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January 30, 2004

Guest Hosts: Getting Your Message Heard

Next week, starting Monday, Feb. 2, two special guest hosts will join contributors to FC Now to help expand the conversation about advertising, marketing, and branding.

Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval co-authored February's selection for the Fast Company Book Club, Bang!: Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. Kaplan Thaler, CEO and president of the Kaplan Thaler Group, and Koval, the company's vice president and business manager, have been involved in some of the company's more innovative advertising campaigns, including the "Kodak moment," Herbal Essence's "totally organic experience," and the AFLAC insurance company duck. Bang! draws on their successes and failures to show managers how to create a marketing campaign that goes bang.

Throughout the week, Kaplan Thaler and Koval will share ideas and insights that go beyond the pages of their new book. Drawing on their professional experiences, the two will offer tips, tactics, and strategies for making some productive noise in the marketplace.

I hope you'll join us. Next week in FC Now.

Clarification: In the online discussion of the book, FC reader Bodie Le Monz asked why we didn't disclose that Kaplan Thaler was the advertising agency of record for Gruner + Jahr, FC's parent company. Not only did we, the editors of the magazine, not know this, but The Kaplan Thaler Group was never Gruner + Jahr's agency of record. In fact, while the agency did work on a project for Gruner + Jahr a couple of years ago, that work never ran. In addition, Fast Company readers picked the title out of a pool of five options in December. That Any prior work relationship had no influence or impact on the book's initial -- or final -- selection.

You can help us pick the next Readers' Choice selection, too.

Text that has been crossed out represents editorial changes made since this entry was initially posted.

Posted by Heath Row at 6:05 PM | 18 Comments

Herstory

About a week ago, the International Women's News Network launched. The service's goal is to report news from around the world -- from a woman's perspective. As a man, I'm not sure what that means -- I don't consider myself as having a man's perspective, just my own, and I happen to be a man -- but there are lots of interesting stories available.

Today's main page features an analysis of the Apprentice, the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce's new Power of Influence campaign, and a report on salary secrecy. The service also maintains a "blog," which seems to be primarily a reader feedback mechanism.

Posted by Heath Row at 1:39 PM | 2 Comments

The Five-Day Work Reek

The Nub is one of my almost-daily reads, and it's an impressive business-related blog. While Jon doesn't always offer a lot of commentary or context, he finds some of the best business-oriented online resources. Take this entry, for example.

In an article entitled "Telling a Coworker They Have a Personal Hygiene Problem," Carole Shepard offers some tips about "breaking personal problems gently." I almost laughed out loud when Shepard suggested that you approach the situation as though their deoderant stopped working, recommend that they change brands, and say that you'll check back to see how it's working out.

On the opposite end, Salary.com's Annette suggests that one can only create their own Personal Fragrance Zone -- or Moments -- by which you set a silent example. Peel an orange. Bring in spicy cookies. Smell really good yourself. Your aromatic colleague will catch on. Oh, so?

And Jill Bremer outlines all the various causes of body odor. But outside of recommending that you bring in an outsider to break the wind, erm, news, she, too is light on advice.

What to do? One reader of the blog Playswithyarn cuts straight to the chase. In response to an entry complaining about a smelly coworker, "Silent Bob" added a comment saying, "You should wear swimming-style nose plugs to work. If the smelly coworker doesn't get the hint, the rest of them will be amused."

Posted by Heath Row at 1:22 PM | 1 Comment

Lunch Is Fun(ctional)

Johanna Rothman offers some thoughtful ideas on the value of lunch meetings.

The quality of the conversation over lunch tends to be richer, especially when people take a full hour for lunch. Lunch is free peer consulting across the organization and offers the possibility for technical problem-solving at its finest.

Her entry is a response to a brief piece published in the blog Incipient Thoughts. There, Laurent Bossavit suggests that "what happens at lunch has always been an index into the health of a team, and its relation to the rest of the business."

Primarily, I find that if I'm excluded from lunch most times, that's a good clue that I'm not fitting in very well with the team; but there are other clues. Do the developers always stick together, never to be found at the same table as the people in sales? Is everyone having lunch by him or herself, in particular buying cheap sandwiches and eating at their desks? Is there a huge contrast between the manager's lunch and the rest of the employees? Are people very set in their ways, always eating in the same places and with the same tablefellows, or do they value variety?

Add a comment describing how you and your colleagues do lunch where you work. And me? I'm heading downstairs now to Delmonico's for my lunch now.

Posted by Heath Row at 12:50 PM | 1 Comment

The Goodness of Gossip III

In the blog Monkeymagic, FC Now reader Piers Young expands on a previous FC Now entry about gossip and its value.

He wraps that exchange with a broader range of Web research, incorporating the Rumor Test, Chinese Whispers, and the Rule of Meaningful Chit Chat. How do the above aspects of communication -- or as Young says, "communification" -- make themselves known in your organization?

Posted by Heath Row at 12:20 PM | Add Comment

January 29, 2004

Joe Trippi, Pied Piper of Dean's Internet Campaign, Storms off Stage

Will he lead his faithful followers with him? They're rending their clothes on the Dean blog today, as the Internet master packs his tents and heads back to his Maryland farm. We profiled the Wizard of the Web back in October, when the DNC was posing the musical question, "Will Howard Dean flame out like an overheated dotcom?"

Sadly, the parallels are inescapable. Dean burned through a hefty $9.2M in advertising, but still finished lamely in Iowa and New Hampshire, prompting a re-evaluation of a campaign fueled largely by devoted but neophyte supporters. (Anybody remember boo.com?) So Dean turned to veteran political operative Ray Neel, a former lobbyist and Al Gore aide, causing even the Governor's faithful to wonder if the campaign was selling out to the Washington insiders it has spent months ridiculing.

Tuesday's primaries should provide the answer to whether the first true grassroots campaign since Eugene McCarthy marshalled the help of the hippies in 1968 has the fortitude to go the distance. Stay tuned.

Posted by Linda Tischler at 10:34 AM | 6 Comments

January 28, 2004

Video-A-Go-Go

The Wall Street Journal today reports on the YesVideo service. Having just bought my parents and sister DVD players for Christmas -- and having helped my dad transfer home movies to video tape in the past -- this seems like an awesome project to undertake.

Customers can mail in home movies, videos, slides, and photographs for transfer to DVD. In the video tape case, YesVideo's computer systems identify transition points in the video in order to break the tape up into DVD scene segments. While the company offers the caveat that the DVD's will work on 95% of players on the market, Walter Mossberg concludes that the service is convenient and efficient.

Posted by Heath Row at 3:34 PM | Add Comment

Good News for the Net Economy

Amazon was profitable last year for the first time in its history.

Posted by Heath Row at 3:05 PM | Add Comment

Profetting from Mispelling

"Before the Internet came along, poor spelling by the public was by and large not exposed," says Paige P. Kimble, the director of the National Spelling Bee. And before the Internet, who knew poor spelling could be so profitable? No, we're not talking about Nick at Nite and Lite beer. We're talking about a "labtop" or a "camra" for sale on eBay.

A New York Times story today describes how some savvy shoppers hunt for misspelled items because they attract fewer bidders and can be snatched for a bargain - then resold (with the correct spelling) at a higher price.

Along the same lines, VeriSign, a company that assigns Web addresses, figured out how to take advantage of misspelled Web queries. Instead of responding with an error message, VeriSign would redirect your browser to its own page, which featured paid advertisement links. Last fall, however, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers asked VeriSign to suspend the service. It argued that a web registry administrator was a neutral party and shouldn't generate revenue from "mistake traffic." VeriSign agreed to stop the practice temporarily.

Is ICANN stifling an Internet innovation as VeriSign claims, or does redirecting errant surfers spell trouble? Take the Fast Company poll.

Registration is required to access New York Times articles on the Web.

Posted by Chuck Salter at 12:18 PM | 1 Comment

Business Travail III

FC Now reader Gemma Teed writes in this morning to say

The weather is lousy in the UK today, and I've battled through the snow, wind, and rain to make it to my meeting.

What's the furthest lengths that FC Now readers have gone to make a meeting? Longest distance? Weirdest form of transport? Most forms of transport? (My record: car, train, two tubes, and a taxi.) Most extreme weather conditions?

As they say, "Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds." But how far have you gone to participate in a meeting or business event?

Posted by Heath Row at 11:09 AM | 2 Comments

Brazen Careerist II

In response to an entry yesterday, FC Now reader Donald E.L. Johnson asks a slew of solid questions:

• How do you make sure you don't hire job hoppers?
• Is there any benefit to an organization that hires job hoppers?
• If you see a resume with more than three jobs in three years, are you interested?
• Do job hoppers have problems focusing, learning, relating to colleagues and customers, looking out for the interests of their employers?
• How long does it take an employer to sense the emotional, ethical and other problems that serial job hoppers have, if they have such problems?
• Serial job hopping strikes me as being about as interesting as watching segments of a TV series and as satisfying as eating fast food. How about you?
• If you were unable to become fascinated with law, would it worry you?
• What do the quality and style of writing offered by Emma Gold suggest to you as a potential employer?

Discuss.

Posted by Heath Row at 11:05 AM | 8 Comments

January 27, 2004

Where Are the Women?

In honor of Senior Writer Linda Tischler's appearance today on NPR's Talk of the Nation, we've published her February feature online early.

Linda's story seeks to answer the question why more women aren't running companies these days -- since they've been successfully climbing the corporate ladder across professions for 20 years. With quantitative research and a bucket of anecdotes from real women and men, Linda comes up with an answer that is both provocative and intuitively satisfying. Women aren't running corporations because they don't want to.

In addition to her cover story, we've also developed two Web Exclusive interview transcripts, one with Professor Charles A. O'Reilly at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and another with Catherine Hakim, a sociology professor at the London School of Economics.

Posted by Heath Row at 4:19 PM | 8 Comments

Brazen Careerist

Emma Gold has had more than 150 jobs. What did she learn?

Charities are the least charitable places to work, places dedicated to culture are full of people with no breeding, accountancy firms are the most fun, colleagues can make or break your working week, suing sex-pest bosses pays and, finally, keep looking until you find satisfaction.

Sounds like Gold experienced quite a bit of identity shift.

Posted by Heath Row at 10:48 AM | 3 Comments

Increasing Innovation

Dave Pollard offers lengthy commentary and context about a recent Boston Consulting Group survey that found that innovation was a top priority for 2004 in 90% of organizations surveyed.

• 20% said innovation is the top priority
• 69% said is was part of their top three list
• 90% put innovation in the top five

Indicating that hardcore cost cutting might be on the wane, the study also determined that 64% of the companies surveyed plan to spend more on innovation-oriented initiatives this year than they did last year.

Pollard pairs his commentary on the survey with an overview of another Boston Consulting Group report, an article by James Andrew and Kermit King entitled "Boosting Innovation Productivity." Of particular interest is the authors' expansion on barriers to innovation. A useful paired read!

Posted by Heath Row at 10:18 AM | 5 Comments

January 26, 2004

Feed Me, See More

FC Now is now also available via an Atom feed. You can learn more about Atom clients online.

Posted by Heath Row at 5:32 PM | Add Comment

On Leadership

A comment from reader Barry Klein, in response to Seth Godin's post about the way we evaluate leaders got me thinking: we really do judge the quality of our leaders only in hindsight, and that's more than a little bit silly.

Seth Godin mentioned several 'great leaders' in his original post: Abe Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, among others. Why are they great? Probably because they won, or came out on top, in the great challenges of their day. Lincoln held the Union together and abolished slavery; Churchill held fast and presided over victory in WWII; Truman helped rebuild Europe with his sweeping nation-building plan in the war's wake.

The caliber of each of these men, before their victory, was a matter of hot debate. As our reader Barry Klein mentions: "Every one of the leaders mentioned were very polarizing in their days. For every person that loved them, you could point to someone who hated them with equal passion."

Had Churchill's side not won the war, perhaps he'd be remembered now as a raving madman, not an inspiring orator of unflagging courage. Had Lincoln not succeeded in holding together the North and South, he would simply have been that crazy president who started the war that killed more Americans than any other in the country's history. Had Truman not presided over passage of the Marshall Plan, he might have been best remembered as the lame-duck president whose party actually asked him not to help with a Congressional campaign because his public standing was so low...Yet in a recent C-SPAN survey of more than 80 historians, Lincoln now ranks 3rd and Truman ranks 12th on the list of all-time greatest presidents, largely on the strength of their scores in the "crisis leadership" category.

The point is this: Shouldn't we get to work figuring out how to better evaluate our prospective leaders before they take office? If crisis management is the differentiator, could we require an accounting of their performance in all previous crises to see how they handled the pressure? Are there qualities that can be sussed out prior to ascending to positions of great power that indicate how a leader will react while on the hot seat? Something beyond "energy" and "edge"?

Tell us what you think...maybe it will help us all make a better choice going into this next Presidential election. Or at the very least, maybe we could circulate it at board meetings around the country before the next generation of CEOs are chosen.

Posted by Alison Overholt at 4:57 PM | 6 Comments

Can Buy Me Love

Consultants for Love is a Philadelphia-based group of consultants and coaches who help "make high-level consulting, coaching, and training resources available to the leadership and teams that run non-profit organizations."

The group has designated Feb. 13, the Friday closest to Valentine's Day, as Consultants for Love Day -- and encourages people to pursue pro-bono work for a nonprofit organization.

I think Tim Sanders would approve.

Posted by Heath Row at 4:49 PM | Add Comment

Jack Welch: I'd Like to Buy Another Vowel

I thought Welch's take on leadership traits was pretty on target, but like Seth Godin, I felt there was still something missing: "The four E's" (energy, energize, edge, and execute) just don't quite capture the full picture...and his corollary of passion being the final element didn't quite get it, either.

After all, by this definition, Hitler was a pretty damn good leader: he had energy for his ideas, was able to energize a whole lot of other people about them, had an edge about him, and was very successful at executing his plans for a long stretch of time. And, yes, he was passionate. But clearly, Hitler was horrible, evil, the worst kind of "successful" leader we could possibly imagine.

To take it down a notch and look at business for a moment, we could say that Enron's or Tyco's or Worldcom's leaders were pretty high on the Welch scale, too. Did they have energy and were they able to energize others? Did they have edge? Could they execute (and with passion)? Probably yes. Were they good leaders? Just ask all their former employees, who are still reeling from the financial fall-out of losing their jobs and their retirement nest eggs.

So what's missing from the "4E's"?

I'd say another "E": Ethics.

Add ethics to that mix of two-way energy, edge, and execution, and you have a recipe for a real leader.

Posted by Alison Overholt at 11:27 AM | 3 Comments

January 25, 2004

The End of Spam?

Forget international trade agreements...the big news at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos was Microsoft founder Bill Gates' shocking announcement today that he will put an end to spam within the next two years.

It's a bold (arrogant?) pronouncement in the face of a tech scourge that has baffled developers and regulators around the world. According to some estimates, spam currently monopolizes at least 30% of our email. One market research firm, the Radicati Group, believes spam will overrun 70% of our email by the year 2007.

So far, though, no one knows how to control it. Filters don't work. Black lists don't work. Laws don't work (at least not yet). And there's a profound sense of diminishing returns each time you switch email addresses in an attempt to outrun the junk mail.

So how's Bill gonna do it?

Continue reading "The End of Spam?"

Posted by Alison Overholt at 8:38 PM | 2 Comments

More on Jack Welch

Hiring people is funny. It's one of the most important things managers do, but we have no idea how or why to do it right. Electing a politician is nothing but a hiring process, alas, we do it in public and we almost always do it wrong!

Like John, I also read Jack's piece, and was struck by the "rear view mirror" analysis (using a few notable facts and then piecing together a theory) that is used by most pundits.

The problems? First, the analysis seemed awfully superficial. Too many voters appear to pick a candidate by "who they like" rather than based on what they'll do. This felt a lot like that. I mean, does it make any sense at all that 20% of a state's voters would change their mind about a candidate in just one day--because he yelled at a rally? That's a hell of a job interview.

Second, where's the regression analysis? Where's the evidence that leaders who fit Jack's convenient definition actually do a good job in politics? Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchhill, Margaret Thatcher, Harry Truman and Martin Luther King show up on just about everyone's list of great leaders, but it's awfully hard to imagine what simple (and useful) indicators they have in common.

I'm not one to talk, of course, because I make superficial statements like Jack's all the time. In my case, I do them to help people have the guts to do hard things. Not sure what Jack's goal was.

Posted by at 12:07 PM | 3 Comments

January 23, 2004

Jack Welch on the Democratic Candidates

Joe Lieberman lacks energy and may have little edge. Howard Dean seems to have trouble handling stress. Wesley Clark may lack breadth of knowledge and passion. John Kerry has plenty of integrity and intelligence, but could likely flunk out in terms of inspiring others.

That's the assessment of noneother than Jack Welch, who evaluates those candidates in an intriguing op-ed piece in today's The Wall Street Journal. Jack concedes he's a Bush supporter and that he's making these judgments "at the risk of talking out of school." But he doesn't shy away from making these keen observations.

Continue reading "Jack Welch on the Democratic Candidates"

Posted by Editor in Chief at 7:04 PM | 7 Comments

Passing the Buck

NBC made money this month a little differently than usual. It printed 5,000 faux $100 bills featuring The Donald instead of The Benjamin to generate buzz about its series The Apprentice. Clever, sure, but hardly a new marketing gimmick.

Then there's USA Network. It's taking the idea of ad money to a whole new level. To promote next week's miniseries Traffic, it circulated 50,000 $1 bills featuring a small round sticker next to Washington's noble mug indicating the show's date and time. The series, inspired by the Oscar-winning movie, explores the world of drug-trafficking and money-laundering, so the network thought that using money was appropriate. It was also an intriguing twist on viral marketing. Imagine how many times the bills have changed hands since they came out a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles and New York.

The network was careful to use removable stickers to avoid defacing the bills (and breaking the law). But does turning dollars into ad flyers cross the line or represent the ultimate in shrewd marketing?

Posted by Chuck Salter at 5:26 PM | 2 Comments

Real Feelness

In an interesting followup to yesterday's entry about call monitoring, Brain Waves' Zack Lynch reports that researchers in Sandia National Laboratories' Advanced Concepts Group have developed a tool that "monitors your perspiration and heartbeat, reads your facial expressions and head motions, analyzes your voice tones, and correlates these to keep you informed with a running account of how you are feeling."

Personal sensor readings caused lower arousal states, improved teamwork and better leadership in longer collaborations.

While the tool, called an anthroscope, reminds me of a higher-tech and wider-ranging parallel to HeartMath's Freeze-Framer, I'm also struck by the Big Brother aspects. Self-monitoring seems like a clear benefit, but monitoring a team or work group from afar smacks of Taylorism.

Posted by Heath Row at 3:07 PM | 2 Comments

The Industry Stagnant?

Storied Net Economy magazine the Industry Standard may be making a comeback. Word is that the new Web site is a side project for former Industry Standard staffer Matt McAlister, now vice president and general manager of online operations at InfoWorld.

Posted by Heath Row at 2:13 PM | Add Comment

January 22, 2004

The Plane Truth

The Bureau for Transportation Statistics recently found that complaints about air service are on the wane. Nevertheless, the DOT division now offers reports on airline on-time performance, as well as delay cause statistics.

For the month of November, this active business traveler is surprised. Sure, 80% of flights are on time. But for as much hassle as it is to get information about delays and their cause while at the airport, it turns out that weather delays -- those acts of the gods the airlines aren't responsible for -- makes up less than 1% of all delays. Yet delays that might rate refunds are higher than I expected:

• More than 4% of delays stem from the air carrier themselves
• Almost 9% result from the national aviation system
• Late arrivals account for almost 4%

Are airlines only responsible for delays caused by mechanical breakdowns? Or are those who fly the friendly skies keeping mum for more than one reason?

Posted by Heath Row at 6:01 PM | 0 Comments

Calling All Cranks

In the January issue, Chuck Salter examined the many ways telephone calls can be monitored -- and the many reasons why. Companies such as NICE can analyze call recordings to learn which competitors are stealing customers -- and which agents defuse irritated callers.

A New York Post article Tuesday expands on NICE's work. Based in Israel, the company is developing a technology that measures the pitch and tone of callers' voices. Doing so can help analysts pinpoint if -- and when -- a caller becomes irate. It can also help identify whether particular regions tend to contain more angry customers or sales problems.

Some people suggest that technology of this sort will help send more call center jobs overseas. "If the operator is in India, sometimes frustration isn't so easily translated," one NICE representative says. "They may not realize how much of an issue something is."

Which recalls another Chuck Salter story: Feeling sorry yet?

Posted by Heath Row at 5:41 PM | Add Comment

Offshore Storm

We've put an early look at our February 2004 Next opener, Offshore Storm: The Global Razor's Edge, online. IBM may send 4,730 white-collar jobs to India and China. Another 14 million could follow.

14 million. John's addressed this very topic in FC Now before. And it's a theme we'll continue to explore.

Have you -- or someone you know -- lost your job to a worker overseas? Let us know.

Posted by Heath Row at 12:59 PM | 8 Comments

Trump School of Business, Part Deux

Today, class, we will discuss the latest management technique postulated at the world's most cynical business school, NBC's "The Apprentice."

The problem: How to get rid of an obnoxious co-worker.
The solution: Put him in charge, then hang him out to dry.

OK, so the fellas of Versacorp did try their best to negotiate good prices for squid, golf clubs and cigars, and even went so far as to endure an excruciating leg wax (Troy should be granted permanent immunity for that ordeal) for the team. And to their credit, they managed to get a buck off the price of a gold ingot without once wiggling their butts or squealing (the girls should be required to wear Laura Ashley dresses as penance for that mortifying display of un-senior VP-like behavior). But the main lesson was less about the Art of the Deal, than the Art of the Double-Deal. Slimy Sammy never had a chance, up against the cunning Kwame and his co-conspirators.

The lesson here: watch your back. Required reading: Machiavelli's The Prince.

Management thought for the day: "No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution." -- Machiavelli, The Art of War

Posted by Linda Tischler at 12:55 PM | 8 Comments

Permission Management

Agile Management features a thoughtful piece on the role of manager as "permission giver" today. Citing Malcolm Gladwell, the author writes, "A line manager can act as this tipping person to change both the behavior of his staff but also the performance of his organization. The manager can change the culture by giving permission to change it."

Offering several examples of such permission giving, it seems that this touches more on a case-by-case concession to workload realities than it does a widespread empowerment of employees and colleagues, but it's an interesting idea. When was the last time you gave someone permission to do something at work?

Posted by Heath Row at 11:55 AM | Add Comment

Consistency and the Customer Experience II

Cosi brushed you off? I guess I shouldn't be surprised... While the food has always impressed me, I can't remember one customer experience better than average. At their worst (during the lunch rush, of course) they can be abrasive - yelling "Next customer!" in a way that makes you realize just how little they want to be there.

As the man behind the recommendation, my apology.

To Cosi's credit, I can relate one positive impression. This past summer, when the East Coast found itself without power, I was walking on 42nd St. in Manhattan around 10:00 in the evening. The streets were dark, but the air was full of voices rising from Bryant Park, the library steps, even folks sitting on cars. Almost everything was closed, especially the restaurants. Nevertheless, I passed a Cosi with a line out the door; probably 50-60 people were stacked up on the sidewalk, waiting to file into the darkened shop. Weren't they supposed to close earlier... and better yet, how were they operating right now? Then I remembered. Brick oven. No need for electricity. Cosi made a killing that night.

Posted by Lucas Conley at 11:39 AM | 2 Comments

January 21, 2004

National Lampoon's "Wine Nation"

Wine. Some love it, some hate it. Generally, the former lord it over the latter. The topic alone is enough to halt a conversation with a coworker.

You: "I'm not a big wine fan."
Coworker: " ... "

(Insert sound of pin dropping.)

When it comes to wine, I land somewhere in the middle. When it comes to arrogance, I'm decidedly opposed. So it is that I've taken great delight in the recent rise of cheap wines. From Trader Joe's "Two Buck Chuck" phenomenon to a little-known company called "Best Cellars," wine prices are making a race for the bottom, all to the customer's advantage.

Continue reading "National Lampoon's "Wine Nation""

Posted by Lucas Conley at 9:53 PM | 1 Comment

The Brand Called... Who? VI

In response to an entry yesterday, Jay Jurisch, creative director for Igor, clarifies my number conundrum:

Actually, that's 9.3 million potential names, and that's specifically for the Drug-O-Matic name generator -- the other generators vary from 26,000 to 340,000 potential names.

The Wordlab database ("Currently offering 23,747 entries in 42 categories...") is a seperate animal from the name generators.

Correction made.

Posted by Heath Row at 5:24 PM | Add Comment

Consistency and the Customer Experience

I just made a lunch run, and while the experience wasn't as distracting or dismaying as Alison's experience with Starbucks in November, I'm thinking as I eat my sandwich.

How consistent should customer service and experience be with a company's brand?

Walking a couple of short blocks short of the office, I went to Cosi at the recommendation of a colleague. Kind of a "Tell me where to go to lunch, and I'll go there," deal. He did, and I did.

The company's Web site indicates that Cosi aims to be comfortable, friendly, and cozy. I left feeling a little brushed off and ignored. Not embraced. How so?

Continue reading "Consistency and the Customer Experience"

Posted by Heath Row at 3:52 PM | 1 Comment

Lessons from the Online Retailing Field

Last January, we re-connected with Hilary Billings (keep scrolling down!), a customer experience guru who had migrated from Pottery Barn to Red Envelope, the tony, high-touch Web-based gift shop. Billings expressed her concern that as the company grew, its ability to offer such appealing elements as hand-tied bows would be compromised. So it was with some sadness that we saw the New York Times story, "RedEnvelope, a Web Retailer, is too popular for its own good," about the company's trouble fulfilling holiday orders.

That was the bad news. The good news is that online sales for the holidays are predicted to top $65 billion this year, a 24% increase over 2003.

Kelly Mooney, whose company, Ten/Resource, has tracked holiday sales at 40 leading Web sites for the past 7 years, said customers, this year, had greater product selection, enhanced functionality, and increased flexibility when it came time to buy. But the experience was not without its bumps and bruises.

Ten/Resource has published its high points and low marks for the season -- and it's willing to name names. Their report is worth a look. We won't reveal all the findings, but let's just say that Red Envelope was hardly alone.

Posted by Linda Tischler at 3:36 PM | 1 Comments

The Age of Financial Reports

Vance Wells, VP of sales and marketing for CallStreet, just transmitted a news release to several FC staffers, and a quick poll indicates that I was the only person to read it and check out the demo accounts he'd set up for us.

I have never been so excited by earnings calls and preliminary earnings releases. Seriously.

CallStreet is an online service that provides alerts of upcoming earnings calls and other financial reportage events, call transcripts, and call reports.

CallStreet produces the only transcripts that have been fully corrected by MBA editors with industry research experience. The results are 100% accurate transcripts and reports - the only ones of their kind in the marketplace.

CallStreet provides raw verbatim transcripts of conference calls available
1-2 hours after the completion of the call to allow users quick access to
the information presented. Our editors re-listen to the entire call audio and
spend several hours confirming and researching all the terms and numbers
in the call - no "inaudible", "indiscernible" or "phonetic" entries.

The result is a pretty rich bed of early information -- perfect for people who follow the market and management activities. But the additional context and functionality is what intrigues. You can receive daily email alerts of upcoming calls. You can set watch lists for specific companies -- or instances of particular keywords. And the expert editing is extremely valuable.

All that seems to be missing is watching for specific kinds of calls. The earnings reports might not always be interesting, but to see every acquisition, strategy position, merger, announcement of new leadership and similar reports would be fascinating indeed.