Lies and Statistics

Lies, Damned Lies and Presenting Data

We all know the cliché: ‘there are lies, damned lies and statistics’. This is certainly true but there is another, far more common, way that we are misled – how data is presented. This short post dives into how data can be presented to draw various differing conclusions, so you’re aware and in the best place to make decisions.

Consider the following: ‘Our production capacity has doubled in 5 years’. Imagine how most busy people would have read the same information if more emphasis was placed on the time and less on the total capacity. Consider further the accompanying information: how have sales, productivity and market share varied during this time? The frame that data is presented in is critical to understanding the message that is conveyed.

Numbers, percentages and utility

We are often bombarded with facts, figures and data. All too often it does not actually mean very much. For example, instead of saying ‘approximately 400 children’ the size of the average primary school allows much faster visualizations. A ‘100 truck convoy’, for example, does not sound like a huge number but, if they are spaced at typical distances, ‘a 10km convoy’ may be more useful. The key of context should be clear but also trying to think what is it that I need to use this information for, can provide an insight into how exactly it should be presented.

Percentages can be similarly presented in all manner of ways. Pie charts are normally neutral but if bold colors are used then overall the focus can be easily, maybe intentionally, misrepresented. Sometimes small increases, expressed as a percentage, can sound more impressive than is actually the case. Similarly, a percentage must be related to some time period. If this time period is missing then you should automatically be skeptical.

We hope that these ideas, at the very least, arm you with the knowledge necessary to see the basic ideas behind the data. 

If you need ground transportation we can be of further assistance – Philadelphia Limousine operates in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey and area and can transport you to your next meeting in a style that allows you to remain productive and focus 100 percent on whatever it is you need to achieve. When your business or pleasure travels bring you to Greater Philadelphia Area, you can be sure that Philadelphia Limo will assist you in any requirements or special needs that you may have. Our corporate services are second to no one and reflect the skills and expertise expected and demanded by the discriminating travelers.

4 Leadership Exercises to Make You A Better Leader

The skills that a manager needs are both numerous and demanding – you must be able to communicate, delegate, inspire and get the best from a team. Most individuals have a certain style, that may suit and cater for some, or for the luck few a majority, of the required skills but most of us have to work at our leadership skills. Today’s post brings you a short list of easy exercises aimed at improving your leadership skills.

Collaborate

A really effective leader values others’ opinions and can then take a group and make it perform much more effectively as a team, as opposed to the sum of its individual parts. To learn to be a better collaborative leader, take a small portion of your day to garner opinions from employees, list the best and most thoughtful observations and respond to them directly in a non-critical manner. This will definitely have the effect that all team members will feel that their opinions are valued and, hopefully, you may get some great suggestions.

Role Models

One of the best ways of improving your own leadership skill is simply by speaking to other great leaders. These could be fellow managers, friends or part of your wider business network. The key activity is to simply speak to them about leadership related issues and their views. You could ask them how they’d respond to a hypothetical situation. You’ll most likely find that you all become better leaders due to this discourse.

Team Building

As the above word suggests great teams must be built. This does not always need to be an organized outing, any activity that invests in the cohesion, or effectiveness of a team is, by definition, team building.  Consultation is also important as far a teambuilding is concerned; you need to conduct activities that the group will enjoy. By showing a team that you’re willing to invest in it you’re already demonstrating to your employees leadership.

Never Stop Learning

A really easy daily habit to get into is to spend a few minutes each day researching leadership skills and theories. The type of things you do can be diverse and satisfying, such as: reading an autobiography, leadership journal or just keeping up with relevant blogs. You may find it useful to note down any really helpful bits of information and you should find that you gain something small every day.

We are proud to support our great leaders and their businesses through the provision of outstanding limousine and corporate transportation in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia area. Whatever your travel requirements, Philadelphia Limo Service has everything to meet and exceed them. We offer a wide selection of the newest models of luxury sedans, SUVs and mini coach bus rentals, for you to choose from. Philadelphia Limousine can get you to the right place, at the right time and in the right style. We would love to be your transportation partner, call us today to see what we can offer.

Luxury travel outpaces the rest of the travel industry

 Global consumers are increasingly spending their disposable income on experiences rather than material goods. And consumers' desire for these life experiences is spurring a growth in luxury travel that is outpacing the rest of the travel industry, according a new report commissioned by global travel technology company, Amadeus.

The report, Shaping the Future of Luxury Travel, reveals the fresh challenges and opportunities that the luxury travel market will face over the next decade. Some key findings from the report include:

• We have entered a new age of luxury travel, where luxury is curated, real-time and experience-led
• North America and Western Europe account for 64% of global outbound luxury trips, despite only making up 18% of the world's population
• From 2011-2025, Asia Pacific's luxury travel market will see faster overall growth than Europe's, but this growth will decelerate from 2015-2025
• India's luxury market CAGR of 13% is higher than any of the other BRIC nations, and is the highest of the 25 countries explored in this report
• A human desire for more rewarding experiences provides an essential catalyst to evolve and improve travel industry quality and service standards
• A hierarchy of luxury travel needs is identified, ranging from 5-star quality and service standards to exclusive VIP privacy and security

Who are tomorrow's luxury travelers? These travelers are defined by their behaviors and intentions and also by their varying levels of affluence.

The report was developed with data from Tourism Economics and with dozens of expert interviews with global luxury travel experts across specialist travel concierge agencies, airlines, hoteliers and intermediary suppliers through Connections, a global networking event organizer for luxury travel providers.

In 2015, Amadeus identified six "traveler tribes" based on consumer behavior, recognizing that purchasing patterns change depending on the circumstances of each trip:

• Always Luxury: luxury is a minimum requirement rather than a perk
• Special Occasion: luxury travel is a treat, not a given
• Bluxury: their trip has a business objective, but they will extend it to enjoy a luxury leisure experience
• Cash-Rich, Time-Poor: likely to seek and pay for third-party travel planning assistance
• Strictly Opulent: seek the most glamorous experiences and will likely share on social media
• Independent Affluent: often solo travelers seeking luxury travel to pamper themselves or try something new

"Luxury means different things to different people and this is especially true today. As emergent middle classes seek the material aspect of luxury travel, more mature markets are craving a new, evolved kind of luxury. This is why offering luxury customers a relevant personal and exclusive experience will become even more crucial than it is today – it will be a differentiating factor between old and new luxury," said Rob Sinclair-Barnes, Strategic Marketing Director at Amadeus IT Group.

"For travel companies, understanding their role in delivering an end-to-end luxury experience for a traveler is key to improving collaboration, and reinforcing an industry-wide push for consistent luxury service. Exploring the latest technologies and innovations for making the industry work better as a whole is key to achieving a new level of luxury that has never existed before," said Sinclair-Barnes.

Whatever your travel requirements, Philadelphia Limousine services has everything to meet and exceed them. We offer a wide selection of the newest models of luxury sedans, SUVs and mini coach bus rentals, for you to choose from.

Our corporate services are second to no one and reflect the skills and expertise expected and demanded by the discriminating travelers. Our quality service and exclusive vehicles aside, what makes Philadelphia Limo distinctive is the care and attention we give each and every customer.

         From the moment that we answer your call all the way through reaching your final destination, Philly Limo Service is luxury travel done right.

Philadelphia Limousine’s Insider Travel Tips

Only buy a ticket on Tuesday

In the travel industry, Tuesday is the first day of airfare sales. This is when all the deals are published and the offers will last up to 3 days. If you shop on a Tuesday, you have a chance of picking up one of these deals: You have no chance on a Monday.

• Tip: When all the cheap tickets are sold, ticket prices revert to normal. This means that you should not wait until Thursday or even Wednesday: Look for your great deal on Tuesday

Fly early

People don’t like to fly hungry, this means that pre-breakfast flights are among the cheapest. If you can stand it, an early flight is likely to be a great deal and, as they are normally less busy, you may catch up on your lost sleep any way.

• Tip: Fly early for the best chance of getting there. If an early flight is delayed, you still have a chance of getting to your destination, take a later flight and a delay means you may not.

Packing

Avoid putting the following in checked baggage:

• Valuables (e.g., cash, jewelry, expensive electronics).
• Critical items (e.g., medicine, keys, passport, tour vouchers, business papers).
• Irreplaceable items (e.g., heirlooms, original photos).
• Fragile items.  Consider shipping them in advance.  If they must be checked, wrap them carefully in padding.
• Perishables

Many airlines limit their liability for loss or damage of these items on domestic trips.  Try to carry them on your person or in a carry-on bag.

• Put items that you will need during the first 24 hours in a carry-on bag.  Although most checked bags arrive on time, some may be delayed for a day or two.
• When purchasing a suitcase lock, remember that security inspectors may need to open your checked bags out of your presence.

If you wish to lock your bags, see www.tsa.gov  for information on locks that security personnel can open and re-lock.  If you use an unapproved lock and your bag is selected for inspection, security staff will break the lock if necessary.

• Put a tag on the outside of your baggage with your name, address, and phone numbers.

Most airlines provide free "privacy tags" which conceal this information from passersby.  Put the same information inside each bag, and add an address and telephone number where you can be reached during your trip.

Rely on Philadelphia Limousine Service for Stress Free Ground Transportation

So you’ve got the best deal, arrived on time and with limited stress. You then spend ages getting from the airport to your destination and arrive just as stressed and late as you would have if the airline messed it up. A simple solution is to use our limo service. We will solve all of your ground transportation needs for a lot less than you think.

Rather than a miserable hour hauling your baggage to some distant rental car outlet, for a car that you can’t park at your destination anyway, step directly into professionally driven car and go directly to your destination. From the moment that we answer your call all the way through reaching your 

final destination, Philadelphia Limo Service is luxury travel done right.

5 Tips to Maximize Your Convention Experience

Conventions can be either: great opportunities to expand your network and build your business, or they can be a total waste of your valuable time. To ensure that your next convention is a positive experience this week’s blog post outlines 5 simple tips to get the most out of it.

1.            Build your base

Expanding you network and opportunities are a great aspect of what you can achieve at a convention but it’s important not to ignore the clients you already have; this will cost you something. So make sure you spend some time and effort working on existing relationships.

2.            Make use of technology to get introduced

It should be easy to discover who will be attending a convention. Once you’ve identified the people that you should be talking to, there is a whole host of ways of reaching out to them. You can use social networks as a start point to connect to the people you’ve already identified as offering an advantage and then at the convention concentrate on converting. But…

3.            Don’t aggressively market

You need to make sure that you don’t rub people the wrong way with overly aggressive marketing. Try and do at least as much listening as you do talking and ensure that you’re subtle in your approach to marketing.

4.            Do everything

You need to make sure that you do attend all the events that it’s possible to; every workshop, seminar, cocktail party and so on is an opportunity that you cannot possibly seize if you’re not there.

5.            Plan before you arrive

There is normally so much to do at conferences that you going to have to do at least a bit of planning or you’ll miss some really valuable events. While accepting you should do as much as possible, try and plan to visit those that offer you the most chance of reaching the audience you’re looking for.

There is one more aspect of conference prep we can help with: getting you there and about. As one of the most outstanding limousine and corporate transportation services in the Greater Philadelphia Area, Philadelphia Limousine can get you to the right place, at the right time and in the right style. We are known for our personalized partnerships, flexible approach to corporate travel management, and our ability to tailor programs to our clients’ needs. Call us today to see what we can offer.

The Worst Things You Can Do on Business Travel

Corporate travel is a necessary evil for many of us. While travel can be satisfying and is certainly necessary, it takes an undeniable toll on mind, body and our relationships. This short post lets you know what the 4 most damaging things people do to themselves while on the road and lets you know what to do to stay healthy.





Eating badly
Avoiding the airport fast food trap can be difficult when you don’t have enough time to find something better and you’re eating to try and make up for a lack of sleep. Preparation can help; bringing your own healthy snacks like fruits and nuts will help to keep hunger at bay. You can also check out the healthy places to eat in advance, so you make the best use of the time you’ve got. Also, don’t miss breakfast if possible; you’ll most likely just over eat later.

Drinking too little or too much
Dehydration is a real risk that’s associated with travel that’s often compounded by drinking too much coffee or alcohol at the wrong times. It’s well worth carrying a bottle of water the whole time to minimize the chances of this happening.

Too little sleep 
It’s quite possible that you’re going to have to do a lot in the evenings. This needs to be sensible and not lead to you becoming ineffective the next day. You also need to ensure that you avoid drinking coffee or eating too late that could disturb your sleep.

Wasting time on ground transportation
Travelling is hard enough without being late, getting lost or struggling to find a hire car with your heavy bags. Wasting time on ground transportation does not make sense. Of all possible options a sedan service may not be the lowest priced but is by far the most reliable, stress free and the best preparation a pressured executive can make before hitting a big meeting.


Philadelphia Limousine can help you with this last problem. Based in Philadelphia, and operating in Tri-State area, we have the capability, resources and team to support every possibility. We understand that every customer is unique and aim to fulfill your individual requirements. We, at Philadelphia Limo, hope that you find this small post useful and would love to be your next travel partner, call our team today.