RJ's Wave

05/12/2014

"“It’s probably the single largest increase I’ve ever seen,” says Jack Mitchell, president and CEO of Parcel Appraisal & Negotiations Group, a firm that negotiates shipping contracts on behalf of retailers and other shippers. “People who think it’s a modest increase are kidding themselves,” he says. The change will affect millions of packages and cost millions in additional shipping costs, he adds...For most rate increases, retailers will pass the price of the rate increase on to the consumers, but this pricing model is more complicated, Mitchell says. “Retailers are not going to understand its impact,” he says. “They’re not going to be able to get their money back in the first year—or maybe in a couple years.”"

Internet Retailer - Technology/Fulfillment/Delivery - FedEx will start charging based on size, not weight

05/09/2014

How can you ensure you never find yourself flailing while packed room blinks back at you?

05/09/2014

Forget about the office: today people work from anywhere and everywhere. Here's how you (and your staff) can get everything done no matter where you may be.

05/07/2014

In 1692 an artist known only as "A. Boogert" sat down to write a book in Dutch about mixing watercolors. Not only would he begin the book with a bit about the use of color in painting, but would go on to explain how to create certain hues and change the tone by adding one, two,

12/30/2013

Ditch the “campaign” marketing mentality and replace it with agile marketing or real-time marketing. The concept is simple, replace the word “campaign” with “continuity.” In traditional marketing, we tend to think in terms of a project, where there is a beginning and end point, with an evaluation of the results. But to succeed means focusing on a continuous stream and making sure your message continues to flow. There is no beginning and no end point and metrics can be used to assess continuous performance in order to continuously adjust your marketing.

12/19/2013

"The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach."
- Benjamin Mays

The dreaded goal-setting time of the year for individuals, managers, and teams. Aligning your strategic initiatives with those that the organization has set for the coming year. It all seems like a big hassle, but it can be extremely valuable; in fact, it’s so important that author Stephen Covey mentions this as habit No. 2 in his best-seller "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". You need to have a plan of where you want to go, and goal planning serves to help us set the destination as well as the course of action to get there.

When writing goals, it’s helpful to keep the following tips in mind:
• Goals must align with the organization’s mission and strategy.
• They must be clear and easy to understand.
• They must be accepted and recognized as important by everyone who will have to implement them.
• Progress toward goals must be measurable.
• Goals must be framed in time, with clear beginning and ending points.
• They should be supported by rewards.
• They should be challenging, but achievable.

It’s important to periodically revisit these goals, so don’t wait until review time next year to see how close you came to the goals, review them often. You can highlight a goal at each team meeting. Or review them at each quarter’s planning session. Or even assign each direct report a team goal in which they are personally responsible for tracking. Engage the team. Encourage the team. And keep the team excited about the possibilities of what they can achieve.

12/09/2013

What’s the difference between a raster and a vector? Serif or sans serif? Read more to learn all about these terms your graphic designer uses every day and get on your way to better projects.

11/28/2013

We take Bitcoins.

09/14/2013

Check your spelling...

Pubic-schools Writing p***c instead of public is one of the classic typos of all time. It's extra embarrassing, though, when it appears on a giant billboard celebrating your local p***c—sorry, public—school system. That's what happened in South Bend, Ind., this week.

09/09/2013

Towers Watson reports that companies with a highly engaged workforce improved operating income by 19.2 percent over a period of 12 months, while those companies with low engagement scores saw operating income decline by 32.7 percent over the same period. The Corporate Leadership Council noted that highly engaged organizations have the potential to reduce staff turnover by 87 percent and improve performance by 20 percent.

08/28/2013

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."
- Peter Drucker

08/21/2013

"It's like a man riding a lion. People think, 'This guy's brave.' And he's thinking, 'How the hell did I get on a lion, and how do I keep from getting eaten?"

No one said building a company was easy. But it's time to be honest about how brutal it really is--and the price so many founders secretly pay.