By Posted on Posted in media-general

Some good news in the world of mainstream television. As noted in Huffington Post, MSNBC president Phil Griffin was quoted in the New York Times:

Just in time for the closing rush of the presidential election, MSNBC is shaking up its prime-time programming lineup, removing the long-time host — and one-time general manager of the network — Dan Abrams from his 9 p.m. program and replacing him with Rachel Maddow, who has emerged as a favored political commentator for the all-news cable channel.

I’m lucky enough to live in the Northampton, Massachusetts area, where Maddow got her broadcasting start years ago, as the offbeat news anchor/sidekick on the Dave in the Morning show, on WRNX-FM. I still listened when she did her own morning show on WRSI, also in Northampton, and occasionally caught her show on Air America. She still lives in the area on weekends.

Maddow is smart, sasy, and porogressive, amaziingly well-informed, and has an authoritative voice. Best of luck and congrats, Rachel!

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability, People Helping People

Found both of these links in the How Online blog–found the juxtaposition quite telling:

First, an inspiring (and long-overdue) article on MarketWatch about how people are seeking MBAs not just to acquire personal wealth but to make a difference in the world. I could quote many parts of this terrific article, but I’ll pick just one:

“The New Green Focus for Future MBAs” headlines Greenbiz.com. And, it’s the most popular story on the site. At the same time, a new poll by Experience Inc. shows more students are hoping for a job with a green-minded company. The poll says 81% of students believe there is value in working for an environmentally aware company, while 79% would likely accept a job at an eco-friendly company over a conventional one.

“In a few short years, eco-friendly practices have gone from being new-fangled selling points to becoming essential requirements, with states vying with each other to offer incentives and legislation that promote green technology and business. While the corporate world is scrambling to devise strategies to address sustainability, business schools across the country have been incorporating it into their curriculum for the past several years, both in response to student demand and in line with industry trends,” Greenbiz says.

But the same page of the same blog links to another story (International Herald-Tribune) that shows, once again, the same-old-same-old of too many giant corporations just doesn’t work. and deceptive business practices have cost General Motors, and its auditor, Deloitte & Touche, over $300 million combined:

Under the settlement, GM would pay $277 million to investors, while its auditor, Deloitte & Touche LLP, would pay $26 million, pending approval from U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen in Detroit.

The two-year-old class-action lawsuit claimed that GM misstated and mischaracterized its revenue, earnings and cash flow, artificially inflating the company’s stock price and debt securities.

Let’s hope those green and ethical MBAs of tomorrow remember that they know better when they’re presented with opportunities for fraud.

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics-International, People Helping People, Shel's Personal Life, Social and Economic Justice

I did quite a bit of writing about our Guatemala trip, and have gathered the links all together here. The first three are classic travel writing, then three with a specific focus on environmental and social change–including our encounter with Guatemala’s President, Alvaro Colom.

Then Dina’s three blogs on our trip, and then two sets of photos. Enjoy, and feel free to comment here (most of the links go to places without comment fields but this page has them).

Antigua, Guatemala: Colonial Elegance and Lots to Do

Haight-Ashbury in the Guatemalan Mountains: San Pedro and Lake Atitlán

Guatemala City: Where Are The Crowds?

Touring an organic macadamia farm run by a self-described “eco-guerrilla”

Social Responsibility in Guatemala (subject of my weekly blog on FastCompany.com)

Encounter with Guatemala’s President

My wife Dina Friedman’s three blog entires on our trip (with photos by me)–when you’re done reading the first one, get the next ones by clicking “vacations2” on the upper right, and then of course “vacations3”

I wrote two other stories from this trip, on Pacaya volcano and Xela/nearby–but those I’m going to try to sell. You can see pictures, though:

From the first half of our trip, Antigua and the Lake Atitlán

Second half: Xela (Quetzaltenango) and nearby Momostenango, Fuentes Georginas, and Zunil…jade workshop and museum in Antigua…Guatemala City and the President

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By Posted on Posted in Marketing Techniques and Philosophies

I found this link on Guy Kawasaki’s blog: a fellow named Mitchell Weisburgh describes how he had absolutely no intention of buying, yet is now the owner of a handmade Turkish wool rug as the result of a casual encounter on the streets of Istanbul.

Weisburgh puts it in the context of a lesson in marketing and sales, using the principles of Robert Cialdini’s Influence as a guide. I’ve known about Cialdini’s book for years, and it’s been on my to-read list. Certainly, as a copywriter and marketing consultant, I use his principles even without studying them directly (along with several others who write about influence).

Interestingly, I happen to own a small rug that I bought in the Old City of Jerusalem. Nothing as fancy as Weisburgh’s, but again, a rug I had no intention of buying. Of course, at $15 versus Weisburg’s four-figure price, it was a lot easier to let myself be loosened up to buy.

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By Posted on Posted in Abundance and Prosperity, Shel's Personal Life

Business lessons in adversity. Yesterday was a day that should have driven me up the wall:

  • I watched every photo I had taken from the fall of 2005 through the fall of 2007 permanently disappear in a computer failure, while I was trying to copy them to an external drive
  • A squabble on a discussion list turned ugly in a way that could have serious repercussions for the future of my business
  • I left yet another voicemail with the editor at a big NY publishing house who should have had a revised contract on my desk in June and has not been answering phone calls or e-mails
  • Oh yes, and I not only got to walk my dog in the pouring rain (it was only raining at the hiking trail, not at my house half a mile away) and get attacked by mosquitoes, but actually got stung by a bee–in my own kitchen–when I returned

    • And yet, somehow, I found the Zen of it all, and stayed remarkably calm while my life appeared to be falling apart. A few years ago, I don’t think I could have handled that so smoothly. The loss of the photos alone (including our whole trip to Mexico) would have made me insane.

    I thought about the time a few years ago when i was driving a rental car in San Francisco, didn’t have the mirror adjusted properly, and accidentally cut off another driver. With true California class, he leaned out his window and called out, “It’s all good!” I apologized and explained that because it was an unfamiliar car, I had misaligned the mirror, and he was cool with it.

    But I’ve often reflected on that. And on the way my friend and mentor Bob Burg is able to deflect conflict, defuse angry people, and accomplish his agenda. He has a newsletter and book called Winning Without Intimidation. I finally got to meet Bob last week when he came to this area for a speech; we’ve been friends online for maybe eight years, and I include a section on him in my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First.

    Applying it to the day I had yesterday, I won’t try to analyze how I stayed so calm. But I will try to draw some business lessons from it.

    First of all, back up your files offsite. Duh! I’ll be exploring the best places to do this.

    Second, showing anger in public is always counterproductive, no matter how “right” you think you are. I have to go re-read that chapter I wrote about Bob Burg. I played a part in turning that list discussion ugly, and I regret it. And I’ll have to deal with the consequences. I will of course try to do better next time.

    And third, be patient because you don’t now what the world has in store for you. If I’m feeling frustrated because the editor isn’t returning my call, or because the Business Ethics Pledge is not getting signatures as quickly as I’d like, or because the six-legged critters are apparently out to get me, I just have to remember the guy in California. “It’s all good,” even if I don’t know exactly how, yet.

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    By Posted on Posted in General Commentary, media-general, People Helping People, Social and Economic Justice

    We *have* made progress! A Utah newspaper, the Herald Journal, ran its first announcement of a same-sex marriage–and only four people canceled their subscriptions!

    The paper ran a very clear announcement of its rationale here    .

    Bravo to the paper–and its readers, who I guess have noticed that the world is changing.

    I live in Massachusetts. We’ve had gay marriage for I think three years now. And guess what–the sky hasn’t fallen! I think a lot of the people who supported some of the homophobic responses in the past have realized, now that they see openly gay married couples raising families, having jobs, and enjoying such taken-for-granted-by-heterosexuals privileges as visiting their partner in the hospital, that it is no threat to heterosexual marriage.

    I have never understood why they felt threatened in the first place. My wife and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary in October. We’ve been to several gay and lesbian weddings. I think it makes a family stronger when a couple can express their love and commitment and take on the responsibilities and benefits.

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    By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government, Media Ethics, Social and Economic Justice

    These people have no shame! The Central Intelligence Agency actually had a table on the exhibition floor of Unity ’08, the conference for journalists of color organized jointly by (in alphabetical order) the Asian-American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native-American Journalists Association!

    As the article points out, this is not an appropriate place for journalists to work. Here are two of the people interviewed on the segment:

    JOE DAVIDSON: I don’t think that the CIA should recruit at conventions for journalists. I think that CIA members have pretended to be journalists in years past. They might still be doing it, I don’t know, but they certainly have done it previously. And I think that the knowledge that CIA agents have used journalism as a cover puts legitimate journalists in danger.

    It’s certainly known that in other countries, journalists will report to their governments. That certainly is not the case, or certainly generally has not been the case, for American journalists. But we don’t want that perception. I think there really has to be a long distance between the role of a spy, even someone who does research in Langley, Virginia, and a journalist.

    and

    DENNIS MOYNIHAN: You know, in a climate where journalists are being laid of en masse by the media corporations, I think it’s unfortunate that an agency like the CIA can prey upon people. I mean, what are they going to be doing? Of course, they’re talking about open source intelligence gathering.

    Well, that’s exactly how they gather names of alleged socialists or labor sympathizers in Indonesia, by forming lists. They’re going to be reading other reporters’ work and identifying subjects of interest to the U.S. security apparatus. I don’t think it’s good work for a journalist. There’s just a massive abuse of data collection that’s happening by the United States, principally.

    The ACLU released a press report, a press release about waterboarding and CIA’s involvement in authorizing and coaching waterboarding. You know, why isn’t this guy being asked about it? I think some journalists here actually have confronted this recruiter, but this is one of the most controversial agencies functioning on the planet today, and it’s shocking that here, with between five and ten thousand journalists, and the guy isn’t getting grilled continually.

    Several other attenders also comment. Go read or listen to the whole segment.

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    By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics

    Very interesting discussion about the ethics of disclosure over at Joan Stewart’s Publicity Hound blog.

    A reporter raised the question about whether doctors who endorse products in communication with the press should disclose that they get paid by the drug company.

    The general consensus, of course, is that they should absolutely disclose this relationship, and that PR people who don’t get this are not to be trusted in general.

    One person brought up the example of “Dustin Hoffman playing a crazed PR man who was sick of lying and sold “Boxy but Safe” Volvos.” And that sparked this comment by me, since I believe Volvo’s safety reputation is in serious danger at the moment:

    L.M. Steen’s example of the “boxy but safe Volvo” caught my attention–because I have wondered for several years why Volvo allowed itself to be purchased by Ford–a company that has given the public ample reasons *not* to trust it on safety (two examples: Pintos that explode, Explorers that roll over). Considering that safety was the main brand attribute that Volvo stressed for decades, I think the only reason there hasn’t been a huge backlash is that Ford is very quiet about its ownership.

    Of course, I’ve been saying for years that honest business actually works better. My award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, shows how honesty, integrity, and quality are the cornerstones of business success. And my Business Ethics Pledge encourages businesses to declare their values publicly–not only to create a climate where this kind of behavior is not tolerated, but also to improve the public’s perception of the signing company.

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    By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, Politics

    Putting subtle pressure on its managers to get a Republican victory in November because they don’t like a particular bill Obama supports. Sheesh!

    Find a gazillion stories about this here, including MSNBC and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

    Particularly cogent analysis article by Ron Galloway on Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-galloway/wal-mart-never-saw-it-com_b_116402.html

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