Diane Kaern Tumblr Blog

With experience in financial management and sales operations for multinational organizations, Diane Kaern most recently held the role of Worldwide Sales Compensation Analytics and Reporting Manager for the Hewlett-Packard Company. In this position, Diane Kaern created a new worldwide reporting process used for managing data provider agreements. Diane Kaern's first position with HP was as a Worldwide Strategic Alliances Sales Operations Manager, whose duties included reporting for sales pipeline management, forecasted revenue reporting, and business reporting for partners such as Outsourcers, Global System Integrators, and mega Independent Software Vendors. She received an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2008. Diane Kaern developed her expertise in cost reduction and management, productivity and risk management, and business processes and procedures with a number of companies in the Siemens AG family, including Siemens Tel Plus Communications, Siemens Enterprise Networks, and Siemens Medical Systems. Over 18 years with Siemens, she served as a Finance Manager, Reporting Manager, Business Administration Manager of Product Development, Planning and Reporting Manager of Product Line, and more. Her contributions to the company were recognized with a variety of awards. Diane Kaern won the Outstanding Achievement Award in 1995 and then twice in 1997, as well as the Siemens Med Cash League Championship Award in 2005 for her successful management of the company’s assets as its Med Cash League Team Coach. In 1999, she was nominated to the Circle of Excellence, which honors the top 5% of Siemens’ financial professionals. Diane Kaern holds a Master of Business Administration, Master of Education, and Bachelor of Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

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How Do You Cultivate A Creative Mind?

One of the skills that has assisted Diane Kaern most during her career in sales operations and finance is her creativity. Creativity helps professionals like Diane Kaern develop solutions to problems, find new ways to meet customer needs, and ultimately set up their companies to succeed. Cultivating creativity requires effort, time, and careful thought. Successful creative people surround themselves with examples of other exceptional professionals in their field, looking for the output of the greatest minds in the arena in which they work. Just as a good writer learns the craft by reading tirelessly, a novice marketing professional will learn a great deal from successful, more experienced marketers. Likewise, people who experience creative growth frequently place themselves in situations that require creative solutions. Their creative talents flourish because of the dozens, even hundreds of rough drafts, failed efforts, and purposeful play attempts they make in their field. Finally, creativity flourishes when exposed to new ideas from different spheres. Using understanding from one area to enhance effectiveness in another can lead to growth in both.

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Successfully Working in a Team Environment

An experienced sales compensations and financial management professional, Diane Kaern has split her career between Siemens AG and Hewlett-Packard Company. Throughout her career, Diane Kaern has proven herself an effective team member. She has a history of effectively working with executive management along with strong leadership and communication skills. Successfully working on a team is important for businesses of all sizes, but it is often more difficult than many individuals initially think. Good team involvement requires good communication with all members of a team. Members must feel free to share their ideas and make contributions without fearing backlash or harsh criticism from others. Effective teams listen to one another and provide constructive responses to new ideas in a respectful way. Additionally, tasks assigned to a team are divided among all members, requiring that everyone is reliable and consistent in the work they do. Keeping teams moving forward smoothly also requires good time management. Ideally, all members complete their individual tasks by the agreed-upon date. However, this is not always possible, so flexibility is also important. If new tasks that require more urgent attention come up, teams must switch their focus to complete the more important and time-sensitive problem. Similarly, if a team member has an emergency that prevents him or her from completing the work, the other members should have no problem taking on the extra work to ensure everything is still finished on time.

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Creativity and Leadership

The former analytics and reporting manager for worldwide sales compensation at Hewlett-Packard Company, Diane Kaern is familiar with such competencies as cost management and business processes for large, global companies. A highly creative individual, Diane Kaern has proven her ability to effectively lead in a variety of positions. Although many individuals recognize the value of creativity in the workplace, not as many people see how creativity is beneficial to leaders. Business leaders play a major role in how creative a workplace is, but without being creative themselves fostering a creative environment may be difficult. Creative leaders are capable of finding the right people for every job without placing too much focus on a single level. They encourage collaboration between all employees and recognize that, sometimes, allowing employees to create and solve problems without constantly receiving approval from upper management results in higher productivity. Leaders also benefit from creative thought because it allows them to look at things from a variety of perspectives. Thinking about a business problem logically is important, but sometimes the initial logical answer is not the best. Creative leaders find a good balance between practical and creative thought and this helps them find new, more effective solutions for problems.

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Organizations Need Strong Sales Compensation Plans

Sales operations and finance leader Diane Kaern has a background of sales compensation analytics. According to Inc. magazine, businesses need effective sales compensation plans to motivate sales professionals to secure new accounts while up-selling existing clients. Designing a compensation plan can be difficult, but can also yield valuable business benefits, including fostering a high-performance sales culture. In addition, a solid sales compensation program can help organizations establish a reputation for rewarding its sales professionals. This can promote recruiting and retention of strong sales talent. Depending on company needs, a compensation plan may include a base salary-only or a commission-only structure, though many plans feature a mix of base and incentive compensation. Although sales compensation plans vary widely based on specific organizational needs, they should include several common elements. Every sales plan needs a clear definition of the business’s sales strategy, along with detailed sales performance measures, a payout formula, and guidelines for resolving issues or questions that may arise.                            

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Effective Leadership at a Global Level

An accomplished sales operations professional, Diane Kaern has split the majority of her career between Siemens AG and Hewlett-Packard. Having held such titles as worldwide sales compensation analytics and reporting manager and finance manager, Diane Kaern has a proven track record of providing successful leadership in multinational corporations. An increasing number of companies are operating on a global level, and leadership positions at these companies often require a different set of skills than at those operating within a single country. While many of the basic principles of business leadership are the same, leaders at a multinational level must be capable of adapting to the host culture of countries in which it operates. Strategic thinking is another important part of being a leader, but this must take on a global perspective in multinational corporations. Global leaders have networking connections and need to consider how various industries change globally instead of just at a national or local level. Additionally, strong communication skills are key to a multinational leader’s success. Meetings, negotiations, and individual business conversations may require the use of an interpreter, who must be able to translate what a leader is saying. The multinational business leader must always be aware of cultural differences when addressing colleagues in a foreign country.

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Developing an Effective Risk Management Plan

An experienced sales operations professional and analyst, Diane Kaern has split the majority of her career between Siemens AG and the Hewlett-Packard Company. Handling such responsibilities as worldwide sales compensation and financial management during her career, Diane Kaern has proven abilities in a variety of areas, including risk management. Although risk in business cannot be fully eliminated, it can be minimized through risk management. Following are five basic steps to creating a good risk management plan: 1. Risk identification. Listing out all of the potential risks a company may face ensures that you create a plan that covers everything. Make sure you include as many details as possible, even ones that may seem unimportant. 2. Risk assessment. Determining how likely certain risks are provides you with information about their potential impact and helps you focus more on the more likely problems. This also helps you determine possible risk triggers that can be avoided. 3. Risk resolution. Thinking of ways to handle risk is important for minimizing any potential damage to the company. Come up with several ideas for resolving risk, then start executing the plan as needed. 4. Risk accountability. Assigning a specific job to each group or individual in your company should something occur ensures that plans are carried out effectively. Splitting up responsibilities for carrying out the plan also prevents any parts from being forgotten. 5. Risk tracking. Monitoring and tracking potential risks allows you to shift your focus to different potential risks as certain ones become less likely. Keep track of all planned responses for each risk along with how long certain corrective actions took in the past.

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The Importance of Sales Analysis

Former analytics and reporting manager for worldwide sales compensation at the Hewlett-Packard Company, Diane Kaern has won awards for her professional accomplishments in the areas of finance and sales operations. Throughout the course of her career, Diane Kaern has demonstrated knowledge of a variety of areas, particularly sales reporting and analysis. Setting up a regular sales analysis is an important part of remaining apprised of business trends and market changes. By looking at sales trends over multiple years, companies can determine various sales patterns and make budget decisions based on the reports. If companies notice that sales are low during a certain part of the year, they can change their operations either to produce less or increase effectiveness during that time to avoid profit loss. Additionally, if certain products appear to be growing faster than others, companies can redirect their marketing funds toward that particular product. Sales analyses also provide important information that may be more specific than actual sales. Companies can look at new sales compared to repeat sales to get a good idea of who their customers are and how effective their marketing initiatives are. Further, depending on the industry, sales analysis reports can be used to compare the company to the rest of the industry. Looking at a company’s performance in comparison to competitors helps businesses see whether they are growing at the same rate as the rest of the market and if they need to change their advertising and customer acquisition rates.                            

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With sales operations and financial management experience, Diane Kaern most recently worked with the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) as the Worldwide Sales Compensation Analytics & Reporting Manager. In this capacity, she was responsible for the reporting and analytics that were essential to sales operations management. Hewlett-Packard's FY 2011 global employee base is over 300,000 and has sales of approximately $127 billion. Diane Kaern created and implemented a streamlined reporting process that facilitated the management of manual claims related to data-provider agreements.Joining Hewlett-Packard in 2007, Ms. Kaern initially served as Sales Operations Manager. She worked with the company's partners in the Worldwide Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Business Strategic Alliances to manage the sales pipeline, along with forecasted revenue and business reporting functions. Diane Kaern’s efforts over a three-year period enabled HP to measure key metrics and effectively plan strategies that included Alliance operations.Diane Kaern completed Bachelor’s, Master’s of Education, and MBA degrees at the University of Pittsburgh. Early in her career, she accepted a position with Siemens Tel Plus Communications, Inc. in Florida as Sales Business Administration and Manager/Supervisor. Ms. Kaern held a number of subsequent positions with Siemens, AG, including a position as Finance Manager of Siemen Medical Systems’ Ultrasound Division. Over a period of four years, Diane Kaern oversaw worldwide productivity processes that enabled the company to meet key financial objectives. She additionally undertook M&A analysis and designed a Worldwide Asset Management Reporting package.Diane Kaern has received multiple awards from her employers thanks to her hard work and dedication. In 2008, Hewlett-Packard gave her an HP Award for Outstanding Achievement. Siemens also gave her multiple awards in recognition of her invaluable contributions to the company, including the Med Cash League Championship along with her team members, and nomination to the company’s Circle of Excellence.

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How Financial Management Is Different for Multinational Corporations

Diane Kaern, former analytics and reporting manager for worldwide sales compensation at Hewlett-Packard, has won several awards for her professional achievements. Over the course of her career, Diane Kaern has proven her ability to streamline reporting processes and successfully manage finances for a number of multinational companies. While there are several benefits to expanding globally, multinational corporations often face many more financial risks than domestic ones, making the process of financial management a bit more complicated. While domestic companies only have to worry about one economic and legal structure, multinational enterprises must navigate through several different systems. One country may allow certain practices while another does not. Beyond that, different countries have different currencies, meaning multinational corporations must consider how exchange rates may change and affect money transfers and cash flow. Financial management of multinational corporations is also affected by the different governing licensing and tax structures imposed by various governments. Depending on the country where a company is conducting business, high levels of government bureaucracy and inefficiency can affect a corporation’s finances, and any political instability within a country may result in a halting of operations. Foreign banks also frequently have varying regulations that affect a multinational corporation’s ability to manage its money freely.

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The Importance of Having Computer Skills as an Employee

Former analytics and reporting manager for worldwide sales compensation reporting at Hewlett-Packard, Diane Kaern is a proven leader and talented sales operations professional. With a demonstrated ability to oversee a variety of business areas, Diane Kaern has cultivated a wide range of computer skills to broaden her job success rate. In today’s business world, computer skills are a major component to finding success at all levels of a career. Nearly every job requires certain computer skills, even those outside of basic office work. While many companies provide hands-on training for computer programs that are more unique to them, such as navigating a telephone customer service program, a working knowledge of the basic programs like Microsoft Word is often expected. Having basic computer skills in not just important for getting a job, but also for maintaining one. More and more companies use computer-based programs to enhance productivity, while making training less time-consuming. Similarly, computer-savvy individuals can easily undergo training on their own to augment their chances for a promotion or even new job.

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Characteristics of Creative Thinkers

The recipient of an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, Diane Kaern had a career in sales operations and financial management at Siemens AG and Hewlett-Packard. Over the years, Diane Kaern has proven her familiarity with everything from reporting and business processes to cost reduction and management and has demonstrated a knack for creative thought. Creative thinking is a valuable trait for individuals in business because it allows for quicker and more unique thought. Typically, creative thinkers are naturally curious and frequently ask questions. While curiosity has often been seen as a negative trait, it helps creative thinkers look at things in new ways. Additionally, creative thinkers process all the information they’ve received instead of immediately trying to solve an issue. Despite all the thought that goes into making decisions, creative thinkers still may change their mind. However, unlike some non-creative thinkers who struggle with change, creative thinkers are very flexible. Since they are less wedded to a given idea, creative thinkers more freely admit that their original thought was incorrect and will actively seek out a better solution.                            

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The History of Downhill Skiing

A skilled analyst and finance manager, Diane Kaern spends her leisure time pursuing such activities as running, traveling, and reading. Diane Kaern also enjoys downhill skiing. While alpine or downhill skiing is considered a sport today, it was initially known as a means of transport. The activity is believed to go back as far as 4,000 years, and evidence suggests that Scandinavians used skis to get from one place to the next and for hunting purposes. In the 1920s, the first slalom events were held in Europe, with the first global championship established in 1931. When Americans learned of the event in the 1930s, skiing became a part of American leisure activities. Downhill skiing was introduced at the 1936 Olympics in an event that combined it with slalom skiing. A downhill skiing event matches a skier against the clock, while a slalom run is defined by a short race that features short turns around flags. Slalom events are also represented by a giant slalom run and a super G, the latter of which is even faster and longer than the giant slalom.

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The Importance of Risk Management

A former finance manager at Siemens and worldwide sales compensation analytics and reporting manager at Hewlett-Packard, Diane Kaern was recognized for her outstanding work at both companies. Diane Kaern has a broad skill set, including risk management. Risk management is designed so businesses can assess, identify, and manage risks that result from business operations and project plans. It includes the identification of potential threats and the incorporation of certain safeguards to lessen their effect. Processes are established in the workplace environment for the purposes of monitoring and assessment, and managers follow a series of steps to help them formulate better decisions based on their business objectives. Some of the methods used for optimizing security involve implementing pilot studies, adding precautionary measures (even if the risk is small), and transferring risk. Methods used to facilitate the process include using innovative technologies and conducting site investigations. These steps are taken to acquire more information about specific threats and to prevent any adverse results. Commissioning a research study can also help disprove or verify the dependability of a danger of a new technology.                            

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Decreasing Paper Use Can Reduce Business Costs

Diane Kaern served as the worldwide sales compensation analytics and reporting manager at Hewlett-Packard. Working in financial management has given Diane Kaern insight into cost reduction practices. Using paper more conscientiously is one way to reduce costs in today's office space. Paper is costly and environmentally unfriendly. Statistics show that the United States uses 30 percent of the paper that is produced globally. The expenses of using paper in the workplace can run as much as 30 times of the original purchase cost. So, for each piece of paper that is used, a business must pay for its cost as well as for such activities as printing, copying, and postage, and recycling and disposal. Therefore, a ream of paper valued at $5.00 generally costs a business up to $150 to use. Businesses can learn to save money on paper usage by copying both sides of a paper and increasing the use of e-mail and online documents. Companies can also cut costs by choosing to use paper that is lighter in weight. Besides the economic benefits, reducing paper usage also positively impacts the environment. By lessening paper consumption, consumers can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas that is emitted each year.

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How Food Banks and Food Pantries Function

Diane Kaern has proven her skills in motivating others, serving as an analytics and reporting manager for the Hewlett-Packard Company. A supporter of the homeless outreach program in her community, Diane Kaern has served in the local church pantry. Church or food pantries are often confused with food banks. However, these two resources are different entities. A food bank is designed for community use and serves as a storehouse for an entire town or city, usually distributing resources to community organizations in need. On the other hand, a food pantry is set up to directly serve residents in need. Food or church pantries typically distribute food to residents monthly. Food bank food is received from one of a number of channels, including retailers, wholesalers, local growers, and food processing companies. Food banks usually distribute to senior programs, church or food pantries, and soup kitchens in the community. Direct service programs are another way for organizations to distribute food. These programs assist people in need directly through federally funded outreach or mobile delivery. In turn, children, homeless people, and seniors in the service area can obtain necessary sustenance that is free of charge.

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The Importance of Good Communication in Business

Diane Kaern, a former analytics and reporting manager for Hewlett-Packard, is experienced in the financial management and sales operations of large multi-national companies. With a strong work ethic, Diane Kaern is a strong leader who possesses proficiency in business processes, risk management, cost reduction, and business communication.

Good communication is important for personal matters and also for business. It affects the sales, daily operations, and profitability of a company. Proper communication helps managers and bosses get their messages across to employees in a clear and understandable manner. Additionally, communication often affects how customers react to a company. Many customers have negative responses if they encounter poor communication. One-way communication involves a company sending out a message to employees or customers without accepting responses, while two-way communication allows for responses and feedback. Both forms are important to company functions. When a company creates an open line of communication with customers, it directly affects sales and creates a win-win situation. Customers benefit from the company’s messages and concerns, and they refer their friends in the future.

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Two Popular Business Analytics Techniques

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Diane Kaern won numerous awards during her long career at Siemens AG. In 2007, she joined Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, California. Like any good professional, Diane Kaern is aware of the importance of business analytics. There are a number of popular business analytics techniques with which today’s analysts should become familiar. In the current climate, the MOST technique is one of the most prevalent. The analysis begins with the Mission, or the goals set by the company. This element is followed by the Objectives, or the smaller steps that must be taken to achieve each goal. Next are the Strategies, various tactics supported by statistics that help reach objectives and goals, and finally Tactics, how these strategies can be employed in various ways. There are many other business analysis techniques. One of these is PESTLE, used by analysts to evaluate the influence of outside forces on business operations. These influences are Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental.