Blame it on Rio

Blame it on rio de janeiroBlame it on RioBack in December 2008, Brian Dalton wrote about the growth of legal process outsourcing (LPOs) As clients are demanding more for less, law firms may find LPO more relevant than the LBO in 2009. Slashing legal costs welches emerging as a trend even before the credit crunch now it is an overriding imperative, declares Richard Susskind, in a look at the soaring Indian legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry. For a while now, some law firms have been outsourcing back office (e.g., IT) functions. Increasingly, however, the outsourcing option becomes more attractive for certain (routine or repetitive) legal work, such as research, doc review and due diligence LPO companies hire Indian legal graduates with starting salaries at about $7,000. Compare BigLaws $160,000 base for first-years doing what often amounts to the same type of work. In June 2009, it looks like international mining conglomerate Rio Tinto has been sweating the same math. In an eff ort to shave 20 percent off its annual legal spendsome $100 millionthe conglom has hired its own Indian legal gruppe. While the outsourcing of legal work to India has been steadily growing, Rio Tinto is the first major player to cut out the law firm middleman and take charge of the process, building its own team of 12 Delhi-based lawyers to tackle work that might otherwise have fallen to its (seven times more expensive) lawyers in London. The mining company, oft represented by such pricey heavyweights as Linklaters and Baker MacKenzie, will now punt its own work overseas. And its not just mundane legal processing were talking here less routine and more complex matters will be handled by the mining giants Indian crewa crew expected to double in size within a year. Already, the India unit has saved the company more than $1 million. Rio Tintos Indian legal team was assembled by CPA Global, a Jersey company specializing in trademarks, patents and acts. So optimistic is CPA on the scope of the market that it has invested more than $50 million on legal facilities in Delhi plans to add another 500 Indian lawyers within the year and hopes to someday field more than 3,000 lawyers in Manila, New Zealand and South Africa.As it might evidence a seismic shift in legal practice, Rio Tintos maneuver is putting the fear of God (Ganesha?) into BigLaw. But fussing and backtalk is not an option, not with GCs under such pressure to cost-cut. Unless they wish to antagonize clients, BigLaw will have no choice but to welcome their Indian co-horts and adjust to this new sphere of competition in the traditional wayby particularizing and differentiating value. The customer, as ever, is king.-posted by anu rao

Sample Interview Questions for Hiring a Retail Manager

Sample Interview Questions for Hiring a Retail ManagerSample Interview Questions for Hiring a Retail ManagerSample Interview Questions for Hiring a Retail Manager DezubeWhat is the single most important thing to know about filling your retail store manager job description and how to interviewretail manager candidates?Dan Jablons, president of Retail Smart Guys Inc., a gemma Angeles retail consulting firm says its the ausverkauf acumen and the ability to act like an owner trump all other skills.Interview Questions to Ask MotivationThats why the most essential interview questionsto ask a retail manager job candidate is Whats your primary focus as a manager? The best answer is one that involves sales, profitability, total volume, and business building.Another way to get at the same issue in the interview process is to ask Tell me about your accomplishments in retail, says David Lieberman, vice president of The Fashion Network, a New York City executive recruitment firm.If the candidate says theyre great at recruiting or communicating with sales associates, those are good skills, but the best candidates will talk about growing your business success in more measurable ways.Retail work requires a great verstndigung im strafverfahren of energy and enthusiasm, so ask How many hours a week do you put in at your current job?If they say 40 hours a week, thats not typically a person thats going to succeed, Lieberman says. Look for liveliness, enthusiasm and passion because retail managers are customer-facing employees, he adds.Interview Questions to Ask Past Performance Interview questions about the job candidates past wertmiger zuwachs provide insight into the job seekers sales skillsHow have you sold product X in the past?What objections did you hear, and how did you overcome those objections? What did you say, and what did you do?What have you done successfully to get people to try on clothes or to interact in other ways with the products?Tell me about the most difficul t customer youve ever had to serve.What were your units-per-transaction or average-dollar-per-transaction stats in your prior positions?Interview Questions to Ask Vetting Management SkillsIn addition to having great sales skills of their own, retail managers need to mentor others.That makes it essential to know how to interview a candidate to tease out management skills. Remember asking good interview questions doesnt always depend onthe right or wrong answers but givingapplicants the opportunity to talk about themselves.Start by asking, Are you a hands-on manager or a delegator? Delegating is good, but you want to make sure the general manager making $150,000 will still take the trash out, Lieberman says.Then, move on to ask more specific questions about management tasksHow many employees do you manage in your current position?How do you hire employees?What questions do you ask during interviews?What statistics do you use to measure employee performance?Do you do employee performa nce reviews?Finally, to get a feel for how a retail manager reacts to real-world situations, you must know how to interview to draw out the job candidates soft business skills, says Stacie Garlieb, author of My resume is perfect (I think)so why didnt I get an interview?Asking the question, How would you handle a situation where half of your employees called in sick? should generate an answer about redeploying remaining staff, creating a to-do list for the short-handed staff, then getting more staff in, she says.If you found an employee was stealing, how would you handle that? The best answer to this interview question involves not only following corporate policy, but also elicits the candidates empathy and respect for the employee who made a mistake and stole from the company, Garlieb says.Interview Questions to Ask The CloseA successful interview should conclude with a classic question What do you want to know about the opportunity or the company?The answer you want to hear from th e candidate, says Lieberman, will include technical and logistical questions about the company, rather than questions about vacation benefits, such asWhat kind of software do you use? What strategies have you implemented to raise total volume? What theft prevention programs do you use?Find The Right FitKnowing how to interview retail managers can help your organization hire employees that act like owners someone who can run your store with the passion, sales smarts and enthusiasm that is critical to your business success in todays competitive market. Want to know other ways you can determine which candidates are the best fit for the job?Sign up for exclusive https//www.youtube.com/ adviceand well send you the latest recruiting tips, hiring trends, management strategies, and even some awesome deals. Well help you find the kinds of star employees who will be great representatives for your retail brand.

K-9 Dogs Protect U.S. Marine Corps Members

K-9 Dogs Protect U.S. Marine Corps MembersK-9 Dogs Protect U.S. Marine Corps MembersThe U.S. Marine Corps explains that working dogs have different jobs some help people in wheelchairs, others assist those with walking sticks, and some help locate missing people. But the canines aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, have a unique mission They protect the lives of those who serve their country. In fact, the military working dogs at the Depot serve to protect the interests of all tafelgeschirr members stationed there. The Military Working Dog Section, Provost Marshals Office The Provost Marshals Office is where canines are put to work. These dogs are trained to search for drugs and explosives to protect the safety of the personnel aboard the Depot. The mission of the Military Working Dog (MWD) is to detect and locate controlled substances and illegal narcotics and explosives. In addition, these dogs often are called upon to act as a deterrent for illegal activity and as an effective tool for antiterrorism through the use of vehicles and foot patrols, sentry duty and random explosive and narcotic sweeps. Breeds Belgian Malinois and German Shepherds are two of the breeds on the canine team trained in either narcotics or explosives detection with an emphasis on accuracy. The dogs are rotated among handlers as to not get attached to one Marine during their time at the Depot. But inspections are not the only missions the dogs take on. Other Missions The dog handlers sometimes take their companions on missions to other military installations to keep the dogs on a constant training schedule with different environments. About two times a year, MWD sends one dog for one month to work with U.S. Customs Service. Participants and their dogs do patrols together, search out enemies, setup and walk perimeters, and ensure everything is secure. In the past, they also helped the Air Force set up canine protection for a new airbase. The dogs training is importan t so they can maintain a level of accuracy when doing searches with minimum mistakes. Outside of detection, all dogs are trained in patrol. They are mainly used for random patrols and building searches the Marines decide to do. Explosive Dogs The explosive dogs are vital to the base, especially when a threat condition is elevated. At this time, the dogs are worked more and need to be rotated because of fatigue. The explosive dogs are also rotated in patrol shifts to ensure base security. Group Demonstrations Handlers often get the opportunity to show off their dogs to community groups. The ability of the handler and dog to work together is displayed in demonstrations to groups, such as Boy Scouts, police explorers, future Marines and high school students. Two to three times a year, they may go to high schools to conduct demonstrations. This group of Marines and military working dogs not only accomplish their mission by deterring possible problems with their patrols, but they also educate the public about their capabilities with demonstrations on an average of five times a month.