Friday, January 27, 2006
The Chicken or the Egg
It is with great interest that I read Fortune Magazine's latest rankings of the 100 Best Companies to Work for 2006.

Who topped the list?
Genentech: 8,000 employees (42% minorities)
20% job growth And 246,000 job applicants. Imagine the competitive advantage of that much potential talent in the pipeline!

What's in?
  • Telecommuting
  • Compressed work weeks (4 10-hour days)
  • Personal concierge services
  • Benefits aligned with your mission (i.e. the subsidized purchases of hybrid vehicles)
What's novel?
  • Washing employee's cars
  • Taking them to the movies on Friday's
  • Flying them on a private jet to meet the CEO
  • Free hair and nail salon, dentists, massage and latte on premises
  • Mom's hours: 8-3, summers off
What's shared?

They work hard/they play hard. These companies all have a mission and culture which is shared and imparted among all employees. They wear it proudly, like a badge, a t-shirt or a medal of honor. They protect it, and are active participants in mentoring new employees into the fold. They are listened to, recognized and rewarded by their managers and CEO. According to Fortune "employees get deep staisfaction, and become devoted to their employer, from feeling that what they do is good and right."

It pays.
When Deloit Consulting tracked the shareholder returns of the 56 publicly traded firms on the 2005 list, they consistently beat the S&P 500 by more than 5%.

The chicken or the egg.
It remains unclear what came first? Whether the great companies that know how to make money, also know how to treat their talent. Or, is it that the better you treat your talent, the greater the return to shareholder?

One thing is for certain. An employee-first culture means profits come as well.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Thre Must be Somr MIstke

Greetings,

Happy New Year and Happy Reading.
This entry definately goes under the category of muse, rather than news so be warned and ready.

Late last year BRANDEMiX was part of an agency review conducted by a prestigious New York account. Our team dilgently worked on our answers to the Request for Proposal and followed up with subsequent information. All the correspondence was through email and I was very careful to read and re-edit all my sentences, so they would see me for the Thought Leader I can sometimes be.

However, my editing efforts were ultimately my demise since the sentences were no longer coherent and there were typos and fragments galore within the email that was sent.

Do I think they noticed? I hope not. (We're still waiting for the client to make a selection.) But I was sick for days about it. And, just to make myself feel better and righteous, I started scrutinizing every email I received, particularly those from the would-be client. And I noticed how everyone has typo's in their email communication: thing for think. to for too. your for our. right for write. And, i'm not even counting lite for light.

Then I started seeing typo's in the New York Times newspaper and I know that I am on to something. They're everywhere- in job postings, in brochures and even in annual reports. It's a Pandemic stemming from the art of multi-tasking,multi-communicating and multi-messaging and not even spell check can cure it.

I am fortunate to be among more detail oriented staff than myself so hopefully we'll stop slop at the BRANDEMiX shop but now you know one of my resolutions for '06.

Thanks for reading.

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