June 2005

Is an Odd Interview Request a Problem or Just a Quirk?

28 JUN 2005 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

You're asked to do something in the hiring process that just seems weird, and makes you uncomfortable. If you express hesitation or flat-out refuse, you risk losing the job. Employers may label you uncooperative or overly sensitive. But if you suppress your discomfort and perform the task, you may be ignoring a red flag telling you this company isn't the place for you.

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Skype's Challenge

30 JUN 2005 from strategy+business | Read the full story»

The most attractive new form of Internet telephony is also the most threatening to corporate security — for now.

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What is the business of business?

30 JUN 2005 from The McKinsey Quarterly | Read the full story»

In this article McKinsey's managing director, Ian Davis, focuses on the increasing importance of social factors in shaping the strategic context of business.

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The Best Product Designs of 2005

4 JUL 2005 from BusinessWeek Online | Read the full story»

Many of the winning entries from this year's competition for Industrial Design Excellence Awards spring from a close observation of the customer.

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italian food giant creates a brand cause and cultural hub

30 JUN 2005 from Influx Insights Weblog | Read the full story»

A few weeks ago, Influx suggested that some brands should build "cultural hubs"; places that act as beacons to connect the community to the brand. Cultural hubs are just one example of brands going beyond the expected to make a connection. Barilla, the Italian food manufacturer, is doing something similar with Academia Barilla; an institution dedicated to the preservation and education of real Italian cuisine. The company has taken on a cause and committed a considerable investment to it.

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What's Behind BoA's Bold Move into China?

Bank of America's recent announcement that it will pay $3 billion to own 9% of state-owned China Construction Bank, China's second-largest commercial bank, has raised a number of questions about the riskiness of such a move. Wharton faculty members and others who follow China say BoA's purchase gives it a foothold in a country with a Wild West business culture -- where the potential for both profitability and missteps exists in equal measure.

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Small Banking in a Big Bank World

A hearty band of entrepreneurs are smelling opportunity in customers' longing to be pampered. (Subscription required!)

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Bard's home town goes wireless

Visitors to Shakespeare's Stratford can now get a wireless guide to the historic town.

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Watch Out, Coke and Pepsi -- Here Comes Wahaha

Wahaha, whose main products are milk drinks, bottled water and mixed congee, is the number one beverage company in China, with revenues of 11.4 billion yuan ($1.37 billion) and profits of 1.35 billion yuan ($162.7 million) in 2004. The company was started in 1987 by Zong Qinghou, its 60-year-old chairman and CEO. In an interview with Wharton marketing professor John Zhang, Zong talks about his first entrepreneurial ventures selling beverages and ice cream, the success of his first major product, "Wahaha nutritional liquid," his joint venture with the French giant Danone Group, and his rapid growth over the past eight years through the establishment of 40 subsidiaries in 16 Chinese provinces. In 1998, Wahaha launched its own brand, "Future Cola," to compete against Coke and Pepsi.

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How to swat a blowfly

Useless managers can cause more problems than they solve. In this fictional case study, two experts in staff relations give their advice on how to cope with the toxic boss. (Subscription required!)

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China's Efforts to Buy Brand Names

The Unocal bid is one of many recent Chinese deals to take over U.S. companies. Often, the Chinese are looking for more than an American company's assets. They want to buy the brand name. Because there is little business competition in China, Chinese companies don't develop recognizable brand names, so they have to buy them. Recent examples include IBM, Maytag, and Huffy. (Audio)

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After Months of Acrimony, an Outbreak of Brotherly Love at Reliance

Last week peace returned to Reliance, India's largest business group with $23 billion in annual revenues, after a settlement was hammered out between Mukesh and Anil Ambani, the two warring brothers at its helm. As part of a deal blessed by their mother, Kokilaben Ambani, Mukesh will control the group's oil, petrochemicals and natural gas businesses, while Anil takes over the telecommunications, power and financial services companies. The settlement enormously relieved millions of Reliance shareholders -- and stocks in India rose to record highs. As the reorganization process gets underway, the Ambani brothers have announced aggressive plans for growth. Experts point out, however, that the Ambani saga offers important lessons on the need for family-owned businesses to set up effective processes for communication, conflict management and resolution.

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Bezos: Google is No Threat

The Churchill Club held its "Annual Dinner with Jeff Bezos," one of the club's most popular events. This year, Mr. Bezos was interviewed by Josh Quittner, Editor of Business 2.0. During his interview of Amazon's CEO, Mr. Quittner asked about the online giant's perceived nemesis, Google. Part Four of nine.

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Web Content by and for the Masses

The abundance of user-generated Internet content - which includes online games, desktop video and citizen journalism sites - is reshaping the debate over file sharing.

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Cell Phones vs. Credit Cards: The Battle Begins

Wireless service providers might soon compete head to head with credit and debit card companies in facilitating payments.

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Internet advertising to grow 7.6% in 2005

MarketingVox quotes TNS Media Intelligence report in AdAge, which forecasts 7.6% growth of Internet advertising for 2005.

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Gates warns against reliance on outsourcing

Companies should not outsource their core business functions and staff, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates told a group of Japan's top businessmen in a speech in Tokyo on Wednesday.

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A Landline? No Thanks

According to new research from Arbitron, the number of people who use cell phones either exclusively or primarily is growing rapidly.

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Google to Earth

Google launched a new mapping product that lets users do virtual flyovers, then find local businesses. Google Earth is a free downloadable tool for viewing streaming, 3-D views of streetscapes and landscapes.

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Kelly Services Study Finds 'Free Agent' Workers More Satisfied, Less Stressed Than Traditionally Employed Counterparts

22 JUN 2005 from PR Newswire.com | Read the full story»

A recent study of American workers points to a developing trend in which traditional employment -- defined as being directly employed by a company or firm -- appears to be increasingly sharing the workplace spotlight with the flexibility, personal convenience and personal satisfaction offered by "free agent" and entrepreneurial lifestyles.

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finding shelter from wal-mart

28 JUN 2005 from Influx Insights Weblog | Read the full story»

The world of electronics retail is getting more competitive with the increasing power of the internet and discount chains like Wal-Mart. For a small player, like East-Coast based Tweeter, survival depends on its ability to take a risk and carve out a niche for itself.

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Blogs, Buzz & Brand Strength

21 JUN 2005 from The Basement | Read the full story»

So what can blogs reveal about brand strength?

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Book Report: The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth

Not necessarily irrefutable, but certainly common sense.

Via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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Hispanic word of mouth

Hispanics are 40% more likely than non-Hispanics to tell a friend to avoid a store where they are treated rudely.

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Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique?

Business leadership is at the core of Asian economic development, says HBS professor D. Quinn Mills. As he explained recently in Kuala Lumpur, the American and Asian leadership styles, while very different, also share important similarities.

Via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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Bloggers Fighting Government Regulations

Bloggers who built their Internet followings with anti-establishment prose are now lobbying the establishment to protect their livelihoods from federal regulations....

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Book Report: The Next Global Stage: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World

An ex-McKinsey senior partner sizes up Asia and the world.

Via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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Are You Ready for the Chinese Revolt? Part 3

While technology execs and venture investors from all over the globe rush into the arms of the mighty Chinese dragon, AlwaysOn reflects on seven sins that just might start a revolution. [Part 3 includes sins 5, 6 & 7]

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People Power: How to Measure It

Companies own their capital assets, but (obviously) not their employees. Yet people-powered business is more important every day. In this Harvard Business Review excerpt, two Boston Consulting Group experts outline a way to measure true performance.

Via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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For the Cellphone-Weary, Some Unexpected Support

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Book Report: Market-Driven Thinking: Achieving Contextual Intelligence

Forget that focus group; aim for "contextual intelligence."

Via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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Play It, Google

Video search adds playback; can pay-per-view be far behind?

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Remarkable & Disposable Shoes

Made from recycled newsprint, these remarkable and disposable slippers are eco-friendly and cost less than 50 cents each. Since winning a bronze prize from the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), Satish Gokahle, the designer of the Solemates, has received interest from manufactures wanting to bring these shoes to market.

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Web Site Report: Upcoming.org

A guide to conferences, written by you and me.

Via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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His 100 Day Plan by Todd S.

Bren at Slacker Manager talks about how You're In Charge -- Now What? inspired him to develop a 100 Day Plan for a position he was interviewing for. The part cool is he shared his plan with each of the people he was interviewing with.

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The new face of the digital hospital

27 JUN 2005 from HealthLeaders.com | Read the full story»

Baptist South's $8 million information technology package includes clinical documentation, a picture archiving and communication system, medication tracking, and order entry. So far, the system is humming. Paper charts are nowhere to be seen. Within a month of opening, some 70 percent of all orders were being placed electronically through the core clinical information system from Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner Corp. Not only that, physicians were using the technologies without grousing.

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is consumer power a calculated myth?

27 JUN 2005 from Influx Insights Weblog | Read the full story»

Marketers are very fond of pressing the empowerment button; creating communication that leads the consumer to believe that they are empowered to use product X to take control of their life. They lock them into the dream. While certain aspects of this maybe increasingly true in this technological age, it's clear that when it comes to dealing with companies over service fees and service in general, one group clearly has the upper hand. Companies are selling consumer empowerment, but only on their terms. The old idea that the "customer is king" has fallen by the wayside.

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The Newspaper of the Future

The Lawrence Journal-World and its parent company have turned a dot on the map in Kansas into an online metropolis. (Subscription required!)

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Reporters Eye Blogs

A new study shows that while journalists may not see blogs as highly credible, they read them.

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Love the Web? Love Your Privacy? You Can't Have Both.

Our headlong love affair with the Internet has clearly progressed from starry-eyed digital passion to a murkier, more tangled dependence. We can't live without it, and we're finding it ever harder to live with it. (Subscription required!)

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The Reviews Are In. And Yours Isn't Pretty.

How to challenge a negative evaluation? Stay calm, but don't stay silent. (Subscription required!)

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Recruiting physicians from Generation X

27 JUN 2005 from HealthLeaders.com | Read the full story»

Physicians from Generation X-commonly defined as those born between 1965 and 1980-are using different criteria for choosing their employers than their workaholic baby boomer predecessors. Gone are the days when young doctors put dollars and prestige on top of the list. Newly minted Generation X physicians are more likely to put lifestyle issues ahead of all others in their search for that first job. As the priorities and interests of young physicians have evolved, so have the recruiting strategies of medical groups and hospitals. To succeed in hiring such doctors-who are in high demand because of the inadequate supply of physicians- employers need to "romance" candidates while being candid about expectations and pay.

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Microsoft extends RSS support

23 JUN 2005 from Infoworld | Read the full story»

Microsoft on Friday will announce it plans to deepen its support of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Web publishing standard, which is commonly used by bloggers and news organizations. Specifically the company is proposing an extension to RSS that will provide support for ordered lists of information.

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When Advertising Becomes Information--that's gold.

23 JUN 2005 from Businessweek Online: Brand New Day | Read the full story»

Imagine! I could vote via my remote control every month, in my perfect media/advertising world, to receive ads that month in the categories of home improvement, men's fashion, imported cars, local gutter installers, retirement planning, mutual funds. That's the stuff that's relevant to me.

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Are You Ready for the Chinese Revolt? Part 2

23 JUN 2005 from Always On Network | Read the full story»

While technology execs and venture investors from all over the globe rush into the arms of the mighty Chinese dragon, AlwaysOn reflects on seven sins that just might start a revolution. [Part 2 includes sins 3 & 4]

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Is Branding Dying?

23 JUN 2005 from Brand On: The Branding Blog | Read the full story»

Chicago Tribune columnist Charles Madigan argues the modern era of the brand may be coming to an end. Will price comparison engines and the Internet, along with increasing product parity, be the deathknell? Read on and decide for yourself.

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Podcast: Women's word of mouth; Wanna be a business book author?

23 JUN 2005 from Church of the Customer | Read the full story»

In today's podcast, we talk with Andrea Learned, co-author of Don't Think Pink, about word of mouth and women. Tune in for Andrea's advice on how to market to women who influence your male customers. We'll also share our top 10 things we believe you need to know if you want to be a business book author. (Audio)

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Update: Iran seen tightening control of Internet

23 JUN 2005 from Infoworld | Read the full story»

Iranian authorities have tightened their control of the country's Internet connections, imposing stricter filtering of access to Web content over the last year, according to a study published Tuesday by The OpenNet Initiative.

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Why does the moon look so big now?

24 JUN 2005 from BBC News | Magazine | UK Edition | Read the full story»

For the past few nights the moon has appeared larger than many people have seen it for almost 20 years. It is the world's largest optical illusion, and one of its most enduring mysteries.

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20% of US venture capitalists want to invest in China, 18% - in India

22 JUN 2005 from Always On Network | Read the full story»

Deloitte & Touche and the National Venture Capital Association say US will remain the most attractive country for venture investments over the next 5 years.

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After the Fall

21 JUN 2005 from APM's Marketplace | Read the full story»

Corporate scandals of the past few years have built some strong associations in our minds: WorldCom/Bernie Ebbers, Tyco/Dennis Koslowski, Adelphia/John Rigas. Executives are shuffled off, sometimes to jail; Kai Ryssdal asks Fortune Magazine's Adam Lashinsky what happens to the companies left behind. (Audio)

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GE to Reorganize Into Six Units

23 JUN 2005 from AP Top Business News | Read the full story»

General Electric Co. said Thursday it will reorganize the company's 11 businesses into six industry-focused groups, and has named three new vice chairmen. The company will be realigned into GE Infrastructure; GE Industrial; GE Commercial Financial Services; NBC Universal; GE Healthcare and GE Consumer Finance.

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Should cities be ISPs?

14 JUN 2005 from CNET News.com | Read the full story»

When Philadelphia's city government decided to sell wireless access to downtown residents last year, a furious political fight in the state capital erupted. Verizon stridently opposed the plan, liberal advocacy groups just as emphatically endorsed it, and politicians in Harrisburg ended up approving a compromise bill that effectively let the city of brotherly love do what it wanted. Now this politechnical dispute is bubbling up from states to Washington, D.C., where lobbyists are pressuring Congress to resolve the question of whether governments or private companies do a better job as Internet service providers.

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EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: New Consumer Research

14 JUN 2005 from Jack Morton | Read the full story»

Live event marketing experiences where consumers interact with products, brands or "brand ambassadors" face-to-face are among the most effective ways to influence coveted consumer audiences, according to results of an extensive new survey by Jack Morton Worldwide. Comprising an online survey of 2,574 consumers, ages 13-65, in the top 25 US markets, the results confirm that this increasingly important marketing medium resonates strongly across demographic and product categories, with especially high influence among key groups such as women, young people and Hispanics.

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How To Blog Without A Blog

22 JUN 2005 from IF | Read the full story»

You just can't get away from it: the press, the magazines, your peers telling you, that you should set up a blog. Whether it's for your business or for your professional or personal reputation, everyone thinks setting up a blog is the way forward. (Subscription required!)

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Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index

23 JUN 2005 from GMI Poll | Read the full story»

The Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index is the first analytical ranking of the world's nation brands. Each quarter, the Index, led by nation brands expert Simon Anholt, polls consumers from the GMI worldwide five million-strong market research panel on their perceptions of the cultural, political, commercial and human assets, investment potential and tourist appeal of several countries. This adds up to a clear measurement of national brand power, and a unique barometer of global opinion.

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Compliments to the chef

23 JUN 2005 from BBC News | Magazine | UK Edition | Read the full story»

Gordon Ramsay didn't get three Michelin stars just by swearing at his staff. What's so successful about his management style? He's famous for his four-letter outbursts and taking a tough approach to managing staff. But for all his profanities, Gordon Ramsay seems to bring out the best in those who work for him. He is not without his critics, but despite his reputation for hot-headedness he has held on to 80% of his staff for the past 10 years.

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why china?

23 JUN 2005 from Influx Insights Weblog | Read the full story»

China has secured its spot in the global marketplace, and the world is taking notice. Everyone is talking about China, but we thought it was worth uncovering why - the answer is scale. What's particularly astonishing is China's potential is not even close to being tapped yet, with low penetration rates indicating that China's dominance will only continue to grow. Here are some statistics that help to explain why China is on everyone's radar these days.

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Romney eyes penalties for those lacking insurance

21 JUN 2005 from The Boston Globe | Read the full story»

Massachusetts residents who choose not to obtain health insurance would face tax penalties and even the garnishing of their wages under a proposal unveiled by Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney's plan would require all residents in Massachusetts to have some form of health insurance or agree to pay their medical bills out of their own pockets.

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Supernova 2005 Blogcast

21 JUN 2005 from CNET News.com | Read the full story»

The Supernova conference is being held June 20-22, 2005, in San Francisco. CNET News.com...will offer blogcast coverage of the conference... David Weinberger--popular industry analyst, writer and blogger--will interview panel moderators as well as session attendees.
David Weinberger: "We caught Jonathan Schwartz, president of Sun Microsystems, immediately after his talk at Supernova. He says that we're moving from the Information Age to the Participation Age. Since the Net has been participatory - at least when it comes to content - from the beginning, I try to find out what exactly marks the beginning of the new age. We also talk about whether business leaders really have to blog."

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Enterprise, Awaken To The Trends

19 JUN 2005 from internetnews.com | Read the full story»

Enterprises would be wise to learn from consumers' rapid adoption of networked smartphones and the role of blogs in their businesses, according to Sun Microsystems' blogger-in-chief.

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The Biker Next Door: She's No Punk Rebel

19 JUN 2005 from NYT > Business | Read the full story»

For a growing number of women and men in their 30's and 40's, motorcycling is continuing to break away from its anti-establishment roots. (Subscription required!)

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Schmidt says Google Wallet won't Compete with PayPal

22 JUN 2005 from Threadwatch.org | Read the full story»

In an interview with AP, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "We do not intend to offer a person-to-person, stored-value payments system". He didn't say much, (hey, what did you expect, this is Google...) but did add "The payment services we are working on are a natural evolution of Google's existing online products and advertising programs which today connect millions of consumers and advertisers"...

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The CEO's Secret Handbook

21 JUN 2005 from Business 2.0 | Read the full story»

Imagine a lifetime's worth of executive wisdom, boiled down to a handy pocket-size guide. Corporate leaders swear by it -- but it's not for sale. Lucky for you, we've excerpted the best parts.(Subscription required!)

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Opportunities in the Tail

21 JUN 2005 from Fast Company Now | Read the full story»

If you haven't yet heard - or used - the phrase 'the long tail,' you're not buzzword compliant for 2005. Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine, coined the phrase in an article that appeared last fall in that magazine. He's now writing a book on the long tail phenomenon, and along the way, posting to a Weblog.

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China Cos. Show Appetite for Brand Names

22 JUN 2005 from AP Top Business News | Read the full story»

China is moving into the merger-and-acquisition major leagues, as its star corporations shop for American household names like Unocal, Maytag and IBM, hoping that global ambitions will mean bigger profits.

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Goethe on personality

21 JUN 2005 from acleareye.com | Read the full story»

"Personality is everything in art and poetry."
And now that we've officially transitioned to the "feelings economy" (at least in the U.S.), personality is everything in business as well.
[A peek into CD Baby's customer service.]

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A Hearing Aid for Cell Phones

22 JUN 2005 from Business 2.0 | Read the full story»

"Can you hear me now?" isn't just a slogan; it's an annoyingly familiar refrain for cell-phone users. Palo Alto startup Sound ID wants to silence that question by outfitting wireless headsets with software used to help the hearing impaired.

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Visa Troubles

21 JUN 2005 from Dynamist Blog | Read the full story»

Steve Forbes has tough words for the Bush administration's post-9/11 visa policies, which are hurting business (the Forbes concern) and alienating otherwise pro-American foreigners.

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Six Distinct Profiles Found in Modern Workforce

22 JUN 2005 from PR Newswire | Read the full story»

Radical changes in workers' attitudes have substantially altered conventional concepts of the American worker, according to a year-long analysis of the American workforce. A collaboration of top workforce consultants today announced their conclusions from a massive survey of 7,718 U.S. workers in every industry about the current and future profile of the American workforce, identifying six distinct categories of workers whose differences derive more from attitudes toward work and life circumstances than age, gender, race or ethnicity.

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A.M.A. to Study Effect of Marketing Drugs to Consumers

22 JUN 2005 from NYT > Business | Read the full story»

The American Medical Association will study whether consumer drug advertising leads to unnecessary prescriptions, potentially harming patients.(Subscription required!)

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wikis not ready for media prime-time

21 JUN 2005 from Influx Insights Weblog | Read the full story»

Consumer-created media content is not going away.

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Your minicab has landed

22 JUN 2005 from BBC News | Magazine | UK Edition | Read the full story»

It sounds like a scene from the Jetsons or Buck Rogers but five-seater flying taxis are being touted as the next big thing in aviation - and there's already a "cab rank" near you.

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Where the Stars Design the Cars

22 JUN 2005 from Business 2.0 | Read the full story»

Rapper Xzibit, host of MTV's hit car-customization show Pimp My Ride, has a side project: pimping rides for Cadillac. Having noticed that celebrity endorsements and rap-song references are driving sales, the company is hosting focus groups made up of high-profile actors, athletes, and musicians.

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Wi-Fi used for location services

20 JUN 2005 from CNET News.com | Read the full story»

A Boston, Mass.-based start-up says it has developed software that uses Wi-Fi signals to pinpoint locations better than satellite-based global positioning systems can.

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The Evolution of the Starbucks Logo

22 JUN 2005 from Brand Autopsy | Read the full story»

Lifting words directly from Howard Schultz’s POUR YOUR HEART INTO IT, here’s a more complete evolution of the Starbucks logo.

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Web Site Report: Blog Pulse

20 JUN 2005 from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge | Read the full story»

There are many sites, such as daypop.com and blogdex.net, that can tell you what subjects are hot in the blogging world. And that's invaluable information if you've just released a new product and want to see what the world—or at least the part of the world that is online—is saying about it. What we particularly like about BlogPulse, which is produced by Intelliseek, is its ability to graphically pinpoint blog news to specific time periods.

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Paper's 'wikitorial' trial halted

21 JUN 2005 from BBC News | Technology | UK Edition | Read the full story»

US newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, has temporarily ended its short-lived trial which gave readers the chance to edit its editorials on its website. The online version of the paper started its "wikitorial" experiment last week. It was meant to give readers a "voice". It was suspended after it was bombarded with inappropriate material. But the paper said it might try the idea again.

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Brand as a system

21 JUN 2005 from brandXpress Blog | Read the full story»

When asked to define the word "brand" most people answer confidently that a brand is a name or a logo. Brands are marks that have little circled R's next to them, most people believe. It doesn't help that even professionals offering brand-related services often reduce brands to their most superficial features. But a brand is a system. Its five components are inextricably tied and interdependent.

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Quality Time

20 JUN 2005 from Fast Company Now | Read the full story»

The results of the Microsoft Office Personal Productivity Challenge are in -- and they're not pretty.

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HR's New Mandate: Be a Strategic Player

20 JUN 2005 from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge | Read the full story»

We know what HR does, but what does it deliver? In this excerpt from the new book The HR Value Proposition, two experts contend that the HR function is poised for powerful strategic advantage.

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podtainment

20 JUN 2005 from Influx Insights Weblog | Read the full story»

Cafe Direct is the UK's largest fair trade hot drinks (coffee, tea, chocolate) company. To promote their brand and the issue of fair trade, Cafe Direct is promoting a very unusual concert; a concert that's the complete antithesis of Live8.

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Continuing Fitness Launches First Complete Line of Equipment Designed for Mature Adults

21 JUN 2005 from PR Newswire | Read the full story»

By the year 2030, the number of mature adults in the U.S. is expected to double from 35 million to 70 million. And although countless studies have confirmed that exercise is the key to living a longer, healthier life, few of the country's fitness leaders offer equipment that meets the unique physical needs of seniors. That has finally changed.

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Dark Blogs and Voices in the Wilderness

20 JUN 2005 from internetnews.com | Read the full story»

Business would love to harness the buzz potential of blogging. But the biggest benefits may be found behind the firewall, according to experts at Supernova, an emerging technology conference co-sponsored by the Wharton School of Business.

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Death in Bath

21 JUN 2005 from BBC News | Magazine | UK Edition | Read the full story»

Fellow practitioners had travelled from many parts of the globe to meet in Bath where, as part of the seventh Great Obituary Writers' Conference, we would talk about our art.

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Creating a Positive Professional Image

20 JUN 2005 from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge | Read the full story»

In today’s diverse workplace, your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny. Time to manage your own professional image before others do it for you. An interview with professor Laura Morgan Roberts.

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Beach Reading?

20 JUN 2005 from Fast Company Now | Read the full story»

Columnist Robert Trigaux's list is decidedly more heavy on the traditional business books, but there are some interesting outliers. Here are some of the more intriguing oddities...

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The Art of Creating Passionate Consumers: Howard Schultz

Spring/Summer 2005 from KNOW Magazine | Read the full story»

The legendary leader of Starbucks sets down his recipe for building and leveraging a rich relationship with consumers.

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Google Plans Online-Payment Service

20 JUN 2005 from WSJ.com | Read the full story»

Google Inc. this year plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may put it in competition with eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit, according to people familiar with the matter. (Subscription required!)

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MasterCard: 40M Credit Card Accounts Exposed

20 JUN 2005 from internetnews.com | Read the full story»

In what is considered one of the largest security breaches, MasterCard International said information on more than 40 million credit cards lay exposed at credit card processor CardSystems Solutions.

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Ethnic Groups Online

20 JUN 2005 from eMarketer | Read the full story»

A new study of media use by members of various ethnic groups in the US finds heavy usage of targeted Web sites—and surprisingly low Internet usage by some groups, Hispanics in particular.

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Steve Case's New Act: You've Got Revolution!

19 JUN 2005 from NYT > Business | Read the full story»

Mr. Case, 46, started Revolution, a private holding company, in April, two years after quitting as chairman of AOL Time Warner (now simply Time Warner). With at least $500 million of his own money committed to this venture, he is determined to shake up a lucrative sliver of the health care industry by buying and building companies that help people take care of themselves. (Subscription required!)

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imagining the future of television

17 JUN 2005 from Influx Insights Weblog | Read the full story»

The news the Internet's leading players are bringing more TV like content onto their sites suggests the start of the inevitable fusion of the two mediums. The Internet will increasingly take on more television like qualities and visa versa.

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Are You Ready for the Chinese Revolt? Part 1

19 JUN 2005 from Always On Network | Read the full story»

While technology execs and venture investors from all over the globe rush into the arms of the mighty Chinese dragon, AlwaysOn reflects on seven sins that just might start a revolution.

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RSS Nation

17 JUN 2005 from Business 2.0 | Read the full story»

RSS, or real simple syndication, is a way to subscribe to a website's regularly updated content without actually visiting that site. It allows you to look at headlines and stories from as many blogs or news sites as you like, all in one place. As simple as this sounds (indeed, because of its simplicity), it is going to change the way you consume information on the Web.

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Indian physicians turn entrepreneurs

20 JUN 2005 from The Economic Times | Read the full story»

As American medicine becomes more "managed" and doctors complain they can hardly make ends meet, young Indian physicians in the US are choosing entrepreneurship that gives them more freedom and could if successful, bring in greater profits.

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Using Your Cellphone Anywhere in the World

19 JUN 2005 from NYT > Technology | Read the full story»

With newer phones that support international standards, it's now easier and cheaper to stay in touch with cellphones when traveling overseas. (Subscription required!)

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Free enterprise

The temptation to buy buy buy is hard to resist, be it a new outfit, gadget or item of furniture. Now guilty shoppers keen to offload a no-longer-needed purchase have a radical new option... simply giving it away.

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The State of eGov Sites

new reports indicate that despite the launch of the Presidential eGovernment Initiatives in 2000, government Web sites are not yet capturing the public's attention.

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What the Long Tail isn't

13 JUN 2005 from The Long Tail | Read the full story»

It's time to draw the line. Long Tails are found everywhere, but not, you know, actually everywhere. There are many distortions of the term, but the most common one is to use it as a newly-positive synonym for "fringe". Invoking the Long Tail is not a magic wand to explain away the apparent lack of demand for what you've got. The Long Tail is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for poor-selling product. Or weak sectors. Or bad ideas.

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Branding game is not an easy one to win

16 JUN 2005 from SeattlePI.com | Read the full story»

Here are four local illustrations of the notion that the traditional elements used to establish and reinforce a brand no longer work. Microsoft, Costco, Amazon.com and Starbucks have achieved national, even international prominence, without benefit of a catchy slogan, a universally identifiable symbol or an anthropomorphic spokesanimal, to build awareness in consumers' minds.

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Pension reforms 'spark job fears'

One in five firms will cut jobs if they are forced to pay into pensions for their employees, an industry body says.

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Viral Marketing: On Demand Advertising?

Bruce DeBoer from Synthesis provides an overview of viral marketing.

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Venture capital networks

Despite advances in communications, many knowledge-based industries — including the venture capital market — are still characterized by local patterns of exchange. In what circumstances do venture capitalists make investments that transcend regional and industry boundaries?

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Offshoring in eye of beholder

A new study finds that only 1 percent of services jobs in developed countries are expected to be shipped offshore by 2008, but the numbers aren't so negligible in technology.

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Women 'at heart of financial planning'

A third of British women are financially independent, and almost a quarter earn at least as much as their partner, new research shows.

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Globalization: It's Not Just Wages

Globalization is often viewed as moving jobs to low-wage countries, but some companies are attracted to first-rate centers of production in various countries. (Subscription required!)

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Fast-Food Deal a Big Win for Small Migrants' Group

This spring, a small farm workers' group won a surprising victory against the world's second-largest fast-food company. The parent company of Taco Bell agreed to pay tomato pickers in Immokalee, Fla., higher wages and -- perhaps more significantly -- to lead a push for more protections for migrant workers. (Audio)

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Microsoft catches them young in India

Microsoft has opened an IT academy in the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it will provide IT training for school teachers from across the state, it announced Friday.

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'Teleporting' over the internet

Computer scientists in the US develop a system which would allow people to "teleport."

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Innovation: Throwing Design Rules Out The Window

Sometimes rules should be thrown out the window. Often the most valuable lesson in art and design schools is ignored. For a visual communicator to grow and improve, you must be prepared to throw everything you just learned out the window. Expect the unexpected.

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Reason to win

A high-flying panel of angel investors talk about the entrepreneur profile they like best.

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Talking at 35,000 Feet

Cell phones on airplanes: the technology is ready, but the regulators aren't. Two services, one from Ericsson and the other from Connexion by Boeing, should be ready for in-flight cellular service later this year, but there is still a lot of controversy around the service.

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The impact of founder succession

A founder’s departure can have a positive, negative or neutral effect on organizational performance. New research helps to predict the impact of founder succession on a particular organization.

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New Columbia Business School Web Portal - Columbia Ideas at Work - Links Faculty Research With Business Practice

15 JUN 2005 from PR Newswire | Read the full story»

Bridging business research and practice, Columbia Business School announced today the launch of Columbia Ideas at Work, the School's new online knowledge portal. The unique site showcases the intellectual capital of Columbia Business School's faculty and enables business practitioners to access cutting-edge ideas and applications relevant to their business challenges.

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PACE OF HOUSEHOLD TECHNOLOGY CHANGE INCREASES

16 JUN 2005 from AdAge.com | Read the full story»

The pace of change occurring in household technology is progressing far faster and more dramatically than many understand, according to presentations at last week's American Advertising Federation conference.

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Lessons from the Queen of Brand Reinvention

14 JUN 2005 from BizCommunity.com | Read the full story»

Ever wondered why Madonna has stayed "hip and happening" every decade since the 1980s? It's because the Queen of Pop is also the Queen of Brand Reinvention, according to an article in the latest edition of The Encyclopaedia of Brands & Branding.

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Can a National Healthcare Information Network Work?

15 JUN 2005 from strategy+business | Read the full story»

A central medical records database could yield economic and social benefits. However, the network will only succeed if it is designed for all healthcare system stakeholders.

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Results of the competition for best blogs defending freedom of expression

15 JUN 2005 from Reporters Without Borders | Read the full story»

Reporters Without Borders selected around 60 blogs that, each in their own way, defend freedom of expression. The organisation then asked Internet-users to vote for the prize-winners - one in each geographical category.

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Good Managers Focus on Employees' Strengths, Not Weaknesses

Marcus Buckingham knows enough about good management to know he's not a good manager. The author of First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently and The One Thing You Need to Know, Buckingham says the best managers share one talent -- the ability to find, and then capitalize upon, their employees' unique traits. "The guiding principle is, 'How can I take this person's talent and turn it into performance?'" he asked during a presentation at the Wharton Leadership Conference on June 9. Buckingham talked about good vs. poor managers, and the need for leaders to display optimism, clarity, and an ego big enough that they can "build a future for their companies."

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Managing: Innovation culture breeds ideas

Creating an award for the biggest failure of the year seems an odd way to encourage experimental ideas. (Subscription required!)

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America On the Move Foundation Creates New National Healthy Lifestyle Registry

America On the Move Foundation (formerly The Partnership to Promote Healthy Eating and Active Living) announced today that it will launch the America On the Move Registry (AOM Registry), a centralized repository for data reflecting individual, environmental, and community factors that contribute to attaining and sustaining healthy lifestyles. The AOM Registry will collect data from individuals who successfully made and sustained small changes that result in healthier eating habits and increased lifestyle physical activity. The AOM Registry will enable scientists to identify and study specific solutions to America's weight problem by giving them instant access to data from a diverse population of Americans a variety of healthy lifestyle changes.

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Computer vendors are missing a big opportunity

Older Canadians are increasingly using PCs and Web. It is the same story in the US and Europe (well the northern bit of Europe). An Ipsos-Reid study shows older Canadians are closing the "technological generation gap."

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New Perspectives on Retirement

Baby boomers have a new perspective of retirement. As life expectancy increases so does the desire to stay active and possibly even employed. Demographer Ken Dychtwald talks about trends in retirement in the U.S. and worldwide. (Audio)

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The tribulations of older techies

InformationWeek recently published a provocative cover story about the struggles of older technology professionals. Among its conclusions: retraining isn't as easy a solution to job worries as it's made out to be.

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Wikis, Weblogs and RSS: What Does the New Internet Mean for Business?

The Internet is entering a new phase that will decentralize control within companies, enable employees to collaborate more easily, and drive efficiency. But corporations that want to use the web strategically to build corporate value will not just need to make radical cultural changes, they may also need to master a new vocabulary with terms such as Wikis, Weblogs, and RSS. What will this new Internet mean for business? Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach discussed this issue with three experts who will be speaking at the Supernova 2005 conference in San Francisco later this month.

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Worthy Customer Service Reads

For the MBAs, I've put together a list of the service related books on my shelves that they may want to check out...

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Call Skype for free from your mobile phone

A Norwegian company has found a use for that old cell phone that's been kicking around in your desk drawer. IPdrum, of Oslo, has developed a cable and software that can turn an old cellular phone into a wireless gateway for Skype Technologies' Skype VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) application.

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Florida Red or Moody Blue: Study Looks at Appeal of Off-beat Product Names

From Chubby Hubby ice cream to Trailer Park red nail polish, marketers using ambiguous or surprising descriptions for new flavors and colors are likely to win sales by making consumers go through the effort of understanding an off-beat name, according to recent Wharton research. In a paper titled, "Shades of Meaning: The Effect of Color and Flavor Names on Consumer Choice," Wharton marketing professor Barbara E. Kahn and Elizabeth G. Miller, a marketing professor at Boston College, found that consumers react positively to imaginative names even if they are not particularly descriptive. The research may have implications for Internet marketers whose customers cannot see a product first-hand and tend to rely more on written descriptions when making purchases.

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Plan to Connect Rural India to the Internet

An international consortium is planning to establish thousands of rural Internet centers in India to bring services to isolated villages. (Subscription required!)

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Fatlens Launches Ticket Search

Vertical search player launches service for fans in need of seats ... FatLens ticket search results combine available seats from the various outlets; users can narrow their searches by section or by price, then buy tickets by clicking on a button next to the desired tickets.

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RFID Tags

No more manual counting of the inventory. Significantly reduced product theft. Knowing what's out-of-stock immediately and automatically. Sound good? These are all benefits of RFID tags, Radio-Frequency Identification, a technology that is being widely adopted by manufacturers and retailers around the world. The possibilities seem only to be limited by our own imagination.

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Wireless VoIP can fill mobile coverage gaps

A U.S. company, Nuera Communications, has developed a system that allows wireless VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls to be made from a cell phone.

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Open Sesame? Or Could the Doors Slam Shut for Alibaba.com?

JUN 2005 from Knowledge@Wharton | China | Read the full story»

A profile of founder Jack Ma and Alibaba.com.

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In-flight cell phone systems gain altitude

15 JUN 2005 from internetnews.com | Read the full story»

The possibility of cell phone calls on airliners, for better or worse, took a few steps closer to reality this week with the announcement of two on-board cellular systems.

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The most talked about economic conference ever?

13 JUN 2005 from BBC NEWS | Magazine | Read the full story»

There was a time when an economic conference would be covered mainly in the financial pages, and snoozed through by the rest of the world. But with the Make Poverty History campaign putting the G8 summit in the mainstream, and with blogs making everyone a potential world trade expert, it's going to be more interesting this time.

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Innovation Means Really Being There

When was the last time you got out of the office and just simply observed people going through the daily life? Out there lies the kind of inspiration that leads to game-changing innovation.

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A short history of the charity wristband (the life of an idea)

When Lance Armstrong's charity wristbands appeared on the scene in 2003, no one had any idea of the phenomenon that the wristband would become. In its own way, it exemplifies the rapid explosion and adoption of ideas. It illustrates how great ideas can spread like memetic wildfire, spawn a host of imitators, controversy, fakers and finally users who subvert and adapt the original meaning.

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Mesu: Inspired Design Spreads the Word

Mesu, portion measuring nesting bowls, was one that really struck me. They were designed by a young woman who found portion control to be key to her successful weight maintenance. She knew that many others could use an easier/more aesthetically pleasing way to measure smaller portions than a measuring cup, so she used her incredible design talent and gumption to launch the line.

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BT to launch fixed-mobile service

BT is to offer a service that switches between fixed and mobile networks using a single handset.

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the world's most innovative marketer

While marketing journalists and bloggers alike laud the innovative and impressive communications thinking of brands like: BMW, Mini, Scion, Converse, Nike and Burger King, an online casino might be the most innovative of all.

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10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public Relations

13 JUN 2005 from Micropersuasion.com | Read the full story»

So now that the public is credited for calling the shots, what does it mean for public relations? Here are the 10 commandments for public relations professionals as I see them in the Golden Era of Participation…

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Rescuing Products with Stealth Positioning

You may have a great product, but the category turns off potential customers. Think household robots. In this Harvard Business Review excerpt, professor Youngme Moon looks at how Sony and Apple broke consumer prejudice.

Via Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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EFF legal guide for bloggers

EFF has released a long, comprehensive, accessible guide to the law and blogging, aimed at bloggers who are worried about protecting their sources' anonymity, about libel, about copyright and trademark infringement claims, and all the other legal risks that might stop a blogger from saying her piece.

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Geeks On Wheels

Geeks on Wheels are breaking the mould with their bold and focussed services for frustrated technologically-challenged people who are wrestling with their computer problems (as reported on Daily Candy). Operating in the London and Brighton area in the UK, Geeks On Wheels offers help to home and business users, racing to the scene in their speedy Nissan Micra.

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Book Report: RFID and Beyond: Growing Your Business Through Real World Awareness

How to apply RFID in the real world.

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On Board the Message Board

Blogs may be grabbing all the media headlines, but online travel communities are wielding a different kind of influence in the corporate airline world. (Subscription required!)

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Brand management in lean times

Anyone can do marketing with a blank check. Lean times, or even the threat of lean times, force us to be more careful in our decision making. Which brands should we push? Where should we promote our brand? How can we avoid duplication? Who is our target audience?

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Some Japan Internet stats

At the Internet Association Japan meeting yesterday, the folks from Impress gave a summary of their 10th annual Internet survey.

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Site Visit: REI Store, Seattle

When the IF team visited Seattle last week, we knew we had to pay a visit to the REI flagship store located a little outside downtown. OK, so it's been open for over 6 years now - but it still contains so much energy, you just have to check it out if you visit the area. And when you do visit it, you'll feel guilty. Guilty and ready. Guilty of all that slouching about and inactivity. Ready to start a new life of outdoor adventure.

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Book Report: Managing a Company in an Activist World: The Leadership Challenge of Corporate Citizenship

A strategy for working better with activist leaders and your community.

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Airline Numbers Adding Up to Crowded Summer Flights

I normally wouldn't toss a bunch of numbers at you, but here are some crucial ones that you might want to consider as you plan business travel this summer, when demand - driven partly by continuing low fares - is expected to surge to the highest levels ever. (Subscription required!)

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'I will if you will'

How one website hopes to help people's pledges to change things come true.

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Web Site Report: Information Security: Radio Frequency Identification Technology in the Federal Government

Government agencies are not taking RFID private risks seriously enough.

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USB Ports In Phones

Californian Market Intelligence agency iSuppli predicts that by 2008, USB ports will be fitted to 73 percent of all new-model mobile phones, up from 30 percent in 2004...

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Jack Covert Selects--Indispensable

Indispensable: How to Become the Company That Your Customers Can’t Live Without by Joe Calloway.

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Artist Cranks Up No-Name Rants

The One Free Minute project lets callers vent anonymously over a loudspeaker in public. Free speech, indeed. By Rachel Metz.

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Best Buy Goes B2B

Best Buy has announced it's opening 38 business centers in stores across the country, hoping to woo more small business owners into its customer base.

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From Turf Wars to Learning Curves: How Hospitals Adopt New Technology

Turf wars and learning curves influence how new technology is adopted in hospitals. HBS professors Gary Pisano and Robert Huckman discuss the implications of their research for your organization.

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MarketingSherpa's 10 Best Blogs for 2005: Winners Named + Hotlinks for Your Surfing Pleasure

14 JUN 2005 from MarketingSherpa.com | Read the full story»

The results are in -- here's your guide to the very best (as voted by MarketingSherpa's readership) Blogs of 2005 on the topics of marketing, advertising, and public relations.

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The Power Of Us

20 JUN 2005 from BusinessWeek online | Read the full story»

Mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business.
(Be sure to check out the slide show and graphic associated with the article)

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Forbes.com's Internet Audience-Building Secret

13 JUN 2005 from AdAge.com | Read the full story»

And How It Outdistanced NYTtimes.com and WSJ.com. (Subscription required.)

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Undersea cable to speed net access in China

Chinese authorities have approved the laying of an undersea cable that is expected to increase the speed at which internet users in northern China can access overseas websites by up to 50 per cent. (Subscription required!)

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Internet "Most Trustworthy"; for Health Information

A new study of attitudes concerning healthcare information finds that consumers view the Internet as the most trusted media source.

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For BlackBerry Maker, Anxiety Rises as a Deal Unravels

Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, is facing the possibility that the service could be shut down in the United States.

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brands and the street

Brands want to use the signs, signals and trappings of the street to add authenticity and the feeling of discovery to their brands, but street artists increasingly see it as a turf war and are prepared to stop brands from infringing in and on areas that they see as theirs.

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Is Social Networking Broken?

Many social networking sites end up annoying their users with unwanted contacts and spam. Unless these problems are resolved, social networking sites' popularity could plummet.

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Podcasts growing at a frantic pace

Podcasting is growing at neck-breaking speed, says Dick Costolo, the CEO of FeedBurner. "Last September, I couldn't have told you what a podcast was. Now it's 10 percent of our feeds," he says. "Podcasting is a phenomenon growing at an incredible pace." Podcasting, which takes its name from the popular Apple music player, is a method of publishing sound files to the Internet. It has enabled many to produce self-published, syndicated radio shows.

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Portable drives pose data danger

Media players and flash drives could mean big problems for firms that do not police their use, warns a survey.

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Never IM in This Town Again!

Hollywood finds a novel use for instant messaging. By Cyrus Farivar.

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E-Commerce on Ice

Project aims to connect Alaskan Indian craftswomen with global buyers.

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Brand-Customer Relationship

Brand is often limited in its definition to awareness of a product or service. A company markets its brand – creates the name, broadcasts it to target customer segments, and applies it to its corporate identity or a set of products and services. The brand makes the company, product, or service recognizable. This limited view of brand is destined to fail in today’s business environment.

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Seattle Coffee Shop Turns Off Weekend Wi-Fi

A Seattle coffee shop pulls the plug on its wi-fi network. How have the caffeinated Internet-junkie customers reacted? David Latourel, the manager of Victrola Coffee, fills Jennifer Ludden in on the details. (Audio)

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Order Your Big Mac and DVD to Go

'Drive out' movies are coming to McDonald’s, as the fast-food chain expands tests for a nationwide, dollar-a-day video rental service. By Holly J. Wagner.

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Ordering Takeout Online: A Dot-Com Idea Returns for a Second Try

The first time that companies tried to offer food delivery over the Internet, the idea flopped. Now, with more people using the Web, it may actually succeed. (Subscription required!)

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Skype Out

Plain old Skype lets you call any other Skype user for free, computer to computer, but Skype Out lets you call from your computer to other people's phones.

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Microsoft bans 'democracy' for China web users

Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors. (Subscription required!)

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Telling the Full Story of 'The Genius Factory'

In Genius Factory, author and Slate columnist David Plotz traces the history of a so-called "Nobel Prize" sperm bank. Plotz tells Jennifer Ludden of his quest to find the bank's "genius" donors -- most weren't what they were represented to be -- and their offspring. (Audio)

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Mobile Search: The Battle Begins

Yahoo!, Google, and a host of competitors are taking aim at your handset.

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Hand Jive

13 JUN 2005 from Fortune.com | Read the full story»

Even corporations are making decisions with Rock Paper Scissors.

If you're asking yourself why anyone would use RPS to make a major decision such as who should sell a Cézanne (the centerpiece of Maspro Denkoh's collection, "Les Grands Arbres au Jas de Bouffan," went for a cool $11.8 million), perhaps a better question would be, "Why not?" After all, RPS is one of the oldest decision-making devices known to man.

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Going for Broke

9 JUN 2005 from PBS | I, Cringely | Read the full story»

Apple's decision to use Intel processors is nothing less than an attempt to dethrone Microsoft. Really.

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A dearth of HR talent

5 JUN 2005 from The McKinsey Quarterly | Read the full story»

European companies must redefine the skills and capabilities required of their human-resources personnel.

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We live in a Tom Peters World

5 JUN 2005 from bizcommunity.com | Read the full story»

The world of business is in phenomenal transition, as the power centre moves across the Pacific "at the speed of light", says, arguably the world's top management guru, Tom Peters, appearing in person last week at the Sandton Convention Centre, Gauteng, and the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

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Advertising Up, Confidence Shaky

A new survey finds most businesses aren't very confident about measuring their Web marketing. Cookies are the reason why.

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Amazon Goes Dark

A 41-minute outage today could cost the online retailer big.

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State Sponsored Tourism Blog

Pennsylvania is using “Real People, Real Roadtrips” to promote tourism in the state. The marketing campaign is said to be the first of its kind, using 6 bloggers posting their experiences of roadtrips across Pennsylvania. Each blogger has their own image, ranging from the “Thrill Seeking Family” of four, to the “Open Roader” Harley rider. The blogs follow their journeys, including not only personal accounts of their experiences, but also the details of the stores, parks, restaurants and hotels that they visited.

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Co-branding approaches

We discussed earlier that co-branding is not a new concept, and that it remains crucial to consider the strategic objectives of the project and to address all the possible risks before it is launched. Co-branding can be an asset in nearly all aspects of marketing, from creating initial awareness to building loyalty. There are four main approaches to co-branding...

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Divine designs

There aren’t many management gurus who would dare to draw parallels between management strategy and the divine Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh. But professor Vijay Govindrajan does exactly that and with considerable élan.

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An idealistic pragmatist gets, well, sexy

Carmaker Subaru has become a favorite of the part-sensible, part-savvy set. With their new line, though, Subaru is getting a little sexy. David Brown talks with Dan Neil, transportation writer for the LA Times. (Audio)

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easyHotel

Stelios, the easyGroup entrepreneur has launched easyHotel. Their hotels will be found in the centre of international cities, targeting short-stay customers.

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Marketers and Media Companies Getting Ready for Everything On Demand

Walt Disney Co.'s soon-to-be CEO Bob Iger says his company has made video on demand and digital ad formats a high priority. He also said Disney was involved in a number of initiatives, including talks with advertisers...

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Scientists Search for that Winning Look

Forget political polls. Scientists usually can tell whether political candidates will win or lose by testing voters' reactions to the contestants' faces. A study in the journal Science shows that voters chose the face that looks more "competent." (Audio)

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IF: How To Build An Ad Agency Blog

You could spend months trying to work out a focus, tone of voice, design, technical and then a few more months cajoling folk into contributing. Then: will anyone ever read it? Our team at IF have a suggestion...

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Ruder Finn/Switzer Selected by Beringer Blass Wine Estates to Launch First Wine 'By Women, For Women'

8 JUN 2005 from PR Newswire | Read the full story»

Beringer Blass Wine Estates (BBWE)earlier this year partnered with Ruder Finn, Inc. to launch the first wine designed by women for women called White Lie Early Season(TM) Chardonnay. The wine is naturally lower in alcohol and, as a result, also lower in calories than most California Chardonnays. It will appear on store shelves in key markets across the U.S. and Canada beginning next month.

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A step closer to personalized medication

7 JUN 2005 from The Boston Globe | Read the full story»

Researchers last week announced that they had successfully used patients' genes to determine how much of a potentially dangerous blood-thinning medication they should get -- bringing the era of personalized medicine a giant step closer.

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Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

Using formal economic modelling, professors Pankaj Ghemawat and Ramon Casadesus-Masanell consider the competitive dynamics of the software wars between Microsoft and open source. Read our interview.

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A Luxury Airline Planned

A former executive at British Airways said that he planned to start an airline later this year that would fly between New York and London. (Subscription required!)

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News Junkies Need It Now

FreeNews delivers a speedy tool that lets info addicts cruise RSS feeds for the latest headlines using just a mobile phone. John Gartner puts it through its paces.

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Book Report: White Collar Zen: Using Zen Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Your Career Goals

Employing Zen methods to improve relationships at work.

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US to compromise on biometric passports

The US is poised to drop its demand that European nations and other close allies adopt biometric passports by October, a move aimed at avoiding a serious disruption in transatlantic travel, according to officials.

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Boards Get Brains, Chalk Vanishes

Schools across the country dump dusty chalkboards for touch-sensitive whiteboards connected to computers. Kids can solve problems, surf the web and even edit video with their fingertips. David Cohn reports from New York City.

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The Frill Is Gone

What began as a gradual decline in amenities at the big airlines has turned into the biggest attack ever on costs, particularly in coach class. (Subscription required!)

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Book Report: Strategy Bites Back: It Is Far More, and Less, than You Ever Imagined

A strategy book that’s not just for specialists.

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Trends: Rich, retired & restless

Generation R: Meet the lost executives who need to be rehired, rewired and to put their $300 billion to work. (Subscription required!)

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This Blog Is 100 Percent Solar

Your website keeps sucking electricity even when your mom's not reading it. Fortunately, green energy can generate the power to host it. By Amit Asaravala.

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The Big Brother beauty contest

The new website which has taken networking to Darwinian extremes by banning ugly people.

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Consumer Vertigo

JUN 2005 from reason online | Read the full story»

A new wave of social critics claim that freedom’s just another word for way too much to choose. Here’s why they’re wrong.

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Google takes top media spot

Ubiquitous search engine Google overtakes Time Warner to become the world's biggest media company by stock market value.

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Internal Branding: Get Your Employees Behind Your Brand

Your advertising. Your packaging. Your corporate business cards. Even your product itself. They all reflect your brand, and your brand is your company's single most valuable asset. And although it is nurtured and managed by your marketing department, your brand is represented by your entire organization. From the receptionist at the front desk to the customer service rep staffing the phones.

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Don't Listen to "Yes"

6 JUN 2005 from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge | Read the full story»

If people smile, nod, and say "yes" at your company, maybe it's time to start an argument. According to HBS professor Michael Roberto, the lack of good conflict—constructive conflict—within an organization makes it that much harder to accurately evaluate business ideas and make important decisions.

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Study: Shoppers naive about retail prices online

1 JUN 2005 from CNN.com | Read the full story»

Most American consumers don't realize Internet merchants and even traditional retailers sometimes charge different prices to different customers for the same products, according to a new survey.

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Hospital's bottom line tied to surgical mistakes

8 JUN 2005 from seattlepi.com | Read the full story»

Did the hospital where you're having that operation next week turn a profit last year? If not, the odds are higher that the medical staff will make a significant mistake during or after your surgery, according to a study published yesterday.

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Switching sides

It’s a role every account planner has fantasised about - being an actual brand consultant. An increasing number of individuals in the business find themselves slipping into this role without leaving the relative comforts of an ad agency. Brand Equity reports on why it makes strategic sense to tap this new area of opportunity

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Corporations entering brave new world of blogs

When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop speculation this spring that it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick brands, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz took his case directly to dealers and customers who were up in arms about the possibility. He wrote about it on the company's blog.

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Fly the Wi-Fi Friendly Skies

United Airlines gets FAA approval for wireless internet access during domestic flights, but the FCC still has to OK it. Some international carriers already provide the service -- for a fee of course.

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Book Review: Tom Peters' Trends

Tom has released a series of mini-booklets on Leadership, Talent, Design, and Trends. They're called the Essentials Series. Naturally, I thought we'd take a look at the one called Trends which has been co-authored by Martha Barletta author of Marketing To Women. The two trends that this book describes is (a) women and (b) seniors/boomers, or not-so-seniors as the book suggests. Tom's book's have always been inspiring, and this has been funked up with zany graphics and stock images to ram home the point.

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The Web's Secret Platform

Macromedia wants its Flash player to become the standard way to experience the Web.

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Gay marketing: stranger to the closet

When it comes to acknowledging gays and lesbians, Main Street has been a bit slower than Madison Avenue. Blaine Branchik says that advertisers for Will & Grace and Queer Eye are nothing new — that gay marketing has been around for more than a hundred years. (Audio)

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Talking on Your Cell? Then Gesture!

Gestures recognition on mobile phones? Sure, why not. One University of Glasgow researcher believes his gestures technology could stop cell phone users from bumping into walls and reduce the number of phone-related car accidents.

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Leading Ideas: The Power of Acknowledgement

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." -- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

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Yahoo! unveils paid cell download

Internet services company Yahoo Inc rolled out late on Tuesday a paid mobile download that provides Sprint subscribers with e-mail services similar to those available on personal computers.

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Bangalore: Hot and Hotter

Beneath the mess, Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, is entering a mature new phase as a technology center. (Subscription required!)

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Kremed!

01 JUN 2005 from CFO.com | Read the full story»

The rise and fall of Krispy Kreme is a cautionary tale of ambition, greed, and inexperience.

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The 100 Best Products of 2005

06 JUN 2005 from PC World | Read the full story»

When you're buying hardware, software, and services, you want the top combination of power, features, reliability, and value. That's what you'll find in these World Class Award winners--starting with the Product of the Year.

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US moves to spur digital health records nationwide

06 JUN 2005 from Yahoo News | Read the full story»

The U.S. government is taking steps to help spawn a nationwide network of electronic medical records that are easily accessible but protect patient privacy, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Monday.

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Web Sites, Blogs Can Boost Your Career

06 JUN 2005 from the Associated Press | Read the full story»

Web portfolios are Web sites that people build to show off their professional accomplishments. A good site will include more than just a resume. It might provide links to published articles and papers or evidence of successful project management. Words of praise from clients, peers and industry superstars are also common.

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The Day the Email Died

06 JUN 2005 from WSJ.com: Real Time | Read the full story»

With our email offline for the foreseeable future, we found ourselves confronting the Ghost of Workplaces Past -- depending on age, we were either reaching back more than a decade to remember how offices worked before email became commonplace, or in completely uncharted territory.

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P&G SHUTS DOWN EXPERIMENT IN MASS CUSTOMIZATION

06 JUN 2005 from AdAge.com | Read the full story»

Procter & Gamble Co. is pulling the plug June 13 on Reflect, its once highly touted experiment in mass customization of beauty products, shutting the Web site and retail stores in San Francisco and Chicago.
“We are going to be, per our corporate strategy, focusing on our big brands at P&G,” a spokeswoman said. “We gained significant learnings from Reflect.”

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Radio silence for NPR and Audible

National Public Radio's daily and weekly shows are no longer available from the Internet's largest distributor of audio programming, Audible.com.

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Has VoIP Hit Yet?

Experts say 2005/2006 will be good years for IP-based telephony, though hurdles remain to be cleared.

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Make your small business a big name

Brand building is simply a new label for a collection of functions that have always been necessary to make a business successful...

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Blogs ordered to register in China

Chinese authorities order weblogs and websites to register or face closure.

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dell and wal-mart want it all

No longer content with the confines of being low-price category leaders and both needing to grow volume , two giants of their respective industries are reaching out to premium consumers. Dell will launch a line of premium computers and Wal-Mart is planning to compete more directly with Target in fashion and home furnishings.

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UPS Loses Citigroup Customer Data

Missing Box Held Facts On 3.9 Million Customers; Blunder Likely to Fuel Furor. (Subscription required!)

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Bumping Jobs

A growing number of business travelers are bumping into the downside of outsourcing these days. (Subscription required!)

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7 important factors in building brand value

Professor David Jobber identifies seven main factors in building successful brands.

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Barks Are Local; Meows Are Global

How do you say "moo" in Japanese? Bzzzpeek.com, a Web site devoted to onomatopoeia, will gladly demonstrate. (Subscription required!)

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Another Flaw Found in Mozilla

Cracks in the security armor of popular browser continue to grow.

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THE MARKETING COMPANY COMMUNICATIONS DISCONNECT

8 Apr 2005 from AdAge.com | Read the full story»

Marketing communications companies are not being given a seat at their client’s strategic table. It’s the sad truth that no one in the communications business wants to acknowledge or admit.

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What Are Mergers Good For?

Not much, unless you're one of the bankers or executives whose compensation goes up with every deal you do. (Subscription required!)

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Fresh Ideas

In this hypercompetitive economy, the old rules for managing just don't cut it. What counts now is innovative thinking—at a time when bosses are being critiqued more than ever before.

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Women Are Keen to Shop Online. Merchants Are Eager to Oblige.

Internet merchants are paying more attention to the group chiefly responsible for their growth: women. (Subscription required!)

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United Airlines Approved for In-Flight Internet Service

United Airlines plans to announce that it is the first domestic airline to receive approval to install wireless Internet networks on its planes. (Subscription required!)

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India, Inc. waking up to blogsphere

While Indian blogsphere is miniscule with only 5 million internet users, the US already has 10 million blogs.

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Laptops for Kids With No Power

MIT's ambitious plan to supply cheap laptops to developing countries is well-intentioned, experts say, but basic challenges like lack of electricity and technical support will have to be ironed out. By Stephen Leahy.

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Online Retailers Could Do Better

A new study finds that many of the nation's top retailers are performing well below their potential online.

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Legislation Aims to Stop Muni Wi-Fi

A new bill would prohibit state and local governments from competing with private-sector providers.

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10 Big Thinkers for Big Business

They work in vastly different fields, but the leaders profiled in the following pages are much alike—they have new takes on old business models, a knack for seeing around corners and an appetite for big risk. A case study of New Thinkers.

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Online news lasts for 36 hours only

A team of scientists has found that the majority of online news items have a lifetime of just 36 hours.

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Bye bye lullaby: automatic cot takes care of bedtime

Life: Revolutionary cot rocks baby to sleep automatically.

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How to Act Like a Designer

Jun 2005 from fastcompany.com | Read the full story»

If you're in any business, you're in the design business. We're all designers now. That's cool, but it's also daunting. How can civilian sales reps and IT geeks incorporate a design sensibility into their work and life? We posed that question to several top designers: How can we be, well, more like them? Here's what they suggested.

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How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat'

02 Jun 2005 from WashingtonPost.com | Read the full story»

As a Friendship -- and the Watergate Story -- Developed, Source's Motives Remained a Mystery to Woodward.

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PODCASTING RAPIDLY EMERGING AS RADIO BUSINESS EXTENSION

03 Jun 2005 from AdAge.com | Read the full story»

Podcasting, the new medium burst from the confluence of iPods and audio downloads, is advancing at incredible speed as more marketers and media owners incorporate it as an extension of the radio business.

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Will McCain-Feingold Control Political Bloggers?

03 Jun 2005 from internetnews.com | Read the full story»

Online political activists want the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to stay cool when considering proposed rules that some fear will chill online political debate, particularly in the blogosphere.

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Half-Life Of CEOs

A study shows that amongst the world's 2,500 largest companies, over 14% of the CEOs left office in '04.

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Mobile Video: Not Ready for Prime Time

Watching TV on your cell phone sounds a lot cooler than it is.

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Women 'better investors'

Women investors are consistently better at investing in shares than men, a survey says.

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Sidestepping E-Mail Missteps

In a new study, Silverpop finds that many retailers are not using a variety of simple e-mail marketing tactics to improve performance, including personalization of messages.

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Small business become bigger

Mastercard and Warillow International have just published a research study on a new class of small business: the "Web-Driven Entrepreneur". The study estimates that there are 5 million of these businesses in the United States and they represent 25% of all small businesses.

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The Music Genome Project

In the last 10 years we’ve probably witnessed the most dramatic period of change in the history of the music industry. Online commerce, digital downloading, the disintegration of the album, file-sharing, subscription services, iPods, mobile streaming, radically cheaper home recording/publishing technology. The landscape for artists, labels, music retailers, and of course music lovers has been changed forever.

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Big Leap

Shubha Kulkarni, vice-president-HR, Perot Systems Technology Services talks about hiring and retaining the very best.

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The Blogumentary

BL reports that filmmaker John Hart is found rounding up 59 bloggers who represents the blogosphere. Each blogger will be given 2 minutes to say/do their thing. He says he plans to "enter the blogumentary in film festivals, and show it to television and/or theatre distributors, and the 59 bloggers will become famous, or perhaps placed into the Witness Protection Program." BL Commentary...

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Who Killed Andersen? It Was Suicide

Arthur Andersen was killed by its management, which penalized good auditors while rewarding those who made companies happy. (Subscription required!)

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Broadband Speed to Jump 10-Fold

A new ITU standard sets the bar for ADSL at 100Mbps.

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The Original Mr Chip

He advocated paranoia as a business philosophy, designed chips that run megacorps and created a company that's synonymous with fine computing. Andy Grove bares all in this exclusive interview with CD - his first after vacating the corner room at Intel.

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Students take up cash for college

Almost 300,000 teenagers in England have received payments of up to £30 a week for staying in education.

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Are you ready for good customers?

Peter Davidson over at the BeConnected blog writes of Eight Ways to Be a Good Customer... To correspond with Peter's list, I've composed eight ways to prepare for good customers...

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Gadget Promos Creep Into TV Shows

CSI and 24 are chock-full o' gizmos, but it's no accident -- it's the future of advertising. Soon, most marketing will be integrated into shows, and products will be ordered by remote. By Michael Grebb.

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A fine balance

When it comes to managing brands in global markets, one size doesn't fit all.

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Wal-Mart's New Realm: Reality TV

Seeking ways to burnish its tarnished image, Wal-Mart is turning to reality TV, signing a branded-entertainment agreement with ABC for "The Scholar." (Subscription required!)

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Yahoo! Serious About Employee Blogging

The Internet media company joins a list of other companies that have posted guidelines for staffers with a yen to yak online.

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The Other Side of Customer Service

Good customer service is at a premium these days, from the Starbucks barista around the corner to the IT help staff in Bangalore. So it was interesting to read their side of the story, in this case, through the eyes of a bouncer in New York.

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Blogs on Ice: Signs of a Business Model?

Uberblogger Doc Searls once noted that blogs don't necessarily need a business model to be worthwhile. "Does your phone have a business model? How about your porch? Or your driveway?" he asked at Dave Winer's Bloggercon last November at Stanford...

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Green Broadband

I can imagine most of our UK readers are accessing this site through broadband - but is your ISP eco-minded?As reported on Hippy Shopper, Green ISP costs £22.50 a month for 512kbps, however, there's no monthly cap and no 12 month contract. So what's green about that I hear you mumble - well, the company plants a tree for every new broadband customer, its office is powered by solar panels and Juice, and a percentage of profits go to green charities such as Greenpeace etc.

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Feisty, 40-ish and Female? Franchise!

The Miami Bombshells, six friends with big careers, turned their monthly drink-and-confess meetings into a franchise. (Subscription required!)

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Is Wharton Ruining American Business?

Jun 2005 from Philadelphia magazine | Read the full story»

In the wake of Enron and other corporate scandals, America's best-known business school, the place that produced Michael Milken and Frank Quattrone, is under siege. Our writer spent a year there figuring out what's going on.

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Can Your Firm Develop a Sustainable Edge? Ask John Hagel and John Seely Brown

John Hagel III, a former McKinsey consultant, and John Seely Brown, former chief scientist of Xerox, are focusing these days on a question that CEOs often ask themselves: How can their companies develop a sustainable competitive edge that can keep them ahead of the competition? Their answer, which they discuss in a new book, involves ideas that enable firms to step up the pace at which they develop new capabilities. Hagel and Brown will speak about these issues at Supernova 2005, a conference of technologists and business leaders to be held in San Francisco later this month. Kevin Werbach, a professor of legal studies at Wharton and Supernova's organizer, spoke with them about sustainable advantage, capability building, process networks and several other themes that will be highlighted at the conference.

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Google's Summer of Code

The search engine giant will pay students to work on open source projects.

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Crossover challenge

Taking old brands into new products is a bold and risky strategy.

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Church-goers get own wi-fi

A city vicar hopes installing wireless broadband at his church will attract new members to his flock.

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the factory as brand communicator

Zaha Hadid's new design for the Central Building at BMWs plant in Leipzig is nothing short of revolutionary. It turns the concept of the mass production on its head and makes it a democratic and transparent process.

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TV's Future Is Here, but It Needs Work

What if you could tap into an enormous library of video over the Internet for viewing on your television at your convenience? Akimbo is a service promising just that. (Subscription required!)

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Those High-flying Angel Investors: VC Panel Talks Up Creative Financing for Start-ups

Software manufacturing, software programs to defeat spam, new business data technology and web services are all areas of opportunity for entrepreneurs, according to venture capitalists taking part in a panel on creative financing at a recent Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference. And those entrepreneurs who cut costs, sign on angel investors and find other creative ways to finance their start-ups will be rewarded with more equity in their firms assuming they become successful. One always promising but often prickly funding source: angel investors.

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Are you ready for SPIT?

There's a new acronym on the lips of technology vendors that may sound a bit offensive at first blush. You may not yet have heard of SPIT (Spam for Internet Telephony), but according to some technology visionaries, you may soon be swimming in it.

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Korean Bloggers

Korea is reported by the OECD to have the highest high-speed Internet penetration of any nation. Korea has an extremely vibrant gaming, blogging, mobile phone and youth culture scene and I was eager to find out more about what was going on.

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Is General Motors Running Out of Gas?

For General Motors, it's been a tough year: a $1.1 billion first-quarter loss, junk-bond status for its debt, a largely lackluster lineup of models, and a mountain of health-care and pension liabilities that builds an immediate cost disadvantage into every vehicle that rolls off the line. But experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that GM is not about to file for bankruptcy protection, that it has a talented management team and that some new models on the horizon may rev up sales. For GM to survive and thrive over the long term, however, the company needs more than a few hot models; it requires a major structural and cultural overhaul, these people say. GM must start thinking small -- not an easy task for a company that has never done that -- and accept a diminished, yet still significant, role in the global auto business.

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Books for Small Business Month by Todd S.

May was Small Business Month... I have three books worth considering for the topic.

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Franchisees With Advanced Degrees

Let's just talk about it. An increasing number of business-school graduates are going into (gasp) low-technology franchises like Dunkin' Donuts and gas stations. (Subscription required!)

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No more waiting for Windows XP to boot up

Taiwanese hardware maker Giga-byte Technology has stumbled upon a faster way to boot up PCs based on Microsoft's Windows XP operating system.

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Having Children in China

Today is Children's Day in China. Due to worries about who will support the graying population, some cities have started allowing couples who are both only children to have two kids. But after 25 years of encouraging couples to have just one child, they're finding it's not that easy to turn back the clock. In Shanghai, the local-born population has been shrinking faster than anywhere else in China. (Audio)

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Marketbusters: A Call to Arms for Upper-level Managers Looking to Increase Market Share

Coinstar, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company that puts change-counting machines in groceries and discount stores, figured out a "marketbusting" move, according to Ian MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath, authors of a new book called "Marketbusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth." Coinstar took something that had been an annoyance for both banks and consumers -- counting and handling spare change -- and turned it into a profitable business. MacMillan and McGrath's goal in writing their book was to help managers identify similar high-impact opportunities within their own industries. Each company doesn't need 40 marketbusters, the authors add. Just one could be enough.

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Ruling No Comfort for Ex-Andersen Workers

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn the conviction of Arthur Andersen was little comfort to former employees, who said the ruling came too late to help the 28,000 who lost their jobs when the accounting firm crumbled....

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The Supreme Court quashes Andersen's conviction

Death sentence commuted--too late. (Subscription required!)

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Supreme Court Throws Out Arthur Andersen Conviction

The Supreme Court overturns the conviction of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. The company had been convicted of instructing employees to shred documents, hindering an investigation of Andersen's role at Enron Corporation. Andersen said its officials had been reminding employees of the firm's policy of disposing of documents that are no longer needed. (Audio)

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Justices Reject Auditor Verdict in Enron Scandal

The Supreme Court overturned Arthur Andersen's federal conviction for shredding accounting documents of Enron as it was collapsing. (Subscription required!)

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Reversal of Andersen Conviction Not a Declaration of Innocence

The Supreme Court's reversal of Arthur Andersen's conviction in the Enron case caused rumblings that the firm should never have been indicted. Not so fast. (Subscription required!)

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Decision Rekindles Debate Over Andersen Indictment

For Randy D. Robason, a former tax partner at Arthur Andersen, news that the Supreme Court had thrown out the accounting firm's nearly three-year-old conviction was too little and too late. (Subscription required!)

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Arthur Andersen's 'Victory'

As a unanimous Supreme Court yesterday announced its reversal of the 2002 criminal conviction of Arthur Andersen for shredding Enron-related documents, our first thought was: Now they tell us. Or, as former Reagan Labor Secretary Ray Donovan famously asked after his acquittal in 1987: "Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?"

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Web Site Report: Tekrati: The Industry Analyst Reporter

Keeping up with what analysts are saying about the tech industry.

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Winds of change

Yoram 'Jerry' Wind, believes that emphasis on R&D and innovation is important in today's fluid business scenario. The professor of marketing at Wharton Business School, says that India is interestingly poised to become a hub for R&D and innovation.

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French blogger is EU cause celebre

A high school teacher professor from Marseille has become famous across France and the blogosphere thanks to his one-person campaign against approval of the European Union constitution.

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Book Report: Think Big, Act Small: How America's Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-up Spirit Alive

Sometimes the best approach to success is common sense.

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How Is Blogging Helping?

No, really... What is blogging doing to help marketing? Customer communications? Innovative ideas? How is it helping tell the story?

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Right-brain, left-brain advertising

If you want to be a marketing manager in the Internet world, consider getting a PhD in mathematics. That's because advertising on the Internet involves millions of keywords, billions of Web pages, and millions of irrational and ephemeral surfing patterns conducted by millions of people. Translation: Online advertising isn't just about a clever campaign, it's about mathematical computations. "The role of the chief marketing officer has changed," said Ellen Siminoff,...

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Can Executives Job Share?

Job sharing is commonplace today--but sharing an executive position is not. Here is how two bank executives conceived and pitched a split job, and won.

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Paperless Wall Street

If you hold stock, chances are there's a fancy certificate somewhere to prove it. Maybe it's under the mattress, or in a safe deposit box. Maybe your broker keeps it for you. Maybe you've never even seen it. If the securities industry has its way, that piece of paper is headed to the recycle bin of history. This month the state of Delaware cleared one of the last hurdles to a nearly paperless stock market. The change could save investors and companies billions of dollars. So why are some of them dragging their feet? Marketplace's Amy Scott reports. (Audio)

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Why smart companies don't use corporate weblogs

Weblogs are the hottest trend in online publishing today. Their popularity just seems to grow without end. Recently, industry observers such as Technorati have been tracking close to one million article postings each day, and the number continues to climb.

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Parliament's website under fire

The website of the UK Parliament needs a major facelift in order to better serve voters, says a report.

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Book Report: The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade

A cheap souvenir T-shirt reveals a lot about globalization.

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Brevity

Former CNN business journalist, Carmine Gallo, has written 10 Simple Secrets of the World's Greatest Business Communicators. The book shows readers how to capture the charisma of dazzling corporate speakers like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Jack Welch and John Chambers.

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Book Report: House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time

An irreverent look at the management consulting industry.

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Six Steps for Making Your Threat Credible

It damages your reputation, your company, and the deal if you make empty threats in negotiation. In this article from Negotiation, HBS professor Deepak Malhotra explains six steps for powerful follow-through.

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