There was likely not a dry eye in the house when people began seeing the news photo of the Labrador retriever Hawkeye who mourned at the casket of his owner, fallen SEAL Jon Tumilson. The story of Tumilson, one of 30 American troops killed when a Taliban insurgent shot down a Chinook helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade on Aug. 6, was sufficiently heart-wrenching. However, add the photo of his loyal companion at his side until the very end and it becomes overwhelming.
As a small business owner or company manager, instilling loyalty into your workforce can be a difficult process. Part [...]

According to the latest buzz surrounding Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith the rumors that have circulated about the celebrity couple’s 13-year marriage coming to an end are completely unfounded. The problem with gossip is that it isn’t necessarily accurate, but it is often hurtful.

In the world of celebrity, where gossip is king, the right tip to the right person or the perfectly planted story can do wonders for someone’s career. However, in the average workplace, things like rumors, gossip, innuendo and hearsay can be the downfall of a career, detrimental to morale, ruinous to a reputation and tough on [...]

President Obama’s administration is scrambling to find ways to strengthen the housing market and put a halt to the continued downward slide. The primary means they are looking at are a variety of refinance plans that could help some homeowner’s avoid foreclosure and lower mortgage payments for those who are having trouble affording their payments. This may help homeowners stay in their current homes, but it really doesn’t really address the housing problem from the perspective of construction contractors who have also been hit hard.
In a recent article by the New York Times, the Times seems to question whether these [...]

Coupon deal sites like Groupon have grown in popularity in the last few years. Groupon is now a huge company with 115 million subscribers and almost 200,000 businesses as participants. Small businesses create coupons to stay competitive in tough environments, according to Grocery.com. It recently had to close its business in China due to intense competition from other local sites. The company’s fast overseas expansion and IPO has raised its profile and questions about how valuable it is to small businesses. Though you can place coupons on a variety of sites, it is best to work with coupon sites that [...]

The price of gold has been rising at incredible rates for the past years, so much so that many investors have turned to the precious metal as one of their prime means of investment.  Some people have gone so far as to place all of their investments in gold.  However, recent developments in the market have caused serious fluctuations in the price of gold.  This past Wednesday, the price of gold dropped more than US$100 in one day.  This price volatility has some investors worried.  But let’s remember that financial advisors have proclaimed the same advice for years: good financial [...]

Facebook Fan Pages are usually thought of as a place where businesses market their company and only post news and info about their business. But this could not be any further from the truth.  Facebook Fan Pages can be an important factor to any business’ success in gaining new customers and increasing sales. Two well known companies, Gilt Clothing & RedBox, have both displayed exceptional social media strategies.
Gilt Clothing decided to add new E-commerce applications to their Facebook page in an effort to increase sales directly from their fan page.
Redbox’s decision to give Facebook fans a free movie rental is [...]

Now that Steve Jobs is no longer the CEO of Apple, many people have been thinking about how companies transition when leadership changes. In a previous post on executive transitions, we discussed the potential negative impacts of resignations.  In this post, we discuss some of the ways to plan for a smooth leadership transition.
Since Jobs rejoined the company in the nineties, there had been no formal plan to have a successor. For a long time, it was unclear what would happen to Apple when Steve Jobs quit, but word on the street was that they created Apple University, the secretive [...]

Toyota will introduce even more green vehicle options for consumers in 2012. As the world’s greenest brand, it will offer consumers new innovative energy efficient vehicles similar to the Prius.  The green market is open to any business willing to make changes in its products or operations. With consumers increasingly paying attention to the environmental effects of their purchasing habits, small businesses can address those concerns by following Toyota’s model.
Design is important. The Toyota Prius is not only more energy efficient than other Toyotas, but it had a great looking design as well. Previously, other green cars, like the Ford [...]

Hurricane Irene has commanded quite a bit of attention lately in the news reports.  The projected path of the storm indicates that towns along the east coast of the United States could be severely affected.  Officials are making plans to evacuate if necessary while working on protection items such as sandbagging.  Luckily, residents are forewarned days ahead of time that the storm is coming.  This is not always the case in business.
So it begs the question, is your retail operation sufficiently prepared for an economic storm?
An economic storm can manifest itself in a variety of ways.  As an example, sales [...]

 

Recently, Adidas announced it would be coming out with a “barefoot” training shoe which is a cross between running barefoot and wearing sneakers. Since the concept is fairly new, the “barefoot” market is small, but it’s part of Adidas’ strategy to expand in North America, which up until now, has always been Nike’s territory.
While Nike generated $7.58 billion in North American sales, Adidas only managed to muster $4.05 billion. Still way ahead of many other brands, Adidas manages to have an 11.7 percent market share. Nike, however, manages 48.2 percent.
Adidas’ dilemma of trying to keep up with the big players [...]