At its core, being an assistant -- or an administrative professional -- is framed as a career upgrade, even if many of the tasks are essentially the same: It's a way of acknowledging the importance of administrative work and support to the success of many projects and even many people.

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But as long as the House of Windsor plc remains in the head-of-state business, it has to keep an eye on its core competence: being born, being non-political, and simply being there.

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On Tuesday, Cisco announced it was shuttering the division to refocus on its core business, in spite of the Flip being profitable and popular.

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At a time when Nokia is conserving cash by suspending dividend payouts and leasing its headquarters instead of owning it, NSN is proving highly valuable with its steady cash flows despite not being a core asset.

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Professional soccer being a fundamentally economic endeavor at its core means it is governed by these same economic principles.

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With such a heavy premium being paid for SuccessFactors, SAP sees the potential for cloud computing, particularly through its core applications and analytics offerings.

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