Those early icons were drawn by hand in sketchbooks because the codes for designing icons hadn’t been written yet.  Many of Susan’s early designs are echoed in the icons being used to this day.  She also changed the appearance of the documents we type.  Early fonts placed letters equally spaced apart without taking into account the width of the letter. Susan created the first font that spaced letters proportionally.

The artistry didn’t stop when she left Apple.  Susan continued to design icons for Microsoft Windows and even did work on Facebook gifts.  She recently published an art book featuring 80 of her favorite designs entitled ICONS.

In tight economic times, can you realistically ask your employer for a raise?  Of course you can, if you go about the right way.  Susan Adams of Forbes recently interviewed Stuart Diamond, author of the best-selling Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World.  Diamond recounts some great tips on how he was able to successfully negotiate a raise. By pointing out the rising consumer price index and other rising cost of living factors while reviewing his contributions over the past year he was able to make a valid case that a raise only fair.  For the full article go to:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2011/11/01/how-to-negotiate-a-year-end-raise/

For the first time in IBM’s 100 year history, it will have a woman at the helm.  Virginia Rometty will take over as CEO effective January 1, 2012.  Rometty is highly respected IBM insider with over 30 years of experience at the company and many consider her to be a logical choice to replace outgoing CEO Sam Palmisano.

Rometty is a current VP and head of sales, marketing and strategy.  In her former role as general manager of consulting, she was a key player in IBM’s takeover of Pricewaterhouse Cooper’s Consulting.  She was instrumental in retaining a fair number of the Pricewaterhouse Cooper’s consultants who didn’t always mix well with IBM’s cost-cutting model. When she was promoted to senior vice president of the department, she boosted profits a whopping 42%.

With Rometty’s appointment following hot on the heels of Meg Whitman’s appointment as CEO of Hewlett Packard, the glass ceiling that many women face may appear to cracking.   However when Rometty takes over in January at the same time that Heather Bresch takes over as CEO of drugmaker Mylan, there will only be 18 women in the top role of Fortune 500 companies.  But with women at the helm of two high profile technology companies, the trend is certainly likely to continue.

In researching articles for this blog, I’ve come across a number of great sites that you may want to bookmark for yourself.  Here are my top five faves:

1. http://thenextwomen.com/ The Next Women is the first award-winning online Women’s Business Magazine and networking forum with a focus on startups and growing businesses led, founded or invested in by women.
2. http://www.littlepinkbook.com/ PINK and the daily e-Note Little PINK Book (think Daily Candy for professional women) provide career and life-enhancing tools, tactics and strategies to help women find greater success at work and more joy in life.
3. http://enterprisingwomen.com/ Written by enterprising women for enterprising women, we are the voice of women entrepreneurs — women who dare to think big, make the leap, and follow their dreams.
4. http://wemagazineforwomen.com/women/women-in-business/ WE’s audience consists of women who want to explore great destinations, improve their outlook on life, learn quick and easy ways to get and stay healthy, find out about the latest technology gadgets and information, get some networking tips, become inspired as they read about women making a difference in the world and even ideas for great entertaining and learn how to more effectively and efficiently market and promote their business on and off the web.
5. http://www.entrepreneur.com/women/ Offers a host of online articles and videos from women entrepreneurs in fields from fashion design to engineering and everything in between.

• Instead of one-to-one appointments, consider workshops whenever possible.  Instead of servicing 5 clients in two hours, you may be able to service 30.
• Try scheduling coffee meetings rather than lunch meetings.  This can save significantly on your marketing/entertainment expenses.
• For non-profits, try hiring more volunteers rather than paid staff members.
• For small business owners, cut back on your personal lifestyle to avoid draining your business of much needed cash.
• Be wary of depleting any cash reserves stored up from the good years.
• Reinvent your business image to increase your market share and generate new consumer interest.
• Be aware of shifting trends in your industry and don’t be afraid to adjust your business accordingly.
• Consolidate locations whenever possible to decrease overhead.

For more on the winners of NAWBO award in OC and their sage advice, go to: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/women-320793-business-economy.html

The debate over photo retouching is nothing new.  Fashion magazines and advertisers often retouch the photos of their models, sometimes to unrealistic extremes.  Despite mounting criticism from all sides, retouching has become a mainstay of professional photographers.  This trend of removing every perceived flaw or blemish isn’t limited to professional models. Even middle school students have the option of having their pictures retouched.

The debate about unrealistic advertising and young women (and men) developing unhealthy body images has moved from Madison Avenue to Main Street.  Some companies are trying to counter the photoshop trend.  The Dove Self Esteem Foundation has launched a massive advertising campaign to teach girls that real beauty starts within themselves.  More recently, Viva Modeling of London was launched with a series of top models agreeing to go without makeup, extra hairstyling or retouching.  The results were beautiful but realistic looking women.

This raises the question: should an intelligent, entrepreneurial woman quietly accept a professional photographer retouching her headshot to remove freckles and smooth away the laugh lines?  What message do we want to send our daughters about a woman’s looks and her ability? This is something to think about as we post our pictures on social media, websites, flyers and business cards.

The U.S Business Hall of Famer (Class of 2008) and former captain of eBay has been chosen to lead HP.  Following Mark Hurd’s scandalous departure and Leo Apotheker’s blundering decision to kill HP’s foray into the tablet and smart phone market, Meg Whitman has quite a mess to clean up.

Hewlett Packard, founded in the 1930’s as manufacturer of sound equipment has become a massive $120 billion company.  They are the world’s largest manufacturer of PC’s but this is by far their least profitable division.  Just before his departure, Apotheker had stated that division could be up for sale.  Whitman has said a decision on whether to sell or spin off the division will be made by year’s end.  HP will have to knock off industry leader IBM if they hope to succeed in the more profitable technology services market.  HP has also tried to expand it’s computer networking division but face tough competition from Cisco.

“For a company this size, there are so many different businesses, you need a good leader, someone that people respect, and this board is not going to push around Meg Whitman,” said Brian White, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities.

For more on Meg Whitman: click here.

Carol Bartz grabbed headlines for denouncing the board of Yahoo as a “bunch of doofuses who f—– me over” after she was fired from her CEO position over the phone.  The incident has been picked up by both traditional media outlets and bloggers alike.  Everyone is now talking about swearing at work.

The thing that really raised eyebrows wasn’t that a CEO was known for profane language and a confrontational, emotional management style.  What was surprising to some was that it was a woman behind the mouth.  Old stereotypes die slowly and women are still not expected to swear.  This presents a Catch 22 for most women at work.  If her behavior is feminine and proper, she can be perceived as weak.  If her behavior is similar to that of a male in the same position, she can be perceived as too aggressive.

This raises the question then, is it ever okay for a woman to swear at work?  While it always comes down to a question of personal style and individual circumstances, most experts seem to agree that swearing occasionally and strategically can actually be beneficial.  If you are not known for strong language, an outburst will make it known that you are particularly upset or worried about the situation in question.  In contrast, becoming the office potty-mouth will have the exact opposite effect.  Co-workers will soon tune out the profanity and any attempt to convey strong emotions as “the same old, same old”.

The idea of a four day work week is gaining ground.  Supporters like the idea of having a mid-week day off or three-day weekends every weekend.  Detractors express concerns with being able to find childcare for the extended hours.  To help you decide if a four-day work week may be feasible for your position, take a look at the pros and cons.

Pros

• An extra day off allows for time to take care of doctor’s appointments and other weekday errands.
• The time off allows a worker to balance the stress of work with personally fulfilling activities such as volunteering, educational or artistic pursuits.
• Early hours in the office are typically quiet, allowing for increased productivity.
• Offers working parents more time for taking care of home and to spend relaxing with their families.
• There is financial savings of not commuting in to work as well as saving on childcare costs for working parents.

Cons

• Working ten-hour days may lead to decreased worker productivity later in the day as fatigue sets in.
• Increased tensions as co-workers may have to pick up the extra work for employees who are off mid-week.
• Important meetings may be difficult to schedule with if employees are off on different days.
• Employees may find work-related emails, texts and phone calls creeping in on their scheduled days off.
• There may be difficulty in finding childcare for the extended hours.

In 2008, Utah became the first state to mandate a four-day work week for state employees.  They noted a 13 percent decrease on energy usage.  They also estimate that it saved employees a combined $6 million that would have been spent on gasoline to get to work.  However, Utah recently abandoned its four-day work week experiment because it was not saving as much money as lawmakers had hoped.  In addition, residents were unhappy because of the lack of access to services.  Other state and municipal governments have had better results and continue to use the four-day model.

Here are some tips on restoring office harmony:

• Be willing to talk to your boss for to ask for their support in dealing with a drama queen.

• If the drama queen isn’t pulling a fair share of the work, gather your team to review everyone’s responsibilities and the due process.

• Before meeting with anyone, whether it’s your boss or the drama queen, be sure of your own intentions.  You want to ease tension and create harmony.

• Establish a boundary and be ready to stick to it.  Either the drama queen will comply or test your resolve.

• If your boundaries are being tested, you’ll have to take action.  The key to good discipline is documentation and due process.

For more details see here: