Subscribe to my Feed
business communications
« Previous EntriesDo you know what’s in your dinner?
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012Today’s AOL Daily Finance features an article titled, “3 Big Lies Food Companies Are Feeding You.” At first I was surprised to see it, because the law prohibits food companies from actively misrepresenting the contents of their products. Upon reading the story, however, it became clear that the food companies’ “lies” weren’t affirmative [...]
Lawmakers shouldn’t be for sale … and corporations shouldn’t buy them
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012After this week’s report on the “pay to play” scandal breaking in Britain, I started poking around the NPR website to see what related stories might be breaking in the U.S. It wasn’t long before I stumbled on a blog post by Peter Overby about a recent visit that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff recently [...]
Corporations shouldn’t buy political access
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012Living in Washington, D.C., one comes to expect the occasional scandal when a career politician is found to have gotten too cozy with a campaign donor. That’s why it was refreshing - for me, at least - to hear about the latest “cash for access” scandal across the pond. According to NPR, the [...]
Should employers ask candidates for their Facebook passwords?
Friday, March 23rd, 2012This post continues my Friday series examining some of the imbalances of power in our society and the ethical questions they raise. Yesterday, I was troubled to read an Associated Press story about the latest technique that employers are using to vet job applicants. It’s common for managers to peruse applicants’ public online [...]
Check out conscious capitalism!
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012One of my favorite ways to get inspiration for this blog is to wander around online, exploring the meandering information pathways of the Internet until something strikes my fancy. Today, as I was thinking (okay, brooding) about the disproportional political muscle of corporate superpacs, my online explorations led me to a site that’s well worth [...]
Greg Smith spoke - will Goldman Sachs listen?
Thursday, March 15th, 2012Talk about a resignation letter … yesterday, Greg Smith, a midlevel executive at Goldman Sachs’ London office, submitted his resignation in an e-mail to his bosses. The e-mail reportedly expressed Mr. Smith’s concerns about Goldman’s culture, describing his belief that the investment giant had gone too far in putting its own interests ahead of [...]
Should the Lorax speak for the SUVs?
Friday, March 2nd, 2012Today is the birthday of Dr. Seuss, author and illustrator of more than sixty fanciful books for children (and adults who still want to be kids). Our local elementary school is celebrating today and, as part of the festivities, I volunteered to read The Lorax to my daughter’s second-grade class. I chose The [...]
Yes, public apologies still work … and they’re still important!
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote about apologies on this blog. It’s not that people have suddenly stopped apologizing - quite the contrary, the news has been full of apologies of late. It just seemed time to take a little break and write about other aspects of business and [...]
Don’t promise what you can’t deliver
Friday, February 3rd, 2012Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s take another story directly from the headlines. Heather Peters drew national attention when she successfully sued Honda in a California small claims court. The car manufacturer had reportedly advertised its Civic Hybrid as delivering 50 mpg. Ms. Peters alleged that, [...]
What’s the big deal about Paula Deen?
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012This may be the post that brings the world down on my head, but I have to wonder why everyone seems to be madly shoving each other aside for the opportunity to vilify Paula Deen. For those of you who’ve been vacationing on Mars for the last week or two, here’s the short version. [...]
« Previous Entries