In the age of The Google, you're nowhere if you can't be found. Especially by your prospects. As a result, pretty much every business has to be a publisher, and every company has to have something to say besides “BUY ME.” Content matters. In Content Rules, co-authors...
A big rap on Groupon is that it brings in one-time customers that most retail businesses have no idea how to convert. If it led to a steady uptick in business, companies would be cheering. Right? But can you have too much business? Chef Geoff's uptown location used to...
I always count the pills. And the widgets. (And pretty much anything I buy "by the numbers.") It's not that I expect any problems, it's just that I want to make sure I'm getting what I pay for when it comes to products bought in open bulk. When it comes to...
I didn't realize until last night how much Steve Jobs changed my world: He added color (orange desktop computer, red netbook). He added usability (point-and-click operating system versus the old DOS). He made music truly portable (mp3 player, streaming capabilities)....
About twice a year, I wish I were Sean Combs. I’m always running when this happens. At big-name-big-city races, Combs and other celebrities typically run with an entourage. The people who hold their GUs and Gatorade bottles and hang onto extra layers of clothes when...
I heard yesterday that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is going to spend $15,000 to hire a consultant to provide leadership training. The reason: apparently some senior managers don't play well with each other. Now, WMATA has a lot of...
There are very few Soup Nazis in business. In other words, most of us have to provide good customer service to be sucessful. You can screw up and recover--companies do it all the time. But how many use the opening to move from apology to enchantment? Stubhub did this...
I was watching Restaurant Impossible the other day. It's a show about a chef who works to help turn around failing businesses. In two days. This is reality TV, so one presumes the producers vet and select restaurants where the business issues are so blatant that a few...
There was an interesting conversation about thought leadership on #profschat the other day around what it is, what it means, where it fits into an organization’s priorities, who “owns” it, and how to execute a successful thought leadership strategy. And it got me...
A friend of mine calls them PITAs. That's short for Pain in the ______. As in clients (or customers) who are more trouble than they're worth. I'm either lucky enough or wise enough not to have any PITAs. One advantage of being my own boss is I can prioritize "working...