How to keep your meetings on track? In May 2012 there was an article in the Wall Street Journal called, “Meet the Meeting Killers.” In the article the columnist described four types of people that ruin effective meetings; “The Jokester”, “The Dominator”, “The Naysayer” and “The Rambler”. Anyone who has run meetings knows about these […] Read More
Last week I got a call from a friend who needed help buying Microsoft Office for his new PC. “There are so many options to choose from – what is the difference between the one that costs $399.95 and the one that only costs $99.95?” he asked. It’s always been a bit tricky to navigate […] Read More
The fastest growing social network in 2012 was by far Pinterest, with a year over year growth of a staggering 1047% according to a report by Nielsen. This makes it the fastest growing social network ever in terms of increase in audience and time spent on the site. Whether you use Pinterest for your own […] Read More
Today large companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, that have extensive experience in managing large data centers, are offering customers to “rent” data capacity. This is great news for companies that want to focus on their core business application and not worry about the underlying platform. Microsoft’s cloud platform offering is called Windows Azure. In […] Read More
Last week I was invited to a customer in Qatar to give a presentation on how to increase business productivity using technology. They had told me that they would broadcast the presentation to their remote offices around the world. But I hadn’t expected that I would be sitting in a room, facing a camera and […] Read More
This morning I came back to Dubai after a lovely winter holiday in Sweden. I’m very excited to get back to work again and kick off 2013. I thought I would take the opportunity in this week’s blog article, to sum up the year 2012 and tell you more about our plans for 2013. Summing […] Read More
Today it’s the last day of 2012. I’m sure many of you are excited about celebrating New Year’s Eve and that you are thinking of good New Year resolutions. Personally, I’m really looking forward to 2013. I think it will be a year filled with great business opportunities and exciting adventures. To make the most […] Read More
Last year I wrote two wish lists to Santa Claus, one with books I wanted for Christmas and one with cool gadgets. This year I’m focusing on the top five gadgets I would be ecstatic if Santa gave me. My wish list this year contains a mix of technical things covering all aspects of life, […] Read More
During the past few weeks, I have been writing blog posts about the benefits of the applications in the new Microsoft Office 2013. Even though there are a lot of great new enhancements in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote that will for sure increase productivity, Microsoft Excel 2013 is in a league by itself. You […] Read More
An application that has won many hearts since it was introduced in 2003 is Microsoft OneNote. You can think of it as a digital scrapbook, an application for collecting information in various formats – handwritten or typed notes, screen clips, images and audio and video recordings. I became a big fan of Microsoft OneNote when […] Read More
Good News! Check out our How-to Outlook website for free Outlook 2013 video tutorials here. You can also have a look at out our other How-to sites for free Office 2013 tutorials here (more How-to sites coming soon!). For many people, Outlook is the most frequently used Office application. This is where we manage our email, our […] Read More
Good News! Check out our How-to Word website for free Word 2013 video tutorials here. You can also have a look at out our other How-to sites for free Office 2013 tutorials here (more How-to sites coming soon!). Having worked for Microsoft for over a decade I have some insight into the very complex process of application development, the millions […] Read More
Good News! Check out our How-to PowerPoint website for free PowerPoint 2013 video tutorials here. You can also have a look at out our other How-to sites for free Office 2013 tutorials here (more How-to sites coming soon!). I’ve been using the new version of Microsoft Office, named 2013, for a while now and I wanted to […] Read More
Today, November 12th, the SharePoint Conference 2012 kicks off in Las Vegas, USA. This year there are loads of interesting sessions covering the new version of SharePoint – Microsoft SharePoint 2013, which was released to manufacturing a few weeks ago. Some of the highlights of Microsoft SharePoint 2013 include new social capabilities, improved search, integrated […] Read More
Last week I was a guest on the radio program “Eye on Careers” on Dubai Eye 103.8. If you would like to listen to the podcast it’s available here. I was asked how I manage to be a mother of two small children and running a business at the same time. In the show, I […] Read More
Last week, on October 25th, Microsoft launched their new operating system Windows 8 across the world. In addition to a new operating system, Microsoft launched the first version of “Microsoft Surface”. I’m very excited about this new type of device as it brings together entertainment and productivity in a form factor we haven’t experienced before. […] Read More
Update 1 (2015): Microsoft announced that Skype for Business will replace Lync. Update 2 (2017): Microsoft announced that Microsoft Teams would replace Skype for Business eventually. In last week’s blog post I gave you “5 tips on how to enhance communication using Microsoft Lync 2010”. When I wrote that article Microsoft had already completed […] Read More
Update 1 (2015): Microsoft announced that Skype for Business will replace Lync. Update 2 (2017): Microsoft announced that Microsoft Teams would replace Skype for Business eventually. Four days ago, October 11th, Microsoft announced that the next version of their unified communication solution Microsoft Lync 2013 has been released to manufacturing. This means that there […] Read More
In January 2012 I wrote an article on how to lead a brainstorming session. One important aspect of brainstorming is capturing ideas through note-taking. In my article, I recommended that you take visual notes – using colors, pictures, shapes and symbols to capture the ideas that are generated during the meeting. One way to do […] Read More
Update: As of May 25, 2018, Klout is no more. Last week, September 27th, Microsoft Bing (Microsoft’s search division) announced that they are partnering with Klout to “help enrich the discovery and recognition of influencers across our platforms”. As you are probably aware there is an ongoing competition between the Internet search engines. Microsoft is […] Read More
If you want to increase your business productivity it’s probably a good idea to start with improving the way you manage email. I frequently meet business professionals who feel consumed by their inbox. They don’t have a good overview of what needs to be done and the sheer volume of email really stresses them out. […] Read More
Being able to delegate effectively is an essential skill if you want to be a successful manager. A lot of high performing business professionals have trouble letting go. Instead of delegating work to their subordinates they do the work themselves. This leads to work overload and in the long run an ineffective workgroup. Some people […] Read More
Last week, September 6th, 2012, Instagram was officially welcomed to Facebook. This means that Instagram’s 16 employees (yes, that’s correct, they are only 16) will be moving to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park. The acquisition, that was announced back in April, has been pending the Federal Trade Commission’s approval. The final price tag for Instagram ended up […] Read More
One of the most important skills to have in order to be successful in business and progress in your career is the ability to persuade others. Whether you are a salesperson trying to persuade a client to buy from you, an interviewee trying to persuade the hiring manager that you are the best person for […] Read More
Update: Check out our updated post on SkyDrive (now OneDrive) here. In last week’s blog article, I wrote about the changes Microsoft has made to its online storage offering SkyDrive. I know that many of you haven’t used SkyDrive before, so this week I thought I would help those of you who want to […] Read More
Update: Microsoft SkyDrive has been replaced with Microsoft OneDrive. You can learn more about OneDrive here. August 20th, 2012 Last week, August 14th, 2012, Microsoft introduced the updated version of SkyDrive, Microsoft’s free online storage service. In a blog post I wrote February 6th, 2012, I explained what SkyDrive is and how you can benefit […] Read More
This is the third and last part of the blog series on how to conduct professional job interviews. In Part 1 I covered how to prepare for the interview, in Part 2 how to interview and finally in this blog post I will share recommendations for how to evaluate the interviews and decide who you […] Read More
Last week, July 31st, Microsoft introduced the preview of Outlook.com, a new web-based email service that will eventually replace Microsoft’s current offering Windows Live Hotmail. It’s not easy to keep track of all the email offerings that are available out there, in addition to the many offerings from Microsoft, there are also numerous other alternatives […] Read More
Two weeks ago I posted the first part of the blog series on how to conduct professional job interviews. In that first article, I covered how to prepare for the interview, in this second part I will cover important aspects of giving the actual interview. Interviews are an extremely important part of the hiring process; […] Read More
Last week, July 16th, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer announced the availability of the preview of the next version of Office, at a press conference in San Francisco. The next version of the productivity software suite which has gone under the code name Office 15, will be named Microsoft Office 2013 when it launches. Microsoft has […] Read More