Published Articles
It’s the Economy. It’s all Local. Its Cure is Customers.
The Clinton/Bush election campaign popularized the saying “It’s the economy, stupid.” Add to that one of the oldest and wisest political axioms: “All politics is local.” The combination describes the thoughts of owners today wondering if they should hire, expand, promote or take other actions to improve their businesses.
The single most important factor for business [...]
Article ByMichael Bruening published Monday 30 August 2010
Southwest Airlines Apologizes the Right Way
The way that Southwest Airlines apologizes to customers for a bad trip – for whatever reason – was the topic of a large story on the front page of the Chicago Tribune’s Business section on Wednesday, August 25.
Not every one of your customers has a perfect experience, and it can happen for a variety of [...]
Article ByMichael Bruening published Thursday 26 August 2010
Trust: Having it. Getting it.
Trust. One little word that can give a lot of meaning to anything connected with it. A recent Gallup poll shows many people do not trust the news media. Only 25% have either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers. Even fewer, 22%, have confidence in TV news.
As a business owner, [...]
Article ByMichael Bruening published Wednesday 25 August 2010
Hewlett-Packard’s Ex-CEO Hurd Let It Happen
Reading accounts of why Hewlett-Packard’s board of directors fired CEO Mark Hurd shows how his cover up of a personal relationship with an H-P marketing coordinator caused the H-P board to take decisive action.
Reports state that the board took action because he had a personal relationship with Jodie Fisher. Perhaps more importantly, Mr. Hurd filed [...]
Article ByMichael Bruening published Friday 20 August 2010
What Business Can Learn From the Blago Trial
Well, the trial (or at least the first trial) of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (Blago for short) is over. He was convicted on one of the 24 counts against him. That one was lying to federal agents. So what can small and mid-size business owners take away from all the talk and events swirling [...]
Article ByMichael Bruening published Friday 20 August 2010
Citibank Settlement Punitive to Shareholders?
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it’s come to a $75 million settlement with Citigroup. While on the surface it seems that this is a clear-cut case of people finally winning against banks who were knowingly deceptive, the people who did the wrongdoing will likely not be footing the bill when all is said [...]
Article ByTony Nusret published Tuesday 3 August 2010
The FHA Still Works for Main Street
With all the news about government overspending and private institution’s unbridled greed, it’s easy to forget that there’s plenty of laudable work being done on behalf of America.
There was a lot of pessimism in the wake of the Great Depression as well, when it seemed no one would come to the rescue of ordinary working [...]
Article ByTony Nusret published Tuesday 3 August 2010
