Tag: linkedin

Revolutionizing the Supply Chain with Electric Vehicles

As the host of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, I’m always on the lookout for the latest and greatest in the world of supply chain and logistics. And today, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Mark Ang, CEO of GoBolt, a cutting-edge delivery company that’s changing the game when it comes to sustainability in the supply chain.

Mark is a seasoned veteran of the delivery industry and he’s got a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to incorporating EVs into a company’s logistics infrastructure. During our conversation, we explored the many challenges that companies face when trying to make the transition to EVs, and Mark shared some of the key insights that he looks for when monitoring the performance of GoBolt’s system.

One of the biggest takeaways from our chat was that involving EVs in a company’s logistics infrastructure is not as simple as just cutting a check and getting a truck off a lot. It’s a complex process that requires a lot of planning, preparation, and investment in both people and technology. Businesses that want to have EVs as part of their transition strategy need to be thinking about these things if they want to successfully manage their Scope three emissions.

We also talked about sustainability reporting, and Mark shared some of the steps that GoBolt has taken to accurately attribute emissions to an order level. He emphasized the importance of having a robust model that takes into account distance traveled, payload traveled, and other key data points. GoBolt has worked with external consultants to build a model that they feel comfortable publishing externally, and they hope to continue to lead the way when it comes to sustainability reporting in the delivery industry.

Mark shared his vision for the future of GoBolt, and it’s an exciting one. Within the next five to ten years, he sees the company expanding its operations to Western Europe and other commonwealth countries, and continuing to support Fortune 100 and 500 companies as they transition to a more sustainable supply chain.

So, if you’re interested in learning more about EVs, sustainability reporting, and the future of the delivery industry, be sure to listen to this episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast. I’m confident that you’ll come away with a wealth of knowledge and insights that you can apply to your own supply chain and logistics operations.

And don’t forget to follow and support the Digital Supply Chain podcast! With more exciting episodes like this one in the works, you won’t want to miss a single one.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider following the podcast and sharing it with others who may be interested. And as always, if you find the podcast of value, and you’d like to help me continue to make episodes like this one, you can go to the podcast’s Support page and become a Digital Supply Chain podcast Supporter for less than the cost of a cup of coffee!

And if you’re interested in having your brand associated with this, the leading Supply Chain podcast, don’t hesitate to check out these sponsorship packages and how I can help your company gain exposure and establish yourself as a thought leader in the supply chain industry, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you!

Photo credit – Ivan Radic on Flickr

How to use LinkedIn to land your dream job

Adrian Weckler Twitter Post

I was scanning Twitter this morning when I spotted a question from Adrian Weckler of the Sunday Business Post asking if anyone found LinkedIn useful and what for.

I emailed Adrian the following story of how I used LinkedIn to help me get my current job. I’ve told this story quite a few times now but having finally typed it out, I might as well blog it as well, then I could point ppl to it!!!

My wife is Spanish. She lived in Ireland with me for over 10 years before losing her head completely and saying she wanted to move back to Spain. That was in June 07. We had just enrolled our 4yr old in school for the coming Sept so we decided to give ourselves 12 months to organise the move – that way he’d also finish out his first year in school before we moved (don’t worry, I’m getting there!).

I was involved in a couple of businesses in Cork at the time, but nothing that would move with me, so I knew I needed to cast around for a new job. One that would allow me to work from Spain in English as my Spanish was poor (still is, but that’s another story!!!).

I put the word out on Twitter – but Tweets have a short half-life and that didn’t elicit much response. I also put the word out on FaceBook and I did receive on half-hearted offer of a possibility of a part-time position from a friend (but I think that was more a pity thing, than anything else tbh).

Then I decided to try LinkedIn. I took a slightly different tack there. I had built up quite a decent network there of very well known people in the Web 2.0 space internationally. I went through the list and cherry-picked about 70 of them. I sent them an email saying that I would soon be moving to Spain (this was around March 08), and that as I’d be looking for a new position, it’d be great if they would consider writing a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile.

Within a few short days I had over 20 stellar recommendations on my profile. And four job offers. I interviewed with the four and narrowed it down to two I was really interested in.

Then RedMonk came along, matched the offers, and the rest as they say, is history!!!

“Since you are a person I trust, I wanted to invite you to join my network on LinkedIn” – Is this a new form of spam?

LinkedIn Spam Connection Request
LinkedIn Spam Connection Request?

In the last three days I have received 3 invitations to connect with total strangers on LinkedIn – in and of itself, that’s not all that unusual. I often receive invitations from strangers to connect on LinkedIn – most I quietly ignore.

What made these invitations different was the fact that they were all worded identically – they all said:

Since you are a person I trust, I wanted to invite you to join my network on LinkedIn.

This wouldn’t be all that unusual if that were the default text provided by LinkedIn when you request to connect to someone, but it is not. When you normally try to connect with someone on LinkedIn, it sends the text

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn

Official LinkedIn connection request
Official LinkedIn connection request

Maybe LinkedIn are trialling the new wording and only certain people get it when they try to connect with people.

Maybe, it is being trialled only in certain regions.

Maybe you get this wording when you chose a different type of connection request.

Or, and I suspect this is the case, this is a new type of spambot trying to gain connections on LinkedIn.

None of the three accounts had more than 7 connections. None had filled out their profiles and none had any shared connections with me.

I guess there is a chance that this is default text, for new accounts only, on LinkedIn.

However, I have to think it is spam – be warned and don’t connect to anyone whose invite has this wording

Since you are a person I trust, I wanted to invite you to join my network on LinkedIn

unless you know them extremely well and even then, confirm with an email before accepting, just to be sure.

OpenSocial signs up MySpace and SixApart too!

I mentioned earlier in the week that Google was about to launch OpenSocial, a Social Network API platform. Since then Mike Arrington in TechCrunch is reporting that not only is it happenning but MySpace, Bebo and SixApart are on board too!

The OpenSocial site is now live and confirmed participants so far are:

Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING

Why OpenSocial?

The web is more interesting when you can build apps that easily interact with your friends and colleagues. But with the trend towards more social applications also comes a growing list of site-specific APIs that developers must learn.

OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.

Many sites, one API

Whither FaceBook, the current social network colossus in this? They and Microsoft (their recent investor) have got to be wondering how to meet this challenge to their dominant position. Probably the best approach would be to jump in too – that way they have all the advantages of the open platform without the development costs. Google are saying it is an open platform and they wouldn’t see that one coming!

The chances are though that they won’t jump on board and there will be two social network standards, Google’s OpenSocial standard and FaceBook’s.