“Customer service has been a widely discussed topic for decades. The early 90’s saw a period of quality customer service, exceeding customer expectations and ‘moments of truth.’ The technology revolution has brought customer relationship tools and software. Technology allows business of all sizes to manage their customer relationships with profiles, trends and customer history. It would seem that nothing new has developed from the field of customer service until you know the work of Professor Richard B. Chase and Associate Professor Sriram Dasu at USC’s Marshall School of Business. Professor’s Chase & Dasu have applied the field of behavioral science to customer service.”

“I’ve been a consultant of one form or another since 1985 when I started my old company, V-Systems, with a friend from college, and actually did bits and pieces of consulting as early as 1982. I have been asked often about the business, and I decided to write this up.”

“The year’s most egregious price gougers, polluters, union-busters, dictator-coddlers, fraudsters, poisoners, deceivers and general miscreants: It is never easy choosing the 10 Worst Corporations of the Year ó there are always more deserving nominees than we can possibly recognize. One of the greatest challenges facing the judges is the directive not to select repeat recipients from last year’s 10 Worst designation.”

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces some interesting documents about things like the percentage of the population that can work, the percentage of that population that is employed and so on. Well, one document they produce is the Occupational Employment and Wages report. Basically it says how many people have what job and what they get paid. So I gathered the data from this chart and created this graph that shows how many people get paid what. Each dot represents a type of job.”

“Blogs are a cheap, convenient and enjoyable form of PR and marketing that should be part of every business plan in 2005, writes Bob Cargill, senior creative director of Yellowfin Direct Marketing.” And here’s a counterpoint: Why Advertising, Marketing and PR Pros Shouldn’t Blog.

“Board Options, Inc. is a nationally recognized company that specializes in helping boards be even more effective problem solving units through the application of practical behavioral science.”

“There are roughly 6 Billion people in the world. Imagine the worlds biggest lottery where every one of those 6 Billion people was required to draw a ticket. Printed on each ticket were the circumstances in which they would be required to live for the rest of their lives…. If you are reading this blog right now, I’m guessing the ticket you drew when you were born wasn’t too bad…”

“I’ll grant you that merely reducing work-time from eighty-hours to thirty-five hours is not a silver bullet either. Time is part of the equation but it’s isn’t IT. You can feel squeezed for time regardless of the reality simply by spending your life in the past or in the future.”

“I recently realized that this month marks one year since I started using Getting Things Done in earnest. With the calendar year closing, it seems like an apt time to look back at whatís worked, what hasnít, and where Iíd like to see GTD heading in the future.”

“The most effective product development and commercialization processes encourage dynamic communication and idea sharing among engineers, marketers, and customers.”

ìTa-da makes it easy toÖ Keep track of all the little things you need to get done; Make lists for other people (co-workers, friends, family); Share lists with the world (’My favorite movies of 2004′); Subscribe to your lists in RSS so youíre always on track Öand more!î

“Our security manager can handle viruses and hackers, but an abusive boss is another story.”

“A legendary ad executive tells how he uses blogs and how companies can use them in their marketingówithout being crushed.”

“Bigha is one of my favorite companies. Their approach to marketing and public relations is so fresh and open that itís hard not to like themóeven when theyíre accused of something as extreme as supporting terrorism. You see, one of the products that Bigha makes is a big green laser pointer known as ‘Jasper.’ If youíve been keeping up with the news, youíve probably heard of the fathead who thought it would be fun to shine a Jasper at an airplane cockpit. In cases like these, some people blame the manufacturers. In this case, Bigha got a visit from the FBI and a fair amount of negative press for their ìinvolvementî in the case. Instead of relying on public relations jockeying to ‘make it go away,’ however, Bigha actually spoke openly about the issue on their website.”

“When Jeff Bezos was launching Amazon.com a decade ago, conventional wisdom held that 300,000 titles would be plenty; the largest physical bookstores couldn’t sell enough volumes to justify half that inventory.”