USPS “No 2010 Rate Increase”: The Loophole and a Call to Action

Just when I thought it was safe to believe in the U.S. Postal Service, I find out this lovely tidbit of information: Despite Postmaster General John Potter’s grand statement (or was it a grandstanding statement) that there’d be no postal rate increase in 2010, there’s a giant loophole.

4 Tips Any CEO or C-Level Exec Can Take to the Bank

Being a C-level executive these days has to be the ultimate challenge. These execs face a ton of pressure to keep their companies above water during these turbulent times. Truly, I feel for them.

But, in many cases, my empathy for them goes only so far. Especially when C-levels exemplify what I call “ivory tower thinking.” With this in mind, I’d like to offer four pointers for any and every CEO and C-level exec:

Want to know what’s

Four Questions to Continually Ask About Your Customers, Products and Brand

You don’t have to operate any stores to always “mind the store.” For us in the catalog/direct/multichannel world, that means finding time in our 24/7, 365-days-a-year world to step back and ask ourselves a few questions. It’s not an easy task to pull back from our everyday happenings, especially in this insane and fear driven economy, but it’s still mission critical to stop and ask:

1. Are we the company…

Kumbaya Now! (how we can all professionally and personally survive the economic crisis)

Whether we like it or not, we’re all in this recessionary economy together.

If you’re still lucky enough to be employed, listen carefully to my message, as simplistic as it may seem: It’s time to put aside the natural rivalry, competitiveness, intraorganizational politics and just plain silliness that is everyday business life if you want to stay employed, and moreover, to keep your business from going under.

It’s time to really look at the way

Happy Holidays… You’re fired!

Happy Holidays…You’re fired!!! Last year for Catalog Success Magazine, I wrote a scathing attack on downsizing after reading about Lillian Vernon letting go of 100 employees a mere five days before Christmas. And without any warning! And not just seasonal employees either!

Could there be a more despicable act?

Cost Reduction: Is Downsizing a Last Resort, or Merely the Road More Easily Traveled?

There have been some high profile layoffs in our industry over the last few weeks. And with our economy in the tank, companies experiencing slumping sales and the outlook for the rest of Q4 painted as “bleak,” it’s safe to expect more downsizing to follow.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how to bulletproof your career [...]

Downsizing is for sissies: Putting my money where my mouth is!

For those readers who believe that I am off base in my assertion that downsizing is for weak management, let me say this. 
9 out of 10 companies that layoff employees, do so for the absolute wrong reasons.  From what I have seen, most companies downsize before all other expense reductions measures have been exhausted.  [...]