Elana Centor's blog

The Bratz-Barbie Doll Fight. Who Really is The Winner?

2008-08-28T04:23:13-05:00

When is $100 million dollars chump change?

When the plaintiffs in a lawsuit were hoping to be awarded $2 billion dollars in damages.

Things have not been going well for our girl Barbie. Ever since the Bratz came to town sales have been plummeting.

Barbie has been losing market share since Bratz came on the market.

Mattel's three-monthly results, released on Friday, showed a further fall.
<Barbie's worldwide gross sales fell 6% between April and June 2008 as the company's net profit fell 48% to $11.8m.

Barbie sales in the US were down 21%.
Planet Watch Community Forum

Until news of the lawsuit broke, I had never heard about The Bratz. I knew nothing of Cloe aka Angel,Jade aka Kool Kat, Sasha aka BunnyBoo,Yasmin aka Pretty Princess and Roxxi aka Spice.I knew nothing about how successful they were.

In June 1, 2001, the first four Bratz dolls, Yasmin, Cloe, Jade, and Sasha were released to market, each attired in urban-styled fashions. The Bratz quickly gained strong popularity, becoming the number one doll brand in several countries like France, Spain, Israel and Italy, and the number two doll in the United Kingdom.
Wikipedia

Barbie I know well. While some of my friends opted to ban Barbie from their homes --those boobs--that waist--that Ken, I was never concerned that my daughter's self image would be influenced by the doll we bought at Target.

I was eight years old when Barbie debuted. I never owned one. I never wanted one. I was not the ind of girl who enjoyed playing with dolls and if any of my friends had one, I have conveniently erased that from my memory.

Even still, I'm feeling Barbie's pain.She is going to be 50 next year. It can be a tough birthday. And, it looks like Barbie's reign as the doll of the ball is coming to a painful end.

While many attempts have been made to “multi-culturalize” Barbie dolls, for all intents and purposes, the popular image of Barbie comes in one color: White. Caucasian. I have news for Mattel. The latest estimates put non-Hispanic Caucasians at a minority of the US population by 2042. By contrast, Bratz launchedlooks like her. That’s a pretty powerful emotional hook, and a key to the success of the Bratz line.
[...]

It is pretty clear: Mattel got caught sleeping. And that’s not too surprising; with a 50-year undisputed queen of dolls in the product line, why would you listen to an upstart designer with a gritty, multi-ethnic, urban concept?

But as it happens so many times in the marketplace, the sleeping giant was caught off guard. In less than a decade, Barbie has been made largely irrelevant - old, stodgy, and completely repositioned out of the top spot.

State of the Brand

That brings us to the lawsuit.

After a three-month trial, a federal court in California ruled that Mattel-- the makers of Barbie-- were entitled to damages upward of $100 million from MGA entertainment --makers of The Bratz.

The trial was about a copyright infringement. The courts found that the creator of The Bratz--Carter Bryant was actually employed by Mattel at the time he "sold" the idea of The Bratz to MGA.

The courts also found that MGA was not aware of that situation.

# Until Mattel filed its lawsuit against Carter Bryant in April 2004, Isaac Larian and MGA believed that Carter Bryant had left Mattel on October 4, 2000, as instructed by Mr. Larian. Mr. Larian and MGA were not aware that Mr. Bryant was working at Mattel and for MGA from October 4 to October 19, 2000, and getting paid from both companies for those two weeks.
Bratzworld

It's the kind of lawsuit that is allowing both sides to claim victory. MGA promises to appeal the ruling and Mattel promises to file for an injunction to stop production of Bratz dolls.

"The jury found that at some point the dolls infringed, but the question is, was it the earlier dolls or the later dolls or all of them?" said Oren Warshavsky, an intellectual property attorney who has followed the case closely. "Without a special verdict form, it's difficult to see how an injunction would be styled."
Gillian Flauccus, Associated Press

If you could advise Mattel, what would you tell them about Barbie? Is there a way for her to age gracefully? Or will she become the Norma Desmond of the doll world.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Political Conventions and Local Businesses: Not A Love Fest

2008-08-24T09:21:57-05:00

When the RNC pitched local event planners about the opportunities that would abound during the Republican Convention in St.Paul, Kristi Gray Shepherd was optimistic.

If all of her proposals were accepted, she was going to have an incredibly profitable 10 days.

The venue she decided to pitch was the Neighborhood House aka The Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center for Community Building.

Kristi thought it was a perfect place for RNC events. As she told me over coffee, " It's an absolutely gorgeous venue and all of the vendors that we were contracting with committed to contributing 10% of their fees to support the work of the center."

The work of the center is entrenched in family values. The $25 million center includes two full-size gymnasiums, eight
classrooms, a 266-seat theater, two computer labs and a food shelf.

Kristi estimated if all five or her proposed events were accepted, the Community Center would add $100,000 to it's budget line.

To Kristi the combination of a drop dead gorgeous venue, it's family values mission and that 10% contribution to the center was a powerful incentive. She assured me that her pricing was competitive and that the 10% donation was not from inflated prices.

But, the Republicans will not be adding a dime to the Community Center. Not one of Kristi's events proposals was accepted. It was an outcome she wasn't expecting.

I asked what I thought was an obvious question, " Do you think the name of the facility may have discouraged the Republicans?"

The Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center for Community building is named for former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife. Wellstone was a two-term senator from Minnesota.

While Barack Obama now holds the distinction of being the senate's most liberal senator, if Wellstone were still alive, Obama would be second.

Wellstone, his wife, daughter, aids and pilot were killed in a plane crash on October 25, 2002 --just weeks before the election. Republican Norm Coleman now battling Al Franken for that same senate seat,won Wellstone's seat in that 2002 election.

While I thought my question was obvious, by the look on Kristi's face, I could tell that she had not seriously considered the name of the venue would be a detriment to Republican activities.

"Norm Coleman was the center's biggest supporter," she explained and then added, " it's a nonprofit that is helping the community. It's a fabulous venue.I thought the people hosting the events would focus on the support they were giving, not who the center was named for."

And maybe there is a different reason that none of Kristi's proposals were accepted and that no Republican events will be hosted there. It's one of those things that you'll never know.

As it turns out the promises that the RNC would turn St.Paul into El Dorado were perhaps overstatements. Kristi is not alone in her disappointment. In both the Twin Cities and Denver, local businesses are feeling snubbed by the politicos.

Just two weeks before the Republican National Convention opens, some of the "official venues" say they're surprised and disappointed that they're not completely booked by now.

More than 40 venues signed contracts that required them to hold space open from August 30 to September 4. The contracts don't require the host committee to get the space booked — only that it would be marketed.

Julianna Nelson, director of sales and marketing for Solera Restaurant in Minneapolis, says she thought the restaurant would be fully booked six months ago. She says Solera probably wouldn't do it again.
Star Tribune

According to the Denver Post via Politico,Denver businesses have been disappointed by the amount of money spent locally by the Democratic National Convention Committee. While over 2,000 listings for local companies have made the DNCC’s directory, little actual revenue has been received by locals for the convention itself. The DNCC seems more comfortable working with vendors they already know, from as far away as New York City:
Hot Air

The DNC Vendor Directory, an online listing, was created by the Democratic National Convention host committee to promote mostly local businesses that submit their information to be listed in anticipation of the convention Aug. 25-28. To date, the DNC Vendor Directory contains roughly 2,000 listings, though many businesses appear more than once because they're in multiple categories.

However, an e-mail survey by PoliticsWest.com, The Denver Post's political website, reveals only a handful of companies included on the list that have gotten work because of it and many with complaints, ranging from poor organization to lack of communication. Some vendors said they also feel they've been shut out by union requirements and other criteria
Politico

With that said, there is one business sector that is anticipated to do very well during the conventions- experts say sex workers both Denver and Minneapolis will see a spike in business.

Meanwhile, Kristi Shepherd is philosophical about her lost business opportunities.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness.

Resigning From Your Job: The Joy, The Stress, The Lessons Learned

2008-08-21T18:31:25-05:00

Tomorrow is my daughter's last day as a shift manager at our local coffee shop. There was no resignation letter. Technically, she is not resigning --she's just not going to be on the schedule since she'll be in Vancouver for her second year of college.

The rule is as long as she works once every six weeks, she maintains her employee status. Last year, her manager called her every six weeks and paid her a couple of bucks for the call to maintain her active status. That way, she was able to slide right back into the job without a lot of fuss.

However, after a summer of demanding latte drinkers, Berit is hoping her manager will not place those calls this year. I suggested a resignation letter, she disagreed.

Because I have spent the bulk of my career working for myself I have only written two Letters of Resignation. They were short and sweet. Something like, " This is to officially inform you that April 21, 1978 will be my last day of employment. I am moving to Minnesota."

When I resigned from my last job in 1997, it was even briefer.
There are lots of blogs and websites that offer resignation letter templates.

For many people, work is never sweeter than the 2-3 weeks after handing in the resignation letter. Being a short-timer can be glorious thing. Even though most people resign for a better opportunity or because they just hate their jobs that much, there is some angst about doing the deed.

Bebehblog, oh crap,I'm actually pregnant writes,

I didn’t sleep very well last night because I was busy composing my resignation letter in my head. It usually started with “Thank you for all the opportunities but I won’t be continuing with the company” and ended with “GOOD LUCK FINDING SOME OTHER SUCKER WHO WILL DO THIS JOB YOU UNGRATEFUL JERKS!!!”
[] if they were smart, my company would offer me the option to do most of my job from home. But I’ll keep (most of) my complaining to myself, and try to get up my nerve to turn in a short, polite, early resignation letter so no one can accuse me of abandoning the company.

After work that day, she wrote a footnote to the post:

Footnote: Yesterday made me want to quit. Today actually went pretty well, with lots of “good jobs” and “we appreciate yous”. I know in the long run I’m leaving one way or another, so why is it so hard to just SAY so?

Jelaine of Along The Path I Go shares the experience of having an "evil" co-worker resign. First,she shares the lessons learned by working with a difficult employee.

As of 5pm yesterday evening, she submitted her letter of resignation (after cussing out another employee in a meeting). And today, it was decided that her resignation will come into effect immediately (as to ensure that she does not deface company property), because under the circumstances, her departure arose from a not so positive situation.
[]
I knew yesterday afternoon when she kept popping off at the mouth that she was done for. I knew from there, she was about to go down in flames, but it was her own damn fault. She was ultimately the unfortunate demise of her demeanor. At times she made me so angry and upset that she made me physically want to spit!! She caused me numerous headaches, and various bad moods that sometimes lasted upwards of an entire week. She was nasty, mean, malicious, selfish, disrespectful, rude and down right contradictory.

I will say this, through-out her evil rein, she has taught me one thing, and that’s how to better control my emotions (and just how NOT to treat people) when placed around a, “socially unemployable” (as my co-workers called her) person. I feel horrible for her, because I wouldn’t wish the loss of a job on anyone (because there were going to fire her if she didn’t resign), but what’s done is done and it’s time to move on and pick up the shattered pieces.

Talk to most career consultants and they will tell you the one thing you absolutely do not want to do is resign from a job before you have another one.
Alan Sklover has a great piece outlining 21 Necessary Precautions before resigning from your job

5. Get Your Next Employment Confirmed First: If there’s one pre-resignation precaution you need to remember and follow, it’s this one: you don’t want to resign and then later find out that your next job hasn’t materialized. Nothing could be worse.

While nothing you can do can make 100% sure your next job will become a reality, you can and should do everything in your power to make sure there are as few hitches as possible in the process.

And yet, there are times when you are so miserable that you can't follow that piece of wisdom.Sunk Costs Are Irrelevant shared his decision to quit a great paying job that he loved because it was located in New Jersey and not North Carolina where his family lives.

He wrote that he quit because it was the right thing to do. He also said, that the decision begged some questions.

Why quit now? It's that bad. We're just very unhappy here. To be honest the timing from a real estate perspective is really bad. The timing from a personal perspective is perfect because it is NOW.

Why not wait until you find a new job? I have been looking (so have my recruiter contacts), but it's difficult to do from NJ. I have a specialized job. And, I'm sure many employers would prefer to hire locally rather incur the high costs of an employee relocation package. I think my chances are better with a local address and the time to focus on the search.

Would you quit your job, even if you were miserable, if you didn't have another one lined up? The author of Sunk Costs Are Irrelevant says he has enough savings to last 6-12 months. Would that be enough security for you to say, " Take This Job And Shove It?"

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Paycheck Envy: The Truth About Self-Employment

2008-08-17T11:05:29-05:00

When I took a full-time job in 1995 after 17 years of being self-employed, I was absolutely giddy knowing that every two weeks, regardless of cash flow, I would be getting a paycheck.

Being gainfully employed was, for me, an 18-month busman's holiday. Eighteen months of not worrying about cash flow. Eighteen months of smiling every two weeks knowing that my checking account would feel the love of my being gainfully employed.

Paychecks are a beautiful thing. I want one. I really really want one. As much as I love what I do, as much as I love the freedom, as much as I love not getting sucked into the vortex of office politics, as much as I know it would not be a beach party on the inside, cash flow drama is causing me to think about the unthinkable. Fulltime employment.

For the past several months I have been living with paycheck envy.
Cash flow is the bane of my existence.The stress can be crushing and unrelentless. 24/7.
It's what I detest about being self-employed.

There are very few consultants and business owners who don't have to grapple with the cash flow issue. It's just that these nightmares are rarely shared in mixed company or on blogs. Instead they are comiserated with trusted friends over a glass of Four Buck Chuck.

People are much more willing to share their sexual exploits then to share what its really like to deal with checks that don't arrive on time, bills that can't be paid on time, and contracts that are ignored, simply because they can be.

To the uninitiated, and that would be anyone who has never been in business for themselves and had to rely on that income to live, cash flow is something that has to be managed, and if you don't manage it, then obviously you are a blooming idiot who has no business being in business.

If you want to read about cash flow planning there are plenty of pundits who will tell you how to do it successfully. But that's a little like reading an instruction manual on how to ride a bike and then thinking as soon as you get on the bike you can ride without falling off.

Bike riding doesn't work that way, and neither does cash flow planning.

Still the pundits are happy to share.

So if you want to learn about cash flow planning from the blogs, you'll get this:
From Kick Start Your Company

Never spend a penny more than the cash you have collected last week. It doesn’t matter how much you are planning to collect this week!

What will happen when you follow this rule? Let’s see:

Receivables will improve

Since you cannot pay more than what you have collected; only way to fulfill your payment obligations is to collect more. Here are few suggestions to collect more:

Some of the gems offered up include getting more receivables. Are you jokin' me? Trust me, when you are in business and you know your cash is low, you understand in your core that you need more business.

From Inner architect there is this advice for Surviving When Your Business is Low

A reduction in your income may impact many things, including how you perceive yourself, whether you are conscious of it or not. If you have prided yourself on financial success, your ability to feel good about yourself may be impacted as you battle a tough economy.

How to manage this challenge:

1. Remember that a successful life is not all about the money. Look for other non-monetary ways to define success.

* Are you helping people?

* Are you growing as an individual?

* What are you contributing to your community or to the world that does not involve money?

Feel better? I don't. A friend of mine who is no stranger to cash flow woes was telling me about one of her friends who had been banking on the Republican National Convention to make their year.

Business for this individual has been so bad that she had to rifle through her jewelry box and "sell" unused gold to pay the electric bill. But she had hope. Until last week.

She was anticipating that the Republican convention would add $250 thousand to her bottom line. That's not going to happen now. She is out of hope and out of gold.

My friend has taken to selling stuff on eBay and playing credit card roulette to find the one that has enough credit left to allow her to buy some groceries.

Here's the thing that many people don't get. If these business owners had a regular paycheck they would probably pay their bills on time and not live above their means.They would be hard working responsible contributors to society.

As Ike Elliot shares on Telecosm

But why not just stick with part-time work? The truth is that part-timers are never really full members of the team, and that daily interaction with a team that you respect and admire is a big part of the reward I get from working. Also, part-timers often don't have full ownership of a task or function. I miss that, too. Lastly, I'd be telling a white lie if I left out the fact that I am looking forward to the full-time paycheck.

What is not explicit is that he is tired, I would guess very tired of the cash flow dance.It is exhausting.

When business is good,( and that means cash flow is in the black) it's really good. When its bad, its horrid. And forget about that advice about having enough money in the bank to survive the bad times. Even if businesses start out with that cushion, chances are if you've been in business for several years you've probably used that cushion.

And, like a gambler who doesn't know when to leave the table, many business owners believe that if they can just hold on long enough, they can make everything better.Sometimes they can.

Another friend of mine has about an $80,000 payroll to hit every month. She has been in business for 25 years. Business is not good. She services the real estate industry. This year alone she has pumped in around $100,000 of her own capital to keep things going. Lucky for her she inherited an oil well two years ago.

A business adviser would probably look at her financials and tell her to enjoy the rewards of inheriting an oil well and stop wasting it on her business.

But what business advisors don't understand is that business owners fall in love with their business and like a mom who wants to protect and nurture her baby, the business owner will do the same to keep a business alive. Sometimes that means huge sacrifices. A willingness to deal with cashflow and all that a bad cash flow brings like melting your gold to pay the electric bill.

Being a business owner means you are willing to take risks and deal with the consequences. If Lisa, Jory and Elisa had not been willing to risk their credit card balances, BlogHer would never have existed.

They did not follow the rules recommended by pundits who said don't spend money you don't have.

They gambled. Many of us are glad they did.

The rest of us gamble and 80% of the time, it works. It's just that annoying 20% that causes the upset stomach, insomnia and the fantasy that a paycheck would make life a whole lot simpler.

I know that it my paycheck envy could end tomorrow if I pick up the phone and someone on the other end says, " I'm hoping you have time on your calendar to help us."

There is a little of Scarlett O'Hara in everyone who owns a business.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

What Were They Thinking? Advertising Gone Wild

2008-08-14T20:13:57-05:00

Americans and many Europeans have spent the week tsk-tsking the Spanish Basketball teams, the Spanish advertising agency, and the entire population of Spain for their now infamous newspaper ad showing the team stretching the skin around their eyes to create "Chinese eyes."

The ad ran for nearly a month in Spain without any apparent righteous indignation and it wasn't until the British media made an issue of the print ad that all eyes turned to the Spanish ad. From SpottieOttieDopaliscious,

Not only did they publish an offensive ad picturing them mocking their Chinese hosts, they are now defending the photo and claiming it is a "sign of affection". The women's team also posed for a similar ad for Spanish marketing company Seur, which is currently running the ads in Spanish newspapers:

What if it really was a sign of affection? Sitting in North America ,it seems inconceivable, but things are not always what they appear to be.

Could the cultural differences be that strong that most Spaniards saw this as a sweet gesture? This was an ad for Spain. It was not intended for global consumption.

It is possible that what the basketball players said was the truth--- that they thought they were showing affection.

Instead, we criticize them for their insensitivity. And, we act as if we, as a society would never do anything so utterly insulting.

Or, would we?

It seems there is a flurry of Offensive Ads hitting the airwaves. One of the latest is Nissan Ad running in Israel.Saudi Arabia is threatening to boycott the Japanese car giant who is saying they were totally unaware of the commercial. From Forex Info For You

The TV commercial shows one of the wealthy Arabs pounding his fists on the car just to be held back by his companions as he screams at the vehicle "You destroyed my home! May God destroy your home! Hawks should peck at you day and night".

The commercial ends with a voice over saying: "It's clear the oil companies won't like you."

In England, two ads were pulled from the airwaves for being offensive --not because people from Britain complained but because folks in the U.S. protested

The ads in question were for Heinz Deli Mayo and Snickers. The Heinz ad featured two men briefly kissing and the Snickers ads that feautred Mr. T was thought to be offensive to gay people. After receiving pressure from US lobbyists, and fearing US boycotts, the two companies pulled their ads and apologized for offending anyone.

What it so interesting about this is that neither of the advertisements were ever aired in the US. How could so many US citizens be so offended by a television ad that never aired on US TV? Of course, because of the Internet; the Internet has created an environment where nothing, including ads, is purely local anymore. Consumers of one culture now have the ability to influence and change what those in another country see. As Heinz and Snickers are American brands, Americans feel they should have a say in how these companies market themselves internationally.

Then there is this ad for the lottery in South Africa from Hair Today,forgot tomorrow

the advertising for this stupendous amount of cashola has begun on radio and television. So I listened to the radio as I drove to work yesterday, I heard an advert along the following lines (apologies for badly misquoting certain parts of it – I've heard it only once – but I assure you, the meaning conveyed is the same):

Husband: Honey, can I have money to go out with the boys?

Wife: No, you saw them last week.

Husband: Well, can I at least watch the rugby on tv?

Wife: No, I am watching my shows now.

Voiceover: With the R20-million lotto jackpot up for grabs this Women's Day, you can wear the pants in your home.

There's plenty more. Really want to get offended? Nigel Hollis has documented a series of offensive ads that will probably make you shake your head and ask,"What Were They Thinking?"

Of course, we can guess what they were thinking. Getting banned from commercial airwaves is a gift that keeps on giving. It now provides enough publicity to let the people who you really want to see your ad, discover i it on YouTube.Getting banned has its privileges.

But it also raises an interesting issue about cultural differences and autonomy. Is there no room left for cultural idiosyncrasies? Are we beginning to have global standards of conduct for appropriate advertising? And, in the process will cultures lose something that is very precious--their identity.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

'Tis The Season For Office Olympics

2008-08-10T15:54:09-05:00

Sitting at the Southwest computer bar at Love Field, passengers are gathered around the big screen TV watching USA vs.China in basketball.

Passengers walking to baggage claim stop by to check the score. Occasionally someone shouts out,
" Oh, baby."
Or,they provide color commentary like, "To win in international competition you have to be able to shoot.NBA players can't shoot."

So its not surprising that during this two-week love fest of all things athletic, that citizens of

Corporate America want to get in on the fun - hence the growing popularity of Office Olympics.

From blogs to the nearly 500 entries on YouTube, corporate employees are eagerly sharing the exploits of their inner office competition. But, Office Olympics is not a spectator sport. It's definitely more a "you had to be there" activity.

While Elastic band firing may evoke enormous interdepartmental pride, for an outsider it's as uncomfortable as overhearing an office mate exchanging sweet nothings with someone on the other end of a cell phone.

Some things shouldn't be shared and hearing an office mate coo " I love you turkey," to only hear them say " I love you too turkey," 15 minutes later when the turkey on the other end of the cell phone calls for yet the sixth time that morning makes you appreciate the intensity of why some people enjoy the elastic band firing competition.

But without that back story,elastic band firing holds as much interest as turkey love.

Much of what is written and shared about Office Olympics is sophmoric at best. Yet, in this sea of banality there are a few exceptional competitors.

In the spirit of the games, here are my favorites.

fThe bronze in Office Olympics oges to Cubicle Hurdles.

The Silver in Office Olympics goes to: TopFive.com's The Top 18 Proposed Events for the 2008 Office Olympics

Meeting Doodle Decathlon

Windows Vista Installation Disk-Cuss

Blame Toss

Freestyle Accounting

And The Number 1 Proposed Event For The 2008 Office Olympics
Blackberry Synchronized Synching

The Gold in Office Olympics goes to the Russian Office Olympics Swimming Team (thanks to Whatever Comes to Mind From One Russian Jewish American for the translation)

Before the clip they are saying: We are a team of female architects and this is our exercise!
The sign says: “Synchronized Swimming”

Image Credit: CafePress
Image Credit: CafePress

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Do You Answer Emails On Vacation?

2008-08-07T23:49:31-05:00

If you do, you're not alone. Rebecca Coggan at Exalt Creativity shared the findings of AOL's fourth annual Email Addiction Survey. Few Surprises here. Email addiction has jumped 15% in the past year - up to 46% of people who self select themselves as addicted.( I'm assuming that there are many more addicts who are just in denial)

Lots of entertaining stuff here.The statistic that I was most interested in today was the vacation statistic.

More than 50% said they check their email while on vacation. It's even higher among mobile users.78% of those who have a mobile device check email while on vacation.

The AP-ipsos poll came up with some different findings as reported by Dory Devlin of Simply Stated:technology.

Last year, one in five people packed a laptop along with sunscreen and swimsuits, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. And one in five used it to do some work, while 40 percent checked work email messages and 50 percent checked voice mail. This year, there are signs that some of us are saying enough. An Orbitz poll found that 29 percent of respondents feel compelled to stay connected with work while on vacation compared with 33 percent last year. And 64 percent of soon-to-be vacationers said they would not check email while away, up from 60 percent. Younger workers (ages 18 - 34) were more likely to stay connected than travelers age 55 and over. Little surprise there.

A couple of weeks ago my colleague Lethia Owens was giving a speech about personal branding and shared an experience she had as a new manager. When she and her family went on vacation to Hawaii she woke up at 4:00 a.m.every morning Hawaii time to answer emails and voicemails. By the time her family woke up, she was ready to spend the day with them.

When she returned to work, her manager called in her and said she was really disappointed with her. Lethia was taken aback and immediately thought, " what more could I have done, I was on email for several hours every day!"

But, her manager wasn't upset because of the time she had put in doing email, her boss was upset that she was doing any email during her vacation. Her message to Lethia was,if you, as a manager, don't disconnect while on vacation, you are sending a message to everyone who reports to you that they have to stay connected as well.

The manager went on to say that by staying on email during vacation you are basically saying, "you don't trust your team to make decisions without you."

Is it that we are such control freaks that we can't empower our teams to make decisions in our absence? Do we not trust them? Or,is it that we want to be perceived as indespensable just in case of downsizings?

How many people have bosses like Lethia who say, leave the Blackberry and laptop at home when you go on vacation?

Not many. However, in England at least one law firm is forbiding its attorneys from taking their blackberry's on vacation.

From Ronda Muir at Law People

Linklaters is reported having decreed, in a fit of concern for work/life balance, that lawyers leave their Blackberrys at home while on holiday (vacation to us).The order is designed to insulate associates, in particular, from the relentless rat race for a few sweet weeks a year, according to management. "Sometimes it's the small things that count," one partner averred. While another lawyer confessed that "I feel naked without my Blackberry and there are times when you just have to be reachable."Whether the firm is successful in enforcing this edict is not yet clear.

Can you image an American law firm that would even attempt to implement that kind of policy? Why should they? They have a workforce that doesn't cost them vacation time.

It's a sweet, albeit pitiful deal.

My question to you is, how would you react if your boss forbid you from answering emails on vacation?

Would you be grateful or concerned that you should start looking for a new job?

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Can Dress For Success Succeed?

2008-08-03T11:05:18-05:00

Update: On Wednesday August 8,2008 I was able to talk to Suzanne Elliott of Dress For Success. We would have chatted Monday or Tuesday but my schedule prohibited an earlier chat. In response to this post, Suzanne said that Dress For Success Worldwide is doing very well financially and that their budget has increased 40% this year. Elliott said, "we currently have 90 locations Each year two or three locations close and seven or eight open." She also said those empty affiliate pages are placeholders for communities they would like to see a Dress For Success affiliate open.

The news that the Cleveland affiliate of Dress For Success is in serious financial straits was near the end of a blog post by druChristine, a Cleveland- based fashion designer who contributed an outfit to the organization's annual fundraiser, A Denim Affair

As DFS reaches its 10^th year, the most surprising fact (to me) about Dress for Success Cleveland is that due to several funding cuts, the Cleveland branch of the organization is suffering. Although Dress for Success is known for giving women suits in order to join the work force, the organization is about SO much more. As Joi Gordon put it, ‘It’s not about just giving women suits, it’s about giving women life.”

Can you imagine, the number of women AND children that will be affected if Dress for Success in Cleveland goes under? I would hate to think of it. Although ‘The Denim Affair’ was an awesome event, I have to remember to tell EVERYONE I know about this organization- that is does not JUST give women suits - its about so much more!

Minneapolis, my hometown, does not have a Dress For Success chapter. The way I learned this was by going to the Dress For Success website and clicking on the Minneapolis link under the Affiliate pull down menu.

For the next 30 minutes I clicked on every link on their affiliate list and discovered that of the 100 or so communities listed as affiliates over 30 are not currently operational.

Disclaimer: If I had started working on this post during the week instead of waiting until the weekend, I would have called the Dress For Success Offices to find out why there are so many vacancies. I will contact them on Monday and as soon as I hear back will provide an update.

In writing about the Cleveland affiliate's challenges for the Lifestyles blog at the The Plain Dealer, Evelyn Theiss reports that part of the organization's funding problems has to do with the organization's name.
(Shout out to Erin Kotechki Vest, BlogHer Contributing Editor,who very elegantly articulated in The Huffington Post the frustration that all things women -even an organization helping women achieve financial independence by helping them find work usually are relegated to the Fashion and Lifestyle sections.)

The moniker Dress for Success is well-known -- it even rhymes. But it makes it easy for people to dismiss the group as one that merely gives low-income women an interview suit to find a job.
It doesn't hint at the job-training, job-retention and other life-skill programs that Dress for Success Cleveland provides to give low-income women starting from scratch or starting over. It teaches them how to repair their credit, write resumes, get computer training. It teaches them skills to keep the jobs they get.

And while clothing donations always are welcome, it's money that fires up the Dress for Success train and keeps it running.

So the worldwide organization has added the tagline "Suits to Self-sufficiency."

The problem is not just in Cleveland. In December, the Nashville Affiliate closed due to lack of funding. For nine years, that affiliate was run by one woman 76- year-old Suzanne Lafond.

At the end of the month, though, Lafond will begin dismantling Dress for Success because of lack of cash.

“Too many sleepless nights because we can’t get the funding. We are stagnating, we aren’t moving forward, we are moving backward,” Lafond said. “I had a little crying jag for a few days, but now I feel a sense of relief because it’s been very stressful, and I feel very secure in saying where one door closes, another opens.”

On the Thursday before BlogHer 2008, I attended a fundraiser for Dress For Success San Francisco. It was a lovely event with what appeared to be a strong turnout.Laura Lowell, author of" 42 Rules for Working Moms" is one of the organization's supporters. She is donating $1 from the sale of each book to Dress For Success.

Last night was the San Francisco DFS annual fundraiser. I was lucky enough to attend with three of the contributing moms (Rule #14, Rule #15 and Rule #40). It was wonderful to see the women from the SF-PWG and to support such a wonderful organization.

One of the special guests was Nick Verreos from Project Runway Season 2. I have to admit that Project Runway is one of my guilty pleasures and I was thrilled to meet Nick. He complimented me on my dress ( “a nice little wrappy thing”) and asked if it was Diane Von Furstenburg. Ha! I proudly told him it was from TARGET. Hey girfriends…I’m a working mom with two kids…I shop at Target and love it!

Designer Nick Verreos,of Project Runway fame,offers up a detailed account of the San Francisco event.

If you go to The Dress For Success website, you won't find anything about the event. The
website for Dress for Success San Francisco is simply the
organization's static affiliate template page. It is removed on passion
or urgency.

While it's great that Nick and other bloggers wrote about the fundraiser, if Dress For
Success hopes to succeed in 2008 it needs to be more proactive. Most importantly, it needs to get involved in social media
.

Where is their blog? Why aren't they on Facebook and Twitter? How are
they getting the message out to their potential donors that help is
needed when they aren't really telling anyone how much help they need?

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Biscottis, A Bag of Books, And A Bruhaha over anUpgraded Gift Certificate

2008-07-31T21:28:23-05:00

They are moments that take us by such surprise that they are forever seared in our memories and recalled over and over again when we want to talk about extraordinary customer service.

They are rare moments so completely out of the norm that they become our own personal gold standard for defining great customer service.

Maybe it's because these are acts that we doubt we would do ourselves.

Maybe it's because we know they are done without a hidden agenda.

Whatever the reason, they are our go- to moment when we think about a wonderful customer service experience.

My moment took place in a corporate dining facility five years ago.I had been staying at the facility for several days and the head of the cafeteria noticed that I wasn't eating desserts.

He asked why and I mentioned in an off-handed way that after a big meal I prefer biscottis.

Two days later while my group was having dinner,Gus came out with a plate of homemade biscottis. Did I mention that he made all of the desserts from scratch?

I was touched. He had never made a biscotti before. For the rest of my stay, Gus brought out a plate of biscottis every night. And when it was time to return home, Gus was waiting with a care package of enough biscottis to last me a long time.

Gus died several years ago.I've spent the past two weeks at Gus's corporate facility.I've been thinking about him a lot. I haven't had dessert. There are no biscottis on the dessert table.

Laurie Kingston who blogs at Not Just About Cancer had a Gus moment while she was attending BlogHer in San Francisco. During the trip she had stopped by a book store to pick up some presents for her young sons. As she writes in her blog, in a somewhat inebriated state, the books were left in the back of taxi in Oakland.

My receipt didn't have the name of the taxi company (and I couldn't remember). I checked twice with hotel security (in case it had been found and dropped off there) and with the lost and found table for BlogHer.

By Saturday, I had given up and was trying to decide if I should return to City Lights and attempt to replace the presents I'd bought.

Then, on Saturday, as I was being miked for the session at which I was speaking, I heard my name being called. "I was your taxi driver," he said. And on his arm was a bag full of books.

"How did you find me?"

He made typing motions with his fingers. "Your name was on your credit card slip."

I was euphoric.

I asked him if I could hug him.

I offered him money (he refused).

Babz took his picture (which I won't post here because it doesn't do him justice).

And everyone made a big fuss.

"I was in the neighbourhood," he said, modestly.

But I know that he went to great lengths to track me down. He googled my name to find my blog. My last post had said that I was going to the BlogHer conference. I had linked to the BlogHer agenda, so he must have read it to find my name and the title of my session (I had told him that I was speaking).

He then came to the hotel, checked the directory and followed the labyrinthine corridors to find me.

I am so touched by what he did. I wish that there had been something I could have done (I could have insisted on giving him money but I felt like it would embarrass him). His name is Eduardo and he is a lovely man.

Are these customer service moments really that rare or do we simply enjoy talking about bad service more?

Over at Church of the Customer,Jackie Huba shared an incident where she had gone to a spa to purchase a gift certificate for a friend. The receptionist told Jackie that the fee was $51.50- a $1.50 handling fee.

Jackie asked her readers what they thought of the fee and if any one else had experienced it. Readers had a lot to say. One of the people who responded was the spa owner who said it really wasn't a handling fee but a fee to cover the costs of an upgraded certificate.

Many of the readers were not satisifed with that response. Doug comment:

Lessons I learned (and relearned) from this blog as a business owner:

1. People really hate the idea of handling fees - particularly for gift certificates.

2. People are more inclined to blog about or use a bad/annoying experience as an example (sorry, Jackie)

3. As a business owner, I need to regularly search on my business name to clear up misunderstanding and address service issues that I may not been made aware of.

4. Don't give out gift certificates. It seems that many commenters have preconceived notions about them; they may not be as benificial to my marketing effort as I would like.

5. Treat all my customers as potential reviewers/bloggers.

6. Even after the apology/explanation, some of the readers won't believe it or get it. In fact, the actual blog will probably be searchable forever, and people will have the opportunity to half-read the post and get misinformation about your product or service.

Do you have a magical customer service story. Or are you of the ilk to share cusomer service nighmares?

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

The Yin and Yang of the Increase In The Minimum Wage

2008-07-27T19:01:40-05:00

When I started my professional career in 1973, I had no idea what the minimum wage was. I just knew that the wages I was getting -- my infamous $3.25-- was impossible to live on. Turns out the minimum wage in 1973 was $1.60.

Money Musings just ran a comparison of costs of things in 1973 to 2007 based on the minimum wage.

I thought it might be interesting to look at prices of some common items back in 1973, and then compare those prices to similar items (well, as similar as one could get) in 2007. But I wanted to go one step further: I wanted to see how prices in both periods related to the minimum wage that prevailed at the time. How would prices in both periods look, say, when taken as multiples of their respective minimum wages?

The Federal Minimum Wage is now $6.55. That's a jump from $5.85 an hour.
Depending which state you live in, the Federal Minimum Wage will not really have an impact because 25 states already have laws requiring a minimum pay that is higher than the federal Minimum Wage.

A complete listing of the states and their minimum wage is available at The Specialty Board Sports Industry blog aka BRA BUZZ. If you are a minimum wage worker the best state to work is Washington where the minimum wage is $8.07 and indexed for inflation.
According to The Consumerist,

only 1.7 million Americans rely on the federal government to set a wage floor. Of that group, only 20% are teenagers working part time and summer jobs.

The number impacted by the minimum wage surprised me. I assumed it was much larger. However, what really started me was this:

The nation's top financial minds can't tell us how the minimum wage effects the economy, but we're sure our beloved cadre of ever-cheerful commenters not only knows for certain, but is willing to share.

And they were right. Emotions run high on both sides of the minimum wage issue.

KrispyKrink was one of the commenters.

It's kind of a double edged sword. I like seeing a good minimum wage for those that are disabled that want to actually be part of the work force. They have bills just like everyone else, and $6 in this day just ain't gonna cut it.[...]The bad part, last time CA raised the limit the businesses I know either cut hours for staff or flat out fired people so they can pay those they kept. In the restaurant business this equates to higher price for the customer and less employees to cover the floor. Some businesses end up firing higher paid middle and upper management to keep the hourly workers, so the next time you have a fraked up time at Sears this is why.

EconomistMom writes My Daughter Got A Raise Yesterday

as Virginia “observes” the federal minimum wage, which went up yesterday from $5.85/hour to $6.55/hour. With the 15-20 hours/week she works, that’s at most $14 extra/week, which is still nothing in terms of the “true value” our family places on her B-R employment from getting that family discount on the ice cream…and even the occasional flubbed-up ice cream cake we get for free! Which goes to show you that sometimes the biggest work incentive effects–perverse or otherwise–are unrelated to the wage rate.

While the increase may not be significant to a teenager, Stephanie Anagnoson who blogs as Ms. Theologian at Surviving The Workday

I suppose it’s actually more lame to simply never increase the minimum wage, but an increase to $6.55/hr? Energy costs are up 25%, food costs are up 5% and the minimum wage is up $.70 an hour (12% of its pitiful $5.85/hr). That could be an entire $3.50 a day before taxes.

The new minimum is less than the inflation-adjusted 1997 level of $7.02, and far below the inflation-adjusted level of $10.06 from 40 years ago, according to a Labor Department inflation calculator.

Seriously. Lame.

Meanwhile,The NFIB, (The National Federation of Independent Businesses) is painting a gloomy picture of the wage increase.

"Due to the weak economy, the Fed is trying to fight inflation and job loss at the same time. Raising the minimum wage makes both tasks more difficult. Business owners will now have to find a way to deal with rising food prices, energy costs and labor costs simultaneously. Firms will try to pass on some of these costs in the form of higher prices for consumers, which won't help inflation concerns. And, other firms will reduce opportunities for unskilled workers to get a job. Neither scenario is good for small business owners or the general economy."

Just asked my 19- year- old daughter what she thought of the minimum wage issue. She is a wise young woman.
She said, " A couple of years ago when the minimum wage as around $5.00, the government said the liveable wage was $12 an hour.When corporations and the government support a system where people get paid less than the livable wage it it says we don't care. " She added, "The minimum wage needs to be the same as the livable wage."

Now there's a concept.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Is Twitter The Answer To Customer Service Woes?

2008-07-24T15:43:33-05:00

Here is the tweet From Tracey Lee Wallace that got the attention of Comcast's digital detective, that got the attention of ABC News, that gave a bunch of people the idea that they should start complaining about theirComcast service on Twitter.

"Damn Internet down in my house. Arrrrrgh. Can't fix until Thursday. Shoot me."

What you don't see in the original post is the name of her service provider. Some assumptions here. Since reading someone's Tweets is like eavesdropping on a phone conversation --you only hear one side of it--- I'm not sure how the rest of the conversation went between Tracey and her friends.

But, at some point in the Tweet conversation the word Comcast came up,and when it did, it came on the radar of Tweeter Comcastcares. There are actually 10 Comcast cares Tweeters aka as digital detectives. One of them contacted Tracey and before you could say tweet tweet....

From there the media picked up on the story.Boston.com was one of the first to write about Comcast's tweeting. Then this week ABC did a similar story featuring Tracey Lee Wallace.

Millions of people call customer service every day, yet few are
satisfied with the responses they get. What does a frustrated consumer
need to do to get prompt help?

Tweet.

That's right, tweet. Twitter is the newest social networking
Internet site that asks its 50,000 users only one question when they
log on: "What are you doing? The trick is to respond in 140 characters
or less, which keeps posts short and pithy.

Adele McAlear, a Montreal marketer who blogs at Marketing Monster thinks that ABC is actually setting up new Twitter users to be disappointed.

Adele did some tracking to see how many new Tweeters joined to chat with comcast

Watching search.twitter.com (formerly Summize) in the minutes that followed the ABC report showed a flood of new Twitter users signing up with expectations of their customer service woes being heard. Here are some examples of first tweets, all of which used the tell-tale generic avatar of a newbie:
acromack: just watched the abc news report on twitter and how companies are paying attention. wow, actually listening to the customer for once?!?
pmitch: I just watched ABC news and learned about Twitter. I have a gripe I would like to air.
zugzwang926: Just saw ABC’s segment on Twitter, case study–Comcast. No surprise there! Switching to ATT ASAP. Comcast is arrogant and uncaring.
uandygun: twitter was just on the abc news. They say got a problem tell twitter. All big companys looking in
[...]
I feel sorry for Comcast. Their ten “digital detectives” are going to be very busy keeping up with the new complaints channel. But, thankfully there is a (mostly) reliable search engine, because you can be almost certain these new Twitter users won’t know that they’ll be seen faster by using @comcastcares.

Shannon Yelland is the Online Marketing Manager for Sitemasher --a SaaS-based platform for building, managing and optimizing websites. They also are on Twitter. In fact when you go to their community support page, one of the first things you find is their Twitter updates.

As part of her blog for Sitemasher, Seeding The Web, Shannon offered this to companies who may be thinking about utilizing Twitter as part of their marketing mix.

What Twitter can be used for:

Pull marketing tactic vs. push.

Quick answers to random questions – you can throw a question out and anyone can answer you.

Telling others about breaking news within the industry.

Promoting your company’s name, sharing your blog posts or news.

Saying weird stuff (with your company’s name mentioned for a subtle plug of course!).

Samples of real-life opportunities:

From my experience so far at Sitemasher, we’ve had potential customers contact us and tell us that they found out about Sitemasher via Twitter. Others have given us feedback that they found us on Facebook, saw the tweets about Sitemasher on our status and clicked through on our blog links to find out more about our website builder/content management platform (CMS). Sitemasher has also seen increases in its blog traffic, Twitter followers and friends requests in Facebook. In the end, it increased the communities that we’re involved with, which can also increase new customer leads as we’re tapping into a larger audience with the same likes.

One of the things that many non Twitters say is "I don't get it." The MoPR Blog was no different until he had his ah ha moment .It was last October when the San Diego area was having terrible wildfires and as he writes he wanted up-to date local news on areas wher his family was located. He just didn't feel that traditional media was cutting it.

Enter Twitter.

Local San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV launched a Twitter account that provided detailed and useful information on evacuation centers, where fires were, and how many fires were accumulating.

This was my personal “ah-ha” moment on the value of Twitter. With the San Diego fire example as a frame of reference, it was easy to see the value that Twitter held for companies, organizations and media that could use it to communicate with people hungry for specific information. Granted, the fire example is an extreme one with hundreds of posts in a 48-hour period; but it’s a good example of reaching thousands of readers with one, simple 140-character post.

Companies that want to extend, or even protect, their brand should view the San Diego Fire Twitter story as an example of the power of one-to-many communication that comes from Twitter. Twitter lets companies connect directly with their customers, broadcast their message to a massive audience, and even nip problems or rumors in the bud with direct and clear communication to those seeking it.

On a related Twitter note. While I have been tweeting for several months I discovered that I was not doing it effectively. I was under the impression that you were not supposed to engage people in conversation on Twitter. So, for the past several months I post and just wait for stuff to happen. You know the rest.

So a big shout out to all the great BlogHers who attended the Unconference who took the time to
tutor, mentor and inspire all of us wannabe Tweeters.
A special shout out to Geekmommy. True, she shared that she probably spends four hours a day on Twitter which is way more than most of us are willing to devote.

For Lucretia, it has been time well spent. It has opened the door for business opportunities that she would never have had,and it has dramatically increased the traffic to because now she has a following on Twitter who care about what she says.

For me, I am going to try to Tweet more often, reach out and follow the conversation, participate in the conversation, and hopefully when I go to BlogHer 09 I will have a whole new group of BlogHer friends. So if you Twitter, I'd like to be your friend.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

It Has Drama,Good Gals and Villainesses- So Where Are All The Personal Finance BlogHers?

2008-07-20T09:42:52-05:00

This may come as a surprise from someone who is a Contributing Editor for Business, Personal Finance and Career, but I don't like to talk about money.

Truth be told, I avoid the topic at all costs. I hate money. Yes, I like to use money. But I hate what it does to people. It divides. It judges.It makes people who have great personal success feel like failures.

Money causes insomnia, tears, heartbreak and humiliation.

I have lots of drama around money.

As someone who has been a business owner for the majority of my career,I have had great success and horrific defeat.
As a small business owner (that is code for cash flow is the bane of my existence),I have described my life as walking a tight wire without a safety net.

I am always one client budget cut away from disaster.

And so, it was with some trepidation that I agreed to host a MeetUp for Personal Finance&Career.

Riding down the escalator from the Macy's Closing Event on Saturday evening, Patricia Jenkins, who blogs about Travel for Uptake,
asked how my Birds of A Feather Session on Personal Finance and Career went.

"It was a small, intimate group, " I said. " But we had a fabulous conversation."

She then said she had wanted to attend but there were two other competing sessions.

So it goes at a great conference. Lots of competition. Kind of like running a business.You can learn a lot from your competition.

I didn't do a head count but we definitely had under 15 people. We had some PR folks from Edelman who have worked with Wal-Mart on trying to figure out what kind of personal finance advice Wal-Mart customers want--evidently not advice on how to save money at the grocery store. They have much bigger issues to contend with.

There was a contingency from WiseBread and Allese Thomson, community manager for Wesabe. If I didn't mention you here, it's only because I didn't get your card-- please give a shout out in the comment section.

Given the economy, given that money is often at the root of marital stress, given that decisions to stay at a job,leave a job, or start a business all center around MONEY, it's ironic that so few people want to talk about it.

What it came down to,according to the group in the room, was that words matter and when it come sto this particular topic, the words don't resonate.

The group suggested that the problem wasn't the topic of money,or even strategies to manage it the main problem was with the words Personal Finance-they're a little too sterile. A little too rigid. Very much too masculine.

Is it just the name? Is it the topic? Or, is it a little of both? Intuitively, money management is a topic that should be getting lots of eyeballs. Yet, for many of us there is a lot of shame around money. There's that debt. There's that dwindling 401(k) and the mortgage that is now higher than the value of the home.

The Gen Xers in the room said they don't know who to trust. How do you vet a personal finance blogger to make sure their advice is something you should trust?

In addition to their qualifications, The Gen Xers have some concerns that advice that may have been solid in the 1990s is no longer relevant in a whacked out economy.

So for those of you who either couldn't attend BlogHer 08, or had other pressing issues during our MeetUp time slot, I want to hear from you.

Tell us what you want to read about regarding this thing called personal finance aka money management aka the root of all evil aka money makes the world go around.

Oh, and I do have a theory why there was such a small contingency of personal finance BlogHers. They not only have a budget they probably stick to it. And, they probably have conferences like BlogHer in the discretionary expense column instead of the fixed expense column.

Just sayin.

Image Credit: CafePress

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

No One's In The Kitchen With Dinah. Meal Assembly Business Looking Like Burnt Toast

2008-07-18T00:02:25-05:00

On paper it sounded financially delicious. When asked, moms said having a family dinner was important. They said they really, truly wanted to feed their families healthy, delicious affordable meals but they couldn’t because they just didn't have the time, what with work, soccer,and traffic jams.

Enter the meal assembly business – a concept to relieve moms of their meal guilt and at the same time provide families with delicious, healthy affordable meals. Brilliant!

How could it be anything but a profitable business venture?

Forget about those frozen meals we purchased at Trader Joe’s and Costco’s over sized chicken pot pie, the meal assembly evangelists believed that meal assembly was a paradigm shifting trend the likes of which the kitchen hasn’t seen since the introduction of the microwave.

And, for a while it looked like they may have been right. In cities throughout the country, meal assembly franchises opened. Depending on where you live.. you may have seen them. As of July 1, 2008 there were 385 meal prep companies -- with 1176 outlets.

Yet that is a far cry from the number proponents envisioned just a few short years ago. It turns out the that the industry seemed to peak in 2006. Some of the industries big wigs originally projefted there would be 3000 meal prep outlets by 2010. They've now readjusted those projections to 1,935. Meal Assembly Watch is skeptical.

Meal assembly has been on the decline for over a year now and that was before the cost of ingredients nearly doubled and the economy nose dived. But yet somehow, meal assembly will once again show explosive growth and open another 800 stores (nearly two a day) in a little over a year? Or let’s say we go until the end of 2010 to try and hit this number, it’s still one store opening just about every day from now until December 2010 (365 days x 2 years=730 stores). But these new figures don’t take into account any of the stores that are currently in the process of closing or will close by the end of this year. Once again I ask how is this forecast even remotely possible? Is there any sense of reality to that statement? People are walking away in droves from this business and sadly many of them are carrying $250k in debt with them. I really would like to know under what set of conditions this forecast will ever come to fruition.

Working under the premise that preparing meals for your family is both therapeutic and the right thing to do, the original meal assembly formula had moms –encouraged to come with friends so they could chat, giggle and cheer each other on through the process –spend around two hours preparing a week’s worth of family meals.

In many places this was by appointment only. In other words you couldn't just drop in and prep,you had to schedule it into your blackberry.

But instead of being a kitchen changing trend, meal assembly appears to be more about novelty and less about sustainability. Growing up my family used to go to Northern New Jersey every summer to visit my cousins. One year we went to a trampoline park – I had never seen anything like it and for that entire visit all I wanted to do was go back to the trampoline and jump to my hearts content.

Every day of that visit we begged and pleaded to go back to the trampoline spark just one more time. They told us “ next year.” The next summer , it was gone.
Like that trampoline park, It seems that no one was actually jumping up and down for the opportunity to spend hours preparing meals in someone else's kitchen.

Many tried meal assembly once or twice. I did. Actually, I didn’t go to the full blown assembly plant. Instead, I went to the grab and go satellite facility where my only task was to decide what I wanted to eat and then take the frozen version of the meal off the shelf.
It was kind of like going to the grocery store. If I remember correctly the food was okay but it wasn't fabulous.

In explaining the rise and fall of the meal assembly sector, the Meal Assembly Watch suggests,

Meal assembly doesn’t fit into a consumer’s mindset. And it’s not from a lack of education or media hype, they simply don’t care. Even in perfect locations with perfect demographics it doesn’t work. The ideas of eating together as a family, eating healthier, losing weight, learning to cook, spending time with friends, a girl’s night out, charitable donations, meals for the sick and elderly have all been used as selling points and none of them work! People know about this idea, they just aren’t interested. And what kind of business are you running if people try your product once or twice and then you never hear from them again? Your turnover rate is constant, but the number of people you can reach is finite; not a great business endeavor.

For the hundreds of women entrepreneurs who invested in meal assembly businesses,meal assembly is turning out to be less of a paradigm shift and more of an overcooked business concept.

Today, the meal assembly business has left a bitter taste in entrepreneurs who are left with massive debt and shattered dreams of the entrepreneurial life.
Meal Assembly Watch is currently running a poll to see just how much money franchisees have lost.

.
Franchise Pick dished out a bit of satire on the problems facing the industry. In the process, the blog skewered the CEO of one of the country’s main meal assembly franchises… Dream Diners,

Why is the Meal Prep / Meal Assembly Kitchen Franchise Failing? Two words:
GREEDY FRANCHISEES.
That’s right. Moneygrubbing, materialistic franchise owners who don’t care what they’ve got to cook or who they’ve got to feed to get their oven mitts on more of their filthy lucre.
These avaricious entrepreneurs tricked noble companies like Dream Dinners into letting them invest $250,000 to $370,000 under the false pretense of wanting to serve their communities. In actuality, their insidious secret plot all along was to build profitable businesses! In the words of Dream Dinners co-founder Stephanie Allen: “Their bottom line was the dollar.”
In a interview with the Charlotte Observer, Ms. Allen did indeed say tha thte businesses was getting fried because

Q. You’ve had some stores close. What would you attribute that to?
Poor execution. Not having owners whose No. 1 reason for getting into the business was to take care of and serve their communities. Their bottom line was the dollar.

In response to the declining business opportunities with meal assmebly, Dinner by Design unveiled a new business concept last Thursday. In its reincarnation the company will have less to do with meal assembly and more to do with meal delivery ( how much were we paying for a gallon of gas in February?)
Some of the changes include delivering meals to day cares, schools and businesses, as well as take and bake and expanded business hours.

I've heard of this concept before. You call a restaurant and you ask, " Do you deliver?" It's a keeper.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Is Desk Rage An Actual Trend or Just a Contrived Story During The Dog Days Of Summer?

2008-07-13T15:44:40-05:00

Earlier this week, Ellen Wulfhorst, writing for Reuters reported on a supposed new trend threatening the workplace. It's called Desk Rage.

Nearly half of U.S. workers in America report yelling and verbal abuse on the job,with roughly a quarter saying it has driven them to tears, research has shown.
Other research showed one-sixth of workers reported anger at work has led to property damage, while a tenth reported physical violence and fear their workplace might not be safe.

"It's a total disaster," said Anna Maravelas, author of "How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress." "Rudeness, impatience, people being angry -- we used to do that kind of stuff at home but at work, we were professional. Now it's almost becoming trendy to do it at work.

"It was something we did behind closed doors," she said. "Now people are losing their sense of embarrassment over it."

This is the kind of story that bloggers love to share.
There's just one eensy-beensy problem. This is not a spanking new story --it's a very recycled story. Just type in Desk Rage in Google and you'll get over 5 million hits.

Most interestingly,one of the top five results is an article dated July 2001 from the Monitor on Psychology. The article, written by Jennifer Daw screams the headline: Road rage, air rage, and now'desk rage."

According to a recent phone survey of 1,305 American employees performed by Integra Realty Resources, stress leads to physical violence in one in 10 work environments. And almost half of those surveyed said yelling and verbal abuse is common in their workplaces.
Dubbed "desk rage" by the popular media--and known to psychologists as counterproductive or deviant workplace behavior--this behavior includes acts of aggression, hostility, rudeness and physical violence.

If I'm punching the dots correctly, that 50% figure reported in Reuters last week is a figure that has been floating around since before 9/11.

The story resurfaced again in 2004. This time it was Kate Lorenz of Careerbuilder.com in association with CNN.com who offered up helpful hints to avoid or deal with a desk rage situation.

Those hints include:

When a clash occurs, take control of your emotions

take the time to consider what happened that prompted your colleague to fly off the handle

Encourage everyone to breathe deeply

If the feud has been going on for a while, take it outside the office

Keep your tantrum-throwing colleague or associate at arm's length

If you see a coworker yelling at a colleague or calling fellow employees names, his behavior should be considered bullying and must be reported.

Does anyone ever really follow these helpful hints? Personally, it sounds like a bunch of hooey to me.

Not too long ago I was teaching a leadership course that had a case study where the employees had to say what they would do if an employee picked up a metal object from their bosses desk and said, " I'm going to take you out."
Not surprisingly nearly 100% of the people answered the way their employer wanted them to -- do not stop at go, report them to HR immediately.

However, in our conversation I would often change some of the factors in the case study. Here's what I would add:
What if you had worked with the employee for twenty years, knew they had a temper but also knew they were not violent? Oh, and for good measure, you totally understood why they were so angry.

Usually more than 60% of the class said in that situation, they would not report the person to HR but have a chat with them instead.

Given a hypothetical, people nearly always say they will report that behavior but when push comes to shove, people react very differently.

And so goes part of the problem. Most employees would rather tolerate bad behavior than report it to HR and get their co-worker in trouble. Or, they don't report it because the person throwing the temper tantrum is their boss and they are afraid of retaliation.

Writing about Desk rage this week Cold Cakes, also cited very old research conducted by Caravan Opinion Research in the year 2000.

Rising stress levels can cause seriously inappropriate behavior. 13% of surveyed workers claimed to have personally committed, or have observed co-workers commit, an act that would be described as "desk rage"--angry or destructive outbursts during work time because of the high levels of stress.

So this desk rage has been simmering like a tempest in a teapot for at least eight years, and now all of a sudden people are saying it's a new phenomenon. What's with that? Maybe its getting legs because people think that there should be an increase in desk rage.

Hey,I know lots of people who have been angry at work for a long long time.
Desk rage is not new but like the bra burning myth of the women's lib movement, it seems to be catching steam because it sounds like it sound be true. Of course people are angrier now --it costs more to get to work, their jobs are insecure and oh, their 401(k) is shrinking and they can't afford to pay the mortgage.

And like the bra burning myth of the early 70s, once the idea gets firmly planted in people's minds it begins to take on a life of its own.

Here is the headline from the original story from Reuters,
Desk Rage spoils workplace for many Americans

And here is how its getting reported in the Korean, OhmyNews
International,
Desk Rage supersedes Road Rage
Employees no longer safe in the workplace

Desk Rage is evidently not just a US phenomenon, in 2006 the Russian agency Promo Interactive -- dozhivi.ru created either a tv spot of a video designed to go viral for Actimel that features Desk Rage. The concept behind the video is---and I'm relying on a loose Google translation from the Russian written website here,

Actimel strengthens the body's protective system, office clerks therefore stress to them not so afraid and they still leave a chance to live up to.

Kind of just makes you look forward to going to the office tomorrow.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Are Business Blogs Really As Boring As Watching Paint Dry?

2008-07-10T17:14:54-05:00

So says the analysis of The Wall Street Journal based on a report from Forrester Research-- total cost of the actual report is $379 so I won't be commenting on the complete report.

Shout out to Toby Bloomberg who wrote about this on Diva Marketing

The conclusion was that " ... most B2B blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” A few stats from the WSJ article:
74% rarely get comments
70% stuck to business or technical topics
56% simply regurgitated press releases or other already-public news
53% of B2B marketers say that blogging has marginal significance or is irrelevant to their strategies

What do you think of this? - ".. the number of new
corporate blogs among the companies Forrester tracks has dropped from
36 in 2006 to just three in 2008."

As someone who spends the majority of her blogging life covering business culture, those statistics made me realize that as a blogger covering business I have spent scant little time reading business blogs and I very rarely, if ever, leave a comment on a business blog.

Typically, I catch one when a company is in the news and I want to see what the "company line is." But on a regular basis, I have not spent time using business blogs for inspiration and/or information.

That's probably because I'm less interested in the products of a particular business and more interested in their culture.

Very few business blogs talk about their culture. They are usually all business. However, if they are providing their particular group of customers and target audience with important information that will help them be more productive and successful, then I believe these blogs are worthwhile.

Forrester reviewed blogs from 90 Fortune 500 and high technology companies including Adobe, Microsoft, IBM, and Fair Issac. Since I have not read the report, I have also not seen the reviews.

The chances that I would normally visit any of these blogs would only occur if I did a search on Google and their blog popped up as a good place to find an answer.

The other thing about business blogs is that they are so hard to find. I know in the past year I have been to the MacDonald's blog but when I went to their website I couldn't find it. After several key word searches, I finally found it. It's here-- McDonald's corporate responsibility blog.

However, if I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, I would never have found it.
They don't link to their blog on their homepage...just their podcasts which I was not in the mood to listen to.

Same thing with Adobe.When I went to their home page if the word blog is on it, it's written in code.

A quick jaunt over to Microsoft and same thing. Nothing to guide me to their blog.

Maybe that's the reason businesses can't get no satifisfaction from their blogs because they are impossible to find.What's with that?

Bonnie in sales/marketing at Ant Hill writes that Business Blogs are Tough but There is Hope!

A business blog has been much tougher for me to write and maintain than my personal blog. I can not be as spontaneous and take the same risks for fear of alienating customers or being off-message. I was off to a good start when I realized something was missing - READERS! Self doubt started leaking in. What if I am spending time on my business blog that could be better spent on other parts of the business?
[...]
But today I was given hope! I had a new customer place an order for a co-worker condolence. She found me on the internet last night. In addition to perusing my website, she took time to read my blog. She especially enjoyed my story about the request for a basket full of breath fresheners.
Turns out our website was compared with two other competing ones and won out because of our blog. The customer could see that we care about our clients. This is just what I needed to hear! A blog can make a difference!

What was most telling about the Forrester survey is that the businesses themselves say that the results from their blogs are marginal. What are the measures? What did they want to achieve with a blog when they started? Is there a particular audience that is gravitating to the blog?

Finally, how is the blog performing compared to their other communication and outreach strategies? Are the businesses satisfied with those vehicles? Or are those results marginal as well?

Maybe the real problem is with the attitude of the people who create the blogs. Maybe they don't have the passion about their business to pass it forward to their target audiences.

Passion in blogging is a beautiful thing.

Elana writes passionately about business culture at FunnyBusiness