February 2009
In the endless prelude to Super Bowl XLIII, NBC’s Matt Lauer interviewed President Barack Obama live from the White House. The interview was clearly expected in its content – no breaking news or new information.
A welcome surprise was the president in a button-down shirt without a tie or a jacket in a national network interview. It was a rare combination of unexpected and completely on point.
Being cool has always been part of Obama’s appeal. He gave the impression that after the interview he was going to sit down and enjoy watching the Super Bowl like millions of Americans.
Give him and his handlers credit for matching the image with the moment – or maybe just being his cool self.
February 2009
Blogs are the most prevalent part of social media. Technorati, the top blog search engine, counts more than 130 million of them.
For years, companies have had policies governing the proper use of e-mail and the Internet. It’s time to seriously consider adding a corporate blogging/commenting policy.
In short, the policy should require all employees to disclose their company affiliation any time they blog or comment on a blog about issues of interest to the company. For example, an employee at an architecture firm building a new convention center would have to disclose his employer when commenting on a blog about the project’s viability.
The disclosure is important for two reasons. The first is liability. Cisco was recently sued for comments one of its researchers posted on a blog about patents. The company modified its policy in response to the suit.
The second is transparency. Many important debates are taking place in the blogosphere. Companies have every right to participate in those discussions as long as employees disclose their interest. If people discover a lack of transparency, they will be quick to condemn the company in a very public and permanent way.
February 2009
Next time you want to find an article from a specific website, try using Google’s “site:” option. For example, if you wanted to search “economy” at forbes.com, you would type economy site:forbes.com in the Google search box.
See more Google search tips
February 2009
CEOs are often integral parts of a company’s brand. Forces that threaten to harm the CEO also can damage a company’s bottom line.
That’s the case with Apple and Steve Jobs, who is trying to protect his privacy while shareholders, customers, and the media speculate about what his health-related issues could mean for the future of the company. CEO health is one of those rare battles where important laws – rights of individuals to protect personal health information and rights of shareholders to protect their investments – are at play on each side.
At some point, a court will be forced to make a decision about which set of laws are more important. Until that time, we can only examine the prevailing forces.
The first set of forces is regulation. No rules specifically address CEO health, but two principles apply:
- If a company discusses a CEO’s health issues, its disclosures must be “full and accurate.”
- A company must disclose each quarter “any known risk, event, trend or uncertainty” that could affect “future results of operations.”
Every company will have to decide for itself what information is necessary to meet this regulation.
The second set of forces is confidence. Companies sometimes live and die by the confidence others place in their CEOs. Information is to confidence what oxygen is to humans. Without it, confidence and often the stock price wane.
The investment world will be watching Apple closely over the next year. During Jobs’ leave of absence, the company will have the chance to see how its stock – and reputation – performs while the face of the company takes a lower profile.
February 2009
http://www.acrobat.com
Adobe has been an Internet pioneer for years with its Flash and Acrobat technology. The company is now offering everyone free web conferencing through its ConnectNow application. ConnectNow allows you to share your desktop online with anyone. The invitation can be either an email or URL. The website does require free registration.
February 2009
What was the best business book of 2008? Was it Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell? What about Tribes by marketing guru Seth Godin? Or could it be Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas Friedman’s follow up to The World Is Flat?
We’ve compiled several lists so you can decide for yourself. Happy reading.
