In “one fatal keystroke” Rose Zory, the Chief People Officer at Carat Media sent a “for top management only” email on the messaging managers should use when firing (oops, rightsizing) some employees.
She sent that email to every single person in the company. Carat is Europe’s largest media group, by the way. It provides advertising and public relations services, [...]

Whether you’re on a project team, party-planning or seeking customers’ input to improve your product you have more chance of success with the right collaborative tools.
Often, the trouble is finding the best methods or tools when you need them. Here’s a shareable list to which you can add your favorites. It’s exciting and overwhelming to [...]

If a hotel can become famous for leading ducks across their lobby at 11:00 then certainly your business can become more well-known for some simple ritual that customers like to photograph and tell others about and reporters love to cover.
In fact it’s surprising that so few businesses and other organizations see the power of memory-making [...]

We can now pay less for some services and products we want. Venture capitalists are betting millions that we will love this approach.
It’s a fresh take on group buying. Several online start-ups negotiate for their members deep discounts for products/services – provided that enough would-be buyers sign up within a limited time frame.
They offer [...]

“Life is the sum of all your choices,” wrote Albert Camus. Unfortunately, just as we misjudge how happy we will be in the future, we misjudge how our fear of immediate loss hampers our future options. In this game recognize how that happens and make smarter choices:
Participants get $20 to place $1 bets on 20 tosses of [...]

Want to be in the book, The Obama Time Capsule: World History in the Making?
Any of us could be a co-author, thanks to a partnership between fellow Sausalitan, photographer and editor of “Day in the Life of…” big theme books Rick Smolan and Hewlett-Packard and Amazon.
Together they enable you to place yourself (your photo, writing, video) in a point in history.  More plainly in a [...]

Instead of standing on a stage, one comedian at a time, humorists were leaning over their computers, waiting with bated breath for quirky Brit Tiernan Douieb to say “Go!”  In this Twitter Comedy Club experiment, drawing a crowd of 6,000 each comedian had a 10 minute act. They madly delivered their best lines in 140-characters, one after the other. [...]

After seeing her grandma struggling to hold heavy pans, Celia Gates recruited an inventor as a mentor then designed ergonomic pans. Kayley Vincent and Jennifer Land created a cookbook that turned local business owners into foodie stars – and turned a profit for them. With churchgoers’ support, Henry Pearce raised money by donning a 1920s bathing suit. What sparked their entrepreneurial [...]

“Buy local and keep the money in our community” cry many local retailers and restaurateurs.  Yet guilt is not the top motivator to inspire spending – unless you’re a nearby farmer. 

Saving money is top-of-mind for us as consumers. Instead, offer greater value and convenience. Also generate more local visibility without spending more. 

That’s what the online food site, Delish is doing, in [...]

Obama faced that quandry. Are your customers revolting? What’s your organization’s reputation… really? Alternatively, how can you inspire customers to improve your product, brag about it to others and otherwise help you become the top-of-mind choice in your market?
Get ideas from the co-author of the most talked-about book on “tapping into the power of customers [...]