead that would be brought into a Sales cycle by an AE that would eventually close, by the time that that lagging indicator starts to go down, depending on what type of businesses it is this could be anywhere from 30 days to 180 days...By the time you figure out that that your revenue is going down, your 180 days too late to solving the problem. So, really understanding what those lagging indicators are and understand that you should be really fucking concerned if you're used to seeing, let's say, 3000 inbound leads, against that one channel of four channels for inbound leads. If you start to see that number go down by 10%, and the next month go down by another 10%, you should be really, really worried and you should address that right up front. And the only way you're going to do that is by having really good reporting and analytics against this. And the sophistication, or the support by leadership that, if you see that metric go down that you can call fire, and go address it right away. Or it's just having your leadership team say, hey, the numbers look good today. we're closing as much revenue, why should we be worried? Naber:  Yeah. All that makes tons of sense. Thanks so much for joining on the detail. And you just raised one of the super powers I believe that you have, is gaining the trust to be able to yell fire, and people listen, and act. How would you suggest, or maybe a framework you think about, or maybe it's a mindset you have, on how do you build that trust so that when you say fire people listen, take it seriously, as well as act on it? Niji Sabharwal:  To be honest, I would say that is probably one of my weak points. There's a politics to this that I've never been able to master. And I think that's actually one of the key things that people in my position need to figure out, is how to do better is articulate points in a way that will resonate with leadership team. When I see that kind of stuff, I see the numbers, I understand them probably...a lot of Sales Ops folks will understand them most better than most people will. And I will see a fire, and I'll yell fire, and I'll show them the numbers, but that's never enough, right. If you're gonna yell fire, there's going to be significant resources behind the firefighting effort, and potentially to scare to the rest of the company, it's not a very popular idea. So understanding how important the politics side of it is and the optic side of it is actually, something that shouldn't be undervalued. So building, upfront, way in advance from day one in the job, build the best relationship with leadership team, from the CEO to the VP of Sales, to the CMO, whomever, building those relationships up front there are absolutely critical. And that becomes really challenging, especially when if you have...In Zenefits case, leadership turning over over, every year, every two years...When you're at a company that has leadership changes more than one or two times, it's really easy to say okay, well there's gonna be somebody else. It's not worth the time to build those relationships. But it always is. Having that credibility, and the trust in leadership team's absolutely critical, regardless if you think there's going to be a new guy coming soon or new gal. Naber:  Yup. Yup. Got It. Awesome. And you hinted at it a little bit there. I've got just two more topics to talk about, and then we'll wrap. Thanks so much for your time. Actually maybe three, I think it's three. So the first one is, you hinted a little bit there, stakeholder management. When you think about stakeholder management, how do you manage stakeholders from Sales, differently than you do from Marketing, differently than you do from Eng and Product, etc? I mean, do you have a general thought process where, from a Sales Ops perspective this is what's important to Sales, from a Sales Ops perspective this is what's important to Marketing, and product and eng, etc? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, that's a really good one. So, yeah, I think the best way to think about it is to meet them where they are. The type of character, the type of person you're gonna deal with from Head of the Technical team, to a Head of Sales, to Head of Marketing, to a Head of Customer Support. Those profiles are enormously different, right? People are enormously different, right? And so having as much empathy, and I would say empathy is the key key thing that you should be thinking about, is figuring out what's important to them and making whatever you're trying to accomplish, aligning your vision with theirs. Can't stress that more. Naber:  Yeah. Let's look at an example. So if I'm going to Sales, what's your head space when you're going to someone in Sales, and we'll go through each example. Niji Sabharwal:  The number. Convincing your Head of Sales, I mean obviously this is very hypotheticaland not all situation here align up to this, but convincing your Head of Sales that what you're trying to do is going to provide the business value that's going to get them to their number. If it's Support, just getting them to understand that what you're trying to do in that moment is going to improve user experience, customer experience, and ultimately provide a better end to end customer customer journey. Naber:  Nice one. And what about Product and Eng, you've done a bunch of projects between liaising between Sales, and Marketing, and Product and Eng. What are some of the things that you need to think about in Sales Ops, Sales Strategy, Sales Tools, Systems, as you're having those types of conversations? Niji Sabharwal:  That's a good one. So, I mean, I would say it'd be very similar to, trying to hit on the same points as what would be important to, a CRO or Head of Sales, as well as, speaking to customer experience, and ultimately,customer retention. Interfacing with with CTO's, and Head of Product, Heads of Product can always be pretty challenging because they can have a much different vision, and be motivated by different motivations than, just, just trying to optimize profits. That makes sense? Naber:  Yeah, absolutely. How have you, any, do you have one or two tips on how to navigate that? Niji Sabharwal:  So yeah, this might sound a little cheesy, but honestly, just building relationships with those folks that our real. Having a beer with them, having lunch with them, having more personal connections with those folks, goes a really, really long way. Not trying to sound you're trying to buy their affection, but, that honestly to me has been the best way to actually navigate those situations, building personal relationships with them so that they can, they can trust where you're coming from. I mean, I'm assuming you are trustworthy person. Naber:  Fair enough. That's great detail. Thank you. So you're at LinkedIn, one of the fastest growing companies ever. You're in Sales Ops and Strategy. Then you move to Zenefits, also one of the fastest growing companies of all time. Two more things that I see as a bridge or a commonality between those two things. One is, something you had to do often. And the second one is something that they did as one of their, I think core competencies did really well. The first one is, you've had to sell a vision to a group very often. And my understanding, it's one of your fortes, and one of your superpowers. So how do you think about going about doing that? Getting people to, the right place with the business case, getting people to act, doing the right thing for the business based on the vision that you have, and even if it's not necessarily one of the things that they want to do, or if it's not necessarily within the scope of the way that they see things in their vision? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, I mean, that's a million dollar question. Naber:  More than that. Billion dollar question somewhat. Niji Sabharwal:  I'd say really thinking about your, wherever you're selling this vision to, making a shared vision. And that's really the key is understanding your audience, where they're coming from, and going back to the empathy issue, where you need to connect with them on a level where it means something to them. And it sounds super obvious, but tailoring that message to connect with them on a level that makes sense for their role and what they're trying to achieve. It's really hard to do obviously when you're, when you're pitching big business direction change for example, to the leadership team, where you have representatives from each side of the business. But thinking through how, not that you have to pretend that or change the mission or the initiative that you're pitching, but making it resonate with all the folks that are in the room, or all the folks that are going to be making this decision. And that's absolutely key. Naber:  Right. Awesome. And then do you have a process you go about doing that? To make sure that it's a vision. Do you have a checkbox list of things that you check off in your head, or maybe a couple of steps that you take in order to do that? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, so it really depends on the environment, the company. I think an easy to go to would be, thinking about the company's mission statement, or the company's key values. LinkedIn was really great about this where, every employee can on command recite the company's mission and value statements, at any given point. Even as those evolved over time. So those are really easy to go to's, where you can get everyone rallied behind that initiative, if you're able to hit on those values. Otherwise, thinking through, just to folks that are going to be in that room are the folks that you really need to get to, thinking about what is what is relevant to them in that moment or what is relevant to them, for that specific initiative. Naber:  Yeah. Nice one. Okay. Last topic, Niji, and and then we'll round it out with two rapid fire questions. So last topic is building an Inbound Engine. You've had to do this at LinkedIn with a significant amount of sophistication. You have to do this to build massive scale into Zenefits growth model. The way to operationalize a lot of this growth, is to make sure that you have a very sophisticated Inbound Engine. What are the steps you go about in order to build that out and make sure it's sophisticated enough from a Sales Ops and Strategy perspective? Niji Sabharwal:  Yeah, so there are so many tools out there today that that make this stuff a lot easier, as far as systems go. But I'd say the most important piece of operationalizing it would be speed to lead. So figuring out speed to lead. So figuring out whatever you need to do to minimize the time between once somebody raises their hand or submits an inquiry, to getting back to them. So, at LinkedIn, the process was somebody would submit a Contact Us form. We would usually respond within 48 hours. So pretty typical to a lot of Sales functions. But what we we figured out very quickly is that the inbound lead channel is by far the highest converting channel. Somebody raised their hand saying, I want something, give it to them. Why wouldn't you? And so providing as many those touch points as possible. Chats a really great example. Chat was extremely valuable when we launched at LinkedIn. When we launched it at Zenefits, same deal, it was gangbusters. If you're able to connect with your buyers, in a place where they're coming to you, take advantage of that in every way that you can. So I would say that that would probably be the number one thing I would think in operationalising and the inbound channel. Speed to lead. One more thing I would add there actually is...Speed to lead and also just making it stupid easy for people to come to you. If you have a contact us form that has 10 fields to fill out, you're gonna have a lot less people coming to you. If you have somebody coming to you where you just ask the basic question, give me your phone number, I'll call you back. You're going optimize conversion rates with the ease to get to you. Naber:  Hey everybody, thanks so much for listening. If you appreciated and enjoyed the episode, go aHead and make a comment on the post for the episode on LinkedIn. If you love The Naberhood Podcast, we'd love for you to subscribe, rate, and give us a five star review on iTunes. Until next time - go get it.

City of Georgetown runs 100 % on Renewable Energy and Recently Received an Award of $1 million to further its Goals The City of Georgetown, Texas has been running on 100 % renewable Energy (wind and solar power) since 2017. They recently received an award of $1 million to continue and expand its renewable efforts. They will be implementing an innovative program using large storage batteries in neighborhoods coupled with solar PV systems on residential roofs. Our guest on Shades of Green was Chris Foster who is Currently the Manager of Resource Planning and Integration for the City of Georgetown. He has served in the capacity since 2008, with a primary role of managing the City’s Municipally Owned Utility power supply. Chris is best known for orchestrating the successful transition of Georgetown’s power supply from a single provider that was over 90% fossil fuel based, to being 100% wind and solar powered by 2017

The 12 Keys to Success are twelve areas of organizational change management that, when done right, result in higher adoption and therefore greater success with a digital transformation supported by SAP Ariba software and services.  Join Amina Anderson and Frank Omare as they explore one of the twelve, Resource Planning, and its role in supporting change within an organization.

Mexico City hosted the sixth biennial C40 Mayors Summit, November 30 – December 2, 2016. The Summit brought together C40 mayors from all over the world and hundreds of urban and sustainability leaders to advance urban solutions to climate change and highlight the leadership role of cities in addressing climate change. The City of Austin was a big participant in the conference with Council Members, the Mayor and staff attending and showcasing the important environmental initiatives dear to Austin. We had in the KOOP studio Zach Baumer, Climate Program Manager for the City of Austin and Khalil Shalabi, Vice President of Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning for Austin Energy, our local electric utility. Both attended the C40 Conference and shared their insights on the landmark conference.

Rick A. Morris is pleased to be the closing keynote speaker to the Resource Planning Summit being held in New York on the USS Intrepid May 23-24. Rick will be interviewing Peter Heinrich, President of PDWare and the lead keynote of the conference. Tune in to hear about this fantastic event, who will be there, what it is about, and why you should attend!

May 23, 2015. This short film introduces the search function of the Library of Congress website and offers suggestions for search terms. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7031

Executive Education Lunch Forum Climate Change Strategic Mandates – What do we expect from our Utilities? • Professor Daniel Mazmanian, Ph.D. (moderator) • Gary Stern, Ph.D. Sr. Director of Regulatory Policy at Southern California Edison • Ken Chawkins, Ph.D. Manager of Public Policy at Southern California Gas Company • Grace Chan, M.S. Manager, Resource Planning & Development at MWD The Executive Education Forum for Policy and Administration at USC Price School (EXED) offers a broad base of specialized non-degree certificates for local and global leaders. EXED is a suite of intensive programs targeting public sector and other senior, mid-level, and emerging leaders, and is designed to deepen their understanding of substantive policy issues, augment their ability to leverage and increase existing public sector capacity, and foster leadership all with the purpose of improving public and nonprofit administration and solving public problems. These programs together help build the capacity to implement effective policy, which is central to the goal of the Bedrosian Center. EXED achieves this by bringing together the world-renowned faculty of USC Price School, experienced practitioners and a dynamic curriculum to teach and reach across sectoral boundaries.

In recent years so much has been reported about the fall of Detroit that we were surprised to learn that Detroit is now a hotbed of tech startups, revitalized US manufacturing, and a robust assortment of support companies. “Tech Town Detroit”, as it is now called, is home to MakerOS. Tom & Tracy interview Mike Moceri, Founder and CEO of MakerOS, to learn how MakerOS is helping 3D Printing, design, and engineering companies operate more efficiently and professionally through their robust and secure Customer Relation Management and Resource Planning platform. LINKS MENTIONED: MakerOS MakerOS Youtube Videos Basecamp To send us a voicemail, go to 3dstartpoint.com or wtfffpodcast.com or shoot us a message at info@wtfffpodcast.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes! Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the WealthFit movement today: 3DStartpoint.com 3D Startpoint Facebook 3D Startpoint LinkedIn Hazz Design Twitter 3D Startpoint YouTube

Episode 1 discusses human resource planning activities. Other important subjects that are discussed in this topic are: identifying external influences, forecasting employee demand and supply and planning staffing activities related to a gap analysis.

Green cities are more livable cities, and yet the urban natural resources, and the means we have to manage them, are diminishing. Dr. Weston Brinkley takes a look at a current set of integrated Urban Forest Assessments looking for answers in today's land management stewardship.(A,U,M,T,L,Bs)

Green cities are more livable cities, and yet the urban natural resources, and the means we have to manage them, are diminishing. Dr. Weston Brinkley takes a look at a current set of integrated Urban Forest Assessments looking for answers in today’s land management stewardship.(A,U,M,T,L,Bs)

ERPs são sistemas integrados que muitas empresas vêm adotando em suas gestões e que permitem uma maior visibilidade do contexto organizacional. Quais são as vantagens e benefícios da implantação de um ERP? E as desvantagens? Saiba mais sobre ERPs com Roberto Marins Ferreira Bispo, professor dos cursos de graduação e pós-graduação da FIAP nas áreas de Gestão de Processos, Sistemas de Informação e Gestão Empresarial e Planejamento de Capacidade; coordenador de infraestrutura em empresa de grande porte, responsável pela área de servidores Risc e Storage, com ênfase nas melhores práticas de ITIL, COBIT e Gestão de Processos.