Recent Posts by Paul Kaptein

In a recent survey of the Inc. 5000 ― The Talent and Technology Driving America’s Fastest Growing Companies ― one of the biggest obstacles these high-growth companies highlighted was attracting and retaining skilled employees.  This point was stated over and over again, and it seems to be a key pain point for both small and medium-sized businesses. So Oracle continued our partnership with Inc. Magazine to delve deeper.  We wanted to understand exactly what about...

Artificial intelligence (AI) has always been the stuff of fantasy and science fiction. We’re now seeing these dreams become reality. As always, in any industry, high growth opportunities belong to the early adopters. These include many small to medium businesses that have the vision and flexibility to quickly identify and adopt new solutions—well ahead of their larger counterparts. One innovation area that promises high returns, but with lower risk, is adaptive intelligence—a...

The “gig economy” is a new trend that’s affecting how small to midsize employers manage both part-time and contingent labor. With the growing use of flexible part-time workers, many SMBs are finding it easier just to go ahead and enter profiles for all classifications of workers directly into one system of record across everything—including time, HR, payroll, accounting and finance. When you need to leverage limited resources, this approach offers multiple advantages. This...

Small-to-midsize businesses have always leveraged their size and agility to compete against larger competitors with greater sales volume and resources. True to form, SMBs are now using their size and agility to quickly adapt to new cloud IT capabilities that provide a clear competitive advantage. Wiggle is a midsize pure-play online sports equipment retailer that’s been experiencing year-over-year double-digit growth. Leveraging their size and agility, Wiggle has partnered...

Imagine getting a call from the Ukraine asking you to set up a Bitcoin account so that you can transfer $50,000, in order to get the business-critical data on your computer un-encrypted. This just happened to a friend of mine. It's that time of year. With US tax filing deadlines fast approaching, finance, payroll and human resources departments in midsize and small businesses are especially vulnerable to cyber attack and identity theft. Documented cases show a significant and...

If you’re a fast-growing business, you’ve probably made at least one bad hire. Probably many more. Small and medium businesses often grow so quickly, they can barely keep up with their own staffing needs. As a result, they often end up making bad HR decisions. That leads to lost time and money—and maybe even a bad reputation with customers (and future employees). In a recent Inc. survey of SMB leaders, talent issues ranked as their single most worrisome concern. The good news...

Filling the talent pipeline is always a challenge for small to medium business leaders. But rarely is the need for recruitment as pressing as it is in the field of healthcare. In this industry, an inability to find the right talent quickly can literally have life-or-death consequences. Let me give you one example. Be The Match is a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that is part of the National Marrow Donor Program. To help people with life-threatening blood diseases, the program’s...

Mt. Hood Meadows is one of the most beautiful and pristine places in North America. At this time of year, it’s packed with skiers and snowboarders. And with innovative combination events like musical acts and Superbowl Sunday ski days (“Superbowl” is also the name of one of the mountain peaks), it’s a fun place to both work and play. Of course, the work is mostly seasonal. Many small and medium businesses operate on a seasonal model—even retailers, who must staff up in time...

Your business is growing fast. Your staff is stretched thin. You have open positions waiting to be filled—but hiring mistakes are expensive. You can’t afford to fill the job with just anyone. How do you find the right talent, fast? If your small to medium business is like most, you eventually face this question. Often, SMBs can find inspiration from other companies that have put the right hiring process in place. One such SMB is Movement Mortgage, a startup company...