TAKE NOTE
TRUE COST OF SPAM
Spam is the scourge of the Internet because it’s just so cheap and easy
to send messages. One estimate puts the cost of an e-mail message at 0.025 cents.
But what is the cost of spam to recipients and Internet service providers? Multiplied
by millions of e-mail users, the tiny bits of computer power and time wasted
on spam costs $10 billion in the United States, according to a Ferris Research
study reported in The New York Times.
Nucleus Research figures the cost at $874 a year for every office worker with
an e-mail account. Multiplied by 100 million such workers, that comes to $87
billion in the United States.
Worse yet, experts say the costs of trying to block spam, catch spammers and
undo the damage they cause to recipients is even higher.
SPAM NOT DAMPENING ONLINE SALES
An August issue of WGSN (Worth Global Style Network) includes a new report from
Forrester Research Inc. expecting significant growth in online sales over the
next five years sparked by a growing online consumer base, increases in new product
categories being offered online and efforts by retailers to optimize the online
shopping experience.
Forrester predicts nearly five million new U.S. households will shop online in
each of the next five years, totaling 63 million U.S. online shopping households
by 2008. By then online retail will account for 10 percent of total retail sales.
Home goods sales will be among the fastest growing segments.
WHO’S THE BOSS?
Does it make any difference if your boss is a male or female? The answer seems
to be yes—and no.
A Northwestern University psychology professor and two colleagues examined 45
published and unpublished studies conducted between 1985 and 2002 focusing on
whether men or women manage differently. The Northwestern study, reported in
the Chicago Tribune, found that the bottom-line managerial differences were small,
but employee perceptions were marked.
Women were seen as transformational leaders: they mentor, inspire and foster
innovation and teamwork. Men were perceived as transactional: appealing to subordinates’ self-interest
and using reward and punishment as incentives. |
