Groupon went public on Friday, and it was reported to be the largest IPO since Google. I don't get it. The founders took $900 million in cash from the company before it went public. Which suggests they think the company is overvalued (and they want their money while...
Love it, hate it, or deny it exists, personal branding is a hot topic. And it's going to be THE topic today for #sm122, a weekly tweet chat around the business of social media. Join me at 12 noon EST as I host a conversation around personal branding. We'll explore:...
Spotify has landed in America. The music-streaming service with 15 million songs in its catalogue is likely to be disruptive to the music industry in a way that Apple only dreamt of. Here are three reasons: 1. My vinyl is finally obsolete. I have a large collection of...
I read a LinkedIn question the other day that asked whether companies should spend more time focused on their core business--and less, perhaps, on social media. While I don't think this is really an "either/or" question (you have to do both), I also think it's pretty...
Many years ago, I set up a joint venture involving the Russian real estate market. My partner Philip Bay had a successful business in Russia and Bulgaria catering primarily to foreign companies looking to expand into these emerging markets and foreign governments...
My friend Deborah Brody wrote a terrific post about business planning. It's not a sexy topic--but can anyone say they don't need a Plan B for when things go wrong? Most businesses, if they plan at all, focus on the "how are we going to handle the whole...
Social media for business is a big topic of conversation these days. And there’s no question that companies that are able to pivot their operations to respond to both challenges and opportunities in real-time are ahead of the game. But how do you get there? Jay Baer...
What happens when companies leverage emerging technologies to better understand their customers, help their employees collaborate more effectively, crowdsource, or otherwise improve their core business functions? They become companies with a competitive edge—and part...
If Bing's process for setting up a Bing Local Listing is any indication, Microsoft is in trouble. It look me 7 weeks from start to end to do something that should have taken 7 minutes. (Okay, maybe 30 minutes.) Here are a few of the hoops I had to jump through: I...
Is your business structured the right way? There are legal, tax, and liability implications to how your business is structured. Not just the legal structure (e.g., LLC or corporation), but also whether you have an operating agreement and how it's written. And what...