Venture capital at 6-year high

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Venture capital investments in U.S. startups climbed to a six-year high of $29.4 billion in 2007, raising hope that ample money will still be available to back promising new ideas even if the staggering economy falls into a recession.

read more here...http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/19/news/economy/bc.ventureinvestments.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008011908

Here come the hot IPOs of 2008
Combined, these sectors attracted nearly $16 billion in venture capital investments last year, accounting more than half of the total activity.
While focusing on specialties less susceptible to economic downturns, venture capitalists have been increasing their investments more gradually in recent years. During the dot.com boom, high-tech financiers had routinely entrusted millions of dollars with young Internet entrepreneurs who had never before run profitable businesses.

read more here...http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/19/news/economy/bc.ventureinvestments.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008011908

Win the reheating war for talent

Shifting workforce demographics. The aging of skilled professionals in key positions, especially baby boomers who are retiring, and a shortage of younger, “ready-now” replacements, are forcing employers to think hard about ways to source, attract, develop and retain talent creatively.

Wendy Carr and Marc Detampel, Managing Directors in BearingPoint’s Human Capital Practice, discuss how private and public sector organizations can develop the talent needed to execute against business strategies by using a holistic approach to realize the full value of their people.

Ensemble Chimes Bankruptcy...Who can help your company?

Rapid Deployment Options for Ensemble Chimes Global Customers ...

With the current Chimes bankruptcy crisis at hand, experience really matters. And, not everyone has had to transition thousands of contingent workers like Allegis Group Services has.
Experience is the utmost critical factor for Ensemble Chimes Global customers to consider. Allegis Group Services has more transition experience than any other company in the industry. As a result, we have methodologies and processes that have been developed and successfully used to transition and rapidly deploy programs. Our processes haven’t been reactively developed due to the recent Chimes bankruptcy crisis at hand, they’re solid strategies and methods that have been used several times over, thus, enabling us to speed up the implementation and transition process for customers like yourself who have been affected by this unfortunate occurrence.

University of Delaware, Newark

This study introduces the concept of partnership for fair labor management, which has been identified as critical for further improvement in labor management in the apparel and footwear industry. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of a firm's strategic emphases on its partnership behavior for fair labor management. An exploratory scale of partnership was developed based on what has been found in practice and the buyer-seller relationship literature. A self-administered survey through mail was conducted to gather data from 209 sourcing managers from U.S. firms. Six types of strategic emphases (i.e., supply control, image differentiation, focus, quality differentiation, product development, and low price) were identified. Firms with supply control, image differentiation, and product development strategic emphases were more engaged in partnership, whereas ones with a low-price emphasis were less engaged in partnership relationships. The role of strategic emphases as well as control variables, including size and the extent of foreign sourcing, are discussed in relation to partnership behavior for fair labor management.