I learned about the value of “customer service as exception” back in my Mr Ching venture days from Pepsico, our investor.  For instance, a customer comes into a Pizza Hut at 2:30pm and asks for a personal pan pizza which the company does not make after 2:00pm.  The manager is trained to explain the 2:00 [...]

I learned this morning that new products guru Margot Chapman jumped off the Golden Gate bridge ending her brilliant career.  I will miss her.  We were friends for almost 35 years. Margot first made waves back in the late 60′s inventing Warm Fuzzies, the very first sheepskin bedroom slipper with the wool inside.  Yes, all [...]

What if you are sitting at your desk and someone says, “let’s brand fragrance.”  You reply, “you mean a certain fragrance?”  “No” they say, “let’s brand all fragrance.”  Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Well consider what Muzak did years ago when they created the idea of using music in the background in the workplace.  Muzak is [...]

I was working today with Julie Paige Grant, one of our newer people.  We were struggling through the first draft of a Brand Backbone Strategy document for a project of hers.  I sympathized, “This is not easy.  That’s why so few people do it, actually write down a brand strategy document for the long haul.”  [...]

The following advice comes from Fawzia Gulsha, a friend in Dubai, who is both a royal princess and a very successful real estate agent in Dubai. “The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that [...]

I  love this business.  Yes, I must suffer through the Gatorade fiascos, and the Tropicana near disasters, but every now and then, you stumble across something wonderful,  Today, I discovered Whistle Creek walking sticks and canes out in Estes Park, Colorado. I have a heath nuisance that might force me use a cane, and I [...]

The other week, a friend in Canada, Nina Troezkiy and I were trying to talk with a bad cell phone connection.  She made a simple but profound comment, “It’s hard to have a good talk with a bad connection.”  Zing went the strings in my brain.  HOW RIGHT SHE IS.  On every level. If you [...]

Many of you know that I am a fan of Native American wisdom and rhetoric.  One of you just sent me this parable which I had forgotton.  Seems to be appropriate for the last few posts and comments. One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He [...]

If you work in any organization, you are always going to have friends and you are always going to have enemies.  That is if you are any good.  Medium performers can have only friends, but top performers always have enemies. Oscar Wilde said, “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”  Robert Greene in [...]

Albert Schweitzer said, “A man does not have to be an angel to be a saint.”  I believe that. A really good leader is a saint.  You do not have to be perfect.  Remember one simple thought.  A good leader is one others choose to follow.  It really is that simple.  Others either choose of [...]