Prepare Yourself for Seminars

A professional conference or seminar can be well worth the time away from the office if you take the right approach. Here’s how to turn your next professional meeting into a valuable experience:  Prepare yourself ahead of time. For example, list at least five specific questions you want answered at the conference. Use break time […]

Innovation Beats Brand

I love Bose. The company produces amazing sound and long ago set the standard for innovation and quality in the world of audio. I love my Wave Radio so much I sent Paul Harvey a letter about it. He read it on his show for over three years. So when it came time to replace […]

Innovation and the Art of Shaving

I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, recently and “discovered” The Art of Shaving. It’s an upscale mall store that is dedicated to one thing and one thing only…the perfect shave for men. As it turns out, I could have discovered it in any one of dozens of malls nationwide. The company has been around since […]

It’s official. The bean counters have taken over at Southwest Airlines.

It was a couple of years ago that I began to suspect things were changing at Southwest. The esprit de corps was missing. No singing during landing or jokes on take-off. Uniforms replaced shorts and golf shirts. Southwest didn’t feel like Southwest. With the introduction of their latest ad campaign, my suspicions have been confirmed. […]

Walmart & Innovation

I took a quick, very unscientific survey recently. It was a one question survey: When you think of Walmart, do you think of innovation? 100% of the answers were the same… “no”. Walmart is just a big ol’ store with lots of stuff at low prices. No innovation, right? Think again.