As if he were not an inspiring enough speaker alone, at the end of his first speech to Congress Tuesday night Barack Obama did something that every CEO should take note of – he took the time to not only shake the hands of named Congressmen and women, but seemingly as important to him he stopped shook hands with and even engaged in brief conversation with the “pages” who had attended.

This is the leader of the free world and nobody had to remind him that those young pages were a huge part of the movement which elected him. Nobody had to explain to him what a thrill it would be to be 20something and have the President shake your hand and ask what you thought of his speech. Which is why it was both natural and so very classy when Obama took the time to seek out the pages. Continue Reading…

Changing the culture of any business is a difficult task but try setting a policy aimed at changing the culture of your business when your employees are for the most part twenty-somethings each of whom is making millions of dollars a year in salary alone.  That was the task that faced the National Basketball Association three years ago when commissioner David Stern first implemented a NBA Player Dress Code.

Despite what you think of the NBA, the league was at a cross-roads after the 2004-2005 season.  It was a league that had not had Michael Jordan on the marquee for years, did not have a superstar to replace him with (even Kobe Bryant had suffered public indiscretions) and to top it off the Indian Pacers and Detroit Pistons were involved in a brawl which started on the basketball court but ended up in the stands. That incident caused nine players to be suspended without pay for a total of 146 games (which led to $10 million in salary being lost by the players), five players were charged with assault, and all five were eventually sentenced to a year on probation and community service. Five fans were also legally charged, and one fan received a lifetime ban from attending Pistons games.

For a business that was trying to attract large corporate sponsorships, television deals and have individual arenas sell off naming rights the image of NBA players as thugs did not exactly gel. Continue Reading…

Dear Starbucks,

I was recently reading commentary by your CEO Howard Shultz specifically regarding the ways you are going to be adding “everyday affordability” to your menu this year. As a concerned marketer (sorry I am not a coffee drinker) I thought it was incumbent upon me to write to you and share my worry that your plan is going to alienate your loyalists while not netting you enough “value” customers to impact the bottom line in anything but a negative way.

See my fear is a selfish one, although I do not drink your coffee, I do regularly take advantage of your free Wi-Fi and often find myself drinking an overpriced water while attempting to sound intelligent on my blog. If your plans backfire as I fear they will, you will inevitably close more stores and then where will I lounge when I need to leave my small apartment?

As I know you are a company that listens to its customers I wanted to write you this open letter with the hope that it will help you remain open in my neighborhood. You are a staple at this point with your undiscovered musical artists playing and random takes on life printed on your recycled cups. I’ve laid out my concerns more fully below so thank you for reading. Continue Reading…