Poll: Lawyers (and Almost Everyone Else) Contribute More to Society than Business Execs

On September 22, 2009

DOJ Shoots Holes Though Google Book Settlement

If any one business dealing represented the potential to reshape media, it's the Google Books class action settlement. The agreement has received some heavy criticism, though, clearly, the publishers and the one professional writers' group, the Authors Guild, involved in the negotiations seem to support it. (Usual caveat: I'm a book author who opted out of the settlement, which suggests that I see flaws, at least as to how it could affect me.) But now the Department of Justice filed a last minute memo in the case, and it gives a strong view of the problems the DOJ sees and the difficulty facing Google and its would-be publishing partners.
On September 22, 2009

Confessions of a Hypocritical Business Planner

Irony: I’m a business planner, and I have been for 30 years now; but the biggest decisions of my real life have been remarkably unplanned. I could rewrite my own history backwards to make it all seem like it had been planned, but it wasn’t. Going from hippy to business planner to entrepreneur, I tripped over [...]
On September 22, 2009

5 Ways to Make Your Boss (and Colleagues) Love You

Want to make yourself indispensable at work? You can help bullet-proof your career (or get yourself noticed for a promotion) with five simple steps, says Ali Hale of Dumb Little Man. The first three: Do your job and do it well. Sound obvious? Well, it's not. How many of us coast through some (or all) of the day, turn in an "OK" rather than "stellar" report, or tell ourselves something isn't worth putting effort into? To become a company hero, you need to not only do your job, but do it to a high standard, says Hale. Mind your manners. You'd never be intentionally rude to your boss, but have you ever snapped at a colleague? Or been snotty with...
On September 22, 2009

But Can We Trust the Trust Agents?

I was just getting back to the office yesterday, a Monday morning after a week away — not just 4 days of business, but 3 days in Yosemite, which is really away — when Dan Levine (@schoolmarketer on Twitter) suggested I read The social media country club on Mark Shaeffer’s businessgrow blog. Yes, I’m a sucker [...]
On September 22, 2009

Find Broken Links in Your Word Documents with Document Hyperlink Checker

It's the little things that can get you into trouble, like the time I hilariously set Rick's underwear on fire (he was wearing them) or, more generally, technical inaccuracies in your business writing. I can't help you with garment arson, but I do have a tool that can help prevent broken hyperlinks in your Word documents. Document Hyperlink Checker is a Word add-on that scans your file for links, and it flags any that are potentially broken.  Just fire the checker and it shows you a dialog with all of your links. Click the Suspicious button to see just the links that are potentially broken.   It's fine, as far as it goes, but Document Hyperlink Checker only detects links...
On September 22, 2009

Microsoft Interest in Say-On-Pay Clearer, May Have Been Dodge

Yesterday I noted that Microsoft's board approved a say-on-pay plan, in which shareholders can make their feelings about compensation known in a non-binding vote. I saw it as an interested strategic move, but the context is clearer now. Yesterday, the Conference Board recommended strong changes in executive compensation, and a number of tech companies backed it -- but they didn't include Microsoft. And now it seems that Microsoft may have been trying to soften the blow over a raise for Steve Ballmer.
On September 22, 2009

Columbia’s Ray Fisman on Social Enterprise

Ray Fisman, a professor and newly-appointed director of the Social Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School, discusses the state of social enterprise today. Just don't ask him about doing well by doing good.
Next Page
Previous Page