Help! My Rep Sleeps with the Competition!

On October 20, 2009

Help! My Rep Sleeps with the Competition!

Here's a guy who needs our help.  As a comment to the blog post "Would You Have Sex with a Potential Customer," he writes: I have an employee who recently started an intimate relationship with the business owner of one of our largest clients (this client also happens to be one of our largest competitors too). I have advised this employee to keep the relationship professional and not have a personal relationship with this client. She did not take my advice and has proceeded with the personal relationship. I see this as a huge conflict of interest and a threat to my business. I do not want to damage the business relationship my company has with our client nor do...
On October 20, 2009

Apple’s Q4 Blows Wall Street Away

Despite an ongoing recession, the fourth quarter of Apple's fiscal year 2009, which ended in September, was the company's second-best quarter ever, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said at the company's earnings call on Monday. Net revenues totaled $9.87 billion, and net quarterly profits $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share.
On October 20, 2009

Collaboration Boosts Productivity | BTalk Australia

[podcast] A report sponsored by Verizon and Cisco has found that collaborative technologies are making businesses more productive. Phil Dobbie talks to Verizon's Ron Gauci about how it is changing the way we work.
On October 20, 2009

New 90 Calorie Coke Can is Good Business Strategy, If Nothing Else

The Coca-Cola Company is all about health lately, apparently. It's part of the recently launched Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a food industry-led anti-obesity campaign; it's working with the American Academy of Family Physicians on a nutritional education campaign; and now it's releasing Coke in a smaller can to help consumers manage their calorie intake. Well, that's the stated motive. It's hypothetically possible that there are also some less altruistic motives for creating 90-calorie Coke containers -- for example, the move makes the company look more friendly and health-conscious, and I'd imagine the profit margins are higher for the smaller cans. Whether it will actually do anything to curb obesity remains to be seen. As Slate points out, people may just...
On October 20, 2009

The New York Times Cuts 100; Adds Bay Area Section

The New York Times launched a new two-page section called "The Bay Area" this past week, and as I was preparing to critique it yesterday, the news broke that the troubled newspaper company will be eliminating another 100 jobs (or 8 percent) from its newsroom between now and the end of this year. The Times also said recently that it has ended efforts to sell off the Boston Globe, which either means that the deep cuts enforced at that paper have been sufficient to slow down its massive flow of losses, or that no one offered The Times a decent price for the property -- or both. In his memo announcing the impending layoffs in Manhattan yesterday, Executive Editor Bill...
On October 20, 2009

EC Copyright Overhaul Could Spur Google Book Project

The European Commission said Monday it may revise copyright law to make it easier for companies like Google to scan printed books and distribute digital copies over the Internet. Such changes would likely include ways to more easily compensate authors and publishers, possibly through a statutory license in which a company would automatically get rights to scanning and would pay royalties to a collective pool.
On October 20, 2009

Opportunities in Shared Services for Tech Companies

Shared services -- the idea that a company can create single points of operational activity for all divisions and departments -- have been around for years. The Hackett Group, a strategic consulting firm, has just released one of its periodic studies, in this case of shared services. The results suggest some opportunities for high tech firms looking for market opportunities.
On October 20, 2009

A Bright Future? Indiana Plug-In Hybrid Company Needs Government Funding.

ANDERSON, INDIANA—John Waters, President of Bright Automotive, stops the car and gestures at a nondescript industrial building. “Right there is where we built the batteries for the General Motors EV-1 battery car. In that building, we tested the first large-format lithium-ion batteries that were used on the Segway. And over there, we electrified anything with wheels on it: sports cars, trucks, golf carts.”   At one time, Anderson, Indiana had 20,000 General Motors employees, but now many of those buildings are razed. The action today—and Waters and his company are in the thick of it—surrounds battery cars and plug-in hybrids. Waters was a founder of battery maker EnerDel, and that company has a factory here supplying Fisker (plug-in hybrids), Think...
On October 20, 2009

IBM Benches Exec Caught Up in Insider Trading Scandal

IBM put a top executive on leave Monday after he was charged in an insider trading scandal for allegedly leaking secrets about IBM's earnings and financial dealings with corporate partners. The company said Robert Moffat, a senior vice president and cost-cutting maven who was considered a possible candidate to succeed CEO Sam Palmisano, no longer serves as an officer of the company.
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