Don’t Drink and Drive, Unless You Drink 12-Ounce Diet Cokes and Drive a Hybrid

We’ll, we dodged a bullet by leasing rather than buying our Toyota Highlander four years ago. We just turned it in, and even though we got hit with a $1200 disposal cost (including “excessive” wear and tear), at least we don’t have to worry about $4.00+ gasoline costs now that Karen is driving a [...]

Breaking Down Barriers in Order to Maximize the Value of IT

In my MBA courses, we have been discussing how technology can help accelerate the value of an organization’s effectiveness, and this past weekend we heard two excellent presentations on how both Chipotle’s and Target Corporation do this. There is an excellent article in today’s Wall Street Journal that discusses how organizations can better utilize [...]

Two Men and a Truck on Fox Business

Two Men and a Truck’s original Two Men, Jon and Brig Sorber were interviewed on Fox Business this week.  Their firm was recently ranked #1 in moving by Entrepreneur Magazine.  Here’s the video.
Great interview, guys, and congrats on the wonderful recognition!
Aneil

Wachovia Needs to Restore its Customers’ Trust Pronto

I’m sick with the flu, despite getting my annual flu shot, so perhaps I’m not being as understanding as I should be, but this latest tale of fraud has made me even sicker. According to the New York Times:
Internal Wachovia e-mail, for example, show that high-ranking employees at the nation’s fourth-largest bank frequently warned [...]

To watch Katie Couric, or not?

Jon Friedman wonders today if it is time to move Katie Couric back to a morning program. Despite getting my doctorate in a journalism school, I don’t necessarily feel like an expert on this subject. But, over the winter break, we did finally have time to watch the evening news. Aneil instinctively [...]

Scoble is right…Microsoft’s Vista Laptop giveway makes a lot of sense

The Scobleizer writes today in support of Microsoft giving away free laptops to bloggers loaded with Windows Vista, as others vehemently disagree.
How is this not trustworthy on the part of Microsoft? It is actually foward-thinking on their part to understand their consumer well enough to know that opinion-leaders might not be able to afford [...]

Trust in car companies includes CSR…

A  global survey of automotive companies by TNS Automotive asked consumers to rank trustworthy companies. Toyota and Honda ranked first.
What is a nice surprise is that consumers are seeing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on the part of automotive firms as an important aspect of their trustworthiness. That is, do they treat their employees [...]

Brand Trust runs both ways…

The American Diabetes Association is coming under criticism for allowing food companies to use its logo whose products might actually contribute to diabetes. The ADA, however, claims that it is being more vigilent about whom it allows to claim an affiliation, saying
“I want to be able to sleep at night,” said Vaneeda Bennett, the [...]

Advertising Industry has image problem…

In Ad Age today there is a poll asking whether or not people think the advertising industry has an image problem. This poll comes as a result of the report that the Advertising industry association hiring a PR firm to help improve its image with the general public. When I logged my opinion, [...]

In response to Media Technology Futures…

In today’s Media Technology Futures, Lydia Loizides writes about technology and asks if technology changes consumer behaviors or if consumer behaviors adapt to technology. She asks,
As opposed to trying to force our content and our brands into a “new media” technology platform because our customers have it at their disposal, why not look at [...]