Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Work/Business section.
To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Claire Doole - Claire Doole Communications
Claire is a former BBC correspondent and international spokeswoman who is passionate about helping people communicate with confidence. Since 2006, she has successfully trained hundreds of professionals in the art of presenting and public speaking, talking to the media, managing communications in a crisis, and writing for the web. In addition, she has coached C-level executives and public figures to give powerful TEDx and TED style talks in Europe and the Middle East. A Swiss and UK national, Claire trains and coaches in French and English.
- Elizabeth Ballin - Life Coach
As a long time member of the international community in Geneva, Elizabeth Ballin has been coaching adults and students from all parts of the world. She has coached business professionals, musicians/artists, couples, families and adolescents. She is a fully accredited Life Coach by the International Coaching Federation. Elizabeth Ballin, Life Coach
- Patrick Hoza - US Tax & Financial Services
Since 1990, Patrick has many years of experience with US individual expatriate taxation under his belt, including High Net Worth Individuals, streamline/voluntary disclosure filings and tax consulting, as well as working with large multinationals like Novartis, BP, Hewlett Packard and General Electric. He has extensive knowledge in serving both US expatriates and resident and non-resident aliens with their US tax-related issues. Patrick Hoza is a Tax Director at US Tax & Financial Services, with extensive experience in all aspects of Individual US tax and Expatriation, including Hight Net Worth Individuals and large multinationals.
Patrick started his career in 1990 in California, with Westpro Ltd., as a Senior Tax Consultant, then spent the middle part of his career working at KPMG and Ernst & Young. During his time with Ernst & Young, he worked and lived in Russia, France and finally Switzerland. He has gained a valuable working knowledge of the respective income tax regulations in all of these countries.
Patrick holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Colorado, is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and is a Certified Acceptance Agent.
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Melitta Campbell - Business Coach
Business Coach and Mentor with nearly 3 decades of business experience and a passion for helping women confidently build a business they love. She is also the founder of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Club and president of the Swiss Riviera Toastmasters Club in Montreux. Originally from Wales, she now lives in Montreux in a chalet she has renovated with her husband overlooking the Swiss Alps. - Sunita Sehmi - Walk The Talk
Founder of Walk The Talk, Sunita has been training, developing and now coaching Business Communication skills in both companies and educational establishments for over twenty years. She has a passion for helping people to maximise their potential and created Walk The Talk with the sole aim to drive each and every client to perform their best.
- Robert Harris- Forth Capital
With over 25 years experience working for some of the major financial institutions in the City of London, Robert is a founding partner of Forth Capital, the leading expat financial advisory company in Switzerland. Regulary quoted in newspaper articles and magazines, he is well placed to advise expats on a variety of financial issues that may arise during their time living in Switzerland.
- Debbie Croft - Croft Coaching
As the founder of Croft Coaching, Debbie has a passion for helping people overcome challenges, embrace change and live life to the full; with an ethos of “work hard, play hard”.
- Sarah Santacroce - Simplicity
A certified social media, internet marketing, and virtual event specialist, Sarah enjoys every aspect of small business marketing. Through her own business, Simplicity, it is her mission to help other small businesses and solopreneurs increase their visibility and use social media tools as part of their marketing strategy.
- Diana Ritchie - SSC Sàrl
A Director at Swiss Career Connections, Diana will provide you with some useful tips for job hunting.
By Robert Harris, Forth Capital
British expat retirees in the Eurozone and beyond will currently be enjoying an effective increase in their pension income right now due to the strengthening pound, but those in this situation should be warned to be vigilant on future fluctuations.
Sterling remains strong and anyone making an overseas currency transfer stands to benefit, not just pensioners.
Recent movements have seen the pound sterling (GBP) rise to its highest level since October 2012. For expats living in France and Switzerland, they have seen the £/Euro exchange rate move from 1.14 to 1.26 and the £/CHF rate move from 1.42 to over 1.53 over the last 12 months.
By Sarah Santacroce at Simplicity
In March, you may recall that I wrote a short blog on the new LinkedIn Publishing platform. This is not yet available to everyone, but you can register for early access by requesting to get on the waiting list: click here for more information.
Having had a few months to get familiar with the platform, I am now in a good position to provide you with a little more information on how it works, what kind of knowledge you require, and what sort of content you should publish.
Let me take you through the process, step by step, and give you my thoughts about this new LinkedIn functionality.
Jim O’ Neill has been called the “rock star of economics”, a pragmatic man, a visionary, and a Manchester United enthusiast…oh well you can’t win them all :-D. But perhaps he is best known for creating the acronym BRIC. Originating from a global paper he wrote in 2001, Jim predicted that Brazil, Russia, India and China would dominate growth in emerging markets. Jim worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from 1995 until 2013. Before joining Goldman Sachs; he was head of global research at Swiss Bank Corporation.
Above all these tributes he is open, honest and talks a lot of common sense! I was very fortunate to chat to him and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as did.
Sunita
This year my blog is dedicated to interviewing leaders and subject matter experts to help promote healthier work-life balance. With any luck this will enable us to create better relationships, productivity and performance. I am convinced that this is an idea that needs to reverberate from the top and therefore will devote this year focusing on just that.
This month, I have been lucky enough to interview the brilliantly talented Nicolette de Joncaire. Nicolette joined l’AGEFI in December 2010 as a journalist, specialising in economic and financial affairs. Since summer 2012, she is chief editor of WORK, a magazine focused on women's achievements, www.workmag.me. She is keen to reiterate that WORK is not for women but refocuses attention on women. With over twenty-five years of business experience in finance and Information Technology, Nicolette has held various management positions and is a regular speaker on the topic of Risk.
I really hope you enjoy her interview as much as I did.
Enjoy!
Sunita
Sunita Sehmi: How did you get to where you are today?
Nicolette de Joncaire: I was in the banking industry for many years in London and then I decided to move to Geneva in 2002 to be closer to my extended family.
SS: How and why did you become a journalist?
NDJ: I wanted to do something different from banking…I did not have much journalistic experience but I did have extensive financial systems experience, so I knew what I was talking about. When I decided to choose a new career path, I contacted ten newspapers and got two replies. One of the replies was for a possible position at AGEFI. At that time AGEFI was the only business economic paper in the area. I was very lucky and was put on a two-weeks trial. It really made me realise just how open-minded the Swiss are, giving me an opportunity like that with no previous journalistic experience. I don’t think that happens everywhere.
SS: What is WORK magazine about?
NDJ: I was asked to be Chief Editor for WORK. WORK is a magazine in French for businesswomen, because women are underrepresented in business media. My original mandate was to create a “light” magazine for women. But I was determined to make it a very serious magazine, and not another frivolous one. I wanted to take a completely different angle. The assumption being is that society has moved on. We are 50 years down the line and still talking about equality. The legal framework for equality is in place and yet we are still complaining. I believe that the media has a very critical role to play and unfortunately still maintains an image of women, which is extremely out-dated. It portrays women on the basis of their looks and as consumers and not on their achievements. Women who are achieving incredible things are getting very little exposure. We are lacking strong successful female role models in business, sports, sciences, and art, in brief in all areas. BUT women are very visible in the feminine press. So here at WORK, we focus on content and emphasize on exceptional female role models. We want to raise consciousness of women’s achievements and not looks and fashion. One can’t expect to sell millions of copies of my type of magazine but some key people believe in us and support our vision.
SS: In your opinion why are people finding it hard to balance work and life?
NDJ: I may be very controversial but I don’t believe that work/life balance is such a huge issue. Life is about passion. And so is work. Make this the centre of your life and all falls into place. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn't care for your family but you can do both; it’s just a question of how you manage it. I am still unsure as to what people are talking about when they discuss work/life balance and I am not being facetious. It seems like a “disease” that exists in the wealthy nations. I think to be happy at work and at home you need to make sure that you are getting recognition from both sectors and not just one.
SS: All the literature tells us to communicate with more compassion and more empathy but how can we practice that in the work place?
NDJ: Mmmm.. I am really concerned about the “tyranny of nice” and the damage it is doing. I really don’t understand why this is being discussed in business media. Good leadership and management decodes that we should behave and respect one another. Being decent at work is normal not exceptional! We all need to remember that!
SS: Could you share some of your strategies that we could use to keep more balanced?
NDJ: I always have lots of back up plans!
SS: What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?
NDJ: The best two pieces of advice that I have ever received were from my father:
“Have a serious career; you never know who’s going to bring up your children.”
“Always be prepared.”
SS: Describe a situation that frustrates you.
NDJ: The women I interview have done it all, there are few challenges left for them as they are on top of their game. There are those women who want to and can be the chief of police, CEO of large organisations etc. And then there are those women who choose to stay at home. This is the group whom I am more concerned about from an economic perspective. The work performed by stay at home women has never been economically quantified. We all look at these women very differently and that in my mind is discriminatory.
SS: What's the next challenge for us?
NDJ: I think the new generation of women has it slightly easier. I am not convinced that they appreciate how lucky they are. They have so much more freedom, autonomy and independence than their predecessors. Therefore, I truly believe it is especially important for these women to dare and take up challenges. Like many women I probably took more risks over my career than a man with the same qualification and at same level. Subsequently I want to remind the new generation of women that they are lucky, be careful not to waste opportunities and pay attention it could all slip away….
SS: What's next for you?
NDJ: Don’t know what’s in store for me tomorrow. Today is enough! Tomorrow seems like a century away!
Reference:
AGEFI: Quotidien des affaires et de la finance, www.agefi.com
WORK Magazine, www.workmag.me
Bio
Nicolette was a partner at Arubis Sarl where she was responsible for the financial systems consulting practice. Previously, she was Product Marketing Director at System Access, in charge of marketing their flagship product, Symbols. She is also the former European Representative of Trading Edge, an Internet high yield bonds brokerage firm; and maker of BondLink, the first web-based, high yield bond exchange.
Prior to joining Trading Edge, Nicolette was with Credit Suisse First Boston as Director responsible for Global Reference-Business Processes and Technical Architecture, as well as the management of the Corporate Data Warehouse. She was previously Head of Information Systems for San Paolo Bank in London.
Nicolette holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Paris. She lives near Geneva with her family.
Bio
Sunita has a passion for helping individuals, teams and companies to maximize their potential. With over 20 years experience both in the UK & Switzerland, she created Walk The Talk, with the sole aim, to help professionals improve their Business Communication Skills. She is of Indian origin but was born and raised in Britain before she moved to Geneva in 1991. She has a Psychology background, (specializing in Occupational Psychology) and a Post Graduate in the Development and Training of Adults from the University of Surrey. Furthermore, she recently completed a Masters of Advanced Studies in "Gestion des RH et des Carrières," (Specialising in Career Management and Coaching), at the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel & Fribourg.
Having successfully worked and operated in different cultures and languages, Sunita's strength lies in her ability to totally empathize with her clients and help them to perform their best.
By Sarah Santacroce at Simplicity
Your LinkedIn profile is like your CV, your elevator speech and your business card all in one place. It’s a mini-website that is supposed to drive traffic to your maxi website.
If you want to use LinkedIn to get more business, it all comes down to your LinkedIn profile. If it’s not optimized, you won’t get found & contacted.
There are many tips on how to improve your profile and many of them we’ve heard a million of times: ‘upload a photo, enter your experience, create a compelling summary, ’ etc.
In this post I tried to come up with new tips, that are just as important but often overlooked. Find them below:
