Nepotism: Consequences Good and Bad

Nepotism: Consequences Good and Bad

Nepotism may be frowned on in some companies, but that is not to say that some very famous people have been helped by it.  In Latin, nepotis means nephew.  Nepotism is now more broadly defined as:  When someone gives favoritism to a relative without necessarily basing it on their abilities or merit.

Accountingdegree.com had a very interesting article recently titled:  10 Famous Businesspeople Who Benefitted from Nepotism.  This list contained some very recognizable last names including:  Forbes, Trump, Hilfiger, Kraft and Walton.  The article pointed out the hypocrisy that may exist in terms of when nepotism is considered alright.  “At the blue collar level, when friends hire friends or a father expects his children to join the family business, we often believe it’s a sign of strong family values, not unethical or slimy business. But at the executive level — where millions and billions of dollars can be earned — favors are made in secret. It might be tempting to help your children or siblings get a great job, but in the public eye, it’s shameful.”

Viewshound recently wrote about whether nepotism is an unfair advantage or a sensible employment strategy.  Whether it was a sensible strategy or unfair practice is something that will be debated in the current lawsuit where Murdoch News Corporation is being sued by its shareholders for buying the chairman Rupert Murdoch’s daughter’s business for $675 million.  According to the Huffington Post, “The lawsuit seeks damages and a declaration the board breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders.”

Related articles

• Nepotism: Is it a Boon or Bane for the Organization? (brighthub.com)

What is an Intellitar? Live Eternally Through a Virtual Representation of You

Have you heard about Intellitars?  Intellitar.com describes them as: An artificially intelligent representation of you, that you can carry on a real-time conversation, just like a real person.  Through your intellitar, you will be able to preserve and share your personality, life experiences, knowledge, wisdom, memories, in a way never before available.

For some interesting articles about Intellitars, check out: 

Virtual Eternity:  Leave Your Legacy Online With Your Own Digital Clone

Would You Like to Meet Your Ancestors?

A Lifelike Legacy

Some say the image is a bit creepy.  The voice still sounds mechanical when it speaks.  To check out a demonstration of an Intellitar, click here. 

What I found interesting was that the person who is having an Intellitar made of them must take a Myers-Briggs personality asssessment to gather information to develop their identity and inpart their personality.  For more about this, check out an article on Forbes blogs by clicking here.

What is Visible Measures? Measuring the Popularity of Videos on the Web

I teach several different marketing and advertising college courses.  It can be a challenge to keep up with all of the different social media advertising trends.  Companies want to be able to know that their message is being seen.  One way to find out if your message is being picked up is through a company called Visible Measures.  Visible Measures is the independent third-party measurement firm for Internet video publishers, advertisers, and viral marketers. According to Forbes , “Visible Measures is a New York firm that counts the popularity of videos on the growing list of sites hosting them, of which YouTube continues to be the most important.”

On their site you can sign up to receive free public beta for trends and track the hottest viral videos on the web.  Once you sign up, you can chose a category such as media, dining, etc. You can also refine your search by agency, brand and even get specific about things like humor, reality, spoof, etc.  It will then generate a list of the top videos based on your parameters based on the dates your select.  I picked media for the week of September 6 and one of the top videos it picked up was YouTube Turns Five . . .see below.

Do you want to know the top 10 ad campaigns, top 10 film trailers, top 10 webisodes or those in 100 million view club?  They have the charts.  They have a paid program you can sign up for to find out even more detailed information.  Are you interested in following the Old Spice campaign?  You can type in Old Spice into their search bar and it will pull up a list of their videos, show their rank and their reach. 

To keep up with what Visible Measures has to offer, you can sign up for their blog by clicking here.