Showing posts with label communications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label communications. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Internationalists: Pause For Design Upgrade

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Apologies, dear readers and respected colleagues! We are currently in the process of re-constructing our blog templates in order to improve your reading, learning and interactive experience at each site. We should be able to resume a normalized, more frequent posting schedule by Wednesday evening, 5th October.

Thank you in advance for reading me. And more than this, thank you for your encouragement, support, responsiveness, constructive feedback and loyalty.

Your patience is deeply appreciated.

Faithfully and with respect,
Douglas E Castle

p.s. If you would like something quite interesting to read in the meantime, I would be delighted if you would have a look at http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/2011/10/man-versus-machine.html, and let me know your thoughts.

I would also appreciate your feedback on my most recent post (today) on a blog which has been too-long neglected and is now being reconstructed and re-activated. Visit http://BloggingTipsTricksAndTools.blogspot.com. The blog title is quite misleading (and more than a bit ironic), as you'll notice.

- DC


Thursday, April 02, 2009

THE SHOES OF THE PHISHERMAN - And A Word About Integrity

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Dear Friends:


We all need to be reasonably careful in all of our written and sound communications -- especially when we are working "over the wires" or "over the airwaves." (If you only work Under The Boardwalk, or Somewhere, Beyond The Sea [with apologies to the Drifters and to the Estate of Bobby Darren] thos shouldn't really concern you. But it concerns most of us who are subjected to all manner of computer fraud every single time that we log on.


Three suggestions are in order:


1. Beware any solicitation or notification which you receive, especially if it asks for perwsonal information, and even if it looks quite official. If it is from Nigeria and tells you a sob story about a corrupt bank manager who needs your help to dislodge a sum from a client who died in a terrible plane crash, just toss it. If it says "CONGRATULATIONS - LOTTERY WINNER" toss that one too. There are more legitimate ways for people to authenticate their correspondence and allow you to verify their legitimacy before giving any personal information at all.


Here's an example of a baloney-laden "PayPal" notification which I received earlier (click to download, and to enjoy a laugh at my expense): http://www.mediafire.com/?kz2vqoyvzgn


2. We live in a society where virtually every communication is recorded and analized (for our own protection, of course). whatever you say is on the record, so avoid tasteless terrorist jokes and threatening language, lest you be put in the position of serving coffee to two or more surprise early-morning visitors from some intimidating agency of the federal government. You are always on the record.


3. Something else -- When you write and when you speak to anyone, anywhere and at anytime, speak as if you were making a politically-sensitive statement to Congress or to the press. Avoid subterfuge, backbiting and being insincere. As I have found, anything that you say can be overheard or repeated to the wrong person. As a general policy, speak as if the subject person of your conversation where standing in front of you. Integrity is a rare, but powerful tool. It' worth cultivating.


Faithfully,


Douglas Castle












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Saturday, March 03, 2007

FUTURISM: SOME FASCINATING FACTS.

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Dear Friends:

In order to be effective in the business of international marketing, it is essential to develop an understanding not only of the present market conditions, but of the anticipated future market conditions. Futurism should be of very serious interest to any company interested in survival. Some of the components of a comprehensive futurism analysis might include an examination (e.g., some good projections) of the following elements as they relate to your product or service and its global potential:



  • demographics
  • demand and consumerism
  • competition, existing and emerging
  • technological change and new, alternative products
  • the regulatory environment
  • international trade policies and restrictions
  • foreign exchange rate fluctuations
  • country credit risk

Sources for this type of information can be found in the archives of this blog at U.S. EXPORTERS' RESOURCE CENTER, which was just updated as of 3 March, 2007.

*****

For a fascinating and entertaining glance at some amazing international statistics, I invite you to visit http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv. It is quite a show, and is indeed worth seeing. In fact, you can even invite the kids to watch it with you.

*****

TWO USEFUL NEW RESOURCES which were recently added to the RESOURCE CENTER include:

COMMUNICAID LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS, http://www.communicaidinc.com/, an amazing firm (actually an international agency) which provides international translation and interpreting services. Mr. Kip Madden, my contact there, is extraordinarily knowledgeable regarding every significant aspect of technical document translation, on-site interpreting, courtesy ambassadorship accommodations, as well as with a wide variety of other international communications and connections tools which will give your firm crucial advantages over its prospective competitors. Communication (especially in your customers', suppliers', contractors' or co-venturers' native language) can be the defining difference between a profitable encounter leading to a long-term relationship with an overseas party, or an expensive and humiliating disaster. To truly be masterful globally, you must make it your business to know your counterpart's current language (even popular idioms), and customs. This will demonstrate your diligence and respect, and will aid you in winning your counterpart's admiration, and hopefully, some good business.

21st CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES, INC., http://www.21stsoft.com/, and MERCURY LEADS, http://www.mercuryleads.com/, are two very special firms which provide web design, sophisticated programming and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). My contact there, Mr. Michael Cordova, is absolutely the person to speak with if you are interested in establishing a "virtual export department" in the form of a website, or if you would like your company to rise to the top of the search engine listings in order to achieve greater market prominence and more site visits. This latter service is becoming increasingly necessary, as consumers become increasingly reliant upon search engines as a primary referral source. Your search engine ranking can mean the difference between feast or famine (everyone loves a cliche!) for sales of your product or service.

Although both Kip and Michael are cerebrotonic and are predisposed to speaking rather rapidly (they also both seem to take a great deal of pride in using frighteningly large words, some of which contain more than my customary four letters -- and may even be, in fact, polysyllabic!), I have found them to be a wealth of practical information, as well as uniquely resourceful. Both gentlemen are natural-born problem solvers, and take the time to seriously consider and answer questions. Keep a dictionary handy anyway.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle, Internationalist

p.s. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post (apologies, as there is quite a bit of wasted space), you will see an envelope-shaped icon in the lower right-hand corner. If you wish to automatically send an email of this post to a friend or business associate, simply click on the icon, and follow the prompts.

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