Category: Business

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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, deadlines, facts

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires businesses to protect personal data and privacy of European Union (EU) citizens for transactions that occur within EU member states. These rules became effective May 25.

The GDPR is expected to set a new standard for consumer rights regarding their data. This will be challenging for companies as they put processes in place to comply.

The GDPR says that companies must provide a “reasonable” level of protection but doesn’t define what constitutes “reasonable.” This gives the GDPR governing body leeway when assessing fines for data breaches and non-compliance. Find out more here.

– Abbie S. Fink, HMA Public Relations

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Arizona’s military industry a huge economic driver

military jets

Arizona’s military industry, including operations at the Marine Corp Air Station (Yuma), Fort Huachuca (Sierra Vista), Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (Tucson) and Luke Air Force Base (Phoenix), along with Navy and National Guard installations, and the many businesses they support, is responsible for creating or supporting more than 76,000 jobs that are dispersed over a wide variety of industries.

The Maguire Company report states the industry annually contributes $158.9 million in local tax revenues, in addition to a $96.8 million contribution to state government for a combined total of $255.9 million.

The $ound of freedom.

– Scott Hanson, HMA Public Relations

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Why accurate financial information is critical to your business

Charts and graphs on a desk

Accurate financial information is critical to the successful operation of any business venture. Your analysis of such data should relate not only to your enterprise, but also to that of your customers and vendors.

The key areas to evaluate include:

• Revenues and expenses, and the reasoning behind any fluctuations in both.

• Customer and vendor performance (payment activity, timeliness of deliveries, etc.).

• Any factors impacting cash flow, borrowing capacity and overall financial performance.

Remember that financial information must be obtained, analyzed and applied on a regular basis. Such data and analysis are essential to the successful operation of your business.

– Robert E. Dauer, Jr., Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, red@muslaw.com

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The Arizona 100 launches in Copper State

Welcome to the first edition of the The Arizona 100. The Arizona 100 features 15 100-word articles that will provide thought leadership, demonstrate industry expertise and other relevant and timely news and information of interest to business and community leaders across the great state of Arizona.

The Arizona 100 joins several other “100” partner markets that provide a combined reach of over 500,000 readers across 17 markets.

We welcome your ideas and suggestions for newsworthy content; please send us a note at editor@thearizona100.com.

And a special welcome to Washington Federal who joins us as inaugural sponsor.

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Solar industry leaders come together

solar panels

Leaders from Arizona’s solar power industry have formed the Distributed Energy Resources Alliance (DERA), a non-profit trade organization dedicated to the development of distributed energy resources, including solar, battery storage, active demand management, distributed grid services and smart grid solutions for a reliable, sustainable energy supply.

Joseph Cunningham, director of operations for Sunny Energy and president of DERA, says the newly formed organization works to find constructive, proactive paths for clean energy development that benefit energy consumers, electric utilities and businesses that provide these grid services.

Another DERA mission is to educate companies to diversify from selling only solar.

– Scott Hanson, HMA Public Relations

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EDDE Awards presented to 8 winners

The Arizona Association for Development (AAED) has presented its prestigious annual Economic Development Distinguished by Excellence (EDDE) Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to economic growth in Arizona.

This year’s winners are:

• Jaye O’Donnell, assistant economic development director, Mesa.
• Dan Henderson, CEcD, economic development director, Gilbert.
• Richard Wilkie, CEcD, AZED Pro, economic development director, Casa Grande.
• Wendy Bridges, AZED Pro, economic development coordinator, Prescott.
• Lena Fowler, Coconino County Board of Supervisors, District.
• Ben Hooper, economic development coordinator, Prescott Valley.
• Joel Millman, program manager, Pinal County.
• Gilbert, Pinal County and the Town of Queen Creek.

– Scott Hanson, HMA Public Relations

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Pressure on journalists’ social media posts grows

PRGN

A survey of reporters worldwide finds there is increasing pressure on reporters to perform well on social media.

Social media requirements for reporters have seen an uptick across platforms compared to two years ago: 55.5 percent must post to Facebook (up from 37.8 percent); 47.3 percent are required to Tweet (up from 35.4 percent); 20 percent utilize LinkedIn (up from 14.4 percent); and 14.6 percent have a blogging requirement (up from 10.8 percent).

The survey was conducted by the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN), one of the international networks of independent PR agencies.

– Scott Hanson, HMA Public Relations

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Are you into MOOCs?

Universities around the world are offering their courses online without or partially without charge. Over the past five years, almost 800 universities have created more than 8,000 of these massive open online courses (MOOCs). Universities with offerings include Stanford, Duke, Rice and Harvard, to name a few.

Courses use interactive textbooks, pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects to teach pupils valuable new skills. As our job markets rapidly change, the skill sets needed to compete are also changing pretty quickly. Continued education is a must and MOOCs are adequately equipped to provide it – on our own schedules and budgets.

– Emily Reeves Dean, Cranford Co.

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What motivates today’s ‘knowledge workers?’

The authoritative management style is fading. These days, many jobs involve knowledge work, where an employee’s main contribution is subject matter expertise. Consequently, a manager’s role is evolving into more of a “team leader” or “motivational coach.”

To motivate employees to succeed, it is important for leaders to focus on:

– Connection: Employees want to feel connected with others. Leaders should create opportunities for employee engagement and collaboration.

– Culture: Monetary rewards can be short-lived. Employees seek experiences and meaningful purpose. If a company’s mission and values resonate with employees, they will genuinely care about the results of their own performance.

– Christina Norton, Revenue Management Solutions

 

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Time-cap your time-suck

Do you have a hard time concentrating on a task for any length of time and never get into deep work mode? Do you get lost in social media or email and neglect your important priorities?

Try the Pomodoro Technique. Set a timer, like Focus Booster, and work for 25 minutes, then take a five-minute break. Repeat three more times and take a longer 10-20 minute break.

If you become distracted with a thought during a work interval, jot it down on a piece of paper rather than opening up another tab or switchtasking. Your productivity will soar.

– Marcey Rader, Founder, Work Well. Play More!®