October 29, 2009 | Steve Chitwood
I’ve been recommending Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, to friends and colleagues since I read it. Whether or not you agree or disagree with his conclusions, the book is filled with interesting historical and anecdotal accounts of online business model evolutions and the economic, technical and sociological changes that have precipitated an unarguable shift in how we conduct business. Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine, an active blogger, and the author of the highly regarded The Long Tail, is an entertaining and engaging writer.
My desire to promote Anderson’s book to those interested in understanding more fully the sea change that we’ve been living through the past 10 years came over coffee this morning. Garmin and Tomkin, companies who develop and sell GPS navigational products watched their stock prices plunge by 16.4% and 20.8% in one day – erasing billions of dollars of market capitalization. Yesterday, Google announced a free voice navigation application.
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September 30, 2009 | Jeff Cohn
Jeff Cohn receives Inc. 5000 award.
I just finished attending the 2009 Inc. (as in Inc. Magazine) Conference, celebrating the Inc.500/5000 list of the nations’ fastest growing companies. To be on this list, a company must show a minimum level of revenue ($1m) and submit certified financials to prove revenue growth. The top 5000 companies are ranked. This year, Cohn Marketing marked our second consecutive year on the list at the rank of 1279. Those companies on the list as well as “alumni” of the list are invited to the conference, now held annually in D.C. Part award and recognition, part motivation, part education and part just fun, the conference brings together entrepreneurs from all walks of life that have made the list. It’s a great experience each year, meeting these incredible people that have started businesses with a good idea, a few dollars and a lot of hope and prayers.
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April 13, 2009 | Cindy Jennings
The question often comes up when planning for sustainability messaging on what qualifies as a sustainable business practice and what is just good business. So when does it make sense to make a sustainable statement about your business, product or operations? If a company moves its manufacturing location or its warehousing location to be closer to the nucleus of the distribution point – that’s good business. You are reducing your costs and streamlining your business operations. It may also be sustainable, but it does not live outside of what any other company would reasonably do to minimize costs and maximize profits. Sustainable efforts are usually classified as those over and above normal business operations. The fact that a company streamlined its operations could be a supporting statement in a company’s overall sustainable effort, but should certainly not be a leading claim.
