Once upon a time, I found over $100,000 of fluff in my condo association's budget proposal. I wasn't a board member. I wasn't on the budget and finance committee. I was "just" a co-owner--and I was mad. I hadn't paid a lot of attention to the budget until then, but I...
I have a big announcement, and I wanted you, my blog readers, to be the first to know. I'm launching a new business! (Don't worry, Steigman Communications--and Independent Thinking--aren't going anywhere.) Social Biz Smarts is all about leveraging "social" more...
Minnesota Public Radio has a fascinating article on Best Buy at a crossroads. At one point, a Best Buy worker tells the interviewer: "Executives ... focus on issues that are not crucial to Best Buy's competitiveness or survival. For instance, he argues Best Buy has...
When a friend of mine turned 40 her sister told her that she had better take care of herself because she was competing with 20-year-olds. My thought: Why would you want to date a man who wants to date a twenty-something? I feel the same way about Klout. There's a long...
My friend Mike Schaffer was an hour late to work this morning. Sadly, that's not unusual (and not because Schaffer is lazy, passive aggressive, or hates his alarm clock). The problem is the city's train system. Washington's Metro system was poorly build, and it...
Did Facebook's debut ruin the market for tech companies? Of course not. Though perhaps it means future IPOs will be priced based on business factors. USA TODAY has an interesting article on the marketplace one month after Facebook's initial public offering. Buried...
IBM has a female CEO. IBM sponsors the Masters, an event held at Augusta National, a private club that does not allow women to be members. Which means Virginia Rometty can't join the club that her company pays to prop up. This isn't a new story (or a new controversy)....
Most of us would rather be liked than not. And, in business, it can mean the difference between having customers and having trouble paying the bills. (Okay, it helps to have a great product, killer customer service, and a bunch of other things too.) We're human; we...
I was reading The View From the Top,* a recent report from the IABC Research Foundation. Researchers interviewed 20 CEOs about the role of corporate communications. What I like about the report--and IABC--is the global perspective. These CEOs run companies in Peru,...
Have you ever been stiffed by a client (i.e., failed utterly in all attempts to collect payment)? It has never happened to me. Maybe I've been lucky. I've definitely been smart. Some of it has to do with selecting clients with care, building in payment phases for...