Execblueprints' sound advice

Daniel Griffin listens to some expert business advice from Books24x7’s podcasting service

Web-based digital reference specialists Books24x7 have launched ExecBlueprints Excerpts, a podcasting service to provide best practice advice, insight and guidance to strategic business issues. The service consists of audio extracts taken from archived Books24x7 articles.

The ExecBlueprint podcasts cover a broad range of topics from finance, HR, information technology and marketing, as well as an overall corporate strategy for the CEO. The framework sitting under the technological umbrella suggests best-practice and advice on correct implementation and the factors to consider. If done correctly the contributors suggest that these core business areas will achieve fruition and success within the wider corporate sphere.

To access the podcasts, you are required to complete a standard registration form which then takes you to the main ExecBlueprints podcasts. Before downloading, the page menu also gives a brief synopsis on the speakers and content with three options on how to access the podcasts, either through a direct link which plays the MP3 in Realplayer on your PC, an RSS feed or by subscribing and downloading using iTunes (if you don’t have it already), all options are very easy to access and operated without difficulty or lag.

The excerpts themselves provide a comprehensive professional biography of each major contributor, outlining their respective achievements. Although in some cases this is reassuring and impressive, it can take up to half the time on some of the shorter podcasts rather than focus on the actual topic.

Once the MP3 moves into an actor narrated transcript, the contributors largely present their advice on an anecdotal and case study basis. Some of the stronger pieces such as John S Chen and Hank Zupnick’s are sufficiently long enough to give a general overview and make interesting listening, although in another instance almost half the time was spent on the contributor’s biography rather than what they actually had to say.

Listeners also have the opportunity to email the contributors directly with addresses provided in the podcast itself.

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