May 2006

Why CEOs Are Not Plug-and-Play

Company-specific skills may be valuable in a new job under the right conditions, say Harvard Business School's Boris Groysberg, Andrew N. McLean, and Nitin Nohria.

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The Hard Part Follows After Wal-Mart Says Yes

Two entrepreneurs hit the Holy Grail of manufacturing when they persuaded Wal-Mart to carry their novel pen. Now they must make the retailer happy in just 30 days.

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Corporate Conscience Survey Says Workers Should Come First

Far more American consumers consider the way companies treat their employees a good indicator of their social conscience than their philanthropy, according to a survey by the National Consumers League and Fleishman-Hillard, the public relations company. (Subscription required!)

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impatience drives out human service

Obviously, the big challenge for all business is to deliver customer service as efficiently as possible because people don't like to be kept waiting.

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Fancy features don't sell phones in U.S.

Advanced features aren't moving mobile phones off shelves in the U.S. even though more users are adopting them, according to a recent survey by research company J.D. Power and Associates. Price and design are the biggest reasons consumers give for buying particular handsets...

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Book Report: Tales from the Top: Ten Crucial Questions from the World's #1 Executive Coach

Guided introspection for leaders.

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The seductive nature of power

As the sad succession of recent corporate and political scandals have highlighted, those in positions of power are not immune from the seductive dangers of addiction. So what makes a good apple go bad - and what can those who have power do to ensure they it doesn't happen to them?

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Are CEOs A Tech Gap in Themselves? You Bet.

The more I listen and learn, the more I'm convinced that members of the corporate elite of America are technologically backward and a threat to their own companies. Outside the tech/net space itself, CEOs, by and large, do not go...

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Advertising on Flickr

This is a photo on Flickr. This is a photo on Flickr with the notes layer turned on. This is a notes layer with a link to Amazon. This is a link to Amazon with a referral ID. Brilliant on so many levels but equally dangerous.

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Ten Years of Women to Watch

28 MAY 2006 from AdAge.com | Read the full story»

Each year for the past 10, Ad Age has published a special report on the women in advertising, marketing and media whose accomplishments and potential have made them standouts. (Free subscription required!)

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Customer Love: 10 Steps to building a kickass Customer Service Department

18 MAY 2006 from the brandbuilder blog | Read the full story»

When customers call you with a problem, don't fight or argue. Smile, listen to them, and fix it.

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Blogs now have a world of influence

16 MAY 2006 from USAToday | Read the full story»

In fact, a study done for Jupiter Research says that blogs have a "disproportionately large influence" on society. The reason? It's not how many people read a blog, it's who reads it.

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Cutting Sony, a Corporate Octopus, Back to a Rational Size

Sony has expanded into so many businesses in Japan and abroad that it has blurred its original identity as an engineering innovator. (Subscription required!)

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Yahoo's del.icio.us Tag Trip

Joshua Schachter tells internetnews.com what he's working on after six months of Yahoo ownership.

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Owning a business may not be as tough as you think

If you're fed up with ceaseless demands for results from "the man" without any respect in return, why not join the growing ranks of those who have turned their backs on thankless work within impersonal corporate entities and started their own businesses?

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Earn Cellphone Minutes by Watching Ads

With the cost of mobile phone calls already dropping sharply, Virgin Mobile USA plans to announce a way that people can talk for no money at all. (Subscription required!)

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Barefoot Is Better

Bunker Roy says entrepreneurship, not massive aid programs, will solve mass poverty.

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What's in the Name? Researchers Suggest It's Money

A company name that is easy to pronounce may be a significant factor in short-term increases in stock price, new research suggests. (Subscription required!)

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The Top Sixteen Lies of CEOs

At the suggestion of, and with the help of, Glenn Kelman, here are more lies. These are the lies of CEOs running a companies that are beyond the startup phase.

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Questions for Helen Thomas: Corps Issues

The longtime White House correspondent talks about secretive presidents, Scott McClellan versus Tony Snow and why there's no such thing as a rude question. (Subscription required!)

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The Museum of Modern Betas has been updated

The Museum of Modern Betas has been updated. So far only 2.3% of the sites tracked have made it out of beta. There’s even a list of betas that aren’t out yet but are already ranked on del.icio.us. And of course you need to check out the top 100 betas ranked by overall bookmarks at del.icio.us.

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GM Names North America Head

GM named Troy Clarke president of its North American operations, a position currently held by Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner. (Subscription required!)

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Frequent Flier: At 6-foot-11 With Bad Ankles, He Wants an Aisle Seat

I'm on the road about 200 days a year, trying to contend with airline seats and hotel rooms that were not built with professional basketball players in mind. [by Bill Walton] (Subscription required!)

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New Social Networks Mean Business

How TagWorld and other next-generation social networks could feed your business--and maybe even change the world.

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Technology Speeds Paying of Health Bills

A report from a trade group indicates that 75 percent of current claims are now electronic, compared with 44 percent four years ago. (Subscription required!)

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Update: Google knocks Microsoft off Dell PCs

When consumers boot up their new Dell Inc. desktops and notebooks next week, they will find a Google Inc. homepage and search tools, not the familiar Microsoft Corp. versions, the world's largest PC vendor confirmed Thursday.

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Advertising: Yahoo Makes Deal on Ads With eBay

The deal will expand Yahoo's share of Internet advertising, a market where it lost leadership to Google, and give eBay some new ways to make money from its large audience. (Subscription required!)

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Lay, Skilling found guilty

Former Enron chiefs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud in a...

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Jurors Weigh In on Enron Trial Testimony

After finding former Enron executives guilty on several counts in their conspiracy and fraud trial, the jury of eight women and four men met with reporters to explain their thinking. NPR's Wade Goodwyn reports on which testimony the jury believed -- and which testimony it didn't. (Audio)

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News Analysis: Verdict on an Era: Arrogance and Recklessness at Enron

The Enron trial painted a broad and disturbing portrait of a corporate culture poisoned by hubris. (Subscription required!)

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Whistleblower, Enron Employees Hear Verdict

For the thousands of Enron workers left unemployed and stripped of their pensions, the guilty verdicts of Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling do little to improve their situation. NPR's Melissa Block talks with Sherron Watkins, a former Enron vice president who blew the whistle on the shady accounting at the company. She testified that she had warned Lay about Enron's financial problems. Watkins said her job was threatened as a consequence. (Audio)

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The Jeff Skilling Interview That Never Ran

"I'm the chief sheepherder." That's how Jeff Skilling described his role as Enron's CEO to me back in 2001. This was several months before the Enron empire began to crumble. I was working on a piece about the role of...

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Will Enron verdicts change corporate America?

Enron founder Kenneth Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling have been convicted on multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. Host Kai Ryssdal talks with Houston Chronicle reporter Mary Flood about what the verdicts mean for the corporate world. (Audio)

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Segolene Royal

The French ideal of beauty is no longer the actress, Catherine Deneuve (who admits to wearing makeup while gardening), but might be the politician, Segolene Royal (who wears almost no makeup and could be the country’s next president)...

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Interns? No Bloggers Need Apply

This is the time of year when thousands of college grads enter the workplace, many bringing with them an innocence about workplace rules and corporate culture. (Subscription required!)

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CEO Pay

After reading the article in the New York Times yesterday on the hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation given over the past few years to the CEO of Home Depot, I ran across this...

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Business Bake-Off Winner

If there was ever a doubt that entrepreneurship was wildly unpredictable...

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Deconstructing Wal-Mart's Wonder Truck

The retailer vows to build an eco-friendly fleet. Is it for real?

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Microsoft pitches pay-as-you-go PCs

21 MAY 2006 from CNET News.com | Read the full story»

Want to write a Word document? Pay a few pennies. Want to download some digital photos? Pay a few more.

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The Rise of Crowdsourcing

Forget outsourcing. The new source of cheap labor is everyday people using their spare cycles to create content, solve problems, even do R&D.

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Economic Scene: Hello, Young Workers: One Way to Reach the Top Is to Start There

The recent evidence shows quite clearly that in today's economy starting at the bottom is a recipe for being underpaid for a long time to come. (Subscription required!)

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How Intuit fails toward success

Software company lntuit rewards failure. Literally.

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Online Retail Predicted to Top $200 Billion

It was only three years ago that online sales reached the $100-billion mark. Now, according to ninth annual "State of Retailing Online" study from Shop.org, conducted by Forrester Research, online sales (including travel) will be up 20% in 2006, reaching $211.4 billion.

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How to shoot a bullet through your startup

Are you thinking about starting a company in the web space? Step one, don’t listen to Business 2.0 and their How to build a Bulletproof Startup nonsense!

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You can be Art Brut 102

British band Art Brut has adopted the corporate franchise model, only with a twist. It's giving away its name and music for free. Jane Lindholm reports. (Subscription required!)

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Are US Workers "Vacation Deprived"?

"What are you doing for your vacation?""Err.what vacation?"

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Phone for boomers & their parents

While most cell phones tout an abundance of bells and whistles, two companies are focusing on the substantial market for simpler phones.

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Being "available"

Annette Clancy joins Lisa Haneberg in bemoaning the practice of taking mobile phone calls in the middle of conversations with real people.

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Itineraries: Breaking a Travel Stereotype

As the ranks of business travelers grow more diverse, companies are catering more to women, as well as minorities and gay travelers. (Subscription required!)

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New era will test doctors' skill at pleasing consumers

12 MAY 2006 from BizJournals/Triangle Business Journal | Read the full story»

If consumer-driven plans live up to their potential, employers and insurers will pay less for health care.

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Why so stupid?

18 MAY 2006 from Management Issues | Read the full story»

Mankind has failed to learn how to think. Plato, Socrates and Aristotle came up with our current thought software 2,400 years ago.

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A Latte With Your Loan?

17 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

The staid bank branch is getting a makeover. As competition for deposits intensifies, a number of banks are trying to capture customers' attention by revamping their buildings to look more like coffeehouses and retail boutiques, and less like the stodgy brick-and-mortar operations of old. (Subscription required!)

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Blog search engine to track postings about AP stories

The Associated Press announced two agreements Tuesday, one that will tie its news stories to the rapidly growing world of blogs...

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Are You Cut Out To Be a Consultant?

Now's a good time to jump into self-employment as an independent consultant.

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Company Asks U.S. to Provide Radio Space for Free Internet

A Silicon Valley company wants to build a high-speed wireless Internet network that would cover most of the country and be supported by advertising. (Subscription required!)

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My Book, By Me

How to subvert an industry for under $30.

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How Women Blog

The where/how women blog question is similar to where/how women shop. It can be influenced by a lot of different things. If a successful female entrepreneur is going through a particularly hard period of parenting, for example, those types of blogs will get her attention for a while. If she's struggling with a sales issue, she'll more likely be participating in that blog realm until she's found or derived the answer she needs.

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Essay: Promotional Intelligence

In a market dominated by the big chain stores, if a novel doesn't sell well in its first two weeks, its chances of gaining longer-term momentum are slim. (Subscription required!)

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College No Guarantee of Top-Dollar Pay

David Wessel, deputy Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, talks with Steve Inskeep about why having a college degree doesn't guarantee the pay graduates would like to see. (Audio)

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Is it worth your time to write a business book? - Kate

A group of researchers from RainToday.com explored the question: Is it worth the blood, sweat and tears required to write a business book?

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brand churn and burn

Is the rapidly increasing pace of information forcing us to cycle through brands and media faster? It's hard to say exactly, but there are a couple of research studies suggesting this might be the case.

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If It's All in a Name How Do You Find One?

It's not enough that a name be catchy, marketable and resonate with customers. It must also be available.

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Apple, Nike exercise iPods to track workouts

Apple and Nike have unveiled an iPod gizmo to put more rhythm in your run: the Nike+iPod Sports Kit...

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'JPod,' by Douglas Coupland: Insert: headline/jpod-coupland.rvw

Douglas Coupland's latest tour through a techno-literate but socially alienated universe. (Subscription required!)

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Choosing Life Over Career

Commentator Dana Goldman is a recent college graduate who decided to give up her job and make ends meet with part-time work. She made the switch because of peace and free time it gives her. (Audio)

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The New Economics of Renting a Car

17 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Rising gas prices are leading to some funky economics at the rental-car counter: Prices are dropping on SUVs and big luxury cars, and increasing for the cramped, compact models that are now in greater demand. (Subscription required!)

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More insurers reimburse doctors for online care

15 MAY 2006 from The Orlando Sentinel | Read the full story»

A growing number of health insurers are starting to pay doctors for the time they spend dealing with patients' medical problems via the Internet.

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Basic Instincts

A top-ten list of what makes brands cool — both naughty and nice. By Grant MacDonald, founding partner, North Castle.

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Executives Not Quite Hot to Blog

Blogosphere, smogosphere.

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References, resumes and interviews useless at predicting success

The vast majority of tools used to recruit workers fail completely to predict whether someone will be successful in a job, according to a study by British HR professionals.

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Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation

Sirota, Mischkind, and Meltzer suggest some ways individual managers can motivate employees...

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Building a Platform for Growth

Sometimes building growth in mature industries means more than simple product extensions or acquisitions. The answer? Develop "growth platforms" that extend your business into new domains. An excerpt from Harvard Business Review.

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Your wireless future

Your wireless future — Phones that get you into concerts, tell co-workers not to call now - or even display which friends are at a show. The next phase of the mobile revolution is about to begin. — (Business 2.0 Magazine)

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Invitation for 'silver surfers'

Older people across the UK are being given the chance to try out the internet as part of Silver Surfer Week.

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What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?

The Book Review asked writers, critics and editors. Their answers may surprise you. (Subscription required!)

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See You Offline

Scott Heiferman saw the Internet as a way to get people off the Internet—and into his groups.

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After the Honeymoon

Much of my blog, and other information for entrepreneurs, focuses on creating new products, raising money, and building a successful startup. The advice stops there, and everyone lives happily ever after. Guess again.

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The Happiness Factor

The relationship between marketing and the all-American "pursuit of Happiness" is a potent one — and that can be both good and bad for brands and consumers alike...

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Nike Joga3 Football Vending Machine

We've been jogging past this machine for the last week now, reminding ourselves to bring a camera to take a snap of this vending machine offered by Nike...

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Seagate to Cut 6,000 Jobs

Seagate Technology, the maker of computer hard drives, said the job cuts would come as part of its just completed acquisition of the Maxtor Corporation. (Subscription required!)

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Open-Source Initiative Targets Bird Flu

16 MAY 2006 from eWeek.com | Read the full story»

In what's being hailed as an open-source initiative against a pandemic, some 20 global health organizations, universities and technology giant IBM are teaming up to figure out how computer technology can help respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

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The Web's Worst New Idea

18 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

If ever there was a solution in search of a problem, "Net neutrality" is it. Sometime recently, someone got up on the wrong side of bed and decided that the freedom that has been the hallmark of the Internet now threatens to destroy it. (Subscription required!)

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Baby boomers look to a working retirement

More and more Americans are working in their retirement or are planning a new retirement career - a phenomenon that it seems most employers have yet to pick up on.

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Armchair M.B.A.: Imitating to Compete, Not to Flatter

The chief executive of an outsourcing company says it can compete against giants like I.B.M. partly by borrowing American-style management techniques. (Subscription required!)

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Do Women Just Want to Have Fun?

Videogames have typically been seen as a teenage-boy thing, but in fact the largest U.S. platform for gaming—the mobile phone—is owned by roughly 100 million women.

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"Why It's Better Not Being CEO" by Scott McNealy

6. "I shave even less often."

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Pols Hire Web-Savvy Staffers

Veteran politicians are reaching out to voters with podcasts, blogs and web videos, and they're hiring young whizkids to help them do it.

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Putting all workers in the computer

Lawmakers are considering a national employment database that would allow employers to verify whether workers are in the country legally. BusinessWeek's Aaron Bernstein talks with host Cheryl Glaser about the plan. (Audio)

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Timeshifting & Placeshifting Hiring Interviews

Hirevue sends a Webcam and a standard set of questions to each candidate to record the interview. The candidate is allowed 30 seconds to read the question and 2 minutes to answer it.

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John Parkinson on How to Manage Corporate Innovation

Can you have too much innovation? Yes, when the company isn't prepared to handle all those good ideas.

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Drilling Down: A Do-It-Herself Trend at the Big-Box Stores

In 2003, a purchaser of a kitchen cabinet was far more likely to be a man, but in 2005, such a buyer was almost as likely to be a woman. (Subscription required!)

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Habitat for Humanity's Plans to Modernize

Habitat for Humanity's new CEO is aiming to modernize the nonprofit.

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Plato, Kant, Homer

Funny, yes. But the Simpsons answers life's big questions.

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Does Your Small Business Need a Blog?

15 MAY 2006 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

It seems as if everyone has one, and experts say they're a great marketing tool. But is the time commitment worth it?

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The ABC's of Beginning Your Blog

18 MAY 2006 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

Once you determine blogging makes sense for your small business, here's how to get started.

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Taking Back the Weekend: Companies Help Employees Cut Back on Overwork

18 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

At a time when most employers are piling on more work, a small but growing number of companies, including Alcan, Cummins, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Texas Instruments and International Business Machines, are actually taking steps to reduce workloads. While corporate efforts to streamline work aren't new, the latest moves are different in two ways. They are driven by employee dissatisfaction, not budget-cutting. And they have two purposes -- not only increasing productivity, but improving work-life balance. (Subscription required!)

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VC Nation: A Few Signs of Froth Do Not a Bubble Make

Sure there are parallels between today and the late 1990's. And there are plenty of significant differences as well. (Subscription required!)

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Give Your Boss an Earful

Comedian and tech evangelist Heather Gold harnesses the transparency of open-source software and online communities to keep businesses honest with themselves -- and their employees. Webmonkey interview by Bryan Zilar.

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CEO roundtable: Top tech players sound off about evolving industry

The communications industry is getting flipped on its head and turned inside out. To talk about these changes, USA TODAY assembled...

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But is it CB Radio?

If you're over 40, you need to ask yourself the question, "did you have a CB radio?"

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New Services May Bring The End of Cold Calling

Entrepreneurs are discovering that software tools and online services such as LinkedIn, Jigsaw, Spoke and others can help generate sales leads without the usual legwork and the often-inefficient cold calling.

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Feeds 2.0: Are you hungry for personalized RSS?

What sounds cool to me is how feeds can be sliced and diced for presentation by feed by feed basis, or by all content in reverse chronological order, or - if turned on - by personalization.

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'Crazy' Jack Ma Set to Dominate The World

Or at the very least make his China-based Alibaba a global e-commerce force.

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Wireless boost for British cities

A dozen UK cities are getting wireless internet zones as part of a project by telecoms giant BT.

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HOWTO play the spoons

When my wife was a small child, she'd sometimes pick up the spoons to sit in with her great uncle's bluegrass band in Kentucky. Every so often, I can still get her to give me a roll or two. Now I'm going to try to learn by following the directions on this site.
Link

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Picture Yourself Here: Help Women See Themselves With Your Brand

Women are looking for common ground. Their relational brains need a starting point from which to launch a possible long term connection with your brand. So, the question becomes: are you laying the groundwork for this to happen?

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Eyeballing the new 24/7 Apple store in NY

It's just an empty glass box now, but this site will become the world's most powerful nerd magnet tomorrow. Expect to see geeks flying through the air towards it, whoosh! over Manhattan, like steel dust drawn to a neodymium disc.

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Apple, a Success at Stores, Bets Big on Fifth Avenue

Since it opened its first two stores five years ago today, the Apple chain has become a retailing phenomenon. (Subscription required!)

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How Apple's Store Strategy Beat the Odds

17 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

When Apple Computer Inc. opened its first Apple retail store in 2001 in a shopping mall in McLean, Va., critics saw the initiative as an expensive, dubious gamble. But as Apple prepares to take the wraps off its latest, most ambitious store yet -- on New York's Fifth Avenue, opposite the Plaza Hotel and Bergdorf Goodman -- there are few doubters left about Chief Executive Steve Jobs's retail strategy. (Subscription required!)

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No break for small business

The SEC announced yesterday it will not exempt small businesses from strict Sarbanes-Oxley accounting standards meant to prevent Enron-style fraud. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports. (Audio)

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Tip of the Spear: Leadership Lessons from the U.S.-led Armed Forces in the Middle East

The Pentagon recently invited a group of 43 civilians, including Michael Useem, director of Wharton's Center for Leadership and Change Management, to witness the management and leadership of its Central Command, which is responsible for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Nailing the Interview

Will Hemlinger, hiring and retention expert and president of Your Hire Authority, shares his tips on how to make the most out of your interviewing experience.

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Economic Scene: A Contrarian Look at Whether U.S. Chief Executives Are Overpaid

A new paper suggests that the higher salaries for chief executives can largely be explained by increases in the value of the stock market. (Subscription required!)

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Flexibility

The one thing that's certain about your marketing plan, your products, hey, even your life is that it won't turn out the way you planned.

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Dealing with comment threads at blogs

Comments at blogs are tricky. Dunstan at 1976design.com points out that blog comments move "in a linear hoppity-skip way that makes a consistent flow of discussion almost impossible to maintain." So he came up with a system that lets people mark which comment they’re replying to so poeple can follow disparate threads of conversation.

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Mobile schools

Mobile School is a Belgian foundation that provides portable schools for street children. Instead of taking homeless children and placing them in an institutional setting, which often doesn't work, the Mobile School reaches out to children in their own environment.

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the best thing since sliced bread

The Pop Art Toaster brands your toast with whimsical and somewhat corny images. But imagine the possibilities. Here are some ideas that might make you gag: Imagine buying a hot dog at the ball game and it reads Coca Cola.

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Profit is not a dirty word

The concept and pursuit of profit is coming under increasing threat in the West from hostile special interest groups and governments, one of Britain's leading industrialists has warned.

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A New Tool for Resurrecting an Old Theory of the Firm

It's one of the oldest, most fundamental ideas in management theory: that executives should understand how the many distinct functional components of a firm -- production, distribution, product mix, human resources -- interrelate to achieve the proper fit. In recent years, however, this notion of comprehending the "part-whole" relationship of the firm fell out of favor as thinkers turned to other concepts -- such as relying on core competencies to attain competitive advantage.

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Can RSS Be Monetized?

The trick is finding a problem that it solves (and consumers know they need solved).

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Honda unveils $1bn expansion plan

Japanese car giant Honda unveils plans to build four new factories worldwide in a $1.2bn expansion drive.

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Treehugger Hearts Walmart?

The guys at Treehugger are in a bit of a tiz: on one hand, they know that the world view of hipster kids is that Walmart is a big bad Red State monster but on the other, they find that they can't stop writing about their eco-initiatives including green roofs, sustainable fish, buying forests and corn-based plastics. "What's going on?"

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Basics: Going Wireless Most Places You Go

Wi-Fi has revolutionized the world of mobile computing, but another wireless option is on the rise from cellular carriers. (Subscription required!)

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Small Biz 101: Digg is Your Marketing Secret Weapon

In today’s article, I’m going to share a great tip for increasing the amount of readers on your blog.

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Emirates shifts business week

The UAE is to change one of the days of the official weekend in order to improve Western business contacts.

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Form Follows Function. Now Go Out and Cut the Grass.

15 MAY 2006 from The New York Times | Read the full story»

Failure, Mr. Petroski shows, works. Or rather, engineers only learn from things that fail: bridges that collapse, software that crashes, spacecraft that explode. Everything that is designed fails, and everything that fails leads to better design. (Subscription required!)

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The Half-Truths of Leadership

MAY 2006 from Stanford Business Magazine | Read the full story»

Leaders have far less control over organizations than people believe, but they can be more effective if they understand leadership myths and use them to their institutions’ advantage.

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Loss of Competition Is Seen In Health Insurance Industry

01 MAY 2006 from The New York Times | Read the full story»

Federal investigators have found that a handful of companies account for a growing share of the health insurance policies sold to small businesses in most states, leaving consumers with fewer options and higher costs. (Subscription required!)

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Mickey D's McMakeover

15 MAY 2006 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

The redesign is risky and has many franchisees up in arms over the high costs of a makeover. But company officials believe the overhaul is needed. McDonald's, whose restaurants are visited by more than 40 million people every day, has moved aggressively over the past three years to revamp its menu and attract a new breed of customer.

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Webcasts can explain surgery, ease anxieties

03 MAY 2006 from The Houston Chronicle | Read the full story»

For tech-savvy patients, video provides a look at what to expect.

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Second in Command

MAY 2006 from The Harvard Business Review | Read the full story»

The misunderstood role of the Chief Operating Officer.

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Workers declining insurance

05 MAY 2006 from The San Francisco Chronicle | Read the full story»

More workers are declining employer-backed plans largely because they are required to contribute more money for their coverage, according to experts at the foundation.

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Beware! ABC's hit Lost is leading us down a strange and new high-tech path

02 MAY 2006 from Sun-Sentinel.com | Read the full story»

The Lost Experience is a story that is related to but separate from the television series, includes the same characters, expands familiar plots and will have run its course by the beginning of next season... TiVo and DVR users be warned: There are clues in the commercials as well.

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Health Care's Political Fractures

10 MAY 2006 from The Washington Post | Read the full story»

Congress is in the throes of its biannual attempts to fix a broken health insurance system, a top-priority concern for just about everyone. But rather than actually get something done, legislators have opted again for stalemate and partisan acrimony, according to Post columnist Steven Pearlstein.

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Office Work Moves Out of the Office

Demand for virtual assistants is growing as small businesses outsource more of their administrative tasks and employers seek ways to slash overhead.

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'Fly-by-wireless' plane takes to the air

The plane has no wires or mechanical connections between its engine, navigation systems and onboard computers – only a wireless network

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The Metrics on Blogs

Top blogger Steve Rubel encourages companies to engage the blogosphere but warns that hard metrics are still a work in progress.

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More health care isn't better health care

Almost a third of the money Medicare spends on chronically ill seniors is wasted, according to a new study out from Dartmouth Medical School. Helen Palmer tells us why. (Audio)

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Sumner Redstone: Staying on top

In our continuing series of interviews with corporate leaders, "Conversations From the Corner Office," Kai Ryssdal discusses strategy, and fish tanks, with the chairman of Viacom and CBS. (Audio)

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Women Find New Path to Work

Professor Myra Hart's New Path program helps Harvard Business School alumnae re-enter the work world. Here is a look at what participants learned about life, work, and the quickly changing world of business.

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Gadget firms tackled on usability

Technology companies are being encouraged to think more about how to make gadgets easy to use.

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Deadline Set for Wireless Internet in Parks

New York City officials set a July deadline for a contractor to have a free wireless network working in Central Park. (Subscription required!)

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Watercooler

What you'll be talking about this month when you talk about work.

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At an Industry Media Lab, Close Views of Multitasking

In a sleek Los Angeles lab, advertisers and media companies are researching Americans' propensity for "concurrent media usage." (Subscription required!)

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Scanning for Threats and Opportunities

"All managers scan, but they often do so passively," say the authors of Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals that Will Make or Break Your Company. This excerpt outlines tips for seeing both the forest and the trees.

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Gardeners Brighten London Under Cover of Dark

Guerrilla gardeners are going out at night to covertly plant colorful plants on public land in Central London. (Audio)

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Authors Meet Fans Far From Bookstores, at Company Events

An increasing number of writers are visiting people where they spend much of their time: at work. (Subscription required!)

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Is Starbucks Diluting Its Business Brew Too Much?

02 MAY 2006 from AdAge.com | Read the full story»

So what's next? At Starbucks plans are brewing to triple its size and become the world's largest fast-food brand. (Free subscription required!)

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Strategic Commenting: No blog is an island

29 APR 2006 from The Right Conversation | Read the full story»

If you view your blog as part of a public conversation, rather than a mere publication, then an easy way to attract more interest and interaction becomes obvious. I call it "strategic commenting."

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Where Are They: Jane Metcalfe

05 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

The 'Wired' founder bowed out amid the boom, but she still champions the power of the internet. (Subscription required!)

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Health insurance tough for the self-employed

08 MAY 2006 from Biz Journals/Business First of Buffalo | Read the full story»

When you're a one-man show in the business world, finding quality yet affordable health insurance can be a real challenge. Affordability is a big issue for self-proprietors, independent contractors and other small-business owners. They find themselves playing a numbers game when it comes to healthcare costs.

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Snap: A New Idea in Search

Snap.com, the Idealab search engine from Bill Gross, is officially launching on Monday after a year in beta... With Snap.com, which is based on a pay-per-action or affiliate model, Gross is trying to push the business of search a little further.

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Chinese version of Wikipedia is launched

China's biggest Internet search site, Baidu.com, has launched a Chinese-language encyclopedia inspired by Wikipedia...

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David Carr: Building a Brand With a Blog

The Huffington Post is booming, fueled by rapid-fire news postings and over 700 bloggers, most of whom you have never heard of.

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Paying Attention

An interesting discussion surfaced over the past week among some bloggers, precipitated by comments from Esther Dyson in a debate with Vint Cerf in Wall Street Journal Online.

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On Some Flights, Millionaires Serve the Drinks

Thanks to Southwest's profit-sharing program, employees from the airline's early days are rich, but still working. (Subscription required!)

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Could High-Def Choke Internet?

More people are using the web to transmit video and lots are watching. As the clips get better, the trend is putting a strain on ISPs.

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States Struggle to Computerize School Records

Efforts to collect attendance logs, test scores and other data have cost more or taken longer than expected. (Subscription required!)

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Skype-mouse flip-phone

Enter Sony's MouseTalk, an optical mouse that flips open to act as a VOIP or Skype phone.

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Consumed: Faux Logo

A brand that appeals to the toughest consumers — the ones who are sick of brands. (Subscription required!)

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A Tale of Two Couplands

In his new novel JPod, Douglas Coupland meets his fan-created online persona. By Jonathon Keats from Wired magazine.

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'Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker,' by David Remnick: A Ringside Seat

In the New Yorker articles collected here, David Remnick has no interest in being a court painter to the powerful. (Subscription required!)

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Mom Corps recruiting

In honor of Mother's Day this Sunday, Hillary Wicai reports on a job-placement service exclusively for corporate-minded moms looking to work part-time to keep their skills sharp. (Audio)

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Un-uglyfying Americans

Business for Diplomatic Action, which seeks to educate Americans working abroad that being better world citizens translates into increased success in business, has started distributing "World Citizen's Guide," a booklet to help curb many of the faux-pas Americans are prone...

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Wal-Mart Tries to Enlist Image Help

A campaign to encourage suppliers to join Wal-Mart's advocacy group challenges the company's longstanding policy of keeping suppliers at arm's length. (Subscription required!)

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Internet becomes popular place to make pitches to moms

Every day is Mother's Day for advertisers using digital marketing to attract today's wired moms and their command of $1.7 trillion ...

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To Buy or Lease a PC?

Environmental and service concerns make leasing worth a second look.

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Ballmer: Microsoft not aiming at Google

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer downplayed his company's rivalry with Google on Thursday, saying Microsoft is more focused on creating Internet content and other services that will lure advertising revenue than on what Google specifically is doing.

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Internet freedom for some Chinese students

Some Chinese college students will now have completely unfettered access to the World Wide Web.Kean University, New Jersey's third-largest...

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Employers focus on chronic ailments

04 MAY 2006 from The Boston Globe | Read the full story»

Hoping to slow rising healthcare costs, a small but growing number of employers are reducing or eliminating drug copayments for workers with chronic ailments, offering medical screenings at work, and helping employees with catastrophic diseases access clinical trials.

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Open letter to CEOs, COOs, CIOs and CFOs across the corporate world

04 MAY 2006 from Escape from Cubicle Nation | Read the full story»

I am writing to you as a newly minted rebel. My main purpose in life is to take your best, your brightest, most creative, hard-working and passionate employees and sneak them out the hallways of your large corporation so that they are free of the yoke of lethargy, oppression and resentment.

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Wild Cards

05 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

With wired executives storing contact information on BlackBerries and other PDAs, old-school business cards are routinely hitting the trash as soon as they're uploaded. To make their calling cards more of a statement, some professionals are commissioning ones that come as big as a license plate or are made out of everything from wood to corrugated steel. Beyond the requisite name and number, some "story cards" are printed with lengthy narratives to draw in new acquaintances. (Subscription required!)

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Google Gets Social

The big news from Google's Press Day today... so far is the announcement of Google Co-op. With Co-op, Google is finally dipping its toes into social search. It will let you tag Web pages and specify sites that you want to rank highly in your searches. Then other people can subcribe to your customized Google searches.

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Rocketboom Wins Viewers on the Web

John Ydstie talks with Amanda Congdon, the host of Rocketboom. It's an online newscast of the weird and wonderful. Congdon and Rocketboom have gained a cult following for its offbeat look at the news and the Internet. (Subscription required!)

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Whirlpool to Eliminate Jobs of 4,500

The Whirlpool Corporation said that it would close three plants and consolidate corporate offices as it integrates the Maytag Corporation. (Subscription required!)

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U.S. versus U.K.

The point was to compare the health of the United States and the United Kingdom. It’s an interesting question for a number of reasons, but principally because the United States spends $5274 per person, per year, on health care and the United Kingdom spends $2164, or substantially less than half as much. The question is—what do we get, in terms of health, that for extra $3100 a year?

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When the only thing left to say is 'I'm sorry'

A public apology is something of a ritual when companies are caught misbehaving. Paul Slansky tells host Kai Ryssdal about some of those apologies from the book he co-wrote called "My Bad." (Audio)

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Basics: Putting the Wire Back Into Networking

Although they're cheap and ubiquitous, wireless networks haven't ended the quest to move data through home electrical lines.

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Art vending machines

Art-o-mat machines are vintage cigarette machines that have been converted to sell bits of art for $5 to $7. More than 70 machines around the US (and one in England) sell original artworks like tiny sculptures and paintings by a stable of 400 artists...Link

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Want this job? Then bite your tongue

Talking too much is the most common interview mistake made by job seekers, even those applying for executive level positions, according to new U.S research.

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Big companies as collections of small companies

A completely nascent idea: are big companies more successful when they are organized as collections of small units, as opposed to bigger, less personal, hard-to-manage large units?

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TiVo and do-it-yourself television

News.com's Michael Kanellos says TiVo may be onto something that could, conceivably, compete with the likes of MTV, Bravo or even CBS.

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The Start-Up as the First Step Up

Increasing numbers of entrepreneurs are mentoring low-income youths, offering financial aid and skill development in inner-city schools. (Subscription required!)

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Missouri lawmakers vote to create virtual school

Missouri lawmakers approved the creation of a new public school Tuesday that would link students to teachers and textbooks ...

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Senate debates small-business health insurance

Senate Republicans are trying to change the nation's health insurance system to encourage small businesses to offer coverage. But Democrats are worried the bill may reduce coverage for millions who are already insured. Helen Palmer reports. (Audio)

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AOL cutting 1,300 jobs

AOL is laying off about 1,300 employees about 7% of its worldwide workforce and is closing its call center in Jacksonville, ...

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Making the Most Of Your 15 Minutes

Ilaria Montagnani's fame is fueling her business. But how does she ensure her business lasts longer than her time in the spotlight? It's a quandary entrepreneurs of many ilk face.

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Cirque du Spark

Cirque du Soleil sends 900 performers into 12 different shows 500 times a year — how on earth do they keep it fresh? That’s the question longtime Cirque exec Lyn Heward hopes is answered in her new, 135-page book, "The Spark," reports Craig Wilson in USA Today. In a nutshell, her answer is to embrace [...]

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Pepperdine Business School Welcomes Mothers

Pepperdine University is working to make its MBA program more accessible to mothers interested in getting an advanced business degree. (Audio)

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Workers face impoverished retirement

Average worker looks set to face retirement on less than minimum wage, research claims.

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Culturally sensitive sportswear

Designing headscarves that can be worn for sports and play, Nike and Capsters are offering Muslim girls and women a practical alternative to the traditional hijab... Covering a woman's head and neck as stipulated by Islamic or cultural tradition, they make it possible for women to participate in sports and physical activities without having to worry about their headscarves shifting.

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Big Macs & Bikram Yoga

The pristine white packaging engraved with shiny gold lettering was enough to make me suspicious. When I realized the gold lettering was actually Mickey D's iconic "M" (with modern urban twist "I'm lovin it") hanging above the phrase "Yourself Fitness"...

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Advertising: Whole Foods Talks Dollars and Cents

Whole Foods, all but synonymous with gastronomic indulgence, now wants to be known for something else: low prices. (Subscription required!)

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MIT's Specialized Flea Market Wins Fans

The place to go for computer nerds and transistorheads in New England is the once-a-month flea market in a parking garage at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Doug Shugarts visited "The Flea" and has this report. (Audio)

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Recruiters Hawking Dead-End Jobs May Want to Quit

04 MAY 2006 from Electronic Recruiting Exchange | Read the full story»

[An interview with Seth Godin]
In recruiting, there are people who are trying to hire great employees because the quality of the employee matters, and the only way you're going to get a great employee is if you have a great job for them and you tell an authentic story about why they want to work there. And then there are recruiters who just have to put people in the chairs. They're selling a mediocre thing and trying to get volume.

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The next job boom

03 MAY 2006 from CNN Money/Business 2.0 | Read the full story»

New studies say everyone's out looking. The latest data says everyone's hiring. Here's what workers (and their bosses) need to know.

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Big brother or security tool?

Many large corporations run background checks on potential hires, but now some employers are going even further. They're keeping regular tabs on their employees — long after they're hired. Sarah Gardner reports. (Audio)

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Essay: The Quest for Privacy Can Make Us Thieves

Doctors and policy makers need to ensure as much as possible that privacy is protected — and that discrimination is avoided. (Subscription required!)

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Sarbanes-Oxley Takes Toll on Smaller Firms

More companies are reverting to private ownership because of high compliance costs.

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Channeling online video

TurnHere -- "Short films. Cool places" -- offers exactly that: short, online videos that give viewers an insider's look at destinations around the world.

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Marthamobiles

Because "the average age of the Buick buyer is 65," Buick said it was surprised when Dub Magazine called up and asked if they could have a couple of Lucernes to "pimp out," reports Gina Chon in The Wall Street Journal...

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Doctors Going 'Off-Label' to Help Patients

Patients may not realize it, but many of the prescriptions they get from their doctors are "off the books" -- that is, for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It's legal, and a new study shows it's an accepted part of medical practice: 21 percent of all prescriptions are for what are called off-label uses. (Audio)

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Measuring organisational IQ

Are some companies - like some people - smarter than others? A U.S. business professor certainly thinks so, and she also claims to have devised a way to measure organisational 'IQ' based on how effective they are at innovating.

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Paying for help at dinnertime

Intrepid reporter Cash Peters reports from the frontlines of the latest culinary trend — a restaurant with no tables or chairs, and where you have to cook your own food. (Audio)

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Airline spoons of the world photo-gallery

The Flickr user "airlinespoons" collects and posts photos of airline spoons, with insets showing the airline's logo and any logomarks stamped into the spoons. You could probably turn one of these into a shiv if you were really determined. Link

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'Stumbling on Happiness,' by Daniel Gilbert: The Joy of Delusion

Research suggests that we're equipped with a kind of emotional thermostat that keeps our level of happiness steady. (Subscription required!)

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Levy: Dear Diary—And Everyone Else, Too

This so-called retro-blog had something much more interesting—each day visited the past, via an entry drawn from the author's real-life girlhood journals. Zits and all.

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Building your resume? Disney has an offer

The "Happiest Place on Earth" is looking for 4,000 summer interns to do work ranging from answering phones to regular park duties. It's a sign college students need jobs with resume-building experience. Lisa Napoli reports. (Audio)

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Google Health: Probably coming next week

03 MAY 2006 from USATODAY.com | Read the full story»

An announcement of a Google Health site seems a good bet. Rumors about just such a site have been bouncing around the Web...

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File-sharing is the new email

01 MAY 2006 from CNN Money/Business 2.0 | Read the full story»

As our digital photos and videos get bigger and bigger, email can't handle the load. Three stealthy startups say file-sharing is the answer.

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Once Collegial, Research Schools Now Mean Business

04 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Dr. Pettit's battle with his employer spotlights a broader change under way in academia, as many universities start to treat their professors more like employees of a business. Once, academic researchers had broad latitude to pursue the subjects that interested them, with light oversight and scant pressure to produce things with direct application in the marketplace. Now, universities are increasingly demanding accountability, and refusing to coddle scholars who don't pull their weight in the competition to secure grant money. (Subscription required!)

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A New Generation Gap: Differences Emerge Among Women in the Workplace

04 MAY 2006 from The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Workplace researchers lately have been intrigued by the fact that there now are four generations of women in the work force. Female leaders, meanwhile, are seeking ways to find their footing while managing women of different ages. (Subscription required!)

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5 ways to start a company (without quitting your day job)

02 MAY 2006 from CNN Money/Business 2.0 | Read the full story»

Almost everyone stuck in a cubicle dreams of starting his own business. Here are 5 ways to use your current gig to launch a new venture.

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Writing the Case for Public School Reform

Professor David Thomas discusses his case studies on how the School District of Philadelphia is recruiting and retaining teachers and improving its human resources department. From HBS Alumni Bulletin.

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The fetish of change

"In today's increasingly competitive business environment..." Do you sometimes find this piece of copy a bit wearisome?

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Detail Devils

The last time Sean Sabol tried to launch a new product he relied on his instincts, but this time he is relying instead on his local library, reports Louise Kramer in The New York Times (4/16/06). Sean’s local library happens to be the New York Public Library...

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CUSTOMER-MADE | Update

From a business and innovation angle, we’d like to argue that CUSTOMER-MADE, co-creating with your customers, is still the most important trend to watch. Not because everything will be co-created in the future, but because tapping into the collective experiences, skills and ingenuity of hundreds of millions of consumers around the world is a complete departure from producer-versus-consumer innovation model so common to most corporations around the world.

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Create RSS Feed for Feedless Pages

Lifehacker points to a nifty tool called Feed Yes that creates RSS feeds of pages that come without XML support. Another similar tool is Feed43.

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'M' Is for the Many Ways Marketers Court Her

Web sites aimed at mothers of school-age children are popping up quickly, while existing sites are adding community features. (Subscription required!)

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Breaking news: MBAs are useless...

This month's Atlantic Monthly features an article called "The Management Myth"...

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Monsoon-free GDP

Recent weather reports in India predicted a late or deficient monsoon rainfall this summer. That used to have a crippling effect on India's economic growth. But this year, it matters less than ever before. From New Delhi, Miranda Kennedy explains. (Audio)

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Blog-sharing "commons" goes live

Blog: Lost in the ocean of blogs that is the blogosphere? Web logging pioneer Dave Winer on Monday launched a project called Share Your...

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Book Report: Responsible Leadership

How to make ethics an essential tool for management.

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Worldwide survey estimates 694 million adult Web users

A new global survey by comScore Networks estimates that 694 million people, age 15 or higher, used the Internet during March. ...

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CEO pay – its an envy thing

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposals that would force companies to disclose more information about executive compensation packages could result in bosses demanding even more pay, according to investment legend and long-time critic of executive excess, Warren Buffett.

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Japan's toys for the elderly

30 APR 2006 from BBC News | Read the full story»

"We have to develop very exciting new toys for the existing children but our strategy is to expand the age range of our toys. We are redefining the definition of toys."

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Finding an organisation worth working for

Hidden behind the endless talk of organisational values are profit-driven, high-pressure labour camps trading paychecks - and diminishing perks – for your soul. All of which means that uncovering a company's corporate culture is a critical task for today's job searcher. As important as the job itself.

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AOL adds free phone service to AIM

AOL this month will begin offering its instant messaging users a phone number that lets them receive free incoming calls from regular phones while they are online.

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Organic powerhouse

Whole Foods has begun to flex its market muscle, using its power position to dictate fois gras policy to its suppliers. Sarah Gardner reports on how Whole Foods is becoming the organic version of Wal-Mart. (Audio)

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NBC webcast curtailed to hit lunch hour

NBC News is webcasting its "Today" show each morning but only the first hour of it to make the program available by lunchtime...

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wrigley's innovation center

Last year, the company confirmed its comittment to innovation by opening a $45 million Global Innovation Center. This 193,000 sq ft center is all about enabling innovation and creativity. Some of the features of the new building include...

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Hear the Noise or Block It Out. It's Your Choice, Instantly.

A push-to-hear switch in new earphones mutes the music, while an external microphone picks up ambient sounds. (Subscription required!)

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How New Accounting Rules Are Changing the Way CEOs Get Paid

When a well-known compensation consulting firm predicted in early April that new accounting rules wouldn't have any impact on the use of options as compensation for corporate executives, Wharton accounting professor Mary Ellen Carter was ready to disagree.

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Roth's 'Everyman' Is Retired, Not Retiring

Critic Alan Cheuse reviews Philip Roth's latest work, Everyman -- a novel that follows myriad illnesses and grief plaguing the life of an aging and retired ad executive. The novel is published by Houghton Mifflin. (Audio)

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Professors want their classes 'unwired'

Wireless Internet access at universities was once thought to be a clear-cut asset to education. But now a growing number of graduate ...

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HR Lessons From the Frontier

This week I've been obsessively watching Texas Ranch House on PBS, which has been as illuminating about history as it is about team dynamics. The basic premise, for you green folk, is that real people have signed on to recreate...

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Thanks to Microsoft, This Ad's For You

The company rolls out its answer to Google's AdSense.

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CBS lures Web surfers to Innertube

CBS on Thursday unveiled Innertube, a broadband entertainment service that joins a growing list of Web-based venues for original...

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Top 15 Ways to Live Longer

Despite genetic predispositions, there are many ways to delay shuffling off this mortal coil, from being optimistic to avoiding that fifth donut.

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New Stamp Wouldn't Need a Rate Upgrade

A proposal being considered by the U.S. Postal Service would create a new "forever stamp." The product would allow customers to buy a first class stamp that would suffice for postage -- no matter what rate increases come along. Michele Norris talks with Stephen Kearney, vice president of pricing at the U.S. Postal Service.

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After Press Dinner, the Blogosphere Is Alive With the Sound of Colbert Chatter

An address by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert at the White House correspondents' dinner has become one of the most hotly debated topics in the politically charged blogosphere. (Subscription required!)

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MySpace, Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites: Hot Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Popular social network sites, including MySpace and Facebook, are changing the human fabric of the Internet and have the potential to pay off big for investors, but -- given their youthful user base -- they are unusually vulnerable to the next 'new new' thing. As quickly as users flock to one trendy Internet site, they can just as quickly move on to another with no advance warning, according to Wharton faculty and Internet analysts, who offer some ideas on how these new sites can both increase user loyalty and generate revenues.

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YouTube sees user rebellion (Business 2.0)

YouTube sees user rebellion — Recent changes in the website are turning longtime fans against the video service.

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Lending to Women On the Rise

More women business owners are obtaining credit and receiving loans than a decade ago.

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'Skypecasts' Allow 100-Person Conferencing

Skype, eBay Inc.'s Internet telephone subsidiary, is extending its reach with "Skypecasts" - free audio conferences for up to 100 participants....

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Are you feeling productive?

Why haven't higher energy costs triggered a rise in inflation? One answer is increased productivity from American workers. The government's latest productivity report comes out today. Bob Moon reports. (Audio)

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Secrets of design prices revealed

One of the great mysteries in the Web business is how design agencies charge for projects. But design firm Blue Flavor has decided...

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Independent Coffee Houses Thrive in Starbucks' Shadow

Starbucks is reporting another quarter of strong profits. Despite the success of the ubiquitous Seattle-based company, independent coffee houses are thriving. That is, if they make good coffee and know how to run a business. (Audio)

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Doctors Object to Gathering of Drug Data

Some doctors consider computerized lists showing which doctors are prescribing what drugs an intrusion. (Subscription required!)

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Referral matching

With more and more businesses using referral rewards to attract new customers, a new business has jumped in to help consumers cash in on the system.

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Net censorship spreads worldwide

Repressive regimes are using technology to stifle online debate on every continent, says a report.

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Creation Nets

Innovation is back in force as a topic on senior management agendas. Unfortunately, that means there is also a lot of loose writing about the topic as the media and pundits of all stripes seek to whet the appetite of executives trying to figure out how to become more innovative.

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The Business of Healthcare Innovation: How New Products Come to Market

When Lawton Robert Burns, Wharton professor of health care systems, began teaching healthcare management, he found a hole in the academic literature. There was plenty of material on physicians, hospitals, government regulations and insurance. But there was no single source of good information on a key component of the industry -- the producers of healthcare products. Burns aims to fill that gap with his new book, The Business of Healthcare Innovation. The book focuses on four sectors -- pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and information technology -- and looks at the internal and external factors at work in determining whether a new pill or new pacemaker ends up in the hands of patients and doctors.

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Minority-Owned Businesses Skyrocket

New Census data also show significantly higher startup rates among women.

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Indispensable

Before Tom Peters wrote The Brand Called You with Alan Webber at Fast Company, the idea that a single person would be much more than a convenient public face was considered a little nutty. Successful companies were big companies, big companies had assets and people were cogs.

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Ultimate Guide to Online Video

Wired magazine compiles the best resources for news and entertainment on the web.Plus:The New NetworksA channel guide for the web. Video by GenreTop picks grouped by flavor, from animation to sports. Make Your Own VodcastTips on getting your video out there.

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Dream job holidays

Taking a Vocation Vacation, potential career-changers can test-drive their dream job before taking the plunge. A few years ago, Vocation Vacations' founder Brian Kurth left his job and tried something new. Realizing he wasn't the only person stuck in a corporate lifestyle he didn't enjoy, he came up with the idea of making it possible for others to test the waters without having to quit their jobs.

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The Genius of Apple's Stores

The iPod is always cited as key to its maker's recent success, but there's another factor that's often overlooked: Apple's hip, high-street stores. Commentary by Leander Kahney.

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On the Road: Avoiding Tan Suits and Other Travel Gaffes

The growing scope of face-to-face multicultural transactions steadily increases the odds of making a faux pas that could be costly — and could be avoided by doing some homework. (Subscription required!)

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Babies 0 Work 1

According to some new research by the Guardian newspaper people in the UK would prefer to have a career rather than babies. Here are some stats: 20% of British women reaching the end of their fertile life are childless, compared with 10% in the 1940s; it is more important for women to enjoy themselves than to have children - with 64% of men and 51% of women agreeing; Among men and women, 63% say career pressures are making it harder to have children and 54% said the cost was a deterrent; 53% of women and 46% of men said they thought it was more difficult now than ever for people to meet the right partner.

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Low Prices = More Customers? Not Always

Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, and Dell Computer are famous for their low prices. But before you follow their lead, consider the downside of cutting prices. An excerpt from the new book Manage for Profit, Not for Market Share.

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Overcoming the odds

Setting up a business is a tough proposition for anybody, wherever they are located, with women finding that the odds are often further stacked against them. But even in Afghanistan, women are succeeding despite the odds.

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Microsoft and Google Set to Wage Arms Race

The rivalry between the companies is growing more combative as the outcome is likely to shape the future of competition in computing and the way people use information technology. (Subscription required!)

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New Microsoft Browser Raises Google's Hackles

Google says Microsoft is unfairly grabbing Web traffic by making its MSN search engine the default in its browser. (Subscription required!)

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My Ten Favorite Books

Many people have requested my list of favorite books, so here you go...

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9 Innings with Jeff Angus

Baseball metaphors run through business speak as easily as Willie Mays ran down fly balls. But too often, writes consultant and baseball columnist Jeff Angus in "Management by Baseball" (HarperCollins, May), business fails to live up to the American pastime.

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Viswanathan-gate

I buy lots of spy novels, not because they diverge from the spy novel model, but because they conform to it... But once we have conceded that in genre fiction its okay to borrow themes, why do we get so upset when genre novelists borrow something a good deal less substantial—namely phrases and sentences? Surely an idea is more consequential than a sentence.

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AP: Government Drafts Pandemic Flu Plan

Employers should have plans to keep workers at least three feet apart, colleges should consider which dormitories could be used to quarantine the sick, and flight crews should have surgical masks to put on coughing travelers under a draft of the government's pandemic flu plan obtained by The Associated Press....

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The Return of Free Music

Last night at midnight Napster got closer to its free music exchange roots, launching a site that lets the public listen to any song in the Napster collection in its entirety up to five times, no charge. The sound quality...

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For New Hires: Sink or Swim Week 1 - Milo Sindell

Hello and welcome to the blog for Sink or Swim: New Job, New Boss, Twelve Weeks to Get it Right. Over the next 12 weeks, Thuy and I are going to post insight, observations, and create a forum for one...

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Intel to Offer Its Own Plan for Global Internet Access

The company plans to announce a design for a sub-$400 educational laptop and a program to train teachers and to extend wireless digital Internet access worldwide. (Subscription required!)

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Book Report: Leverage: How to Get It & How to Keep It in Any Negotiation

Gaining and using "hand" in negotiation.

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Not Just for Kids: An Educational Approach Markets to Women

People don't lose their interest in learning after childhood. It's just that very few organizations see value in taking the time to develop an educational approach. Perhaps high learning curve industry marketers, in particular, should take a cue from the museums of the world, and come up with creative ways to educate consumers about the what/why/how of their businesses.

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Blogging Stocks From AOL

AOL have launched a new blog that aggregates the work of other financial bloggers in one place. "Bloggingstocks.com covers some of America's most widely-held stocks deeply, analytically and obsessively," reads the site.

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How to negotiate your salary

Blog: Now that the tech job market is back in full swing, it's time to pay special attention to managing your career. In both good times...

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They're never too old

As the Baby Boomer generation grows older, many are pondering retirement. But due to a shortage of skilled workers, many companies are attempting to lure older workers. And, Hillary Wicai reports, older boomers are responding. (Audio)

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How to Tame the Boss From Hell

Ambition, self-confidence, even a little bloodlust--all can be part of a great biz leader. They can also wreak havoc on an organization. Now, for the executive from hell, help is on the way.

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Link by Link : In Internet Age, Writers Face Frontier Justice

Literary exegesis is no longer undertaken solely by critics, but by a global hive, humming everywhere at once, and linked to the wiki. (Subscription required!)

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Documentary on radical free school - inspiring

A documentary called "Voices from the New American Schoolhouse," ... chronicles the radical education practiced at the Fairhaven School in Upper Marlboro, MD. Fairhaven appears to be a classical free-school, in which kids self-govern, design their own curriculum, and tutor their peers.

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Jack Gilbert: Notes from a Well-Observed Life

When poet Jack Gilbert was young, he used to make lists of everything he wanted from his life. He is now past 80 years old, and has fulfilled many of the goals he set for himself, but he isn't letting go of life.

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Wanted: more bad (as in good) leaders

Sometimes, bad behaviour is inspirational. That's why great leaders need to be unreasonable. That's what leaders do. It's why the cool kids were the cool kids. It's what progress depends on.

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Guidelines for Radio Tags Aim to Protect Buyer Privacy

Some of the guidelines say that consumers should be notified when goods have radio tags, and business should explain how information gathered from the tags will be used. (Subscription required!)

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Does one size really fit all?

The Rebel Guide to Diversity (and Creating a Cool Company): Once a month create a "Rebel for a Day" program. Have someone go against the rules for one whole day. See what happens...

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Immigrants Try to Extend Boycott Momentum

Thousands of illegal immigrants and their allies across the country plan a show of force Monday to illustrate how much immigrants matter in the U.S. economy...

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Fly-In Housing Developments Gain Popularity

The number of residential air park developments in the U.S. is on the rise. A new development near Lansing, Mich., is part of the trend. Air parks allow people to have homes with attached airplane hangars, and access to a neighborhood runway. Michigan Public Radio's Erin Toner reports. (Audio)

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Next Step for Counterfeiters: Faking the Whole Company

Counterfeiters in China set up a parallel NEC that developed its own products and had links to a network of factories in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. (Subscription required!)

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