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Companies go public to raise capital, usually for expansion. Manufacturers build factories. Retailers fund new stores. That’s good for them and good for the economy. These businesses use capital investment for production, innovation, sales, and hiring.

But expansion doesn’t appear to be Facebook’s motivation.

If you read the letter from Mark Zuckerberg that was included in the SEC filing, you may notice that there is a lot of talk about Facebook’s mission, but very little about why an IPO is necessary or beneficial for the company. Is that by design? Continue reading “Why is Facebook Going Public? The answer isn’t obvious.”

Apple recently released a report listing its major suppliers and detailing labor conditions among those suppliers in China. Conditions at Chinese factories, which have led to numerous suicides, had already been documented by others, from the New York Times to performance artist Mike Daisy. Apple, the second-largest company in the world by market cap, appears finally to be acknowledging problems:

• 62% of suppliers weren’t compliant with working-hours limits.
• 32% weren’t compliant with hazardous-substance management practices.
• 35% failed to meet Apple’s standards to prevent worker injuries. (Source: Wall Street Journal)

It’s good to see Apple making an effort to monitor and improve working conditions at its factories. But the company needs to do more. Those of us who own Apple products must insist that they do. As a result, we need to expect – no, we need to volunteer – to pay higher prices. Why? Continue reading ““Dear Apple, I insist that you raise your prices…””

Everyone has a gift to give. I truly believe that. When my grandfather, LeRoy Oesch, died last week in St. Louis at the age of 96, it seemed fitting to think about the gifts he gave to those of us who knew him. To me he offered two: the gift of hard work and the gift of generosity.

When he was a young man growing up in the Great Depression, there were times when he was the only one in his family who brought in a paycheck. Paid work was hard to come by in the 1930s, and what he earned had to help put food on the table for a family with 11 children. Continue reading “Hard Workin’ Man”

It’s surprising to me how few companies know how to apologize. The problem isn’t limited to the executives of corporate America, of course. I believe it’s endemic to our society, and perhaps no more clearly than among those who should be our role models. From Barry Bonds to Brett Favre, from Bill Clinton to Anthony Weiner, our public figures seem to prefer denial (some might call it lying) to acceptance of responsibility (at least initially). And when they do apologize, as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings did – sort of – that admission of responsibility so often comes across as insincere.

But criticizing corporate executives (and celebrities) is not the focus of this blog post. Instead, I want to use this space to highlight and celebrate one company that in my opinion got it right: FedEx.

This video achieves what I believe are the 7 essential steps of a true apology Continue reading “How to Apologize? See FedEx.”

We did it! I set a goal of raising $5,000 for charity: water, and together we raised $7,160! To everyone who contributed – and you know who you are – I just want to say, “You rock!”

An anniversary is a good time to reflect. As I approached the first anniversary of Bullet Marketing and thought about the previous year, I realized I had a lot to be thankful for. In this blog post I’ll attempt to say thank you to a few people who have been especially helpful to me over the past year or two. Continue reading “Reflecting on the People Who Have Helped Me Along the Way”

 

With this post I want to introduce you to the three businesses that have generously contributed to charity: water as part of the campaign I’m running. When making the decision to donate to charity: water, these sponsors knew that the project was not a “business opportunity,” something I was careful to emphasize. I imagine that what motivated them was the same thing that motivates you, me, and anyone else who gives to charity – a desire to do some good in the world, and a conviction that we each have a responsibility to give something back to the greater community we belong to. Continue reading “Businesses Doing Good in the World: Introducing the Sponsors”

Their name says it all.

Catherine Veraghen and Wes Evans founded happy, inc., with the intent to create a different kind of relationship with their clients. Having seen too many client/agency relationships go sour, Catherine and Wes knew that the traditional “full service” agency model did not always serve the best interests of the client. “We saw how these agencies retrofit the client problem to meet their in-house skill set… and how frustrating it was for clients,” says Catherine. “And we thought, it doesn’t have to be this way.” Continue reading “Happy, inc: Making Sustainability a Core Value”

Ed. note: This brief profile of Homonym is one of a series of three that provide a little background on the companies that sponsored my charity: water campaign.

When Rob Cardoso launched Homonym, it was an opportunity to synthesize a number of disciplines to develop creative solutions to client’s information problems. Ultimately what Homonym does is design information to help people get to their destination – whether walking in a public space or building or navigating a website. “We design information to make everybody’s life a little easier, wherever they encounter that information,” says Rob. “That’s what gets me going every day.” Continue reading “Homonym: Helping People Find Their Way”

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Ed. note: This brief profile of Stormship is one of a series of three that provide a little background on the companies that sponsored my charity: water campaign.

When you run a small business with just a few employees, you quickly learn the importance of working together as a team. That’s certainly the case with Mike Brennan and Anne Damphousse, whom I’ve known since I worked at EMC. As the two principals at Stormship, they consider their business “a caring and compact creative team.” As a former client and now business partner, I would certainly agree. Continue reading “Stormship: Understanding the Value of Teamwork”