The Nucleus Research ROI awards recognize companies whose skillfull deployment of IT solutions has produced a positive, bottom-line financial return on investment (ROI). This year, ZoomInfo has received the prestigious award from a pool of 130 applications - for its use of Salesforce CRM and applications from the AppExchange. These applications help ZoomInfo streamline and measure sales and marketing processes, resulting in a 47 percent increase in leads per month and tripling average monthy revenue. Example of the ROI that ZoomInfo achieved with Salesforce include increased productivity, reduced costs, increased sales, and increased customer retention.

Many congratulations to ZoomInfo!

Read more about XING’s latest cooperation with ZoomInfo.

Thanks to the Kress-Magazine and the jury for voting me into the famous Top 50 List.

01 Mathias Döpfner (Springer)

02 Günther Jauch (RTL, i&u)

03 Anke Schäferkordt (RTL)

04 Jean-Remy von Matt (Jung von Matt)

05 Guillaume de Posch (ProSiebenSat.1)

06 Stefan Aust (Spiegel)

07 Georg Kofler (Premiere)

08 Mathias Müller v. Blumencron (Spiegel)

09 Giovanni di Lorenzo (Die Zeit)

10 Hubert Burda (Burda)

11 Holger Jung (Jung von Matt)

12 Kai Diekmann (Bild)

13 Ralph Dommermuth (United Internet)

14 Hans-Jürgen Jakobs (Süddeutsche.de)

15 Philipp Schindler (Google)

16 Lars Hinrichs (Xing)

17 Monika Piel (WDR)

18 Helmut Markwort (Focus)

19 Holger Meyer (Google)

20 Stefan Groß-Selbeck (eBay)

21 René Obermann (Telekom)

22 Karen Heumann (Jung von Matt)

23 Gerhard Zeiler (RTL Group)

24 Florian Haller (Serviceplan)

25 Philipp Welte (Springer)

26 Ulf Poschardt (Vanity Fair)

27 Matthias Alberti (Sat.1)

28 Amir Kassaei (DDB)

29 Bernd Kundrun (Gruner + Jahr)

30 Frank Schirrmacher (FAZ)

31 Fred Kogel (Constantin)

32 Edda Fels (Springer)

33 André Kemper (kempertrautmann)

34 Tonio Kröger (DDB)

35 Hans Werner Kilz (Süddeutsche Z.)

36 Fritz Pleitgen (EBU)

37 Stefan von Holtzbrinck (Holtzbrinck)

38 Nico Hofmann (teamworx)

39 Wolfram Weimer (Cicero)

40 Thomas Bellut (ZDF)

41 Marcus Englert (ProSiebenSat.1)

42 Christoph Schuh (Tomorrow Focus)

43 Liz Mohn (Bertelsmann)

44 David Montgomery (Mecom)

45 Markus Schächter (ZDF)

46 Jobst Plog (NDR)

47 Andreas Bartl (ProSieben)

48 Jochen Wegner (Focus Online)

49 Heinz Bauer (Bauer)

50 Christoph Keese (Welt am Sonntag)

Shanghai, New York, Dubai – Gone are the days when everyone called just one country or city home, with professionals now working and living at different bases all around the globe. Companies are expanding, and preparing to take to the stage on local markets from America to India and China. But making the right moves here often poses challenges for modern businesspeople. New partners and situations, foreign customs and etiquette – all of this calls for diplomatic and relaxed dealings; and that’s easier said than done. Lest we forget: Those who want to play along (and win) have to start by gaining a good grasp of the rules. 

Starting with Luis G de la Fuente from Madrid, XING members from diverse countries and continents will be reporting on the nature of their work, how facial expressions and gestures in their country can go awry, and what all this has to do with business etiquette.
Far more than a collection of culinary mishaps, we give you a glimpse at the real faux-pas to be found off the usual well-beaten business paths.

P.S.: Read more: Community members discuss this topic in the XING Group “Pitfalls - when doing business abroad”

   1. Luis, What do you do professionally, when you are not using XING?
I´m the CEO of LastInfoo, a "content broker" platform. I started it up almost 2 years ago. We create online magazines, corporate blogs, online TV channels, and a growing variety of branded information channels.

2. What does the CEO of LastInfoo S.L. do?
Well, on first hand, I am thinking about business and the best way to implement a strategy we follow 'more or less' closely. I meet people from media companies and present our services to prospects. I talk to my employees and read about other related initiatives. From time to time I invite some investors to good meals and go out for some drinks with others. But right now I am just wondering what you are going to ask me next…

3. Where do you conduct most of your business?
I am Spaniard and do most of my business travel here in Spain. I am
away on business in Madrid, Barcelona and Santander, a city in the
North of Spain.

4. Do meetings differ depending on the towns where you are doing
business?
Absolutely! In the last years Barcelona has become a slower city than
Madrid to do businesses, and there’s not the amount of business that
Madrid is reaching, which is definitely the hot spot for businessmen
to be.

5. After Singapore and Copenhagen, residents of Madrid are the
fastest walkers in the world scientist found out. Can this high-speed
tempo be seen in the city's business life as well?
I don’t think so; business-life runs pretty smoothly here. In fact I
wonder from time to time why everybody seems in a hurry on the
street.

6. Dealing with time is one issue, what else is custom in Spain?
Casual Friday
… is something known only in tech-related Spanish industries.
“Nine to five”
… believe me, such working hours sound like a joke anywhere outside
the public sector.
Business Dinners
… are important here because lots of businesses are made in Spain
around lunch or dinner. Watch out though: Drinking starts only after
an agreement has been made!

7. In such situations -as dinners for example- people often send
(unwanted) signals to their dialogue-partner through gestures and
facial expressions. What should I pay attention for in Spain?
I guess Spain has no special gestures or facial expressions
'toolbox'. I use to look at my counterpart’s eyes to talk and say
‘Hi’ and ‘Goodbye’; I don’t like people who don’t look directly while
addressing someone. But what might be strange to foreigners is the
Spanish humour. People here still have a special sense of making
sarcastic-like jokes, which is not very well understood among
foreigners.

8. Once I have disregarded that, which useful small-talk topics will
save me?
One mustn’t forget that business is about people. Businesswomen could
flatter one’s ego and businessmen could show cultural awareness by
talking about sports especially Spanish soccer. Keep in mind these
suggestions and people are likely to let any mistake you make pass.

9. In general: What are most frequent faux pas of foreign businessmen
in Spain?
They talk a lot about money they have made doing this or the other
thing and they show too much pride in general.

10. You should have seen their faces: which particularly amusing
situations from your previous years on the job could you tell
according when you hear this question?
Politics work different here. A Dutch co-worker used to be very mad
in Barcelona about the power local authorities have in every corner
of Spain. Since the country is so de-centralized he used to complain
and get really mad about bureaucracy and local idiosyncrasies.

Stay tuned for the next interview...

“GreenBC – The AFTER-WORK-GOLF Network” is a really active and committed XING Premium Group. After celebrating “100 years of golfing history in Germany” in May, they’ve since come up with another first-class event: Last Friday, GreenBC invited 80 members to an exclusive golf tournament at the Gut Kaden Golf and Country Club. (Yes, for those of you in the know, that’s also where this week’s “Deutsche Bank Player’s Championship” is happening.)

You can see for yourself here how well XING and the AFTER-WORK-GOLF Network get along:
   

In the end, the tournament was decided by a play-off, as the two finalists had played the same score. From left to right: Sarath de Silva (last year’s winner), Martin Burmeister (organizer, founder  AFTER-WORK-GOLF.net, Green BC group moderator), Holger Broß (the lucky winner), Michael Specht (Second finalist), Konstantin Pflüger (organizer, Green BC group moderator)

Take a look at more photos here.

Our colleagues from Neurona came to visit us in Hamburg last week. After two intense days of meetings, presentations and inspiring discussions our Spanish / German / Argentinian / Swiss team explored together the beaches of Hamburg and enjoyed the XING Event at Lago Bay, directly on the banks of the Elbe. Congratulations to Oliver Berger and the full team of the XING Community Hamburg for their big success and the great atmosphere.

Check out the great photos of the beach club event, by photographers Mareen Malessa &  Alexandre Tchobankov.

If you are a Stones fan, you probably know that Mick Jagger and his crew are currently touring Europe with their “Bigger Bang Europe Tour” and that they’ll be paying a visit to Germany to play two gigs in August.

And you’ll probably also be aware that the tickets aren’t all that cheap.

What does this have to do with XING? Well, it is good news if you're a XING Premium Member: The latest PremiumWorld offer gives you up to 42 % discount on the tickets, thanks to a cooperation with Burda Direct. You can check out the offer here.

If you type your name into Google and have a look at the results, you'll probably see entries associated with your name that you weren't even aware of.

One simple tool to actively manage your online identity is your XING profile page. Choose the setting „Allow search engines to find my profile” and you can determine what people see and read about you.

If you would like some advice on how to best fill in your data and make the most of your profile, the XING book might be useful for you, particularly Chapter 3. You can get a taste here.

XING has just introduced the launch of its official events, conceived to further catalyze and improve offline networking in the future. Official XING events will be organized by selected, licensed XING Ambassadors, ensuring high quality standards at XING regional meetings.

Learn more about official XING events, find out about the next XING official event near you and read up on the responsibilities of a XING Ambassador.

Ok I admit it: I am a freak for the latest gadgets and always will be! There I said it, now someone please find me a 12 step program… Pip Coburn, who I just spent a many enlightening hours with, mentioned that the gap between market expectation and product development looks a little like this:

The miracle in the above diagram at Apple is called Steve Jobs and the latest obsession in my life is of course the iPhone which has both his and my fingerprints all over it. As Bill Gates said “I would give a lot to have Steve’s sense of style.” So when I heard that Apple really were doing a proper iPhone I did two things, I set about acquiring one and I bought some more Apple stock.

Then I heard that the exclusive partner for the iPhone was AT&T and that only the US would be graced with its presence! That was an indecisive microsecond for me... Which clearly I got over as you can see by the picture below.

So how did I get an iPhone and how is it working in Europe? The following tale is embarrassingly revealing of my ridiculous propensity to go to great lengths to get what I want and also demonstrates that when I need something my primary tool is networking.   

Having a US credit card and an address there that I can use certainly helped me as well, in fact without these you will end up with an iBrick or with a little hacking a solid state video iPod not an iPhone. So six months ago, armed with my Amex card I set about becoming a Cingular customer (I wanted to try the Samsung Black jack anyway) and I spent a bit of time in the park avenue store getting to know Kathy who is without doubt the most excellent phone company customer service person I have met being more on a par with the concierge of the Waldorf across the street than what I had expected from the (New) AT&T. (Think concierge of the Tikrit Hilton) All was in place months ago and then on the day of delivery Kathy and the store staff were told at the last minute that only people who stood in line would get a phone and that no stock whatsoever would be sent via courier in fact only store managers would even be allowed to touch them. So at 1 am Swiss time I get a frantic text telling me to get someone down to the store quick if I want to get my phone and here is where networking really pays off because I went to XING did a quick search and found three of my NYC contacts who were reachable and was able to have Ejovi’s brother at the store just in the nick of time to miss the last phone available (thankfully he went up to the 5th avenue store and they had one left) I also had some people on the west coast standing by now I knew that it was tougher to get one than I had thought and so at 9 pm last Friday my iPhone was safe in the Hands of Fedex and Last Wednesday it arrived in my own hot little hands.

By this time I had found out that activating my iBrick (for such it is until activated) was not going to be a piece of cake and sure enough it sat in its dock while iTunes brought up a little message saying “Your registration will require extra time” (note there is no indication of how much extra time!) and then an email arrived suggesting that I call customer service. I will spare you the details except to say that at two points in my call I had one AT&T operator in Calgary conferencing me in with another AT&T operator in Texas in order to exchange a series of codes about what services could and could not be activated on my account to get the iPhone activation to go through (This is after I had already gotten pre-approved credit) apparently PTTKC is a bad thing to have on your service and MMTM is a necessary thing and when I asked what these things were my Calgary operator pleasantly informed me that she had only been there 6 months and so did not know what the codes stood for while my Texan friend retorted that he had mastered the codes after a mere 3 years… AT&T probably can claim this as remarkably good customer service as the phone did end up working and yet the strange thing is that while I was required to call them I did not in fact give any useful input I just got to listen to different parts of AT&T talking to each other… 

Amazingly after ONLY an hour international long distance my little gem pleasantly informed me that it was activated and the fun could begin… and what fun it is! I have not had this much fun with a piece of consumer electronics since… well ever! My iPhone has gone from objet D’siree to constant companion in record time and it attracts unbelievable attention wherever I go and hey guys it’s a phone right? Wrong it’s a piece of SJ Apple branding magic and it’s amazingly addictive to play with in the same way that all other smart phones aren’t.   

In between meetings last Friday I went with Anju to help her pick out a handbag and we ended up in Dior in Zurich and while she was browsing I checked up a couple of emails and before you could say fashionista the entire service staff and several leggy customers crowded around requesting to just be able to touch it! Now when the fashion mavens in Zurich get excited about a phone you have got to wonder what the other phone manufacturers have been doing all this time? Indeed I get visions of product development teams being summoned to marketing tails between their legs and lists of excuses clutched in their nervous hands.

So for once I feel very fully vindicated in being an early adopter and that does not mean that the iPhone is perfect, far from it. You cannot install new programs, you cannot download stuff via wifi to it, you can’t add anything at all really without adding it to iTunes first and if you sync it with another copy of iTunes on a different PC (say the one here in the XING Hamburg office vs the one at my home)  IT ERASES THE IPHONE CONENT!!! and then  there are a heap of other niggles and yet there could be a thousand more I still would not care. I am glad I have it and it is just so cool, fun and useful despite the flaws and the flaws can all hopefully be fixed in software or in the next version. (Please Steve Please!!!)

And speaking of software! Last Wednesday I have my toy and I see that it supports that Multi V/Card format for importing contacts like the iPod does and with that in mind I called our product guys in the middle of their weekly development cycle with a question, “Umm guys is there any chance I could get my XING contacts on my iPhone?” He asked expectantly…

Well I am very pleased to say that in three days eg. by Friday, the answer was YES in fact not just YES. In fact its went live on Friday so we have a new feature on XING which allows the export of your contacts as a multi V/Card (which you can use for a lot of different mobile devices) up and running in three days! :)

You can see here the new button in the address book which lets you tell XING to compile your export:

You then get a todo on the Start page once your file is ready.

Just click this link to download it and then you can open it with iTunes and presto XING Contacts on your iPhone with pictures.



This has pretty much completed my happiness and I can confirm that I am in gadget nirvana! I am happy to answer any questions about my iPhone experience in Europe so please post them here and I will respond. Next I want to see a European version (3g Please Steve 3G and HSDPA!!!) though I admit the auto switch to wifi from edge when in range is SWEET!

In the words of Ferris Bueller “If you have the wherewithal I highly recommend you pick one up!”

Today the German Commercial Register confirmed our name change. Thus, it’s official now – the new company name is XING AG! German law requires a company to change its name with consent of the Commercial Register. We’re all very excited about the name change, although this also entails a lot of work for us: scanning all documents and programs for the now outdated name “OPEN Business Club AG” and replacing it with “XING AG.”

Nuestro viaje de networking por España nos llevó al evento de First Tuesday en Barcelona. A orillas del mar, pasamos una velada muy agradable en un atractivo lugar con una excelente gastronomía, donde conocimos a muchos e interesantes ‘superconectores’. Echadles un vistazo a las fotos del evento...

Durante este encuentro, Neurona, eConozco y XING se reunieron por primera vez en equipo, ¡este es el resultado! ;-)

First Tuesday Spain: VIP Dinner with superconnectors

Our networking journey through Spain continued and brought us to the First Tuesday Event in Barcelona, to a fancy location directly at the beach, with nice food and a lot of interesting super connectors. Have a look at pictures from the event.

At the event Neurona, eConozco & XING met for the first time all together as a team, watch out for us! ;-)

People from the Neurona, eConozco & XING Team

El Equipo XING Market Development asistió la semana pasada a THURSDAY, uno de los eventos de Networking profesional más consolidados de España, que organiza el “superconector” Ildefonso Mayorgas. Fue todo un éxito al que acudieron personas muy interesantes y que se prolongó hasta altas horas de la madrugada. Echadles un vistazo a las fotos del evento...

¡Muchas gracias por el caluroso recibimiento en Madrid! Estamos muy ilusionados y deseosos de trabajar y practicar networking con nuestros colaboradores españoles para crear la plataforma de networking profesional más grande del mundo hispanohablante.

The XING Market Development Team was guest at THURSDAY, one of the most established Networking Events in Spain, organized by superconnector Ildefonso Mayorgas. It was a great event with interesting people and ended in the early hours of the next morning. Take a look at some pictures taken during the event…

Many thanks for the warm welcome in Madrid! We are very much looking forward to (net)working with our Spanish colleagues and to create the most active business networking platform in the Spanish speaking world.