From the monthly archives:
According to Bowker, the number of new books published in 2007 was 276,649 (or 758 new books each day). And the number of new business books published last year was 7,651 (or almost one new business book each hour).
This is the genre that my new book VISION CASTER is in. In the book proposal I can always say … there is now a large market for new business books given the large number being published.
Who said competition ain’t grand?
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I was recently trying to contact someone regarding one of my domains. The company is based in the US and their website is in English. I had to use a webform which wouldn’t accept my submission unless I selected a language preference. My choices were English - UK, English - Other, English - All Other Areas.
This seemed just plain dumb to me. What are they going to do, customize the spelling in their reply depending upon how you answered this question? Yes they could be using this for market research but there are far better ways to gather this type of information with web analytic tools.
Bottom line, it was just poor web design and not user friendly!
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Many years ago I was a customer of a CPA who had another business client which had the distinction of being the oldest customer of a bank which had recently been acquired by US Bank. The customer was upset because the service had gotten so bad that he closed his account. He thought this would “get management’s attention.”
It did not. No one asked him why he wanted to close his account or even later asked why he stopped doing business with their bank. It seemed that no cared. This always puzzled me because “Customer Service 101″ says you want to take care of your existing customers as they are a lot easier to retain than finding new ones.
Jump ahead ten years to today. This year I have been having the same problem with three vendors. They are small organizations (one and two person companies). I have been a good customer for many years, have not been demanding, paid my bills promptly, and have been understanding when they got busy and missed deadlines. All have gotten some notoriety this year and have lots of new business coming in.
It appears too much business. They are no longer responding to emails, messages in voicemail go
unreturned, projects aren’t getting done. This saddens me as these folks seem to be getting too big for their old customers. So like that US Bank customer, I’ve just stopped doing business with them.
Wouldn’t you think they would eventually wonder why? It doesn’t appear they do. Go figure!
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I am spending a few days at an upscale boutique hotel near Vancouver, BC. It is a small property with about 20 rooms. It is well maintained and operated. The staff is friendly, helpful, and efficient.
One thing struck me as odd. There are these little green plastic frogs all over the room. I asked the front desk why they were there. I was told that the owners are from India and are devout Hindus.
When they came to North America they asked their god (who is represented by a frog) to bless their financial endeavors. The hotel has been successful. So they thank him by putting out green frogs daily in each room to remind their god of how they appreciate his blessing (and for it to continue on a daily basis).
This is an interesting an example of how religion can impact business.
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This is absolutely incredible and amazing technology from Cisco! It was billed as “World’s first Live Holographic Video Feed from California, USA to Bangalore, India.”
This will revolutionize the way we do business and communicate. I can hardly wait. I never need to leave town again (unless I want to).
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