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January 31, 2005

Mourning the Commute

WeatherBug, an online service that provides live streaming local weather, recently added real-time traffic updates, as well. Currently available only to users of Windows, the service is available in 20 markets -- and soon to be found in 95. Might be a useful tool for people who go online at home before heading out on their drive to work.

Posted by Heath Row at 4:25 PM | 3 Comments

Travel Tablet

Not long ago, a colleague introduced me to the wonders of Berocca, a British product that bridges hangover remedy (so I'm told) and cold preventative -- think how you feel after a long business trip. While the product is imported on a limited scale, there's also a domestic counterpart: Airborne, the "effervescent health formula." Next time you take a business trip and feel a little peaked, consider these blends of B, C, E, and other vitamins and minerals.

Posted by Heath Row at 12:21 PM | 1 Comment

Sharing the Secrets of Success

Thanks to Fast Company for giving me another chance to talk about Contagious Success, my book -- and a subject I never get tired of. I've long believed treating people with respect is imperative for businesses, but it took the work of my team at the Hudson Highland Center for High Performance to prove it. Now I'm trying to spread the word whenever and wherever I can.

The bad news? A recent study we conducted of knowledge workers globally found that only 10% of our highly paid and well educated respondents could provide evidence that their workgroup was high performing.

But our research -- and my experience -- also shows that every company has high-performing workgroups... groups that make money for the business or develop new products and services... groups that adapt to changes, understand their customers and know how to get what they need... and most importantly, groups that create environments in which people can flourish. Every company has 'em, but few know how to take advantage of them.

I'm curious to know if any of you have had similar experiences. Does your company have high performing workgroups? Do these groups share their "secrets" with the rest of the company?

Posted by Susan Annunzio at 11:39 AM | 2 Comments

January 28, 2005

Ronald McDonald, Chief Propaganda Officer

So Ronald McDonald got promoted. He's now Chief Happiness Officer at McDonald's. Congrats, Ronnie! What a well-deserved promotion. And overdue too.

But this isn't some deal where he's been kicked upstairs to make balloon animals all day; his job duties have changed as well. Ronald's going to be going into schools to promote the joys of physical activity.

The timing of this news is curious, coming just a couple of days after that tobacco-style lawsuit against McDonald's was revived by a New York state appeals court. And as much as McDonald's wants to say that Ronald won't be talking burgers and fries in any appearances, his mere appearance certainly brings Big Macs to mind more than say, fruit.

I know being cynical is easy (the likelihood of me becoming a Chief Happiness Officer some day are slim indeed), and I know that no matter what McDonald's did, they'd come in for criticism in all likelihood. Maybe they're right that Ronald's enough of a role model/icon for children that his promotion of being active will lead less kids to turning into couch potatoes. But if you had to design a campaign that exuded more ... let's say ... sincerity, what would you do? If you're McDonald's, how do you get out of this box?

Posted by David Lidsky at 4:41 PM | 3 Comments

Procter&GambleGillette

Chalk up another loss for our business culture today with Procter & Gamble's acquisition of Gillette. It's funny how the "traditional business press" covers this sort of thing as if there could be nothing more thrilling. And how every exec treats this as if the world moved this morning, when we've all now seen hundreds of megamergers and they never quite end up the "transforming transaction" that everyone hopes.

Buried in each piece today or mentioned in an afterthought on newsradio this morning was the fact that about 6,000 people will lose their jobs because of this "dream deal," as Warren Buffett described it. But I'm sure they're happy to be the flotsam in such a monumental step forward for humankind.

You have to read between the lines of analysis too to realize what's likely now to happen in the marketplace, to other businesses not as big as P&G and to consumers. "Suppliers have been hard-pressed to win leverage in a consolidating retail environment in which massive chains, led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., exert heavy pricing pressure to compete with each other and woo shoppers" is how the Wall Street Journal put it in the version I read online. But what this really means is that those retailers will have to exert more pressure on anyone without the heft of P&G to make up for what they may not be able to get out of the "new and improved" P&G. And consumers then will be left with less choice as either P&G or other retailers force out suppliers who can't offer what P&G does. Yippee.

And this may seem frivolous in the face of such larger issues, but Gillette has a great history and a unique culture, and over time, it will get swept into the dustbin. King Gillette, an amazing larger than life character who more than 100 years ago invented the modern safety razor and what could arguably be considered the business model of the modern age (how many businesses operate on a "razor blade" replenishment model?), will fade even further into history.

Yep, it truly is a transforming transaction.

Posted by David Lidsky at 2:01 PM | 6 Comments

Tough Luck

Sick joke or slick advertising? Volkswagen has finally tracked down Lee Lockwood and Dan Brooks, the London creatives responsible for a spoof car ad that has been doing the rounds via email and the Web.

And today is the deadline VW has set the pair in its demand for a formal apology for the uncommissioned, fake TV ad which stars a VW Polo and a suicide bomber. The ad ends with the VW logo and the company’s current ad theme for the Polo: "Small but tough."

Is it a bad taste joke or edgy, postmodern irony?

Continue reading "Tough Luck"

Posted by Ian Wylie at 7:49 AM | 5 Comments

January 27, 2005

Work Space

Last fall, I mentioned the Gate 3 WorkClub, an innovative shared workspace in Emeryville, California. This afternoon, after driving south from Napa, I got a chance to actually visit Work 3 -- and to meet its gently energetic and thoughtful founder Neil Goldberg, also head of the industrial design firm Praxis.

As expected, Gate 3 is absolutely wonderful: an open, well-lit, colorful workspace peppered with different work zones -- quiet, private, shared -- meeting and conference rooms, a brainstorming area sequestered by whiteboards, shared services, support staff, and a wide-ranging creative client base of members. The kind of place I'd want to work if I didn't work in the Fast Company office -- or out of my home.

Sadly, Goldberg plans to close Gate 3 at the end of February for a number of reasons.

Continue reading "Work Space"

Posted by Heath Row at 9:52 PM | 5 Comments

Blogging and Journalism

The staff of Fast Company usually tries to avoid blogging about blogging -- or the business of blogging -- enough people do that already. Instead, we try to blog about business and work -- new ideas, best practices, tools people can use, leadership, and innovation. That said, this morning, I participated in a panel discussion at the New Communications Forum. The topic? Blogging and journalism.

During the session, I talked about why we launched FC Now in August 2003, what it does for the magazine in terms of benefits and opportunities, and how it informs our work online and in print. Rather than share my notes, I'll just point to some other participants' reports on the session:

• Down the Avenue: New Media: Blog or Print?
• Ensight: Blogging & Journalism
• NevOn: Panel Discussion: Blogging and Journalism

Update: Richard Koman also blogged the session in Open.Communication.

Posted by Heath Row at 9:35 PM | 1 Comment

January 26, 2005

Metaphor... or Against?

Joyce Wycoff, cofounder of the InnovationNetwork, has kicked off an effort to replace the phrase "think outside the box."

Do you think it needs to go? What do you think people should use instead?

[via Innovation Weblog]

Posted by Heath Row at 7:08 PM | 11 Comments

The Blog's New Role in Crisis Communications

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication and Technology. After a rather general and basic morning introduction to the practice of business blogging at the New Communications Forum in Napa, California, he provided an in-depth look at perhaps one of blogging's more challenging applications: the spin and damage control aspects of PR. Can there be a balance between a business's need for quality formal communications in a crisis situation -- and the personal, informal nature of blogging? What follows is a partial transcript of Holtz's session:

Continue reading "The Blog's New Role in Crisis Communications"

Posted by Heath Row at 6:45 PM | 24 Comments

Do You Live in a Clone Town?

The more I travel these days, the more I feel as though as I never left home. The Detroit burbs look just like the Chicago burbs, which look just like the Atlanta burbs. The Gap? Check. Subway? Check. CVS? Check. Kinko's? Check. It's true in smaller towns as well. How comforting. And how boring.

The same thing is happening to towns in the UK, says Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation in London. "This identikit commercial culture isn't just killing diversity," he writes. "It undermines democracy and attacks our sense of place, belonging and well-being."

His group has developed a survey to gauge how clone-like a town is. You walk down the main street and count the chains (5 points), independent stores (50 points), and types of stores (5 points). To see where your town ranks, go here, scroll down, and look for the survey link on the right.

Posted by Chuck Salter at 4:40 PM | 8 Comments

Bully Pulpit

The debate over Harvard president Larry Summers's inflammatory remarks about women's ability in math and science continues to rage, now expanding beyond his attitude toward women to his generally abrasive management style.

Summers defends his often humiliating and debate-stifling treatment of underlings as just a way of engaging in debate. Only pansies, he thinks, aren't tough enough to defend their ideas when under attack. This sort of Management by Devil's Advocacy neglects one thing: the imbalance of power that always gives Summers the upper hand. I was reminded of Marshall Goldsmith's recent column about coaching a company CEO whose fondness for rough-and-tumble debate was driving his employees nuts.

Summers's defenders, however, applaud his willingness to take the heat if that's what it takes to shake up a smug and self-satisfied organization. Indeed, Harvard's Board of Governors knew Summers was, uh, prickly when they hired him.

Where's the line between being provocative and being a bully? Can this type of management ever actually be good for an organization, or does it invariably lead to organizational dysfunction?

Posted by Linda Tischler at 11:05 AM | 4 Comments

January 25, 2005

Depression Sells

Dr. Cliff Arnall claims he's got a formula for pinpointing the most depressing day of the year. The unlucky date? Yesterday.

Why January 24th? Well, it's complicated; Arnall's formula takes into account factors like the day of the week (Monday) and people's tendency to break New Year's resolutions by late January. But more interesting than the math behind his conclusion is the impetus for the work: leveraging bad vibes for dollars.

Arnall, a psychologist who specializes in seasonal disorders at the University of Cardiff, Wales, developed the formula for PR agency Porter Novelli. In turn, Porter Novelli's client, a travel agency called Sky Travel, is using Arnall's findings to help seduce weary souls into getting away from it all with things like round trip tickets to Tahiti or a suite on the next Caribbean cruise line. In other words, the worse you feel about things like your job and the weather, the more susceptible you'll be to escape-themed advertising.

Science, opportunism or a win-win situation?

Posted by Lucas Conley at 4:32 PM | 5 Comments

Jobs Up in Smoke

Weyco Inc., a healthcare benefits administrator based in Okemos, Michigan, fired four employees for refusing to take a test that would determine whether they were smokers. The company had set a policy that took effect at the beginning of this year that barred smoking, even off hours. The company doesn't want to pay for the health costs of smoking, and it should know better than anyone just what those are.

My mind reels with the issues here. I've managed smokers before, and I used to joke that my company should put a phone and Internet kiosks outside to make up for lost productivity. And I'd be happy to debate just what companies should or shouldn't do to make up for the productivity losses that result from smoking.

But Weyco takes it to a whole other level. Wouldn't have it been a little less ham-fisted to say that we're a healthcare company and therefore we can't accept smokers because it's in conflict with our values? But if you are a smoker we'll subsidize an effort for you to quit? If Weyco does that, it may even be considered enlightened.

But I think it's a bit much for an employer to dictate my off-hours behavior as a condition of employment when the activity in question is legal. I realize that smoking could impact Weyco in terms of additional health costs down the road. Is there some compromise that could be reached here in terms of what a smoker would have to pay for in his or her health insurance until he or she kicked the habit?

What do you think? Is Weyco right? Is Weyco right in principle but wrong in the way it went about trying to achieve its goal? Or is Weyco a frightening example of our diminished civil liberties when it comes to accepting corporate employment?

Posted by David Lidsky at 11:51 AM | 38 Comments

January 24, 2005

Room for Improvement...

The U.S. ranks only 45th out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum's index of environmental sustainability for 2005.

Posted by Alan Deutschman at 4:42 PM | 2 Comments

January 23, 2005

Job Hunting, eBay-Style

Move over, Monster. After a team of in-house creatives were displaced in the PeopleSoft/Oracle merger, the group turned to eBay to try and find work. Not as individual job seekers, however, but as a team. According to this post on AdFreak, AdWeek's blog, the team wanted to continue working together, and so they decided to auction themselves off.

"Take advantage of recent merger and acquisition activity in the technology sector,” reads their post (eBay Item Number 3868319541.) "Their loss, your gain. An award-winning, clear-thinking, bottom-line-focused creative services organization is now immediately available to rock your bottom line. We are a creative team that's ready to plug and play. Today."

Is anyone taking them seriously? So far, not really. After more than five days up for auction, 17 bidders have driven the price up to, um, $41. (That's for access to their "contact information, resumes, portfolios"; negotiating hiring and salaries is done separately). Not so successful, maybe, but it's an interesting, if painful, way to find out what you're worth.

Posted by Jena McGregor at 6:40 PM | 5 Comments

January 21, 2005

Donald Trump (Again!)

Last night's opener to The Apprentice was fascinating television. Yes, readers of this blog know that I am no fan of The Donald. Indeed, Fast Company is one of his loudest critics. But I have to salute Mark Burnett for spinning out another great conceit: have a team of college-educated professionals compete against only those with high school degrees. As much as we like to believe that we live in a classless society in America, truth is there is a major cultural divide between the educated and the uneducated. Tapping into that conflict in a business context is nothing less than brilliant. Interestingly enough, the high school grads have a net worth that is three times that of the college-educated group on the show. Hence, the group's name: Net Worth. Who are you rooting for?

Posted by Editor in Chief at 1:48 PM | 32 Comments

Service Innovation

There's been a lot of focus on product innovation over the years, but very little discussion or thought on innovation in the service sector--despite the vast growth of that part of our economy. "It's one of those areas that is a tweener, falling between other departments in a company," says Jeneanne M. Rae, co-founder of Peer Insight.

Rae came by the other day with co-founder Tim Olgilvie to talk about the differences between product and service innovation and their search for more tools and ideas to help organizations get a lead in this area. They've formed a collaborative venture among eight companies, including Mastercard and Siebel Systems, to share data and deconstruct the successses and failures in service innovation.

It's a cool project. So far, their research has led to some fascinating insights and the creation of what they call "The Discipline of Service Innovation." Without boring you with every specific, here's some of the basic principles Tim and Jeneanne came up with to help innovate in the service arena.

Continue reading "Service Innovation"

Posted by Editor in Chief at 1:40 PM | 5 Comments

January 13, 2005

Scheduled Site Maintenance

Fast Company will start to upgrade its Web servers the morning of Jan. 14.

As a result, Web site performance, services, and features will be greatly enhanced over the coming months. However, some parts of the Web site will be unavailable until Jan. 20, 2005, including blog comments in FC Now, discussion forums, polls, membership and newsletter sign-ups.

Thank you for your patience.

If you need immediate assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Posted by Heath Row at 5:57 PM | Add Comment

Ron Knows Joe

Better joe at McDonalds?! Linda's post earlier today about McDonalds upgrading its coffee got me wondering... What ever happened to McCafe, the pilot restaurants introduced in 2001? We were supposed to see hundreds of them by now. Has McDonalds backed down from the concept, deciding to boost in-house options rather than go up against Starbucks with free-standing cafes? Or are McCafes really out there and I've just overlooked them? Anybody?

Meanwhile, as long as Ronald is upgrading his coffee, how about a better burger?

Posted by Lucas Conley at 4:06 PM | 6 Comments

Memo to Wal-Mart: There are Better Ways

If you opened your local newspaper today, in between the department store white sales and the latest from Iraq, you might have seen Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott defending the pay and benefits it offers its employees in a full-page ad. The ad ran in about 100 newspapers and talked about how the company really does offer competitive wages and lots of opportunity for advancement blah blah blah.

Wal-Mart also launched the Orwellian-titled walmartfacts.com to educate us about their inate wonderfulness and how misunderstood those of us who don't favor Wal-Mart really are.

I don't know what this little PR fusillade cost today, but you have to wonder if it even occurred to anyone over in Bentonville that the money spent here could have been funneled into pay raises for associates. And lo and behold, the free publicity from doing the right thing might have had more impact and payoff than this transparently phony ploy today.

Posted by David Lidsky at 3:08 PM | 1 Comment

Next up: McLattes?

In a development that's sure to hyper-caffeinate the coffee wars, McDonald's announced this week that it was planning to brew a better cup of java, in an effort to snare more of the high-margin upscale beverage business. USA Today reported that the burger giant will roll out a "premium coffee" in its 13,000 outlets by the end of this year or early next. Specialty coffee is now an $8.9 billion market, and the number of adults drinking the stuff has nearly doubled in the past four years.

While there were few details on what form that brew may take -- just better beans, or the full gamut of specialty concoctions that Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts currently offer -- is still uncertain. But the roll-out is sure to complicate the battle for coffee supremacy, especially for the Dunkin' crew. As we recently reported, their strategy is built less on a Starbucksian 'experience' model than on speed and price. And that's exactly where McDonald's, with better real estate and marketing power, is likely to bite them in the bean.

Posted by Linda Tischler at 1:56 PM | Add Comment

Celebrating Social Capitalism

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially proclaimed today as "Social Capitalist Day" in honor of the 25 groundbreaking nonprofits gracing the January issue of Fast Company. The honorees of the Social Capitalist Awards are part of the greater trend of social entrepreneurship.

Excerpted from the Proclamation:

Continue reading "Celebrating Social Capitalism"

Posted by Heath Row at 12:46 PM | 1 Comment

Listening, and Leveraging

Strategy+Business and Knowledge@Wharton recently issued a white paper that considers how organizations can take advantage of their clients and customers' ideas. Here's the quick hit:

• Employees use the product.
• Successful innovators conduct vigorous market research of customer needs.
• The engineers stay close to the market.
• Companies perform R&D around the world.
• Innovative companies seek understanding of customer behavior and motivations.

Seems simple, but there's additional insight and ideas in the longer form. How do you tap into the ideas of your customers?

Posted by Heath Row at 12:05 PM | 1 Comment

January 12, 2005

A Pan for All Seasons

I'm a big admirer of everyday innovators, people you've probably never heard of who have improved our lives in modest yet meaningful ways. Today we pay tribute to H. David Dalquist, who died on January 2 at the age of 86. His best-known invention, the Bundt pan, turns 55 this year.

Continue reading "A Pan for All Seasons"

Posted by Chuck Salter at 12:54 PM | 1 Comment

Lost in Translation

I know there's been plenty of reportage about the hilarity of dealing with offshore customer relations centers. But until you are actually trying to wring an answer out of a woefully ill-prepared live-chat support somebody, it's hard to fathom how embarrassingly bad the problem is. Witness this chat transcript from my wife's attempt to ask about an apparently critical part of our swank new HP Photosmart printer that our 11-month-old son ripped out. It's like one of those 10-minute conversations you have while travelling in a country where you don't speak the language just to ask where the bathroom is.

Continue reading "Lost in Translation"

Posted by Ryan Underwood at 12:41 PM | 6 Comments

Patent Leader

PatentCafe recently released its list of the top 200 companies, ranked in terms of how many patents they received. Here are the top 10:

• International Business Machines Corporation – 3,254
• Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. - 2,174
• Hitachi, Ltd. - 2,041
• Samsung - 1,934
• Canon Kabushiki Kaisha – 1,875
• Hewlett-Packard Company – 1,836
• Micron Technology, Inc. - 1,764
• Sony Corporation – 1,686
• Intel Corporation – 1,604
• Fujitsu Limited – 1,465

Interestingly, IBM has maintained the top spot for the last 11 years. What do you think accounts for IBM's patent dominance?

Posted by Heath Row at 11:46 AM | 3 Comments

January 11, 2005

Fast Company... on the Air!

Linda Tischler will be interviewed on ABC World News This Morning, at 4:40 a.m. ET tomorrow, Jan. 12. She will discuss the feature story Bridging the (Gender Wage) Gap. Tune in if you're able!

Posted by Heath Row at 5:13 PM | Add Comment

Mano a Mano

Now, this is a conversation worth eavesdropping on. James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, and Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, are holding forth in Slate this week.

So far, their exchange has touched on the difference between rapid cognition and careful deliberation, distributed decision-making, the danger of expertise, and other heady topics. It's a fascinating read: Equal parts book discussion, friendly professional debate, and expansion of their core ideas. When was the last time you sat down with a colleague -- or a competitor -- and deeply discussed what you did... and why?

[via Future Now]

Posted by Heath Row at 3:47 PM | Add Comment

How Not to Speak Like an Idiot

Lucas' entry yesterday about business speak resonates with Dr. Gary's Jivedecoder, a fun site that offers translations of phrases commonly used by people who work in advertising. Phrases touch on communication with clients, rehashing old ideas, focus groups, and other common marketing experiences.

[via Adrants]

Posted by Heath Row at 3:10 PM | Add Comment

News: Flash

A flash-based iPod and a mini Mac were the big news at this morning's annual MacWorld conference (chronicled minute-by-minute by Engaget). Accompanied by pop star and Esquire columnist John Mayer, Apple CEO Steve Jobs discussed a broad range of i-prefaced efforts at the company, from iChat to iWork to iDVD. The highlights, however, were the Mac mini, a paperback-book sized, 1.25GHZ computer with a 40GB hard drive priced at $599 - and the iPod Shuffle, a pinkie-sized iPod with 512MB to 1GB of flash memory selling for $100 to $150. Neither offering will come with a screen or display - and the iPod Shuffle will do just that: shuffle your songs randomly.

Will people buy a $600 Mac without a screen (or keyboard, or mouse...)? How about an MP3 player that plays songs randomly (regardless of your mood)?

Posted by Lucas Conley at 2:43 PM | 5 Comments

Grande Skim Latte...Delivered?

I finally got around to finishing the Sunday New York Times last night and came across this story. One New York City Starbucks, just up the street from my apartment on the Upper East Side, has been quietly testing out a delivery service. For those non-New Yorkers among you, delivering coffee may come as quiet a surprise. But for those of us accustomed to getting everything from McDonalds to toilet paper delivered to our door, it seems more like, well, it's about time.

Or is it? Even though the location's business cards apparently urge customers to call and ask about delivery, the whole thing seems pretty hush-hush. According to the article, the manager of the location, Julie Bernard, is not supposed to talk to the press, and the official word from the bean counters in Seattle is that there are no plans to expand the service. A company marketing director was "unable" to give information about how many deliveries had been made, and an official company spokesman worried, "It's just going to cause confusion among our customers." Indeed, it's questionable whether or not the service is still offered -- the Times writer notes that the delivery sign had been taken down.

On the one hand, you can see why Starbucks might try and keep keep this quiet. Their success hasn't been built merely on expensive, tasty coffee, but on the experience of its ubiquitous locations -- the jazz music, the aroma, the purple velvet chairs. Yet on the other hand, this enterprising manager was clearly trying to put a local face on a huge national brand, and to, well, deliver what her customers surely wanted. What do you think? Should Starbucks protect the experiential "third place" they've created? Or should they encourage more managers to tailor the local experience?

Posted by Jena McGregor at 11:01 AM | 4 Comments

January 10, 2005

Payday or Holiday?

If your holiday vacation already feels like history, you're not alone. A new Salary.com online survey found that an increasing number of employees would forego cash for extra time in the sun. If given the choice between a $5,000 raise and the equivalent in time off, 39 percent of online survey respondents chose leisure time, up from just 33 percent three years ago.

The folks at Salary.com want to point to the results as further evidence that we're all trying to seek balance in our lives and change our priorities. Perhaps. But as finding balance continues to be nearly impossible and the employment pictures stays fuzzy at best, maybe we've all just adjusted to a new reality, and are happy to take what we can get. What would you pick, if given the choice?

Posted by Jena McGregor at 7:47 PM | 14 Comments

One Very Scary Search

In our August story about search engine marketing, Alison Overholt wrote about an advertiser's "worst nightmare." Next to an online story in The New York Post about a horrific murder involving a body that had been cut to pieces was an unfortunately placed advertisement from Google's AdWords for, well, luggage.

But that's nothing compared to this even more terrifying example of online ads gone wrong. The blog AdRants posted a story today about how Kraft inadvertently found itself advertising on a white supremacist site. When a Connecticut reporter, researching the group, searched for "Halloween" on the hate group's site, a Kraft ad appeared, making it falsely appear that the company was sponsoring it. Google, in adherence to its "do no evil" mantra, disabled the AdWordsfree search technology on the group's site.

Gaffes like this are rare, but certainly dangerous as the paid search market continues to explode. At the very least, they're a take-notice reminder that the search engine marketing world can still be a tricky one to navigate.

Posted by Jena McGregor at 7:31 PM | 1 Comment

How Not to Speak Like an Idiot

Michael's post today on business-speak (that's "BS" for short) is especially timely. The upcoming book, Why Business People Speak Like Idiots, made our December Fast Forward list of 101 ideas, people and trends that will shape the biz world this year. Part humor, part service, WBPSLI is brought to us by three former Deloitte Consulting execs and hits shelves in about six weeks. Here are four quick points on how to be a straight shooter, cribbed from Amazon.com's preview.

• The Obscurity Trap: "After extensive analysis of the economic factors facing our industry, we have concluded that a restructuring is essential to maintaining competitive position. A task force has been assembled..." These are the empty calories of business communication. And, unfortunately, they're the rule. The Obscurity Trap catches idiots desperate to sound smart or prove their purpose, and lures them with message-killers like jargon, long-windedness, acronyms, and evasiveness.

Continue reading "How Not to Speak Like an Idiot"

Posted by Lucas Conley at 6:10 PM | 4 Comments

The Sound of Mus-Ick

Late last year, Sales & Marketing resource center contributor Karen Post explored the idea of how brands sound. In the September 2004 issue of Harper's -- in the Readings section -- the editors excerpted the casting specs for a KFC TV commercial's voiceover. Here's the short form:

• The voice should be confident. This is a confident, progressively thinking brand.
• The voice should be fun. Chicken, relatively speaking, is a fun food to eat.
• The voice should be inclusive. It should sound like someone anybody would want to hang out and eat some chicken with.
• The voice should be young and male. The brand personality is male.

Parts of this made me smile -- and almost snicker (Hey, let's hang out and eat some chicken!) -- and parts also piqued my interest. Is your brand male or female? Given voice, how does your work sound? Who'd do the voiceover for your perfect advert?

Posted by Heath Row at 4:28 PM | Add Comment

Reporting on Business Reporting

Want a good introduction to the world of business journalism -- and what business journalists at a variety of publications and media outlets are thinking about and covering? The American Press Institute's National Center for Business Journalism offers a wide array of tools, resources -- and perspectives -- on the practice of business journalism. Current features include a look at how business journalists use technology to ply their trade, the top business stories, and news about business journalists -- the positive, as well as the negative.

Posted by Heath Row at <