Our poll on A Trump-Style Pitch asked you to decide what you'd do if you were an ad agency exec hired to promote a celebrity-endorsed product, only to find out that what your client was really selling was the old bait-and-switch scheme. So far, about 50 percent...
The last two days have drawn some spirited comments and emails about the issue of whether buying a Toyota Prius as a status-symbol, rather than an eco-friendly mode of transport, is right or wrong. You can read about it here and here. I agree with the people...
Our poll on whether or not it was acceptable for Starbucks to share its tip pool with supervisors generated some interesting comments, including several from a reader named Robert Chenault. While this poll was not about frivolous lawsuits brought by money-hungry attorneys or the integrity of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz...
You know what we do at BNET: provide information, advice and insight -- plus a little entertainment -- to you, the redoubtable manager battling every day to make your team, your organization and yourself more successful. We hope we've been useful to you. Judging by our growing...
As part of the BNET Australia official launch, we're inviting all our readers to submit their best piece of managerial advice and go into the running to win some great wine prizes. We've all heard great pieces of advice from the great business people we've encountered through...
On Feb. 22, Paul Tilley, an ad agency exec at DDB Chicago, committed suicide. Now many are pointing the finger of blame at some advertising blogs that allowed anonymous posters to personally attack Tilley, the man who oversaw the teams that created the "Dell Dude" and the "I'm Lovin It"...
The unwritten rule among referees and umpires is that if you blow one, you fix it. It's called the "make-up call." Our poll on minority hiring alluded to a similar scenario, asking if it's acceptable to fix previous injustices in minority recruitment and hiring by pushing it...
Derek Lowe submits: I've just been told by a reliable source that something big is up with the Roche (RHHBY.PK)-Palo Alto site. I don't know if this is part of their bid for Genentech DNA or what, but the word "closing" has been mentioned. I hate to pass...
Today's poll deals with something most everyone will face at some point in their career: whether to report a colleague after you come across some damaging information about their history. Your Dilemma: You have long wondered how one of your colleagues, whom you view as being less...
Today's poll deals with a scenario a friend of mine recently found himself in. The problem is simple and all-too-common, but its potential solutions are complex. Your Dilemma: Your boss demands that you fire a subordinate, and you know this is because the two just don't seem...
Our poll today deals with the question of whether we're ethically obligated to sit through online ads if the Internet is going to remain a mostly free-to-view medium. In some ways, this discussion continues on Monday's poll, which dealt with the ethics of ad-tracking software. There are...
Our poll on how to handle a partner who takes a big gamble on your business has generated some mixed responses, with no clear winner. When you bring personal relationships into starting a business, it appears the old "stick to the deal, no matter how painful it is to the...
There was a new link to Big Think this a.m., and I followed it and found a new review of 10 Ways to Make It Great by Phil Gerbyshak, who also writes a couple of blogs (on Slacker Manager this morning, the message is welcome to February -- have you...
In today's business world, the line between what's best and what's right, what's ethical and what's lucrative, is often blurred. This blog lives on that line. Everything you need to survive in today's business world you probably learned in the schoolyard. How to choose your fights; when...
A comment from a reader of this blog raises an important point regarding communication within a team. Following the recent post highlighting lessons that Tour De France teams can provide for business teams, a reader pointed out:"At the elite level of cycling, though, everyone is brought back to the pack...
A recent blog post over in BNET1 about how job candidate interviewees are flunking etiquette 101 - answering cell phones, bringing children along, using profanity - was, shall we say, humorously disturbing. But this bad behavior has a simple solution: don't hire the person. But poor etiquette...
Today's poll asks how you would handle a mixed signal from your boss. Your Dilemma: Your boss constantly claims he wants "outside the box" thinkers. Yet each time the staff meets to present ideas to him, he always chooses from those pitches that fit inside his own...
Ok, so I just took that word from the comments section of a Huffington Post article by Linda Stone, but I like it. What the commenter—and Stone herself—believes is that list makers like you and me often have trouble delineating the differences between big intentions and the crap that piles...
Last week, I talked a lot about the idea of rewarding employees for ethical behavior. Some readers agreed with my contention that ethical behavior should be considered a standard of the job, and doesn't deserve an additional cookie. Others argued that rewarding ethical behavior sends a positive message to those...
Way back in 1984, an insurance salesman was awarded $1.9 million by a Texas court in a defamation suit because his employer, Frank B. Hall and Company, was asked for a reference and, perhaps too candidly, rated the salesman "a zero." Thus began the era of reference...
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