Beacon Fasteners and Components is thrilled to announce Tony Van Hoozer of Applied Design & Fastening Solutions as a manufacturers’ representative for Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, and Southern Illinois.

“With 44 years of industry knowledge and expertise, Tony will be a great liaison to our Midwest customer base and a valuable asset to our team,” said Kameron Dorsey, National Sales Manager at Beacon.  “He shares our customer-driven principles and focus on servicing our customers, and we look forward to growing and strengthening these partnerships together.”

From Ropes and Gray LLP

President Trump and the Republican-majority Congress are expected to seek to roll back at least some aspects of Dodd-Frank. The repeal of the Conflict Minerals Rule is explicitly provided for in the Financial Choice Act, which was introduced in the House during the last term. However, at present, most of the Conflict Minerals Rule remains very much in effect and is likely to remain so for at least the current reporting period, which requires filings in respect of calendar 2016 to be made by May 31, 2017. READ MORE

From World Economic Forum

Artificial intelligence and increasing automation is going to decimate middle class jobs, worsening inequality and risking significant political upheaval, Stephen Hawking has warned. READ MORE

From SmarterTravel

Passport changes are coming, and if you plan on traveling in the future—especially if you’re among the 49 million Americans whose passports will expire in the next few years—you need to know what passport changes are in store. READ MORE

From SmarterTravel

When it comes to traveling abroad, there’s a lot more to it than just buying a plane ticket. READ MORE

From Tom Reilly

In the pre-technology days, salespeople relied on old-school methods to keep themselves and their territories organized. There were no cloud calendars, CRM, or sales force automation programs. There were no laptops, PDAs, or smart phones. No electronic alerts.

From Fast Company

In the process of jumping on a bandwagon—or running away with it—the best imitators invariably put their own twist on the original idea. READ MORE

From Bloomberg

The National Federation of Independent Business’s index jumped 7.4 points last month to 105.8, the highest since the end of 2004, from 98.4. While seven of the 10 components increased in December, 73 percent of the monthly advance was due to more upbeat views about the outlook for sales and the economy, the Washington-based group said. Read More

From TED

In every workplace, there are three basic kinds of people: givers, takers and matchers. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant breaks down these personalities and offers simple strategies to promote a culture of generosity and keep self-serving employees from taking more than their share. Read More

From The Business Journals

"Salary can be a sensitive topic to discuss at work, and it can be hard to find reliable and up-to-date information on the web," the company said in a recent blog post announcing the new feature. "With LinkedIn Salary, we’ve tapped into our network of more than 460+ million members to provide deep insights into the compensation landscape. Read More

From Lawrence Heim, Elm Sustainability Partners

The conflict minerals filing deadline is still in place and realistically we don't anticipate that changing before June 1.

From Fortune

Hint: It’s not perks. Read More

From Entrepreneur

One of the hardest things to get right as a founder is building out a strong and capable leadership team that can propel the company to the next level. The next hardest thing, once the leaders are assembled, is determining: 1) How much ownership of the strategy should those leaders have? and 2) How involved should a founder be in the business as it grows? Read More

From Harvard Business Review

Most companies have mission and vision statements, but those tend to communicate very little about a company’s purpose. Read More

From Fast Company

If you're trying to innovate by focusing on customer traits, you're doing it wrong. Read More

From Tom Reilly

Mission-Men-Me

From TED

Writer Seth Godin explains why it’s absolutely fine if you steal his ideas. You have to promise to make them better. Read More

From NewCo Shift

How a single conversation with my boss changed my view on delegation and failure. Read More