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April 30, 2007

Everything I Need To Know, I Learned As A Jingle-Singer

Before I started my current career, I was a jingle-singer in New York. My job consisted of going to recording studios and singing commercials and doing voice-overs for advertisers. I sang for Coca-Cola, Ford, Clairol, Hasbro, McDonalds, and hundreds of other top brands. It was the perfect job for me because despite the fact that I had been trained as an opera singer, and thought I would do Broadway, I didn't want to work nights and weekends. Go figure. Jingles and voice-over work, I soon discovered, were recorded during the 5-day workweek and were very lucrative, to boot.

It was a heady time and a lot of fun, but the fun didn't last. Turns out, I entered the business at exactly the time things were beginning to wind down. Until that time, big musical themes for products were the norm and there were always lots of singers on the recording sessions. But fashion and tastes change and advertisers, in an effort to tighten budgets saw this as a good place to cut back. Soon, the work was no longer pouring in and though I had done extremely well, the handwriting was on the wall. I had to find something else to do.

Fortunately, I had the time and the wherewithal to explore other fields. After experimenting in law and much searching of university catalogues -- and my soul -- I settled on communications. I believed that I could parlay all my extensive training and experience into teaching other people to communicate more effectively. After all, I was an expert performer with a trained speaking voice. And what is putting across a song or a jingle anyway but a way to tell a story, to deliver some information, to communicate with an audience.

Continue reading "Everything I Need To Know, I Learned As A Jingle-Singer"

Posted by Ruth Sherman at 6:57 PM | 1 Comment

Do the Brits have executive pay spot on?

As recently reported in The Guardian,
"a proposal to give American shareholders a British-style vote on executive pay was overwhelmingly approved by the [House of Representatives]."

While some critics say this legislation lacks the substance and compliance measures to address the root causes of this escalating concern, it is yet another indicator of a society slowly, but surely scrutinizing the impact of the widening wealth gap in this country.

This legislation comes in light of a slew of international studies that conclude the effects of inequality are greater than the mere impact of poverty alone.

It is sad that it takes these academic tomes and conference to aver what is already quite evident to the majority of people on this planet: that everyone deserves a truly equal chance to survive and thrive.

Posted by Chris Rabb at 4:34 PM | Add Comment

Let's Be Honest

Today, April 30th, is National Honesty Day!

This is like a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for those who strive for work-life balance. A day to be radically honest, and with no punishment involved. (“Honey, to tell you the truth, I don’t care a scintilla about dinner with your self-involved, opinionated deadbeat of a brother.”) Now, it goes both ways, though, since everyone around you can also be brutally honest, and you don’t get to fight back, either. (“To be honest, dear, my brother hates you so much he once considered hiring some mobsters to break your legs. Luckily, he’s a deadbeat, and he couldn’t afford it.”) Further research about this day reveals that certain organizations hand out “Honest Abe Awards” to those who most exemplify the day’s tenets of pure honesty. These awards are affectionately called “Abies.” And so, today, I present to you the winners of this year’s Abies.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY MIDDLE MANAGEMENT IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Wally Viggers, Allied Alliance, Inc., Cleveland. For saying to his superior during a six-month review, “Frankly, your chronic halitosis makes it very difficult to perform to expectations. There’s this stuff called Listerine, dude.”

OUTSTANDING USE OF SOUND EFFECTS:
Jane Brady, Industrial Industries, Wausau. When asked during a Monday meeting what she thought of her boss, she responded with a two-and-a-half minute raspberry. This not only earned her applause from everyone at the meeting, but a place in the Guinness Book of Records for impersonating a fart.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY THE CLEANING CREW IN A TRUTH-TELLING ROLE:
Nathan Chalmers, who has been part of the cleaning staff at Consolidated Consolidations in Bethesda for a decade, was distinctly heard muttering as he passed by the receptionist’s desk, “…they don’t pay you to be rude to people, you unprofessional liability.” Not unexpectedly, the receptionist claims she never heard it.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CASUAL COMMENTARY:
Eileen Watkins, Professional Professions, Boston. One day, purely out of the blue while staring out the window, Eileen blurted out, “is it me, or is the 401K in this dump completely useless?” Eileen was quickly promoted before she could cause any more trouble.

I encourage everyone to have their own Abie Awards today. As the famous saying goes, the truth will get you fired.

Posted by Tom Stern at 6:41 AM | Add Comment

Do You Have the Right Mindset for Success?

Don't make up your mind about this until all the facts are in.

Carol S. Dweck, author of Mindset, the New Psychology of Success, contends that your success or failure in life, career and relationships is attributable to a fixed or growth mindset. The fixed mindset believes that your personal qualities - intelligence, personality and character - are set in stone. The growth mindset believes that your qualities can improve with effort and experience.

A fixed mindset can sidetrack your career - especially if you're working for someone who views his or her subordinates as incapable of growing. Of course, says Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, leaders with a growth mindset are willing to admit when they are wrong and adapt to changing information.

People with a fixed mindset are:

• Inaccurate at gauging their own abilities
• Feel that their intelligence level cannot change
• Are judgmental yet misread other's ability to grow and change

Perhaps the only thing more challenging for your career than having a fixed mindset is working for somebody who has one. "In a fixed mindset, it's not just proving you can do the job and you have the skills, you feel you have to prove over and over how smart, talent or infallible you are," says Dweck. "That can substitute for doing things that stretch you or doing things that are good for the company."

If you're interviewing for a position, and you want to avoid working for a fixed mindset boss, see if the manager will let you speak to some of his or her direct reports. Here's what Dweck recommends that you discover about your potential boss:

• Is this someone who can take critical feedback?
• Is this someone who welcomes the skill of others or feels threatened by them?
• Is he or she a mentor?
• Is this someone who notices or acknowledges when you improve?
• Does this person treat people fairly?
• Does this person focus more on identifying or nurturing talent?

As a job candidate, Dweck says she would look "for whether the person talks about 'turning loose talented people,' which is a fixed mindset, versus hiring people with potential and then saying 'we're committed to developing their skills.'" Also, she suggests asking the employer about what kind of training and mentoring programs they offer (if any) to employees.

Fortunately, there is a therapy to treat managers with a fixed mindset.

"Some researchers at SMU (Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Tex.) have developed an intervention for managers and leaders," says Dweck. She cites the work in particular of Assistant Prof. Peter Heslin of SMU's Cox School of Business, who also conducts research into personality and leadership skills. Dweck says that there are four steps or stages to the treatment. The first step involves awareness - the managers are shown a video and given an article that talks about "how the brain changes and grows when you learn."

Second, the managers are asked to think about something they excelled at despite their fears that they could never do it. Third, they are asked to name three people they never expected to achieve great success but who did anyway. Finally, Dweck says the managers are asked to draft a letter to a real or hypothetical protégé, "advising them on how to develop their skills, how to surmount obstacles and to use experiences from your own life and your own struggles as examples."

Dweck says the workshop transforms the managers once they realize that people, including their subordinates, can change. The leaders become more receptive to "critical feedback from their employees," says Dweck, "because they don't have to be perfect anymore."

As you might expect, growth oriented managers are more likely than fixed mindset managers to accept feedback or embrace change. "The irony of a fixed mindset," says Dweck, "is you want to be so successful so badly is that it stands in the way of going where you want to go."

Rusty Weston, My Global Career • San Francisco, Ca • rusty@myglobalcareer.com•www.myglobalcareer.com

Posted by Rusty Weston at 2:04 AM | Add Comment

April 27, 2007

Leadership and Crisis

In light of the horror of what happened at Virginia Tech last week, I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about how leaders handle crisis. It is one of the most important skills that can make or break leaders.

Take Rudi Giuliani. The fact that he is even in the presidential race is all about how he handled the aftermath of 9/11. His presence, fast action, compassion and the appropriateness of his messaging drew people to him for information, support and understanding. Powerful leadership qualities, don't you agree? Conversely, the way Bill Clinton handled the Lewinski affair almost tanked his otherwise fabulous eight-year run as president.

As I write this article, there's a lot of speculation about how Virginia Tech handled the initial communication after the first shooting of the two people in the dormitory. Some say they did not follow their own crisis management plan. The University President supports the actions of his University's police force. I imagine that with a catastrophe of this magnitude, it will take time to determine what went wrong. Ultimately, time will tell how the leadership fared in its aftermath. In the meantime, parents, students and people around the country are confused and sad. Some are angry, and some are bewildered. What we do know is that it is not just about having a crisis plan. It goes way beyond that. It's about you, as leaders, being prepared for crises – big and small.

Let's get down to basics.

Continue reading "Leadership and Crisis"

Posted by Grace Andrews at 9:54 AM | 3 Comments

We Can Work It Out

So, how did Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day go for everybody? It was yesterday, as I’m sure you know, and I’m here to give a full report on the proceedings. First of all, I’d been so out of touch, I didn’t know the day had been amended to include sons. I don’t have a son, but being the child of an overachieving CEO, I tried desperately to score one in twenty-four hours, just so I could fulfill the new requirements. Unfortunately, I do not have the kind of pull that Madonna or Angelina Jolie has. Nor do I look as good with a plunging neckline. And I should know, because I was roundly criticized for the outfit I wore on “Take Your Inner Cross Dresser To Work Day” back in ’03.

Well, my oldest daughter, who is now ten, had gone to several previous Take Our Daughters to Work Days with me, and she said she needed a break. Although she had fun, she said being asked to fire a few of the lesser-performing employees was not what she was expecting. She also had a hard time with constantly saying “tell them I’m in a meeting.” So, this year, I took my three-year old in, and we both learned a lot. I showed her how to use the phone, and now several of my more important clients have been told to “hold on, poopy-head.” She also promoted Dora The Explorer to the position of offfice manager, so there wasn’t much I could do to stop the existing office manager from taking the rest of the day off so that my little girl’s illusions wouldn’t have to be shattered.

The staff lunch meeting at Chuck E. Cheese’s went better than expected. It was something to see the Executive Vice President in Charge of Public Relations and Overseas Development take a header into a vat of rubber balls. And the guy in the mouse mascot outfit somehow ended up networking his way into a position with Human Resources. (Although I think it may have something to do with standing on a street corner and holding a sign shaped like an arrow.) Things got a little messy when I had to explain to my dear daughter that toner is not something we play with, and honestly I don’t know how she figured out what “Select All” and “Delete” meant on so many of the office computers. But, she got a real sense of what her father does to bring home the bacon. “Wow, Daddy,” she said, “You really don’t do anything!” Like they say, it’s funny because it’s true

Posted by Tom Stern at 6:36 AM | Add Comment

Did we ever remember design?

When it comes to design, every year is the same. You will see articles upon articles extolling the virtues of design and how companies can benefit by putting more emphasis behind it and what happens? The same companies innovate while other companies think they can overpower the competition through features and marketshare.

By now I am sure everyone is well aware of the success of Nintendo's Wii, the most under-powered of the big three's systems. The one with the least amount of games and probably the weakest online gaming platform. Yet, it's the one that is consistenly out of stock and topping the sales charts month after month. While Sony and Microsoft are fighting over what the next technology should be for high-definition DVDs, Nintendo is fighting over who can create the greatest experience and they are winning by a large margin. The design is the great experience in Nintendo's case.

I wil not talk about Apple in this entry because there will be plenty more times when I bring them up in this column, but can you argue their magical turnaround at the beginning of the century was something else besides pushing out quality designed products? We learn the same lessons from Apple and Nintendo every year, yet companies don't seem to ever take notice. The best designs don't always win, but they win more often than not.

When will every company begin to realize that if you are going to compete at least make design one of the categories you trump the competition in? You might not be able to compete on the size of your audience reach. You might not be able to compete when it comes to how many zeroes are in the bank account. However, losing because your design is not as good as the competition means your chances of success are slim to none.

We live in a world where so many things are grabbing for our attention that we do not have the time to sort through all the mess. We do not have the time to waste on ugly. We want to have pleasant experiences with everything that we use and that all begins with the design of things. Do not worry though, if you forget about everything I just wrote about I will write it again next year because that is how the cycle works.

Posted by Paul Scrivens at 3:15 AM | 5 Comments

April 26, 2007

INDIANA JONES in Customer Service

She called asking a very simple question. Something seemed to be wrong with the paperwork and she needed to find out about the shipment. After talking for a few minutes, just as the conversation was drawing to a close, our customer service manager said point blank: “but this is not what you’re asking, is it?”

After a pause, she replied: “well, something is not right and I do not know what it is.” They then proceeded to talk some more, ask and answer questions, until they found the real reason why things weren’t going smoothly.

Continue reading "INDIANA JONES in Customer Service"

Posted by Valeria Maltoni at 8:57 AM | Add Comment

April 25, 2007

Plug Pulled?

You may have missed the headline, and maybe you never watched the channel, but Black Family Channel (BFC) is taking itself off the air and according to Multichannel News is selling its subscribers to the Gospel Channel.

Black Family Channel was launched by mega-lawyer Willie Gary, baseball's Cecil Fielder, Marlon Jackson (of Jackson 5 fame), business pioneer Alvin James and Evander Holyfield. Last year the station tried to add even more star power to its executive ranks pulling in Robert Townsend to oversee programming.

The channel was supposed to deliver a family-friendly alternative to the oft-times over-the-top content found on BET, but the better positioned TV One may have beaten them to that dance. You may not have even noticed Black Family Channel because for most of the US they actually weren't even on the dial. The channel achieved distribution in only 16 of the more than 90 million cable homes that make up the universe in the United States. TV One , another BET-alternative is available in some 30 million homes and growing. And TV One has the benefit of some very well placed partners with both radio powerhouse Radio One and Comcast on board.

So what do we lose with no Black Family Channel? A little diversity certainly, but with African Americans making up only roughly 10% of the overall population it's hard to see how many channels race-themed programming can support. BET reaches some 80 million US homes according to Hoovers and dominates the demo.

As with all media, the biggest competition is not necessarily found on the set-top, but the Net. As broadband grows everyone has more power to watch whatever whenever. And with sites like YouTube making content creators out of anyone, cable has to do more work to keep audiences tuned-in. BFC could be the first of many to suffer and shutter as advertisers shift TV dollars to the Net. Could cable go the way of print in the on-line onslaught? Doubt it. Good content is compelling but the Internet is a merciless competitor. Stay tuned.

John N. Pasmore • New York, NY • mailto:jnpasmore@gmail.com • Next Things Next

Posted by John N. Pasmore at 9:19 PM | 1 Comment

Loving It: Lessons from a Journalist

One of the enduring images of journalist and author
David Halberstam is of him fording a stream in the jungles of Vietnam. What is striking about the photograph is the expression on Halberstam’s face; he’s flashing a wide smile. Clearly this was a man who loved what he did. Seeing that image again, and many more in the wake of his tragic death in an automobile accident, causes us to sit up and take notice of a man who reported on the dark side of life with all its cruelties yet maintained his equanimity.

Halberstam was no a Pollyanna. He was simply one of the greatest journalists of his era. From Harvard, he went down to the tiny hamlet of West Point, Mississippi to cover the civil rights movement. Mississippi in the Fifties was one of the most feared places on earth for anyone agitating for, or expressing an interest in, civil rights. Halberstam soon moved onto the The Tennessean where he worked under the civil rights-minded editor, John Seigenthaler, Sr. After covering the biggest stories of that era Halberstam got a job with the New York Times and in 1962 found himself in Vietnam. He went as many of his generation, born in the Thirities, were convinced of the righteousness of the American cause.

Seeing the war first hand, he changed his mind and reported what he learned. President John F. Kennedy was so irritated with Halberstam’s reporting that he asked Arthur Times publisher Schultzberger to call him home. Sulzberger did not and Halberstam’s voice was one of the first to report on the ironies and fallacies of American involvement in that tragic war. Later, Halberstam chronicled the U.S. involvement in the war with his first big book, The Best and the Brightest. The message was clear: even when you collect the best brains and the sharpest people, you can find yourself in a blind alley with no easy way out. That’s a lesson that anyone in any manager at any level can learn. And here are three more lessons from Halberstam’s life.

Continue reading "Loving It: Lessons from a Journalist"

Posted by John Baldoni at 12:00 PM | Add Comment

Toleration 3: Dealing with a Critic

Are you working for someone who is constantly and consistently critical? No matter what you do there’s always an element of something wrong with it? Bullies come in all shapes and forms and are very prevalent in the workplace, even at the highest level of leadership which is why, when going on an interview it’s just as important for you to interview the people in the organization as it is for them to interview you.

Critics make you feel about an inch tall. They criticize everything you do and even if the piece of work is great, find a way to criticize how you do it. Often they begin the sentence with “Yes, that’s good, however I would have done it this way…” and begin to describe in great detail how many ways you screwed up.

Often these individuals operate from a position of secrecy. The more information they hoard the easier it is to pull apart the numerous ways you didn’t meet their expectations and didn’t produce. When this behavior continues, you start feeling “Why should I bother if it’s going to be redone anyways and even if it isn’t I certainly won’t get credit for my work.” Eventually, hopefully sooner than later, you start looking around for another job and leave.

Continue reading "Toleration 3: Dealing with a Critic"

Posted by Donna Karlin at 8:05 AM | 1 Comment

April 24, 2007

Are you Linking In?

As a “one toe in the water” user of Linkedin., the online professional networking site, I recently read a great post on using it to build your personal brand from career coach Wendy Terwelp. If you haven’t checked it out, I’ve urged you to do so.

Just created my public profile custom address on LinkedIn.
Very cool: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wendyterwelp. You can use LinkedIn in many ways for personal branding:
1. Invite your clients, business partners, affiliates, professional organization members, etc. to join.
2. Write a thorough profile so members get an idea of who you are, what you do, your interests, and your brand.
3. Add a picture.
4. My personal fave, ask for recommendations. People are fantastic and want to help you. And you can use the recommendations in many ways for your business - including popping them onto your website.
5. If you’re in job search mode, the recommendations can be linked into your resume. This creates instant access to references.
Links: http://www.knocks.com/News.html

Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com •
www. marxcommunications.com

Posted by Wendy Marx at 8:34 AM | 1 Comment

5 Steps To The Conversational Economy

It's no secret that the web is moving to a conversation platform. That's one of the major check boxes for all "Web 2.0" apps online. You can have a 2.0 look (big fonts, clean simple design, and gradient color buttons), but to truly be 2.0 you have to build your site around information sharing and user contribution.

Well that's easy to do if you're a start-up. But what's the benefit to Fortune 500 companies that are decades or centuries old? It's hard to wrap your head around this paradigm shift if you've been pushing information out to your customers for the last 20 years. In the old model, a company would buy enough airtime and/or print advertising to throw their message out in the market. It was a shotgun approach in the purest sense. Even as media-scarcity started to disappear, new targeting models came about to direct budget dollars to more appropriate medium. Think cable TV versus network or niche magazines versus the NY Times.

The good part was that you had a better shot at your audience seeing your message, but the message was still pushed out to the audience. Focus groups and the occasional talk to a sales person was the primary method of hearing what was going on with customers.

We all know the world has changed. The TV industrial complex is all but gone. That's not to say that no one will ever advertise on TV again. But we now understand that the expense rarely generates a worthwhile return on budget dollars. And there's only one true mass market TV event - the SuperBowl - and that has pretty much sucked from an advertising point of view for the last few years.

The music industry is falling apart. Why would a band sell their souls to a record label when they can get online distribution on their own? When was the last time you walked into a CD or record store and bought something? The world has changed.

Ten years ago we had no idea what Amazon and eBay would do the marketplace. They built systems around trust - not to mention the innovations around warehousing, shipping and distribution. Trust comes from real people giving recommendations, ratings, comments and reviews. It's not new. It's just enabled by global technology networks today.

So where do you start? How do you get on the bus? And guess what, if you don't you'll continue to see your profit slip. You'll continue to get bashed on Technorati (didn't know that was happening did you?). And you'll continue to feel the seismic shift underfoot until you fall in the crack.

So, here are my five ways you can start to revamp your business around the conversational web:

1. Make it easy for consumers to talk about you - good and bad.
If you sell products, let users submit reviews and ratings on your site. If you're making good products, you shouldn't have to worry because you'll see glowing reviews. If not, you've most likely found the source of your profitability or marketshare issues.

2. Customers are always right.
Even when they're wrong, in their heads, they're right. You have an opportunity to educate them but at the end of the day, they choose whether to stay with you or leave. You cannot control that. How you handle the education part makes a big difference in their decision.

3. Stop trying to please everyone.
Make an awesome product for one segment. Dominate that group of users. Turn them into your biggest advocates. When you try to make something for everyone, you end up with mush. Think Apple. The only way to survive the conversational web or economy is to have people talking about you. They can either love you or hate you, but if you're stuck in the middle, you're toast.

4. Understand that each customer counts.
Like Chris Anderson said, "the ants have megaphones." You have to recognize vocal supporters and address vocal critics. One bad review by an influential blogger and you've lost untold revenues. People don't trust mass media. They trust people like themselves. And if you feel like addressing individual users is too much hassle, you now see how far you have to come to participate in the new marketplace.

5. Do something worth conversation.
I'm not talking about a press stunt. I'm talking about developing products that people love. I'm talking about delivering service that is delightfully unexpected. Simply meeting expectations doesn't count anymore. There are too many options to pick from. That mentality comes from a scarcity mindset and we live in an abundant world. Create joy. Make a difference. Get people talking.

Posted by Nick Rice at 7:11 AM | 1 Comment

Throwing the Book at Work/Life Balance

CEO DAD'S TUESDAY TIRADE

The book that Tom Stern has released, which describes how he came up with my character, CEO DAD, comes out at the end of the week, and I couldn’t feel more powerless if I was a drawing trapped in the panel of a comic strip. Which of course is what I am. It’s not my fault I’m a work-obsessed packaging-peanut magnate with an over-inflated sense of my own importance—Tom Stern created me that way. And now, my foibles will be dragged through the mud just so millions of readers can have a good laugh at my expense, and perhaps learn something about their own foibles in the bargain. Well, let me tell you, it’s not easy being the mouthpiece for Tom Stern, a man who is working out his own issues with work-life balance through me. I may not see a lot from my perspective on the drawing board, but Tom Stern is not exactly a paragon of balance himself. Just the other day, he tried to simultaneously eat a tuna sandwich, close a deal, watch a Disney video with his daughter, and present his wife with flowers for their anniversary. Things did not go well. Let’s just call it the “mayonnaise incident.”

Not only that, Tom has created for me a family that only accentuates my shortcomings: a son with ADD, a daughter who is becoming more of an overachiever than her own father, and a wife who seems to be the only one with any common sense. I ask you, does this seem like a believable situation to you? Okay, maybe it does, but that’s not the point. No, the point is that just because I’m part of a humorous, satirical comic strip, all the blame for the lack of work-life balance in the family gets put squarely on my shoulders. And, because I am consistently written to behave like a clueless moron, that blame seems completely justified. At least I can trust all of you discerning readers to know that the emotional scars in our life cannot all be traced to our parents. Gym teachers and telemarketers have got to take some of the blame.

Anyway, good luck with your book, Tom. And while you’re busy crisscrossing the country promoting it, don’t let your wife near this bald man’s drawing board, that’s all I can say.

Fictionally yours,

Frank Pitt, CEO DAD

Posted by Tom Stern at 6:28 AM | Add Comment

April 23, 2007

Read The Room

My friend, Amy, told me of a recent experience. She had been working in a fairly high-responsibility position for about 5 years at the same company when she started to get strange vibes. It was difficult to put her finger on it because everything was going so well: The company was doing great, its stock price at record highs, everyone was making good money, getting promoted and generally being treated well. The workforce seemed motivated and happy, as did management. Still, something was not right. So, rather than ignore her feelings, Amy decided to put out feelers to get a read on the employment picture.

After a couple of months of looking, Amy had lined up something new and settled into the idea that she'd be leaving the company. She gave her notice and two weeks later she left. The following month, the news broke that the company had been sold. Headquarters were going to be relocated to another city resulting in significant layoffs including her former boss. Top management was out, new management was taking over. Amy was stunned. At the same time, she breathed a sigh of relief as well as marveled at her prescience.

Continue reading "Read The Room"

Posted by Ruth Sherman at 7:24 PM | Add Comment

Take My Memo, Please

Here we are kicking off Administrative Professionals Week. This is the week when the work-life balance challenged realize that someone kindly invented a holiday so that they would not forget the people who help their workplaces run smoothly. This, of course, makes perfect sense. You don’t want to forget someone you pay, after all. They might turn on you during a full moon. This means that for the powers that be to invent a holiday that insures we honor our own families, it will make much more sense to them if the spouse and kids are drawing a decent salary, perhaps with bennies and a 401K to boot. Even mothers and fathers only get a day. Professionals get a week. And there is no children’s day. Never mind that my wife just chimed in from the other room that no money would be worth what I put her through anyway, the point is work has once again trumped life. Interestingly, a Google search on this topic yields not a bunch of links to why we should revere our employees, but a preponderance of links to floral and greeting card companies, as well as the tidbit that the commemoration itself was the brainchild of an executive at Young & Rubicam in 1952. Sounds to me like someone realized the notion of honoring the American worker could be good for business. Sure, there had to have been some honest appreciation for professional secretaries mixed in, but if capitalism can thrive during the love-fest, it’s a win-win!

Let’s subvert the system this year. Much like those e-mail chains that encourage you to stop buying one brand of gas for a week, let’s not buy flowers or a card for those hard-working administrative professionals. These are empty gestures that allow upper management an easy out (“here, by the time these flowers die I will be released of all responsibility for remembering how valuable you are”). Instead, each of us whose lives are made easier by professional secretaries will make a ritual out of stopping at their desk each day, all year, and reminding them how valuable they are. Those who are so inclined can light a candle for them every day, or burn sage in their honor or something. By the end of a year of this, the true importance of honoring administrative professionals will be much more effectively illustrated. Okay, so the ripple effect on the flower and greeting-card economy will send the nation into the next great depression, but by then we’ll all be out of work, and one day we might be coming to our former professional secretaries for a job. And who’s going to get hired first, the person who made them feel worthwhile each and every day, or the sap that thought a floral arrangement during the last week in April would suffice? Well, I gotta go. I just can’t see paying a rush fee on that bouquet I’m getting for my secretary.

Posted by Tom Stern at 6:26 AM | 1 Comment

The Day After Yesterday, Now What

The environment is hot right now (no pun intended).

In the days and weeks leading up to Earth Day, businesses of all shapes and sizes jumped on the environmental bandwagon. Home Depot announced a line of environmentally friendly products and handed out a million energy efficient lightbulbs to customers for free over the weekend. Television networks and movie studios are rolling out green-themed storylines in their new shows this fall. The media got into the game as well with dozens of magazines publishing green issues and institutions like The Washington Post and National Geographic launching unique “green” content sites (the Washington Post's new site, for example, is http://sprig.com).

And that is just the tip of the iceberg (again, no pun intended)

Continue reading "The Day After Yesterday, Now What"

Posted by Brian Reich at 4:35 AM | Add Comment

Why Job Seekers Should Read Annual Reports

In this post-Enron era of mandated transparency, corporate annual reports offer greater insights to a broader range of stakeholders, not just investors.

Though annual reports suffer from an excess of glossy prose and disclosures, savvy corporations realize that it's not just financial analysts and investors reading between the lines. Increasingly, job candidates are mining annual reports to better equip themselves for interviews and to gauge the corporate culture.

"The strongest candidates are the ones that dig into annual reports," says Lori Blackman, president of DNL Global, a Dallas-based recruiting firm. "The job candidates' objective should be to help grow the company."

Here are some questions job seekers should keep in mind when reading an annual statement:

• Is the company profitable? Which lines of business turn a profit and which underdeliver?
• What are the company's biggest business or market-driven challenges?
• Does the company focus solely on executive compensation or does it tout an equity distribution plan for rank and file workers, too?
• Does the company discuss its commitment to talent management?
• Does the company express a preference for home-grown rather than acquired talent?
• Does the company have a commitment to global diversity? Is this commitment reflected in their choices of directors and executives?
• Does the company have a viable global growth strategy?
• Is the company committed to building greener, more energy efficient operations?
• Does the company support volunteerism and creative philanthropy?

Continue reading "Why Job Seekers Should Read Annual Reports"

Posted by Rusty Weston at 1:06 AM | Add Comment

April 20, 2007

Will the Indian Media Bubble Burst Soon?

For the first time in a decade, newspaper readership in India has declined. Even the seemingly booming TV news industry may be suffering from overcapacity. Are these early signs of the Indian media bubble burst?

Round 1 results of the 2007 Indian Readership Survey (IRS) were declared recently and, for the first time in a decade, newspaper readership in India has shown a decline. The survey shows a fall in readership of most English newspapers, vernacular language dailies and magazines. Is this the first sign of the Indian media bubble burst?

The Indian media industry has, for years, been the envy of media companies round the world. With restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment in news media, global media conglomerates have found it difficult to grab a pie of the huge Indian market. For an Indian reader like me, I have had a new title to choose from every few months. Indeed, a Canadian journalist friend of mine was recently lamenting about the declining Canadian media industry and comparing it to the boom times in India. Samar Srivastava’s recent blog on FC Now http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2007/03/21/no_gloom_for_newspapers_in_the_developing_world.html#more
“No Gloom For Newspapers in the Developing World” further reiterates the point.

Continue reading "Will the Indian Media Bubble Burst Soon?"

Posted by Anupam Mukerji at 11:50 AM | 0 Comments

The Latest in Office Furniture

From Britain comes the story of a new ordinance which will not allow workers at the Health and Safety Office to move their own furniture, even if only to rearrange it slightly for a staff meeting. Employees must contact professionals to come in and move their furniture for them, and signs warn them against touching anything. The Labor Party rep for the area called it “health and safety gone mad.” (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2270736.html?menu=)

I say it’s about time. We’re all just drones, working our butts off to make the rent, so why not start delegating some tasks to make us feel important? It increases morale, makes those of us that are peons feel like they have someone to boss around, and the extra red tape creates jobs for more bean counters. Once again, the Brits have pioneered something that will probably soon reach our shores. And I say bravo. Let’s start budgeting for a whole bunch of new jobs to take the pressure off the rank and file:

THE LUNCH INFORMER – Stands just outside the boss’s office and tells him when you’re going to lunch. Saves you the effort of talking to someone you loath.

ELEVATOR FLOOR PUSHER – Waits in the hallway by the elevator, pushes the “Up” or “Down” button for you. Higher salary paid to those who can hum pleasantly while waiting for the elevator to arrive.

PHONE PICKER-UPPER – Waits by your phone. When it rings, he or she picks it up and hands it to you. Saves you the effort of moving, which increases your stamina, which increases your effectiveness as an employee. At least that’s how they sold it at the stockholder’s meeting.

TONER REPLACER – Perhaps the most vital of all newly created jobs, this is a person dedicated to replacing the toner in the copier, never leaving the machine’s side. You may fall in love with this person, so exercise caution.

PAPER JAM FIXER – Same as above, only with paper jams. Forget love, you will lust after this sexy beast.

GREETER – Much like at Wal-Mart, a blue-vested man or woman in their golden years stands by the door as you arrive each morning, saying “how was your weekend?” or “do anything fun last night?” Downside is that unlike at Wal-Mart, you’re kind of obligated to stop and talk to them.

I’m sure you can think of lots of other inconsequential jobs that could help make your workplace less, well, work-intensive. And we have the Brits to thank for it. So far, they’ve given us Bob Hope, the Beatles, Kate Winslet and American Idol. But we’ll forgive them for Bob Hope.

Posted by Tom Stern at 6:41 AM | 1 Comment

April 19, 2007

Innovation: The World Turned Upside Down

When Cornwallis's army marched out of Yorktown in surrender to George Washington's troops (and a few French) at the end of the Revolution, it is reputed to have played the tune "The World Turned Upside Down."

Today the Irish are joining the British in marching to the beat of a different drum with Ryanair's announcement last week of a revolution in its transatlantic fare structure.

Ryanair says that four years hence, it will offer flights featuring fares as low as $12.

You read that right: Twelve dollars.

Continue reading "Innovation: The World Turned Upside Down"

Posted by Robert Buckman at 5:56 PM | Add Comment

Get Off the Bench and In the Game!

What transpired last week between the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, led by head coach C. Vivian Stringer, and Don Imus, inspired me to think about the leadership lessons learned from team sports.

We already know the success that this women's basketball team achieved on the court. And, in the face of the disparaging comments made by Don Imus, these young women continued to show up as winners, even after they left the locker room. Throughout the ordeal, the team remained calm and respectful, even though I am sure they wanted to rant and rave. They handled things privately, and with care, although I imagine they were experiencing great pain and hurt. They never once went on the attack, became verbose or pointed fingers. Instead, they met with Don Imus privately; after the meeting, they said little, beyond stating that it was a productive conversation and that they now called the matter closed.

Imagine if our businesses operated with this same degree of professionalism and integrity, when faced with a difficult situation - responding calmly, quietly, respectfully and without blame, rancor, name-calling or finger pointing.

Continue reading "Get Off the Bench and In the Game!"

Posted by Grace Andrews at 3:24 PM | Add Comment

Independents DO it

How are they going to survive otherwise? You’ve read other stories about the small specialty store that provides an experience so different that you immediately want to pick up the phone and tell all your friends: “You’ve got to see this!”

You can’t wait to increase your trend spotter capital by talking about the novelty of the store’s approach. What happens when the business is not really novel? What do you do when the market is already filled with big chains that provide a good discount, loyalty programs, and throw in a café for good measure?

What’s your sustainable business model then? Here’s what you do when you’ve been selling books way before the chain stores and Amazon: you build a business around your customers and instead of asking them to come to you, you go to them. Here’s how Michael at Joseph Fox Bookshop, and his father Joseph before him, do it in Philadelphia.

Continue reading "Independents DO it"

Posted by Valeria Maltoni at 7:07 AM | Add Comment

April 18, 2007

Finding Grace Within the Hurt

Sometimes you find grace where you least expect it. Such was the case in the reaction of the Rutgers women’s basketball team. This was a team that came from nowhere to contend for the national championship. They ended up losing to mighty Tennessee a perennial champion, but the Scarlet Knights may have ended up gaining a greater victory: pride over prejudice. That victory came in their response to the racially insensitive insults that shock-jock Don Imus hurled at them in the wake of their defeat. He berated them for being less than feminine and looking like prostitutes. He said he was being funny; the team thought otherwise.

Essence Carson, the team captain, said, that the remarks have “stolen a moment of pure grace from us.” Her first reaction was to ignore what Imus had said, but changed her mind “when we read the transcript, [and] decided it was unacceptable.” Coach C. Vivian Stringer said, “For 25 years, I wanted to come to a championship game, happy, and now this.” How the Rutgers team fought back is a lesson in how to maintain your dignity and for that reason it is instructive.

Be calm. The team waited nearly a week to respond. And when they did, they showed dignity, poise, and yes much grace. As their coach said, “Let me put a human face on it. These young ladies are valedictories of their classes, future doctors, musical prodigies, and yes, even Girl Scouts. They are all young ladies of class. They are distinctive, articulate.” No vitriol here, just a quiet resolve.

Continue reading "Finding Grace Within the Hurt"

Posted by John Baldoni at 12:00 PM | 1 Comment

Toleration 2: Thinking Traps

Last week I asked the question "What are you tolerating?" I wrote of one toleration where people habitually come into meetings late. That results in everyone else having to wait around, push back the rest of the day and other people's appointments to accommodate disrespectful behavior. This week I'd like to talk about another toleration; that of draining thoughts and beliefs.

Holding onto old ways of doing things, paradigms and processes that are no longer applicable can bring an organization down. Often, leadership, especially a leader who founded the company way back when and perhaps taught by a mentor from a generation past, wants to stick to methods that were tried and true. That doesn’t mean everything has to be scrapped and changed but if you're dealing with thoughts and beliefs that are draining you because you're in a constant tug of war with automation, technology, methods, and new "whipper-snappers" who want to do things the 'new-fangled way', not only will you be fighting them but you’ll have an inner tug of war going on that will spiral all of you downwards.

You end up tolerating this for many reasons, one of which is because you’re not sure how to modernize or change that paradigm without looking 'stupid' (or so you think). Those become thinking traps or patterns of thought that become roadblocks to success. These thinking traps don't serve you any more. It's time to revisit, upgrade your thinking, personal operating system or whatever you want to call it.

When you get into thinking traps you’re no longer making decisions that are best for your lives and/or organizations. It has nothing to do with how intelligent you are. It has to do with how quickly you can integrate new ways of thinking that will serve you better. It’s mental flexibility.

Are you tolerating a leader who is stuck in a thinking trap? Could you be the one who might be stuck?

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • donnakarlin@abetterperspective.com •www.abetterperspective.com

Posted by Donna Karlin at 9:50 AM | Add Comment

April 17, 2007

Imus and Customer Service Redux

There’s an excellent interview with PR guru Robert L. Dilenschneider on what Don Imus could have done differently.

Here’s Dilenschneider's take: “From the get-go, Imus should have and could have been out there in-person - at Rutgers, in the Afro-American community, etc.
In addition, he could have dug down deep inside himself where true contrition resides. I didn't see that and neither did those whose opinion counted. From that deep inside would have come an authentic plea for mercy.”

Being out there in person is something a lot of companies and individuals should be doing as well. Companies spend millions of dollars to promote themselves and establish a personal brand. And then when a customer has the nerve to contact them, they too often vanish.

Previously, I wrote about the deafness of telephone retailer Hello Direct – which hasn’t a clue how to handle customer problems. Now, I am adding another company to the “Personal Branding Hall of Shame.” Welcome Apple. That beloved brand must have a worm crawling around inside it when it comes to customer service.

Here’s my Apple customer horror story.

I received a $50 iTunes music card as a promotion. When I entered the scratch-off code online to redeem my card, I was told that the number I entered was invalid. No big deal I thought. How wrong that turned out to be.

First, I called Apple’s customer service only to be told to send an email to customer service. You heard that right. You call to get help and are told to email..
I wrote customer service. Not just once but twice. And all I got for my troubles was an automated response saying someone would get back to me within a few days. And then heard nothing.

As a PR professional, I thought I could get some help from Apple’s PR department. Wrong again. I emailed the PR person listed on Apple’s website as responsible for iTune’s PR about my problem thinking he would jump to respond. Did I get a response? You know the answer to that one. Not one to give up easily, I next sent a cordial note to the head of PR for all of Apple figuring that person would at least have the courtesy to respond. Did I get a response? You know the answer.

Back to square one. Two days ago I called Apple’s customer service again and got someone who truly wanted to help. She got me to customer service for iTunes. The gentleman there said he would get back to me within 24 hours. Have I heard back? You know the answer.

Shame on Apple. Shame on Apple. Will the worm turn? Stay tuned.

Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com

Posted by Wendy Marx at 7:41 AM | Add Comment

Imus-ta Missed Something

CEO DAD'S TUESDAY TIRADE

As a comic strip character, I exist mainly, at least according to my creator Tom Stern, to point out the foibles that most of you are guilty of in your human lives as successful businesspeople. Indeed, several of the things I’ve gotten up to (such as being unable to stay away from electronic communication devices while on vacation, or rewarding the achievements of my youngest child by promoting her to first-born) serve to show you real people how foolish you can sometimes be regarding issues of work-life balance. But lately, folks, you have been making my job very difficult by behaving like…well…freaking cartoon characters! Don Imus, so insulated in his world of work that he thinks he can insult anyone. Alberto Gonzales maintaining that nothing improper has happened. Britney Spears shaving her head. And Sanjaya still hasn’t been voted off the island. What is up with you people? And what kind of dent can a little three-panels of comic-strip satire hope to put in this epidemic of dysfunction? Worst of all, for me, anyway, is that I am supposed to represent the most clueless, work-obsessed person in your culture. How can I keep up? You’ve taken all the good ideas. How do you know that Tom Stern hasn’t been planning a lot of new and outrageous storylines for me? But now, if he has me shave my head, fire a few federal prosecutors, insult an entire race of people or get rewarded for mediocre singing week after week, he could be charged with plagiarism. So, please, America, try to stick to your everyday problems, like spending more time with your family or not working through your lunch hours. We’re not going to get anywhere until you start leaving the unbelievable, obnoxious buffoonery to someone who doesn’t really exist!

Yours fictionally,

Frank Pitt, CEO DAD

Posted by Tom Stern at 6:04 AM | Add Comment

April 16, 2007

CBS Signs With Joost

According to Yvette Alberdingkthijm of the Joost blog, CBS has signed with Joost:

http://www.joost.com/blog/2007/04/cbs-has-its-eye-on-joost.html

CBS has signed a deal with Joost to make top current and classic programming available for free, to our viewers. That means that you will soon have on-demand access to programs like CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, CBS Evening News, CBS Sportsline, Survivor and much more.

Bill Cammack • New York City • Freelance Video Editor • alum.mit.edu/www/billcammack

Posted by Bill Cammack at 9:07 PM | Add Comment

Professional Presentation Pointers: Part Four – Everything Else

Well, not everything else, exactly. But enough so that if you include the first three installments of this series, you'll have a very good idea of just what it takes to deliver professional presentation with polish and panache. (1st installment here, 2nd here and 3rd here). This time, I will continue the discussion of technique, which consists of all the specialized procedures that are required to really put on a show.

One of the biggest issues having to do with technique, and one my clients constantly struggle with is whether to script out a speech and read it to an audience verbatim, to use notes of some type or to memorize. My experience has shown that the most successful, engaging speakers use notes. But they really know their presentation, though it is not completely memorized. They have practiced and/or done the presentation enough times so that they know what's coming next. They may not say it the same way twice, but they do have it down so whatever way the words come out, it works.

Notes don't work well when a presentation is not truly learned. Of course, neither do the other two techniques. Another question surrounding notes has to do with PowerPoint. It's very true that PowerPoint slides can serve as notes, and would seem to be a good choice. But it is quite difficult to produce interesting, effective slides for most business people and my recommendation, therefore, is to stay as far away from PowerPoint as possible. (Go here for my post on PowerPoint.) What we may gain in notes, we give up by risking having the audience's eyes glaze over with slides that are poorly executed.

Continue reading "Professional Presentation Pointers: Part Four – Everything Else"

Posted by Ruth Sherman at 6:52 PM | 1 Comments

Congratulations on Your Diversity Policy, but Why Can't Poor People Work Here?

There's a key scene in the film The Pursuit of Happyness, which I caught on the plane ride home from a business trip last week; it speaks volumens about how companies fail to account for the financially diverse backgrounds of their employees, even while having corporate policy in support of diversity.

The main character, played by Will Smith, is an ambitious but down on his luck man seeking to better his prospects with a nonpaid internship with a major brokerage firm. Though he and his family have been evicted from their home and they are living in a shelter, Smith's character, based on the real-life businessman Chris Gardner, manages to show up for work every day in a suit. No one knows how broke he is.

One day, on his way out of the office, a broker asks Gardner for $5, what he needs to hop in a cab to get to his appointment. Gardner looks in his wallet, at his last remaining $7 or $8 dollars for the week.

"Thanks, Chris," the broker says, grabbing Gardner's five dollar bill. "I'll get you back later." The broker, obviously, had no idea that he had taken the money that Gardner needed to feed his son that day.

Continue reading "Congratulations on Your Diversity Policy, but Why Can't Poor People Work Here?"

Posted by Jory Des Jardins at 12:19 PM | 2 Comments

The Survey Secret

Here's a piece I wrote for Sunday's "Boston Globe" that ran in the Ideas section. Once you realize how this
game operates, the old selective perception phenomenon will guarantee that you'll start seeing
examples of these sponsored or promotional surveys all over the media landscape. You will also start to think about how they can work for your company.

After I filed this piece I came across an annual survey done by the consulting firm Booz Allen about CEO tenure and other related issues. The survey found that brand-name, outsider CEOs do great for a couple of years, then flame out. This is valuable stuff, and the fact that Booz Allen does it for PR visibility and hence commercial gain doesn't mitigate that. In fact, it could be argued that rigorous, sponsored surveys provide insights that would otherwise remain uncaptured and unrecognized.

Posted by Adam Hanft at 11:46 AM | Add Comment

An Open Letter To The Internal Revenue Service

Dear Sir/Madam/Inhuman Cyborg Programmed to Eviscerate Me Every April,

As an overworked drone who has been staring at columns full of numbers for the past several months until you feel exhausted and irredeemably hollow (much like the icky, unclean feeling us laypeople get after watching an episode of Nip/Tuck), I think I can say with some assurance that you have been very busy, and neglectful of your family and loved ones. This is an issue well-known to us hard-working Americans, who spend the entire year short-changing those we care about in favor of earning more money so that we can then pull it out of our butt to give to you. We want you to know we understand what you are going through right now. And we hope, nay, demand, that you stop this terrible cycle. Stop making us work extra hard and alienate those near and dear to us by allowing us the following work-life balance deductions.

• Dog Food. Approximately $3,000 annually. Not only does Rover provide delight to my wife and children, he is, unlike them, the only one who listens when I get drunk and go on one of my “nobody understands how hard I have to work to keep this house going” rants. Rubbing his belly and weeping is an important outlet for overall harmony in the home.
• Cat Litter. Approximately $1,000 annually. You try running things in a house with cat droppings everywhere. Not going to happen.
• Car DVD player. Approximately $800. Nothing says “I love you, now be quiet so Daddy can make deals on the phone while he’s driving” like this modern marvel of parenting.
• Wife’s Beauty Treatments. Approximately $4,000 annually. During an argument, these soothing, relaxing treatments have been offered as alternatives to the threat of my being killed countless times. I think we can all agree that my death could severely impact my ability to be a breadwinner, and my wife’s resulting prison time might perhaps adversely affect our children.
• Cable Bill. Just because they suck and aren’t even worth the money. You’re with me on that, right?
• Therapy. Approximately $20,000 annually. If blaming my parents for how I turned out doesn’t count as a legitimate business expense, what does?

Just remember, Sir/Madam/Uncaring Husk of What Was Once a Human Being, you are only overworked during tax season. The rest of us are trying to keep it together 24/7. For that, you blood-sucking automatons, you simply have to give us our props.

Sincerely,

Uh…John Smith. Not Tom Stern at all. Actually, I kind of lost my nerve. Maybe you could just ignore the letter? Please don’t hurt me.

Posted by Tom Stern at 6:36 AM | Add Comment

April 15, 2007

City Success

New York City grinds down entrepreneurs and ships them out as if the Meat Packing District was named for business owners. Some make it. And some seem as if they were made for taking on City-sized projects and churning out businesses. John McDonald chose to tackle restaurants and magazines in what seemed like a peculiarly bad choice of two notoriously difficult businesses. What he delivered, however, has been a success.

Starting with Soho’s MercBar, McDonald has added to his repertoire of restaurants with Lure, Chinatown Brasserie, and Lever House. All this while publishing City, an award winning magazine. Both the restaurants and the magazine showcase McDonald's use of design as a way to speak to consumers and readers. These are the types of businesses where every detail adds to the experience. Miss a detail and risk losing a customer. McDonald has delivered on the details for over a decade. I spoke to him to find out how:

JP: How long have you been an entrepreneur and what was your first business?

John McDonald: Fifteen years. My first venture was when I opened MercBar in 1994.

JP: What do you think is the single most important attribute of a successful entrepreneur?

John: Passion. You absolutely must love what you are doing to the point that you never really know when you are working or count the hours.

JP: You’ve chosen two notoriously hard businesses: the restaurant business and the magazine business. And you continue to open more restaurants, what about these businesses do you love?

John: With the restaurants, I truly enjoy the process from A to Z. Crafting the concept and seeing it through the design phase, construction and opening is akin to putting on a Broadway show. After, then I love to be in them, to see people and feed on the energy. Every day is different. The magazine has similar creative satisfaction but has a boundless freedom to discover and produce great content for design, travel and fashion. Every issue is like a mini-construction project.

JP: What was your most memorable event or moment in publishing City magazine?

John: Two years ago we were nominated (National Magazine Awards) for Best Design and Best Photography and actually won for Photography competing against the likes of Vogue, Details and Vanity Fair. It was a true testament to the young talent that exists outside of the famous names that only work for the major publishing houses. And just last week, we received more two nominations for “Photo Portfolio.” CITY’s two stories are up against GQ (Bruce Weber), Vanity Fair (Annie Liebowitz) and Details (Michael Thompson). While the odds are slim going up against their talent and budgets it feels good to be acknowledged.

JP: Who has helped you become the success you are today?

John: Almost all the credit has to go to my parents. Both of them gave me the confidence to attack any challenge and never fear failure. They showed me by example how to work hard and persevere with dedication to what you love; and must do to succeed. In part, I work today to show them they did it right.

JP: You love the food business and have created very successful businesses in New York City, besides your own, what restaurants and restaurateurs do you look at as the prototypical or best examples of excellence in food service if I can call it that?

John: I have great respect for Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Few people work harder or are more passionate about food. While he has built a vast collection of successful restaurants he never looses focus on what is important. Also, you may find this surprising but I have to say that George Biel who owns Houston’s (I think he has almost 50 of them) is the absolute operational king. His standards and ability to execute with consistency are in a league of its own for such a