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6 Training Challenges of the Manufacturing Industry – How eLearning Can Help

6 Training Challenges of the Manufacturing Industry - How eLearning Can Help

The manufacturing sector’s contribution is crucial for any country’s economy. Innovative manufacturing practices are coming up due to emerging technology trends. Employees have to be trained on new technology in automated manufacturing facilities. They always won’t have the time for classroom training due to their regular work. So, you could try online training.

Frequent release of new products, compliance regulations, employee skill gaps are some of the major challenges I can think of. Let’s see how you can solve them with the help of eLearning.

1. Widening of Skills Gap

Challenge: The major issue in the manufacturing sector is that industries look for multi-skilled employees who can perform various tasks, while many workers in the manufacturing are unskilled and not so tech savvy or have only been trained to do a single job function. Skills gap is a gap between what employers need and what job seekers have.

How eLearning can help: E-learning can change the way workplace training programs are being conducted by offering easier, more affordable & flexible access to learning resources. Your workforce can take the training at their own pace in the specific skills they need to improve. Other employees can concentrate on their development areas through online learning.

E-learning courses combine visual elements such as videos, infographics, and animations with proven instructional design strategies to deliver knowledge effectively. They improve learner engagement and knowledge retention.

2. High Costs of Training

Challenge: Based on the skills that are needed, manufacturing training programs in classrooms can be very expensive. It can take a long time and the extensive involvement of trainers and supervisors to teach employees the necessary skills and processes for a manufacturing job. Your company has to spend a lot of man-hours for Instructor-led Training (ILT). Logistical costs will be higher in bringing employees from various places for training in a central location.

How eLearning can help: To keep training costs minimum, it is a good to provide some part of your employee training as eLearning courses. Online training provides a more cost-effective alternative to ILT/classroom training due to reduced travel, boarding, lodging, and trainer costs. This approach is also more flexible, enabling learning out of working hours and consistent updates to course content, based on new systems and industry guidelines.

You can teach difficult skills to some extent in the classroom and some parts though online training. In a way, blended learning works well for manufacturing training.

3. Training New Hires

Challenge: Experienced employees have high demand in the job market. So attrition rates are obviously more. New employees keep joining at different levels and in different locations. Training a handful of new hires whenever they join is a cumbersome process.

How eLearning can help: Online induction training has immense benefits as it is time saving, cost-effective, a robust process, easy for learners, and has high success rates. Once an online onboarding is in place, you can roll it out to new hires as and when they join – across locations, departments, and levels.

You can start the online induction training with a video/audio welcome message from your company’s CEO, introducing the board of directors and other senior employees, through online learning portal. Provide short bursts of microlearning and digestible modules to prevent new hires from getting lost in the ‘sea’ of information. Plan you training activities in such a way that senior employees share their expertise and experience with the new hires. This helps new employees gain the much-needed skills for their day-to-day tasks on the job.

4. Training Blue Collared Workers

Challenge: The majority of the employees in the manufacturing sector are blue collared workers. Getting work done through them is difficult as literacy levels are low. Understanding new concepts, principles, and learning new skills will take time for them. Training them on safety and regulatory compliance is a major challenge organizations face often.

How eLearning can help: There’s no doubt that classroom training works best for them. However, eLearning also works when you do it right. Its engaging nature, learner-friendly delivery formats, flexibility, self-pace, and other interesting features make it a hot favorite for blue collared workers. You can have a virtual instructor, online safety training videos, infographics, and other delivery formats with more visuals & less text to make it more appealing.

5. Wide Product Portfolio

Challenge: Companies and employees in the manufacturing industry are under constant pressure to release new products, update the existing products, conduct research & innovation for better products throughout the year. When lost in their regular work without training, your employees may not innovate and make better products or build a portfolio over time.

How eLearning can help: Explaining the steps of product development such as assessing the need, research, ideas, prototypes, final design, and testing in a classroom session can be overwhelming and increases cognitive load on your employees. You cannot expect them to perfect the various phases of product design in one go. Bite-sized online modules won’t rob your employees’ time and contribute to reinforcing the entire product development process by teaching one step at a time. This works as a refresher training in addition to what they had learned earlier.

6. Stringent Compliance Norms & Regulations

Challenge: Staying complaint is mandatory in manufacturing industries. Training employees on procedures, laws, and regulations is a daunting task. When government updates the existing norms, employees must be aware and up-to-date. Most employees don’t like compliance training because of its dos & don’ts and legal nature.

How eLearning can help: To make your compliance training more engaging, create online courses on the new regulations and how they impact your business. You can create eLearning courses on compliance, based on the employee roles.

For example, senior management may just need an overview while employees in the operations department might have to know the regulations in a greater depth. You can easily manage this without additional costs in online modules.

Your organization must also comply with environmental regulations. Employees at all levels of your organization must know the consequences of violations. Online compliance training uses visual media such as videos that have an appealing impact on your employees. For example, a video that shows the consequences of disposing manufacturing waste into rivers can create awareness on environmental concerns. Similarly, a bite-sized module on the best practices for managing waste can let your employees learn faster and better.

Though, you can’t replace the traditional classroom training completely, you can definitely consider online training to overcome the discussed challenges. Hope the available options in eLearning help you facilitate quick knowledge transfer to defeat the training challenges.


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So What If My Kid Never Loses?

January 29, 2019 No Comments

So What If My Kid Never Loses?

January 29, 2019 No Comments
Youth softball player

“I don’t want my kid being ‘ok’ with losing. I’d rather them win every time than deal with losing. Losing sucks.”

That’s the response I overheard a dad tell his friend at a coffee shop last week. I get it, no one likes to lose. “Losing sucks” to quote that dad. I 100% agree.

But unlike that dad, I’m 1000% ok with letting my future son/daughter lose a game.

You don’t want to lose. You never want your kid to lose, but out of loss and failure comes lessons and teachable moments that can set the child up for success later in life.

And it’s a lot easier to receive life lessons when you’ve been knocked on your butt than it is when you’re holding a trophy.

How Winning Can Trick Us

When we win all the time, it’s easy to believe we lack room for improvement. Think about it. Winners in a individual player sport believe they are already unbeatable after winning one tournament because of an unblemished record. But just because they won this one time doesn’t mean they’ll forever win, right?

Team sports? Just as guilty. Except in a team sport, your mistakes can be hidden much longer than an individual one if the rest of your team plays well. The problem starts to compound when multiple players start making mistakes each game. They can let an undefeated record clout their vision and trick them into believing the lie that being undefeated now means you don’t need to improve for only so long. Pretty soon every record gets that “1′ in the loss column.

This story continues off the field in life. If you lack the desire to constantly improve, resting on your past laurels, you can be caught off-guard – and out of business – when a young upstart changes your industry. It happens every year – an industry giant disappears because they rested on their past achievements instead of looking ahead to how they can grow.

The scoreboard doesn’t always tell the whole story, and many times, believing what we see on it one week will cause a lapse in judgement that trips us the following week.

Why Losing Matters

Every great lesson I learned playing sports growing up was after I got my butt handed to me. Losing – not winning – is what presents opportunities for parents and coaches to teach their players about the bigger picture of life.

Losing Motivates You.

Losing is a bitter taste. It sucks. But it can be a powerful motivator to fire you up to improve. My closest losses in sports were some of the hardest pills to swallow – but also some of the best motivators because it taught me the importance of every single play, and be over-prepared for each snap.

Losing teaches you what to improve upon.

Experienced professionals know how to watch film and learn from each win/loss on what to improve. But kids? It’s a lot harder to show them what they need to get better on if they’ve only won.

Heck, for most adults it’s hard to teach us where to improve if we’re winning with what we’ve done to this point.

But winning up until now doesn’t mean you’ll always win.

Losing a game can teach you where you’re deficient and need to improve your skill / gameplan / communication on the court. It also creates a great lesson for children to learn how to identify areas they need to improve – and then commit to doing the work to improve.

Losing Teaches You How to Rebound

One thing many adults struggle with is the “rebound.” Be it from an injury, job loss, or divorce, many adults struggle getting back on the feet and mentally “checking in” to the game of life. The adversity blindsides us and we fixate our focus solely on what happened instead of the most important thing – what we do next.

In the safe environment of sports, losing can teach a child how to live in the present, by focusing on their next opportunity instead of constantly dwelling on their last one (the loss).

Teaching them how to not worry about what was but focus instead on what is under their control (which is the present) and what they do next sets them up for their opportunity on the field – and later in life.

Shielding Kids from Losing Only Hurts Them in the Long Run

When we shield our kids from losing, adversity, or tougher competition, we lose out on the opportunity to teach them lessons they’ll need later in life. I’d challenge parents and coaches to use the safe environment of sports as grounds to teach life lessons that the child will learn regardless later in life, when the stakes are much higher and the failures can be much bigger.

Don’t teach them to love losing – but instead how to grow from it and keep competing.

Jake Thompson

Jake Thompson is a keynote speaker and coach who helps driven people become Championship performers in work and life. As founder of Compete Every Day, he has spent years studying great competitors, and with this research, has created a process that can help ambitious people harness The Competitor Mindset to make better choices and in turn, make bigger impacts in their careers and personal life.

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Home > Identity Theft > The New Identity Theft Trend: Farcing

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Consider this scenario: You’re on Facebook, and you receive two friend requests, both from people you don’t know. With one person, you have no mutual friends, and with the other, you have some. Do you accept either request? Both? Just the one who shares your friends?

Scammers are banking on the likelihood you’ll accept the request if you have mutual friends — the more, the better — even if you have no clue who the requester is. From there, they’ll have access to everything you share with friends, and they’ll start friending your friends and family to see what they share. All that good stuff helps them reach their ultimate goal: identity theft.

It’s called farcing, and a researcher at the University of Buffalo published a study on it in “Information Systems Frontier,” saying these scams spread quickly and widely, as the scammer gathers friends and appears more legitimate.

What Is Farcing?

Farcing happens in two stages, wrote researcher Arun Vishwanath. The first stage is friending. Stage two involves the scammer requesting information from the new friends, aka phishing, the practice of acquiring information through seemingly legitimate means. In Vishwanath’s study, people’s decisions to accept the friend request (part one) relied on the number of mutual friends and the photo of the requester. People were more likely to accept requests from people with more mutual friends.

“Such profiles caused an upward information cascade, where each victim attracted many more victims through a social contagion effect,” Vishwanath wrote. “Individuals receiving a level 2 information request on Facebook peripherally focused on the source of the request by using the sender’s picture in the message as a credibility cue.”

The study used four fake Facebook profiles: one with no photo and no mutual friends, one with a photo and no friends, one with 10 connections and no photo, and one with a photo and 10 mutual friends. Each profile was male, and the photos were considered averagely attractive, Vishwanath said to the University of Buffalo Reporter.

How to Avoid Farcing

Farcing has been used on a variety of social networks (this study focused on Facebook), and people have used it to bully others, steal identities, spy on others and acquire child pornography. Avoiding it requires exercising caution on social media.

First, you should be careful about what you share online, but beyond that, it’s unwise to connect with someone you don’t know. If the friend request appears to come from someone you have met, you may want to confirm their identity before sharing anything with them, because impersonation isn’t unheard of.

Everyone on social media is at risk for identity theft — it’s a reality of today’s technology and ubiquitous Internet use — so make the effort to secure your personal information. Monitor your accounts (social and financial) for unauthorized use, and check your credit regularly to make sure no fraud is occurring in your name. Your credit score can help you spot fraud, because a sudden, significant change in score may indicate unauthorized activity. You can track changes in your credit scores by reviewing them monthly, which you can do for free on Credit.com.

More on Identity Theft:

Image: iStock

Comments on articles and responses to those comments are not provided or commissioned by a bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by a bank advertiser. It is not a bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Please note that our comments are moderated, so it may take a little time before you see them on the page. Thanks for your patience.

  • http://freecreditscore.xyz FreeCreditScore

    I get about 5 emails a day about someone who has died and they want to transfer money to me…i always report them as phishing spam

    • http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

      Good for you! (But sorry you continue to receive the emails.)

Certain credit cards and other financial products mentioned in this and other sponsored content on Credit.com are Partners with Credit.com. Credit.com receives compensation if our users apply for and ultimately sign up for any financial products or cards offered.

Hello, Reader!

Thanks for checking out Credit.com. We hope you find the site and the journalism we produce useful. We wanted to take some time to tell you a bit about ourselves.

Our People

The Credit.com editorial team is staffed by a team of editors and reporters, each with many years of financial reporting experience. We’ve worked for places like the New York Times, American Banker, Frontline, TheStreet.com, Business Insider, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC and many others. We also employ a few freelancers and more than 50 contributors (these are typically subject matter experts from the worlds of finance, academia, politics, business and elsewhere).

Our Reporting

We take great pains to ensure that the articles, video and graphics you see on Credit.com are thoroughly reported and fact-checked. Each story is read by two separate editors, and we adhere to the highest editorial standards. We’re not perfect, however, and if you see something that you think is wrong, please email us at editorial team [at] credit [dot] com,

The Credit.com editorial team is committed to providing our readers and viewers with sound, well-reported and understandable information designed to inform and empower. We won’t tell you what to do. We will, however, do our best to explain the consequences of various actions, thereby arming you with the information you need to make decisions that are in your best interests. We also write about things relating to money and finance we think are interesting and want to share.

In addition to appearing on Credit.com, our articles are syndicated to dozens of other news sites. We have more than 100 partners, including MSN, ABC News, CBS News, Yahoo, Marketwatch, Scripps, Money Magazine and many others. This network operates similarly to the Associated Press or Reuters, except we focus almost exclusively on issues relating to personal finance. These are not advertorial or paid placements, rather we provide these articles to our partners in most cases for free. These relationships create more awareness of Credit.com in general and they result in more traffic to us as well.

Our Business Model

Credit.com’s journalism is largely supported by an e-commerce business model. Rather than rely on revenue from display ad impressions, Credit.com maintains a financial marketplace separate from its editorial pages. When someone navigates to those pages, and applies for a credit card, for example, Credit.com will get paid what is essentially a finder’s fee if that person ends up getting the card. That doesn’t mean, however, that our editorial decisions are informed by the products available in our marketplace. The editorial team chooses what to write about and how to write about it independently of the decisions and priorities of the business side of the company. In fact, we maintain a strict and important firewall between the editorial and business departments. Our mission as journalists is to serve the reader, not the advertiser. In that sense, we are no different from any other news organization that is supported by ad revenue.

Visitors to Credit.com are also able to register for a free Credit.com account, which gives them access to a tool called The Credit Report Card. This tool provides users with two free credit scores and a breakdown of the information in their Experian credit report, updated twice monthly. Again, this tool is entirely free, and we mention that frequently in our articles, because we think that it’s a good thing for users to have access to data like this. Separate from its educational value, there is also a business angle to the Credit Report Card. Registered users can be matched with products and services for which they are most likely to qualify. In other words, if you register and you find that your credit is less than stellar, Credit.com won’t recommend a high-end platinum credit card that requires an excellent credit score You’d likely get rejected, and that’s no good for you or Credit.com. You’d be no closer to getting a product you need, there’d be a wasted inquiry on your credit report, and Credit.com wouldn’t get paid. These are essentially what are commonly referred to as "targeted ads" in the world of the Internet. Despite all of this, however, even if you never apply for any product, the Credit Report Card will remain free, and none of this will impact how the editorial team reports on credit and credit scores.

Your Stories

Lastly, much of what we do is informed by our own experiences as well as the experiences of our readers. We want to tell your stories if you’re interested in sharing them. Please email us at story ideas [at] credit [dot] com with ideas or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks for stopping by.

- The Credit.com Editorial Team


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Monday, June 01, 2009

Things Too Quiet On FORBA Small Smiles Investigation

Just returned from a trip to New York City, I'm not going to say weather it was totally business or not but I can say Small Smiles and FORBA's name came up at a few gatherings.

Most of us who have known that medicaid Inspector Generals in several states have been investigating the fraud and child abuse at FORBA's Small Smiles Clinics are starting to wonder if they are just going to let this pass by without prosecution. It's sure starting to look like it. We are hoping that our government protects us better than that, but one just never knows.

To any of the local Investigative reporters out there, maybe it's time for a follow up story. We have to stay on this or we all know what will happen, NOTHING!

I'm not exactly sure but I think there is an attorney out there who would love to take this on. See the term 'qui tam'.

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Archive for January, 2012

Serve .torrent files from IIS7

January 29, 2012 Leave a comment

By default IIS7 will not serve files with unknown MIME types, one of these could be the .torrent file type, which simply returns a 404 error.

From a command prompt, run %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set config /section:staticContent /+”[fileExtension=’.torrent’,mimeType=’application/x-bittorrent’]”

Then IISReset

(I’m not 100% sure if IISReset is required, but it worked for me).

Categories: Uncategorized

How to cancel any outstanding javascript on a page

January 26, 2012 Leave a comment

If you have a webpage, and you need to stop all javascript routines from running. That is, any routine started by setTimeout, and executing in a separate thread. Even if you do not have a reference to the value returned by setTimeout, then you can just clear all timeouts as follows;

var maxTimeout = setTimeout(‘null’,1);

Categories: Uncategorized

(PlayBook) Code signing request failed because this file has been previously signed

January 25, 2012 3 comments

If you’re working on developing for BlackBerry PlayBook TabletOS, using webworks, you’ll find the usual fun & games when trying to sign the BAR file.

Here’s a few “Gotcha’s” that I got this morning:

[INFO] Parsing command line options
[INFO] Parsing
[INFO] Validating WebWorks archive
[INFO] Parsing config.xml
[INFO] Populating application source
[INFO] Compiling WebWorks application
[INFO] Packaging the bar file
[INFO] Bar packaging complete
[INFO] Starting signing tool
Error: Code signing request failed because this file has been previously signed.

[ERROR] Signing failed

The solution to this error is to increment the buildId, as follows:

C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for TabletOS\bbwp>

bbwp c:\bbwp\build\ -g -gcsk pwd -gp12 pwd2 -o c:\bbwp\build -buildId 2

Another nice error was this:

[INFO] Parsing command line options

[ERROR] Cannot sign application – failed to find signing keys

This basically meant that your p12 file needs to be in this folder

C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for TabletOS\bbwp\bin

and named “sigtool.p12

Categories: Uncategorized

Basic HTTP Authentication over XMLHttpRequest (AJAX)

January 18, 2012 7 comments

Here is a simple way to perform basic HTTP Authentication with a XMLHttpRequest – Ajax request – from your webpage.

       var url = '';
	xml = new XMLHttpRequest();"GET", url, false, "username", "password");
	xml.onreadystatechange = function() {
	   if (xml.readyState != 4)  { return; }
	   if (xml.status != 200)  {

You don’t have to do the Base64 encoding yourself, unlike some examples online. – Do note that “url” needs to be on the same domain as your script.

Categories: Uncategorized

Install a COD file on a Blackberry

January 15, 2012 2 comments

Often, if a blackberry app fails to install correctly via Blackberry AppWorld, then you can contact the app developer and ask them for the COD file for a manual installation. If you use the Blackberry Desktop software, it isn’t difficult to install it manually. But here’s a video showing the procedure:

Categories: Top, Uncategorized

Make iPhone App available for iPad

January 13, 2012 Leave a comment

Ok, If you have an iPhone App, and want it to be available for iPad also, then selecti Edit Project Settings from the Project menu and then navigate to the Build tab.

Once there, search for “Targeted” in the search box, and change the value from iPhone to iPhone/iPad.

Categories: Uncategorized

Porting a Palm Pre WebOs App to Touchpad

January 8, 2012 1 comment

Without making any changes to a Palm Pre WebOs app, if you try to run it in a Hp Touchpad, then it appears like a little mobile phone in the middle of the screen, not making full use of the screen size available.

Easy fix is to add “uiRevision” : “2” to the appinfo.json file, thus making full use of the screen size.

And, it appears full screen as follows:

Categories: Uncategorized


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Home > Uncategorized > Free VLC remote for BlackBerry

Free VLC remote for BlackBerry

vlc bb

There are plenty of VLC remote apps for various platforms, but there is a simple web interface that allows any device to control VLC.

First, you have to enable the web interface, which is under View > Add interface > Web

Then, find your local ip address which is typically 192.168.0.xxx where xxx is a number between 1 and 255.  Press the windows key and R at the same time, type cmd, and then press enter

Type ipconfig into your command prompt window, and you should find your ip address.

Once this is done, open a web browser on your BlackBerry and type this ip address followed by :8080, i.e.

If you get a “forbidden error” at this point then you will have to open WordPad in administrator mode,  To do this, type WordPad into the search box in windows, then right click on the WordPad icon, and select “run as administrator”. Once it has opened, open the file “C:\program files\Video Lan\VLC\Lua\http\.hosts

Then, remove the hash symbols beside the ip addresses listed under “Private addresses”, Save the file, restart VLC, ensure that the web interface is selected then try again. If this fails, remove the hash symbols besude the ip addresses listed under “world” (- some security risk here, so not recommended)

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Give yourself a lift

13 May

Sarah Jessica Parker &Cheryl Cole's Big Hair

Want to recreate Cheryl Cole’s high volume look from the launch of US X Factor?

Dream Girl can’t help but think that with the show’s new judge and style guru Sarah Jessica Parker showcasing high-impact barnets that big hair is back for spring.

Advice has always suggested that to achieve a voluminous look, all you need to do is mix a little back-combing and blow-dry your hair upside down. Tease and tweak with hairspray and voila!

Yet anyone with fine hair will know this tends to deflate before you’ve even arrived at the dance floor. If your hair loses volume quickly, the easiest way to achieve thickness is with hair extensions.

It’s the easiest way to create a glam look and, if you use Clip’ N Go Hair Extensions, you can even style them before fitting them to your hair.

Begin with a volumising shampoo and conditioner to create a lift at the roots.

Use a round brush with soft bristles, designed to be used for hair extensions. Using a hair dryer, coil the hair around the brush, lifting the hair at the roots. As well as creating lift and volume, this will create a bouncy curl at the end.

Style each section individually, beginning at the nape of the neck and working your way up to the crown.

Hairspray will help keep ends in place and roots high.

If you’re fitting extensions after styling them, remember to work in layers to help create a natural look.

If you’re leaving your hair loose then you’re ready to go. If you want to tie your hair back, to keep the volume in check work ends from the sides first, making sure you come into the contact with the roots as little as possible (natural oils on your skin will add weight to your hair, reducing the volume). Tie gently either in a ponytail at the back of the next creating a sixties beehive style. For a more contemporary look, fix hair in a swept side bun, with volume at the crown adding glamorous style.

Remember to use products that are suitable for hair extensions. Dream Girl has a range of shampoo and conditioners designed to keep your locks in luscious shape.

2 Responses to “Give yourself a lift”

  1. Diana May 23, 2011 at 6:11 pm #

    Really good material! I have been previously searching for something like this for a little bit now. Cheers!

  2. Grete May 24, 2011 at 7:01 pm #

    I certainly agree about many of this, it has been practical. Very good post!

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Mad, Beautiful Ideas
Saint Louis' Forest Park

Catherine and I have been winding down our two-week vacation, which had us put nearly 2000 miles on our rental car as we drove from Branson, MO to Petersburg, KY and a hell of a lot more between. Our last few days, we spent in Saint Louis, MO. We didn't make arrangements to go see a Cardinals game (though we probably should have), since we weren't entirely sure when we were going to be through town, and we had some other things we wanted to see.

Those other things, consisting largely of the Saint Louis Zoo and the Saint Louis Science Center. It was a little odd, being nearly thirty and childless going through the Science Center, but Saint Louis has a truly amazing facility with some really great exhibits, and both are in Forest Park, the site of the 1903 World's Fair in Saint Loius.

And the zoo is clearly world class, particularly in some of it's newer areas where it boasts elaborate and accurate habitats for the animals that it keeps. Somehow, they do all of this, without charging an admission. It's free to enter either facility, and to view the vast majority of it's exhibits. There were a ton of dedication plaques around the exhibits, which showed how much of the new consruction and other things were financed, but for the ongoing costs (these facilities seem to employ many, and they can't all have been volunteers), it is clear that the city of Saint Louis, and it's people, are immensely generous to these organizations.

We spent the majority of a day at the Zoo, though it was very hot in the early part of the day, and as we passed through the African Jungle exhibits, which featured Hyenas and the like, the animals that we did see, were almost all sleeping in the dens that were dug into the habitat for them, desperately trying to stay cool. However, in that area of the park, they have an amazing Hippo exhibit, which is set up with an underwater viewing area, so you can watch the Hippo's swim (usually staying underwater fro 5 minutes or more) and play, but also see how the cicilids that inhabit their tank coexist with the Hippos, usually by picking at the Hippo's skin for mites and other things, while the Hippo's longued in the relatively cool water. Next were the Elephants, including one fairly large one we got to watch spray himself down with water using his trunk.

The hilight, in my wife's mind at least, was the Stingray Pool, which did carry a cost of $3 per person, but given that the maintenace area for the pool was at least as large as the pool itself, and the half-dozen people attending the exhibit, was still cheap. At the Stingray pool, you get the opportunity to reach into the water and pet the Stingrays (which have had their venomous sting trimmed), of which there were two varieties and a range of ages. There was an opportunity to feed the rays, using small fish that they were selling, however, we didn't. The rays tended to approach us as if we might have anyway.

There was plenty to see, particularly as the temperature dropped some, and the animals got to be a bit more active. Including the indoor exhibits (we only got to the bird house, the Monkey house and Herpatarium closed before we reached them), there is a ton to see at this facility, and the habitats were, as I said, excellent. There was also many interesting exhibits about the work that the zoo engages in, though a surprising number of them focused on reproduction inside of Zoos. Apparently, a lot of females are kept on IUDs to keep them from getting pregnant, and that contraceptive pill that they're working on for human men? Apparently, the Zoo's are hoping to be able to apply it to their charges as well.

And all of that is important, after all, the last thing the Zoo's want are a bunch of inbred animals running about, because we got pretty close to seeing Giraffe sex as a female giraffe was, we believe, pretty clearly propositioning a male who was apparently just not in the mood.

But the Zoo is far from the only activity in the park. The Jefferson History Museum seemed to be mostly free, except for the Catholic Artifacts exhbiit they had visiting, though we didn't spend too much time there, or in the Art Musueum. There are botanical gardens, which surround an area known as the 'Jewel Box', which I'm sure is beautiful in June, but was a bit crispy in August. There's Paddleboats, and an Amphitheater, and a Pavilion at the highest point in the park, overlooking Saint Louis. There are amazng statues all over the park as well. It's nice to walk through, even in the heat.

But, where we spent the majority of our second day in the park, was at the Saint Louis Science Center, which again, is almost entirely free to the public. The Pacific Science Center in Seattle, which I've visited at least a dozen times, currently costs $?? so this was a really surprising deal. From the park, you enter through the Planetarium, which I think is the best way to enter the Science Center, as they have real Gemini space capsules, which were evidently built in Saint Louis, as well as spacesuits worn during those missions. As you walk toward the overpass, there is a detailed history of NASA, as well as a collection of toys and memorobilia from America's obsession with space, ranging from Muppet Babies Astronaut Lunchboxes to Cognac decanters commerating Apollo 11. There is even a Ground Control thing that you get to take the controls of. Regrettably, this was closed for the entire day of our visit.

After the Space exhibit, there is a series on Structures, from bridges (suspension and trestle), arches (including two large arches that you can build), and earthquake resistance. As a special exhibition (which did carry a cost), there was an exhibit about a Pirate Ship that has been being recovered for the last twenty-five years or so, the Wydah, which was taken by a storm off the coast of Massachusetts three hundreds years ago. The exhibit is set up to tell two stories. First that of the ship, as it began it's journey hauling slaves. Then, the story of the man and crew who took her and changed her into a Pirate ship.

The exhibit was really excellent, as the efforts had recovered some really amazing artifacts, including a Sun King Pistol in remarkable condition, and several three- and four-pound cannons. The exhibit presented the Pirates, not in a romantic light, but an honest light. Making it clear why so many chose to 'go on the account' and join a pirate crew, when it was the best chance most sailors would ever have not only of getting wealthy, but of actually earning a wage, since many legitimate captains evidently did not pay their crews the wages they were promised. The Pirates were democratic. Even the Captain was elected and held to the same articles as the rest, sleeping with the crew in common quarters. When the Wydah was captured, one of the first things the Pirates apparently did with it was remove the cabins on deck, mostly to improve the ship as a fighting platform, but it also got rid of all the amenities of class common on other ships.

It was an amazing exhibit, well worth the $16 admission, which Catherine and I viewed as partially going to cover the cost of the rest of the visit to the science center.

We then proceeded to go through the 'History of Life' exhibit, which was a breath of fresh air after our visit earlier this week. The dioramas were excellent, and the detail on the animatronic T-Rex was pretty cool. There were some exhibits on the automobile and gearing, and the future of energy independence. But the Life Sciences exhibits really got Catherine excited. They have some really nice mountings of birds and smaller mammals for viewing, a fossil room with a T-Rex Metatarsal and other large dinosaur bones. There was even a lab targetting 10-12 year olds where they would get the opportunity to simple, yet exciting experiments like DNA extraction, fingerprinting and a few other things, all while wearing real lab coats.

The other exhibit we spend a lot of time in, was, of course, Cyberville! They're exhibit on the history (and future) of computing was good, though I kind of wish there had been a few other things. There was a kiosk letting you play with the binary representation of ASCII, but the best of the Binary exhibits was a train that let you send it commands, first for direction, then speed, then time. The instructions were AWFUL, but I worked with a ten year old to figure them out, and then we were able to do a basic job teaching boolean math to a few other kids. There was a robotics exhibit using LEGO Mindstorms, a laser harp, a room with a variety of sensors you could interact with. An Art room with a simple 3-D modeler, a VR exhibit (which was not functional), exhibits on how the basics of how the Internet works, and a cooperative game where you work in a team of three to create a building designed by one of the partners.

I spent WAY more time in this part of the museum than was probably necessary, but I had a lot of fun, and had a few mothers thank me for helping their kids understand the exhibits a bit better, which was nice.

Catherine and I are currently childless, but if you have children, Forest Park really seems to have something for just about anyone. And the vast majority of it is free. We really enjoyed our trip to Saint Louis, the people were nice, we found an amazing restaurant, and while it was extremely hot the majority of the trip, it was well worth the few days we got to spend in this city, and I look forward to getting to return.


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This post was supposed to be very simple. I’d list the ten startups that were selected after 250+ applications in the Innovate Delhi 2016 Accelerator Program and quote the essentials that the Investors were looking for in them. But just as I was putting the words together, the conducive environment of the hall of IIIT-Delhi, seemed to be the perfect setting for an interesting discussion among the loudest voices of the city’s pioneering generation.

IIIT-Delhi partnered with Hellomeets for a six week boot camp to provide an opportunity to startups to show their business propositions and pitch before angel investors at the end of the program. We had among us Ashray Iyengar (Nexus Venture Partner), Videt Jaiswal (Saif Partners), Girish Shivani (YourNest), Shuvi Shrivastava (Lightspeed Venture Partners), Swarandeep Kamboas (Axon Partners Group) and many more as the Investors.

Investors mainly focus on startups with potential for insane growth. Startups need customers, polished product, promising business model, a strong pitch and of course, a credible team. But for entrepreneurs it is a tough task to reach that level unsupported. And that’s where the accelerator model steps in.

The teams present in the event are going strong on an upward trajectory and drawing seed funding. Some seemed quite adept; we noticed that they have their product, traction, scalability, focus and poise, just the type of qualities that an investor will fund.

Here’s a quick review of the startups-

It is an automated influencer marketing platform to connect Brands and Influencers. To Influencers it provides:

- Live Social Channel Dashboard

- Live Socialfluence Audit

And to Brands:

- Intelligent Influencer search across internet

- Automated Campaign management with ROI

Changed algorithm by social media hurts brands and that’s where they step in!

CustTap provide an intelligent Customer Engagement and Marketing Platform for Brick and Mortar Stores. Amar Parkash displayed a real-time problem-

So much is the business opportuinity of offline stores, but the Eco System is poor and the approach to the market is restricted.

They have some huge amount of data but no Digitization. Now these people provide a cloud based data analytics system and educate and aware the sellers. This idea must be brought home!

We love texting, don’t we? YOU, yes you, are texting while reading this. Perfect. This is what Morph.AI is about; using the habit of people to message. It’s a B2B platform to build conversational bots for businesses.

It just learns how a conversation takes place and gets rid of redundancies with use. These bots are gonna help you to buy things and for automated customer support over channels like Facebook, Twitter, Live-Chat etc.

Just like Watches never went out of fashion, despite number of gadgets which can tell time, Newspapers never went out of fashion either. But spending hours on the Newspaper is no longer in Vogue.

Here, our “Awsumm” team takes lead. Awsummly is an AI based Short News App with “relevant” content. They claim real-time news in 22+ languages, personalised and no information overload. Maybe give it a shot and download the App off the Play Store?

One thing that impressed me when I saw their App Traction was that their numbers really do speak!

They provide free Employability Assessment of 40+ skills using mobile application and connect jobseekers with recruiters using pre-accessed profiles. The App provides recommendation, employment news and study, video interview facility and the list goes on. Guys this one surely has an innovative spark!

A slight variation from its contenders, BookMySawari is an online platform that organizes the Intercity Cab Rental market. They solve the problem of lack of standardization, price and service.

Surprisingly, they are quite OK with the one-way destinations and seem to somehow get customers from the other side too. And when they don’t, they still cover up the losses with ease. They have really got some good profits flowing in, the statistics show. Luck? A magical Marketing Strategy rather!

University Living Accomodation

In a new country and amongst people who speak alien language, how will you ever find a place?! University Living is your Super Hero. It is a platform for International Students to Discover, Compare and Book student Accommodation from their native country. Ever gone to a departmental store for an item and found the complementing items for free? This is what University Living is offering. Secure Payments, Property Tours, Flexible Options for short and long term and short term stay, Counseling, Documentation Support and what not!

Remember the competition that your parents warned you of? This is it.

Olly Credit

It is a smart Payment Card App. You can literally have a temporary ON and OFF button for your card! Didn’t we need this magic all those times when we desperately needed to cancel a payment and couldn’t do so? How about the times of fraud? What about managing and tracking expenses?

Now these people are doing some fine business with number of orders pouring in. With the UPI taking shape, Olly can be a great complementary.

There is a key issue for men in online bespoke clothing: they suck. More specifically, app-based services lack user engagement and follow through. So this gentleman, Rishabb Bhoot built SUITSBYYOU like the ancient time dressmakers who come to your doorstep, measure you, show you a variety of material and finally make you a customized piece.

You will get a Stylist’s opinion on clothing, consultation and most importantly it will be affordable. SUITSBYYOU is doing some really, really cool, lucky business! Watch out for them!

Here we have our typical environment guys. They are a clean-tech company that specializes in Air Quality measurement and Purification. And the best part is that they are India-based. Air purification seems like a heavy cost, but apparently that’s not the case. They have their product tested and selling in the market. They are already well ahead in the CSR aspect as well. Gets a nod from me!

Credit should most notably be given to the mentors and of course our Investors who carefully critiqued the startups (we always need that to help us grow). And finally congratulations must be extended to the teams for their efforts! All the Best!

Upcoming Workshops at @ HelloMeets —

Google Analytics Workshop — 16th July | 3pm to 7pm

How should Developers & Designers work together to Speed up the work? — 17th July | 10 am to 4 am

Content Writing Workshop — 17th July | 3pm to 7pm

Blog credits — Sakshi Kaul, Content Writer @Hellomeets


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Company Culture

How to Recognize and Celebrate Success at Work

When last did you raise a glass to the success of your company’s achievements? Celebrating milestones injects life into the organisation, making it worthwhile for employees to contribute to the long term success of the company. Defining success can be as simple as a praise for an individual's performance over a week or the overall success of the company over the past 12 months. Success should be whenever a colleague achieves a goal.  Personal efforts count when the achievement contributes to the team’s common goals. Basically, everything that gets done and contributes to the the mission of the team is a team success.

If you have a team member who has achieved something important in his/her roll, a celebration can be as simple as treating them to a lunch and discussing their success in detail. Understand what they loved about the success, how it made them feel and if there was space for possible improvement. Its likely that this person is passionate about their recent achievement, and will be incredibly open to talking about it. Celebration lead to establishing ritual that help to simply make it through a tough week. Camaraderie within an organization lead to higher employee moral and ensure that the most valued colleagues stick around for good.

Should team mates share success stories?

The stories employees tell about how they achieve a goal can be very helpful. They are the practical tips others can take up to solve similar problems. Others learn from the workflow of the success. In addition, success stories serve as an inspiration for others to excel. When team members share stories with each other, the team gets stronger because people get to know each other better.

Why should everyone recognize everyone else’s success?

Recognizing success is very powerful. employee recognition brings fulfilment because it reinforces the meaning of determination and collaboration. When you show your respect to another’s  achievement, you are likely to boost their esteem.

Moreover, a manager can motivate an employee a great deal by showing gratitude and appreciation towards the employee's accomplishments. Being motivated by the manager, they are likely to try harder and contribute more. Mutual respect brings forges stronger relationships and encourages employee engagement.

How to share and celebrate success

  • The story

Sharing success is like telling a story. You want to tell a good story that has an impact. You want to help and inspire people to achieve their own goals. Here is some tips for a good story:

  • Focus on useful content

You want your audience to take home practical tips. Think of the exact step-by-step that you have taken to achieve a goal. Share the steps as a tool to solve a similar problem.

  • Be inspirational and authentic

You want to inspire your audience to gain something for themselves. Think back of the obstacles, especially mental blocks, and how you overcame them. A story that talks to one’s feelings tends to have a stronger impact and stay longer in one’s mind.

Moreover, it is very important to try not to come across as being arrogant. You have all the rights to be proud of your achievement but avoid sounding snobby. It is best to stay authentic and down to earth.

The celebration

As manager, you should take time to celebrate a employee achievements. Show them that you do not take their hard work for granted. Besides, it is helpful to create an environment where team mates can easily recognize and celebrate each other’s success.

Here is some tips for you, as manager, to make a positive impact with recognizing employee achievement.

  • Do it soon

The rule for recognition is that the earlier the better. Being manager, you should always know what is going on in your team. If your employees do something great, you should be the first to notice and the first to congratulate them. Come to them as soon as you can, for a handshake or a high-five. An official congratulation or a bonus can come later but there is no reason why you should wait to say thanks to an employee for his or her hard work.

  • Make it public

A public recognition is more powerful than a private one. You don’t have to put up a stage with flowers and stereo sound system every time, of course. But a compliment in public is far better at boosting one’s esteem than the same one sent via an email or even 1-on-1. A celebration only feels like a real one with a crowd and some level of noise. That is why we gather for fireworks to celebrate a new year or a national holiday. Well, I am not saying you should stock fireworks in your company’s basement. It works as well when you have a Wall of Fame with photos of your go-getters. You can also get a buzzer to hit when someone achieves something. As manager, you could hold weekly meeting(e.g.15 minutes of heroism) to make success acknowledgement official and public. Let’s share ideas below in the comment section.

Add a bonus or a token gift

A high-five or a handwritten thank-you note is great but more is in order in many cases. Rewards and hard work should go together. Depending on the level of achievement, a certain form of rewards is due. Why do you think the Nobel Prizes, the Pulitzer Prizes, the Oscars and many other awards exist?

It is important to reward your employees, so you should do learn to do it appropriately. It would be even better if you can do it in a creative and authentic way.

Rewards can come in all shapes and sizes, and can involve cash or non-monetary rewards. Traditional rewards often include a monetary bonus or a pay rise. Inarguably, most would be happy and motivated with a bigger paycheck. However, there are rewards that can be just as effective or even more impactful and cost the company far less. To name a few ideas:

  • A day-off pass to use for extra time off or flexible hours

  • A nice, long lunch to celebrate the achievement together

  • A voucher from a fine diner in town

  • A massage gift card

Do you have some good ideas?

Go an extra mile to find out what your employees like, what their hobbies are and what they are passionate about. For example, if an employee likes reading, a book signed by her favourite author will make a great gift. It shows that you can also go the extra mile to make her happy as she did with clients.

In brief

Building a great team is a challenging job. You should take pride in your team’s success. Take time and efforts to celebrate success with your people. Whenever one achieves a goal, acknowledge your appreciation timely and publicly. Never to forget a reward or a token gift. Recognize employee achievement and you will reap the rewards from their motivation and loyalty. Impraise gives employees and managers the ability to recognise the success of others, through constructive feedback and meaningful feedback.

Looking for more ideas on how to motivate, engage and develop your team? Check out our free eBook.

Photo Credit: Alejandro Scaff


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FMCSA discuss medication, insurance, and cross border pilot program

The FMCSA’s Motor Carriers Safety Advisory Committee and their Medical Review Board will be discussing the affects of painkillers and amphetamines on truckers driving ability. The Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee will also hold another meeting to discuss possibly raising liability insurance for both carriers and brokers. They will also be discussing their failed cross borders pilot program with Mexican companies that ended last month.

The meeting are open to the public. The Medication discussion will take place Oct 27 and the rest on Oct 28 at the Hilton Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria Va., at 9-4:30pm in the Washington and Jefferson Rooms. Online comments are welcome until Oct 22 at the following link CCJ Digital>>

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Mario's Blog

The journal of a software developer who has a fondness of cheese

Remote Website Backups With Mysqldump and Rsync

Today I went through the process of creating a very simple automated backup solution for my linux web server using mysqldump and rysnc. I thought i’d share as it’s really easy to do and you should always be backing up your info.

The machine i’m backing up hosts my live websites, database server (mysql) and git repositories. I also have a linux machine at home that can be accessed over ssh which will be receiving the backups. The rsync setup process will differ if you’re using a local machine.

The first thing to do is to setup mysqldump to output the contents of the database. This can be fairly system intensive for large databases, but mine is quite small so it’s ok to run and finishes fairly quickly.

The mysqldump tool should be included in your mysql installation, there are similar tools for other DBMS’s too. By default mysqldump outputs to the STDOUT, so we can redirect the output to a file of our choice, here’s how:

mysqldump -AR -u [username] -p[password] > [location]

Just fill in your database username, password and the output location you want and run it on the terminal, and yes there SHOULD NOT be a space between -p and your password :)

You should have a sql file with all of your database data. The dump can be setup as a cron task, i’ve set mine up to run every day at midnight. Simply run crontab -e to modify your cron configuration and put in the following line.

0 0 * * * mysqldump --all-databases -u [username] -p[password] > [location]

We can now go ahead and setup rsync to backup our information. Rsync was already installed on my system but if you don’t have it already you can grab it using apt or any other package manage, here’s how in apt.

sudo apt-get install rsync

Once installed we need to setup our backups. Rsync can be setup using configuration files that can be altered to suit your needs. Just for convenience i’ve just run rsync directly rather than using configuration files. Here’s how.

rsync -e ssh -p 50001 -azvP /var/backups/mysql/ [username]@[hostname]:[path]

OK, so there’s a bit much there, here’s what each part does. We’re calling the rsync command, my machine that will be getting the backups is available through ssh on port 50001, so the -e command sets up rsync to use ssh on port 50001. The -a flag sets archive mode which will recursively look through directories and preserve symlinks/times/groups and owners of files, -v gives us a verbose output with more info and -P gives us a nice little progress bar.

You can just copy the example code and fill in the username, hostname and path with your own receiving servers details and then run the command on the command line.

Once it’s all working we can put it into cron and specify that it gets run once daily. We can set it up to run at 10 minutes past midnight, this should give our mysql dump a chance to finish before we back it up. For the cron task we won’t need a verbose output or a progress bar so we’re only using -az and not -azvP. The P flag does allow for partial transfers which we still want, so i’ve added --partial to the cron.

10 0 * * * rsync -e ssh -p 50001 -az --partial /var/backups/mysql/

That’s it. We’re all done!


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Monthly Archives: December 2014

If you were a fly on the wall in our offices, you’d hear the word fit somewhat regularly. Sometimes, it’s because we’re talking about how we wish we exercised more, e.g., “I sure wish I were more fit!” Most of the time, however, we’re talking about whether or not a contractor, vendor or potential new […]

Lady Redundant Woman

If you have younger kids, you may have seen the TV show Word Girl. One of the villainous characters is called Lady Redundant Woman. Lady Redundant Woman obtained the powers of duplication when she was fused with a copy machine. As you might expect, she often speaks in redundancies. Why this education in unusual children’s […]

An update on the CFPB

We’ve been silent for awhile on the subject of lending discrimination and the CFPB, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the lending world stopped talking about it. Today, for example, Toyota Credit announced that it has been accused of discrimination by the CFPB and the Justice Department. Like most of the recent claims against […]


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Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Employee Spotlight: Lee H

Name: Lee H.
Time with Company: 1998 to present
Area of Company: Software Development
Do you trade in your spare time: Off and on.
Favorite part of your job: Making the software easier to use for our customers.
Favorite Quote: No other success can compensate for failure in the home.
Favorite Color: I'm partially color blind - I worry that my favorite is one of the colors I can't see.
If you weren't working with MetaStock what would you want to be doing: Writing flight simulation software

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Let's Share

We Are Molecule

At Molecule, we definitely Do Things a Certain Way. As our team has grown, we’ve thought at length about what that means.

Why bother? Well, we want our team members to be independent and share their awesomeness with us (why would we have hired them otherwise?), so we have more awesomeness to share with our customers. At the same time, we want to give our customers a consistent, fantastic experience every time they interact with our team or our product.

I believe that if everyone at Molecule has a shared framework for decision-making, then we can make similar choices independently. Given that, the results of a decision made by anyone on our team (regardless of implementation) should ultimately reflect what we as a company strive to do. That’s what matters.

Without further ado, and after much debate, refinement, and more debate, we’re proud to share our Values with you. They are also available here.

We are Molecule.

  • We own Molecule in big and small ways.
  • We want the best for Molecule and for each other.
  • We succeed as a team and fail as a team.
  • We make a meaningful impact on the enterprise software industry.

We do what’s best for the customer.

  • We provide the best approach to meet customer needs.
  • We strive to have secure, pragmatic and informed solutions.
  • We challenge the status quo by starting with first principles.
  • We want customers to achieve the maximum with minimal effort.
  • We challenge our solutions and are not afraid to toss them out the window.

We strive to be world-class.

  • We hire the best Molecules.
  • We work hard and smart, and continually learn.
  • We try hard things, ask questions, and teach others.
  • We do not fear mistakes - but we fail quickly and learn from them.
  • We reach for the unreachable.
  • We fight for what we believe is right.
  • We accept constructive criticism gracefully - from anyone, to anyone.
  • We set clear goals and use data to evaluate the best course of action.

We embrace diversity of race, gender, creed, culture, ability, orientation, and technology.

  • We use welcoming and inclusive language.
  • We respect differing viewpoints and experiences.
  • We focus on what is best for the community.
  • We show empathy and compassion towards other community members.

We love technology.

  • We believe technology can help humanity do great things.
  • We learn from seeing how others use technology in new and wonderful ways.
  • We are comfortable with, and excited about, technology.
  • We make and use the best and most beautiful technology.
  • We embrace bleeding-edge tech.
  • We love open source and contribute to the open source community.

We give back to the world.

  • We share what we learn with the community.
  • We help other entrepreneurs and new companies.
  • We contribute to our physical and our online communities.
  • We leave our communities better than we found them.


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A Weekly Slice of Something Sweet, All Content, Blog

It’s Sunday and it’s time for Something Sweet 31

Happy Sunday once again everyone. It has been another hectic week at Mr Baker’s Blog HQ as we draw ever nearer to the reveal of my oh-so-secretive collaboration project, ‘The Greatest Showpiece’. But panic not, I am still here with your weekly slice of all the latest news from the world of cake!

In this week’s issue, find out how I got on when I tackled bread week’s technical challenge during my third #bakealongwithGBBO challenge, discover which caker was invited to help Roald Dahl’s birthday celebrations get off to a flying start in Cardiff and we also check out some of the winners from last weekend’s Show Me Sweets Edible Art and Cake Competition in St. Louis, Missouri.

In other news, I share a top tip from Dawn Butler of Dinkydoodle Design that is truly life-changing, we revisit Jane’s Patisserie to check out her latest recipe, which is perfect as autumn starts to arrive and we have an utterly gorgeous collaboration!

I also shine my spotlight on Javier Azócar of Luma’s Cake, provide you with a whole host of fabulously gorgeous cakes and bakes to marvel over and enjoy and, of course, we find out who has scooped this week’s Cake of the Week!

Also featuring: Truly Scrumptious Cakes by Design, Cakes by Timbo, Dragons & Daffodils Cakes, Botero Challenge, Chain Lane Cake Co., Little Cherry Cake Company and Cakes by Carol.

Find all this and more in issue 31 of Something Sweet!

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Two Customer Experience Trends That Make Digital Transformation a Necessity for Manufacturers

Aug 28, 2018 7:18:35 AM / by Sam Reddy posted in Customer Experience, digital transformation

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” – Henry Ford
This famous quote from Henry Ford largely describes the last hundred years of manufacturing. Mass production is efficient, cost-effective, and has revolutionized the way we produce goods. But as customer expectations shift and manufacturers look for new competitive advantages, the way things were is no longer good enough.

Today, customers want the ability to customize and personalize products. They want more in the way of services than just a simple manufacturer’s warranty. They expect that the products they use will provide them with real value, and they’re willing to change the way they pay for them in order to get this value.

The need to improve the customer experience has led to two new approaches to manufacturing – mass customization and servitization. Implementing these new approaches will force companies to adopt new technologies, operational processes, and business models. Digital transformation is essential to improving the customer experience and embracing the future of manufacturing.

Mass Customization

Customers no longer want standardized, unified, and mass produced goods. According to Deloitte, 36 percent of consumers have already expressed interest in purchasing personalized products, and this number should grow as more options become available. People want the ability to put their own unique spin on the products they buy.

Mass customization represents a major shift in the way goods are produced. It combines the flexibility and personalization of custom-made products with the cost and efficiency benefits of mass production. Leveraging new production methods, advanced robotics, and technologies such as 3D printing, it allows customers to choose unique features or components without sacrificing on cost or quality.

When it comes to the customer experience, manufacturers who are able to effectively implement mass customization options into their production process have a significant competitive advantage. There’s the potential to reach more consumers and differentiate from other brands who lack the ability to personalize their products. And even more exciting, Deloitte also found that more than 1 in 5 of consumers who expressed interest in personalized products are willing to pay a 20 percent premium for them.

By now, most of us are well aware of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model that has revolutionized the software industry. This model changed the way people pay for software. Instead of paying for ownership, they pay for access. Essentially, they are paying for the outcome, not the product itself.

Manufacturing is beginning the make this transition as well, with the potential to completely transform business models. Instead of selling products, manufacturers are selling outcomes, value, and providing far more services than the standard warranty. Consider the potential impact this can have on the way you do business. Instead of selling a product once, the as-a-service model is recurring, subscription based, and predictable.

According to Oxford Economics, 44 percent of companies seen as high performers in servitization have seen an increase in their profit margins by 20 percent. Similarly, the further along a manufacturer is in offering services, the higher their margins. 85 percent of best-in-class companies achieve a margin greater than 10 points, compared to only 46 percent of companies who are lagging behind.

Digital Transformation Enables a Better Customer Experience

Both mass customization and servitization are revolutionizing the way goods are produced and the way customers and manufacturers interact. Instead of being paid once for a standard, mass produced good, manufacturers can access new business models based on recurring revenue and personalization.

Behind these new approaches will be the technology and systems that make them possible. Big data will play a major role in creating these new experiences, while the Internet of Things will be essential to collecting this data, enabling services, and increasing transparency across the entire value chain. The adoption of 3D printing and advanced robotics will create even more opportunities for customization without increasing costs, while artificial intelligence will allow companies to identify new business opportunities.

Digital transformation must start from the customer experience. And the customer experiences of the future are based on mass customization and servitization. Manufacturers must embrace digital transformation or risk falling behind competitors who do.

Remember, digital transformation is about more than new technology - it is about seeing new ways to do business. Contact Optimized Solutions to define your business model, understand how you are making money today, and anticipate how your business would be different in the digital economy of tomorrow.
Download: The 6 Key Technologies and Innovations That Are Changing an Industry

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The Digital Maturity Curve for Manufacturers – Where Do You Stand?

Aug 28, 2018 7:06:06 AM / by Sam Reddy posted in manufacturing, digital transformation, Digital Maturity, data analytics

See where you stand. Take our 2 minute assessment to see how digitally savvy you are compared to the competition.
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5 Ways Manufacturers are Using Data for Better Business Results

Aug 17, 2018 12:59:39 AM / by Aravindan Umshankar posted in digital transformation, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, warehousing, IIot, Industrial internet of things

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Data is the Answer for Transportation and Logistics Companies. But What is the Question?

Jul 19, 2018 4:22:02 AM / by Aravindan Umshankar posted in digital transformation, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, warehousing, IIot, Industrial internet of things

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How Will Smart Manufacturing Benefit My Business?

Jul 4, 2018 8:31:16 AM / by Sam Reddy posted in digital transformation, manufacturing

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Technology Alone Isn’t Enough – Why Most Manufacturers Fail at Digital Transformation

Jun 8, 2018 9:27:44 AM / by Sam Reddy posted in digital transformation, manufacturing

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Digital Transformation-Know your maturity score

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4 quick tips to make sure you're getting relevant hire rates for your project

Posted by PlantMiner

When was the last time you had to hire plant, equipment or a team of subcontractors for a project?

For many of us, receiving irrelevant hire rates for your project happens far too often. This can be due to not being specific enough with what you require, leaving out important information, or simply a misunderstanding between what you need, and what a supplier is providing rates on.

While we can't always prevent this from happening, there are some quick tips to follow to help ensure you get more relevant rates from plant, equipment and subcontracting suppliers.

1. Be specific with your project Location

Adding a location to your request for rates will ensure you are receiving quotes from suppliers located near your work site. Being specific with your location will help suppliers gauge any fluctuations in rates and it will be much more beneficial for a supplier to know your exact location (street number and address) over suburb region in case there are any access restrictions around your project site.

2. Specify whether you need an operator

It's important to specify whether you require an operator for the gear you're hiring. If you do need to hire an operator for a machine, make sure you list out any tickets or licenses they may need to comply with your hire. You should also consider:

  • How much experience the operator has
  • Proof of qualification and licenses of operator

3. Set a start and end date for the project, and let supplier know if this changes.

Setting a clear start and end date for your hire request will ensure you receive quotes from companies who can service the full duration of your project. We understand that this may not be possible all the time (due to projects taking longer than expected), so if this is the case, make sure you’re keeping the line of communication open with the supplier you’ve hired through. They may be able to extend your hire, which will save you time spent running around looking for a replacement.

4. Indicate any additional requirements

Before you send a request for rates to a hire supplier, it's best to indicate any additional requirements you may have. This will help prevent any nasty surprises when you receive your hire invoice. Additional requirements may include:

  • Fuel
  • Maintenance
  • Delivery/pickup (mob/demob)

All these factors will affect the rate of your hire, so if you need them covered, make sure your include them.

It's a powerful tool to know how to get the best value rates for your next project. To help with your procurement of plant and equipment, we've complied this FREE eBook, Wet vs Dry Hire Comparisonso you can consider which is the most economic and productive options for future jobs.

wet and dry hire infograph

For more assistance on procuring rates for your next plant, equipment or subcontractor hire, get in touch with one of our Hire Professionals on 1300 550 434 or tell us what you need to hire and we’ll be in touch to define your exact requirements.

PlantMiner is Australia's leading plant, equipment and subcontractor hire marketplace, connecting you with all your construction project hire needs in one place.


text:
SAT Word of the Day

(n.) easily combustible material used for starting a fire

(pronounced "TIN-der")

Example Sentence:

  • The scout leader found dried grass and dried leaves to use as tinder when starting the camp fire.

Create your own sentence and post it below.

The best sentence will be entered to win a free SAT course.

* We will choose a new winner each month. Good luck!


text:
I Received a K-1. What Is It?

Income and Investments

It’s mid-March. Nearly two months ago, you received your W-2. A short while later, the last of your 1099-INTs from your bank arrived.  Just when you thought you had all of your tax documents, you surprisingly received a corrected 1099-DIV. If you weren’t such a procrastinator, you would have filed your tax return a few weeks ago.  Good thing you hadn’t!

But the strangest thing happened today – you opened the mail and there, with your name on it, is a tax form you’ve never seen: Form K-1. You weren’t expecting it, you never received one before, and you just got it, only a month before the tax deadline.

You: What gives?

A K-1 is a tax form distributed by many partnerships, S-Corps, estates, and trusts.  If you are a general or limited partner of a partnership, a shareholder in an S-Corp, or the beneficiary of an estate or trust, you’re likely to receive a K-1.

You: But what is it?

A K-1 is just like a W-2 or other tax form.  You use the information provided on the form to accurately complete your tax return.  Except as illustrated in the opening scenario, K-1s are often distributed much later in the year than other tax forms.

You: Why do they arrive so late?

In order for the entity to send you the K-1, it first needs to complete its own tax return.

You: Huh?

For example, a partnership must prepare its taxes- its partnership tax return – before it sends out the K-1s to the partners.   The due date for most partnership tax returns is March 15. Consequently, K-1s are often received much later than other tax forms. Furthermore, like individuals, partnerships can request extensions of time to file, often until September 15.

You: So I might not receive a K-1 until after April 17, the deadline for my tax return?

Indeed, it’s not only possible, it happens routinely.

You: So how do I plan for that?

Most people who receive K-1s know they will receive them.

You: How do they know?

It’s rare to own a partnership or be a trust fund kid and not know it.

You: I suppose you’re right. So if get one of these K-1s, what would I do next?

Once you’re ready to start your tax return, collect all your tax forms, including any K-1s. If you’re using tax software, the program will tell you what you need to do with each form. TurboTax easily guides you through entering items reported on your K-1 and puts the information on your proper tax forms.

So, don’t lose too much sleep; the K-1 is, ultimately, just another form used to complete your taxes and report your income to the IRS.

Comments (144) Leave your comment

  1. I’m retired and receiving social security benefits. I receive no other income. before I retired, I invested in a company, and ended up loosing my entire investment. I recently received a K-1 form 1065, showing my losses. How will this effect my benefits if any when I file, especially since I took a loss on my investment?

  2. My partnership stock acquired another company and they sent me a k-1 1065 with a supplemental statement with and income for the stock I own and an income for the company they acquired in box 1. which one should I use or do i have to use the total?

  3. My partnership stock acquired another company and they sent me a k-1 1065 with a supplemental statement with and income for the stock I own and an income for the company they acquired in box 1. which one should I use or do i have to use the total.

  4. Hi I received a K-1 that has an amount in box 5 from when they sold my sister house who past. The lawyer said tax was already paid on this but when I add it I owe more money. Should I be making an adjustment or not including it since the lawyer said the estate paid the taxes.

  5. I have w-2 income, sch A, D and K-1’s. Pretty simple return – which is the best Turbo Tax to purchase to complete my return?

    1. Never actually purchase anything on Turbotax, if you pay for it or say no thanks, it does the exact same thing. I have been paying for years, I hit no thanks this year just to see, I did pay, everything went through, and I already have my refund.

  6. Have you ever thought about writing an e-book or guest authoring on other websites?
    I have a blog based on the same information you discuss and would love to have you share
    some stories/information. I know my visitors would value your work.
    If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e-mail.

  7. Thanks for some other informative website. The place else could I am getting that kind of information written in such an ideal
    means? I’ve a venture that I am just now working on, and I
    have been at the look out for such info.

  8. Received a K1 from a trust. SSN is in box E. Partners name is the company that I work for. This $ was never received just reinvested. Does this still have to be reported on tax return

  9. I received a number of K-1s after I filed my 1040. All of them have zeros throughout, and one has $6 only in the Interest Income line. Do I need to file an amended 1040 because of this? Thank you.

  10. I received another K-1 in the mail today.. so I just filed for an extension. Can I purchase/use Turbo Tax 2013 after the filing deadline ?

  11. Turbo Tax tells me that I have to file a second K-1 because Part III Box 16 has numbers in both F, C and D. How do I separate these into two K-1’s

      1. I am filing an amended 2013 return and have the same situation; were you ever able to find an answer?

      2. I found an answer: https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2562547-how-do-i-add-a-separate-k1-worksheet-for-box16d-and-16e-foreign-gains

        “For the second entry in Box 16 just go back to the beginning of the Schedule K-1 interview and tell TurboTax you have another partnership Schedule K-1 to enter. You can change the partnership name slightly, like adding “#2″ to the correct name, for your own information. (The partnership name shows up nowhere in the income tax return.) This Schedule K-1 will have the second Box 16 entry without anything else.”

  12. I have Turbo Tax Deluxe and it asks me many questions about my K-1 but I can not say it is “easily guiding” me through. I am very comfortable with the rest of my tax return but I don’t know what to do with these! (All from short-term investments).

      1. Deluxe is asking me questions for the K-1. Are you saying that Premier will ask me different questions then Deluxe?

  13. So is a K-1 the money you’ll receive this year, or is just reporting your share of profits from the business entity? It looks like it’s being treated as a realized income, so the amount in box 1 should be what you receive this tax year right? I assume you won’t have to pay anymore taxes on it since it’s already been included as income this year right?

  14. I’m looking at taking a job, that instead of paying wages, will pay me a percentage of the net profits. I will be established as a “1% revocable partner” and receive a K-1. Expected gross income from this position will be approx. $50,000. Will I wind up paying more or less taxes?

    1. the same. It just comes to you on a K-1 instead of a W-2 or a 1099. Depending on the type of LLC you could actually get a positive net benefit depending on the expenses and whether you are considered a partner.

  15. I sold all stocks like, KKR and BX which had K-1″s in my IRA’s due to no way to handle them automatically in Turbo Tax. This year I noticed a question was asked ” was this K-1 in an IRA?” Since I had none this year I didn’t check that box but does that indicate that Turbo Tax can now effectively handle a K-1 in an IRA?

  16. Getting my 2012 taxes done today but still haven’t received a k-1. should I wait for it, file for an extension or estimate or do an amended filing later? Don’t these partnerships have to get us these k-1’s before April 15th?
    Thank you for your help

  17. My Grandmother past away in 2004 and in her will she left a trust to the 3 grandchildren, me included. The will stated that we were not to receive our third until we turned 30. I turned 30 March of 2012 and the following January (01-2013) I received paperwork from the trust holders to initiate the transfer of my share. I’ve received the check and deposited it into my savings account for the time being. My wife and I would like to pay off some student loans with a portion of it but I’m not sure how much to save back for the following tax year. Is there a ballpark figure on what to hold out? Are we talking 15% of earnings or 15% of the entire disbursement? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

  18. Hi! I received a K-1 with Code C for “other distribution” on line-19. This is from a firm which invests in shares from secondary-market (pre-IPO) and when the shares went IPO, the purchase amount is set to distribution amount on K-1.
    I have already filed my tax-return with the K-1 but without the distribution amount. The distribution amount does not seem taxable since the sales of the shares was accounted on Schedule-D.
    I ran turbo-tax with amendment and the net change in Federal and California taxes seems zero.
    I want to confirm that I do not need to file an amendment due to this distribution on K-1.
    Thank you.

  19. I received a Schedule CT K-1 which includes a tax liability amount in Part III, line 1. However, when I use the non-resident CT return in TurboTax, after entering my ordinary income from the CT K-1, a different tax liability is calculated. Additionally, there does not appear to be a CT K-1 form in TurboTax. How do I include the information from Part III, line 1 in my CT return?

  20. TT instructions indicate that info in boxes 13, 16 and 20 must be manually entered. Box 13 has T numbers from T1 to T8, box 16 has a series E, J, M, A. Box 20 has Y1 to Y4. Where do tey all go.

  21. My mom passed away in 2009. Everything was in trust. Just recently, we finally sold the house. the trust has been dissolved. I never received a K-1 before. Last week I received a K-1 for 2009 listing interest income, etc. with no explanation of what the interest was for. I was not the trustee, just a beneficiary. How do I file this form? Do I file it with my current year taxes or do I need to amend my 2009 return?

    1. Hi Donna,
      Sorry about your loss. The K-1 should have dates that it’s related to like 2009 or 2009-2010. You would file it in the year that it’s related to. So if it says 2009 you would need to amend your tax return for 2009.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  22. What do I do if I filed my K1 and it keeps asking for trust and estate tax numbers and beneficiaries. I don’t have a trust or beneficiaries??

  23. We live in Maine and received a K-1 for income from a limited partnership in Wisconsin. Are we required to also file a Wisconsin state return in addition to our Maine state return? Or can we claim that income on our Maine state return. It looks like Turbo tax is telling me I do have to file a Wisconsin return. But it also looks like Maine is claiming taxes for that as well.

  24. My 2011 Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) zeroed out my capital account and I am unsure if I need one for the 2012 return. If the partnership id defunct do I need a K-1 for 2012?

  25. I received a k-1 from my father’s estate. I went through the questions in TT. Box 11 had A, C, D and the amounts. While TT reviewed, it was flagged for a detailed explanation on line 21 of my 1040, concerning box 11 D ~ $205.00. I have no idea what to put as an explanation. I don’t know where else to look for help. Thanks.

  26. I received a 2011 K-1 in late March 2012 as a beneficiary of an estate. The K-1 listed the full amount I received from the estate even though I received only 55% of the money in calendar year 2011. The other 45% I received at the same time as the K-1 (March 2012). Do I have to report the money I received in March 2012 on my 2011 tax return?

    1. Hi Mike,
      Since K-1 for the estate ended on March 2012 and income from the estate is reported to you in 2012, you need to report it on your 2012 tax return.

      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  27. I received a K-1 as I have for years and filed them as they were presented to me. Now the accounting firm that issued them is saying they made a mistake for the last 4 years and I received more deductions than I should have & that it is my fault for filing the K-1! That they want to file an amended return for the last four years all at once to fix the accounting mistake. Isn’t this a mistake they should be liable for?

    They are claiming that the K-1 is for “informational purposes only”.

    Any thoughts here?

    1. Hi B,
      K-1s are used to pass through amounts to individual parties who have interest in the entity. I’m not sure what type of K-1 you have (trust,estate,partnership), but you are supposed to report income and deductions from those entities on your personal tax return.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  28. I received a K-1 (Schedule 1041) for a Survivor’s Trust for calendar year 2011, and am amending my 2011 return (already submitted & rec’d). At the step where TT asks if this is the final K-1 expected to be rec’d, there is a note to answer “yes” if there is an amount in box 11. There is no amount in this box (Final year deductions); does that mean I should answer “no”? Thank you.

    1. Hi Brian,
      Your K-1 should indicate if it is a final K-1 by a check mark. If it is not indicated that it is final and there are no amounts in box 11 then answer “no”. You can also check with the trust administrator to make sure.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  29. TurboTax Premier asks if I received a K-1. I have, but the company involved is not recognized as an “S” corp in one of the states I file in. For that state return, do I answer “yes” or “no”?

    1. Hi Phil,
      You should still answer yes. When you put the state information in the program it should prompt you and make the correct entries for you based on the state information you enter.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  30. We received a K-1 after filing and receiving our refund. It lists a distribution in box 19 (A), but we sold our shares in 2009, and had no money coming in or going out in 2010. Do I need to amend my return? Thanks.

    1. Hi Nancy,
      You would need to amend your tax return since the K-1 information was reported to the IRS, however if you think this was reported in error do not amend your tax return, you need to contact the business that issued the K-1 and have them correct the information reported to the IRS.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  31. Is this true?? I called the IRS. The rep said I do NOT need to report this unless the Partner’s ID number in Part II Box E on the K-1 form is my ID (my Social security). Turns out the ID number on the forms I got was the ID of my ROTH IRA, which she said is not a taxable entity, therefore I can ignore these forms–they’re just for my records. I asked if it matters whether Box 20 V exceeded $1000–maybe sometime in the future when the proceeds accumulate–and she reiterated: If Box E has the Roth’s ID number it doesn’t matter how much is in Box 20 V, because a Roth is a non-taxable entity

    1. Hi,
      Yes, if the K-1 does not have your social security number and the ID of your Roth then it was sent to you for informational purposes.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  32. Hi I have K1 from the stock i owned , i sold the stock last year and the K1 says its final where do i enter that info that this is a final K1

    1. Hi,
      1. Go to the Federal Taxes tab
      2. Click “Wages and Income”
      3. Click “Explore on My Own”
      4. On the “Your 2011 Income Summary” screen, scroll down to K-1s under Business Items.
      You will have the option to enter this information on the “Describe this Partnership” screen.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  33. Hi,

    I am filing my personal tax form 1040. I have to enter K-1 that I received from company. I am not able to find out how/where to enter using turbo tax. I know how to enter 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, Schedule D but not schedule-K. Any help would be appreciated. Also there are Part I , Part II and Part III mentioned in the schedule -K (Form 1065). Do I have to enter all three parts ?

    1. Hi Bart,
      In Deluxe or Premier:
      1. Go to the Federal Taxes Tab
      2. Click “Wages and Income”
      3. Click “Explore on My Own”
      4. On the “Your 2011 Income Summary” scroll down to K-1s under Business Items.
      5. Click “Start”
      You will be guided through all the entries related to your K-1

      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  34. Our business is located in MI, we worked in both Ohio and Alabama last year. We received an Alabama K1 and an Ohio IT 1140 / 4708 in addition to our “normal” K1… what are we supposed to do with these additional forms? Do we have to and where are we supposed to report these forms? Michigan and Ohio are reciprocal states. Thanks!

    1. Hi Dawn,
      Yes you have to claim both the K-1s and the Ohio IT 1140/4708. You should answer the questions in the Federal interview that ask if you earned income in any other states and it will ask you which states. When you include the states in the federal interview it will prompt you to prepare your tax returns for the other states.
      Also please see our support FAQ on preparing multiple state tax returns
      You also should use Premier for these transactions. If you need additional assistance don’t forget we have tax experts available to help you live via phone or chat. You can contact them through TurboTax online.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  35. Just seeking clarification regarding cb’s post: K-1’s from investments held in IRA’s (or Roth IRA’s) are not to be reported on our form 1040 if the Part II, Box E contains the IRA ID number, not the taxpayer’s ID number (or social security number)? If so, this makes logical sense, as the proceeds in IRA investments are tax-free when held in the IRA.

    1. Hi Don,
      That is correct. You would only report unrelated Business Taxable Income from your IRA greater than $1,000, which would be in Section 20 of the K-1 if you had any.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

      1. Hi,
        I am filing my personal tax form 1040. I have to enter K-1 that I received from company. I am not able to find out how/where to enter using turbo tax. I know how to enter 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, Schedule D but not schedule-K. Any help would be appreciated. Also there are Part I , Part II and Part III mentioned in the schedule -K (Form 1065). Do I have to enter all three parts ?

  36. I had a loss on my K-1. I entered all the information into Turbo, but no loss shows up now under K-1. I was told my loss would postively affect my tax. What gives?

    1. Hi Richard,
      If you are eligible for a loss, it will show up on your form 1040, however losses on investments are limited by the amount invested in the partnership, whether you materially participate in the business, whether you are a general partner or limited partner, and your income. Please see IRS info on passive activity loss limitations http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8582.pdf If this does not help, please contact our free tax experts at 1.800.4.intuit so they can talk to you live.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

  37. I started the Home & Business version and realized I could’ve used the Premium(input K-1 from SCorp) …..is there a way to tranfer/convert all my info to Premier and not have to start over?

  38. My K-1 investment went belly up in 2011 and I have a $12,000 loss showing on the K-1 on line 1 and $1,200 loss showing on K-1 line 2. I have no other pasive income. Can I deduct the entire loss on my 2011 tax return or do I have to take the capital loss at $3,000 per year? Thank you

    1. Hi,
      Without seeing all of your details, I can tell you that your loss will first be limited by your investment (basis) in the business, it also depends on whether you materially participated in the business, whether you are a general partner or limited partner, and your income. TurboTax will guide you through the correct entries and properly prepare your tax return with the K-1 information you enter. If you need more help contact our free tax experts.
      Thank you,
      Lisa Greene-Lewis

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text:
Home for the Holidays: Festive Pairing Possibilities

Entire books — really thick ones — have been written about food and wine pairing. One would think that it’s a scientific endeavor, rather than the simple pursuit of pleasure.

While there’s no question that drinking precisely the right wine with precisely the right dish can make for a memorable meal, it’s also true that one can over-think pairings to the point that no match could ever measure up.

A few years ago, the public relations firm Calhoun & Company put together a “Holiday Wine & Food Pairing Guide,” spotlighting bottlings from its winery client list. It made for an excellent shopping guide, and removed a great deal of pressure from the shoulders of holiday dinner hosts.

Earlier this year, Douglass Miller of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., shared a list of cookie-and-drink pairings, including two that included wine.

We’ve merged those two very helpful lists, and present the following suggested pairings as exactly that — suggestions. Science aside, these are simply ideas to help get your creative juices flowing as you begin to plan your special holiday meals…

• New England Lobster Bisque with a creamy Chardonnay.

• Black Mission Fig and Camembert Crostini with Rosé.

• Roasted Goose and Apple Currant Stuffing with Pinot Noir.

• Sweet Italian Sausage and Mushroom Risotto with Merlot.

• Rustic Potato Gnocchi and Marinara Sauce with Sangiovese or Zinfandel.

• Beef Rib Roast and Traditional Yorkshire Pudding with Cabernet Sauvignon.

• Lace Cookies with Late Harvest Riesling.

• Sugar Cookies with Demi-Sec Champagne.

Need more pairing ideas? Take a keystroke stroll through our “Food and Wine Pairings” archives. There, you’ll find topics ranging from ethnic cuisine to season-specific suggestions, and from sweet dessert ideas to holiday fare.

Meanwhile, don’t be afraid to try food-and-wine pairings that you’ve never heard of before. Many “trends” of today are little more than broken rules of yesteryear. The best-selling book, “Red Wine With Fish,” emerged from a willingness to try new things.

Who knows? This holiday season, perhaps you’ll discover the next hot culinary trend.

– – – – –

Tomorrow: How to be the most interesting person at the holiday party.

Posted in Food and Wine Pairings/Recipes
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