Author Archives: Tom McKay

OK, Mazda, here’s your choice: A. Replace the customer’s defective car now (cost: $30,000), orB. Wait and cough up $300,000 later. Guess which Mazda chose? A simple conversation (a/k/a/ better business communication) could have resolved this mess 3-1/2 years sooner, salvaged a customer relationship, built great PR — and saved the company a quarter of […]

Seth Godin has some good insights into one of the things that’s wrong with business writing today. There are two kinds of writing, Seth explains. If you’re writing for strangers, keep it short. To the point. Don’t answer unasked questions. (I’d put it this way: Don’t be a bore.) However, if you’re writing for colleagues […]

Despite the rough seas and occasional storms we face, business owners like me love steering our own ships. Being the captains of our fates. Standing up and (warning: mixed metaphor ahead) taking our best shots. OK, most of the time, anyway. This is confirmed by a new survey from the Wells Fargo/Gallop Small Business Index. […]

Inc. says happy days are ahead. Why? The magazine put it this way: “The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter-point for the tenth straight time Tuesday, lending credence to reports that the small business climate is improving. ‘If you are a small business owner this is a signal that you should be bullish,’ […]

From Business Blog Consulting: Jennifer Rice, who runs Mantra Branding, has been blogging since December 2003. She writes: I recently got a project from a Fortune 50 company from my blog… it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for my consulting business! Rick Bruner adds, “If ever there was a reason to blog, for consultants, […]

Imagine adding 2.5 million new customers — IN A SINGLE MONTH! That’s what happened to India’s booming wireless phone sector in July. And that’s despite monsoon rains that wreaked havoc in Bombay, India’s largest city and a top market for cellular services. (I wonder how many more would have signed up, if it had been […]

We are moving into the “the post-media age,” says the always- interesting John Jarvis. “Media made society one-way. But now the internet drains the one-way pipes… and pours us all in the same pond together. The internet enables conversation.” I agree. Traditional media are being eclipsed by the amazing connectedness of the Internet, blogs, Skype, […]