Sales vs. Marketing

Sales vs. Marketing

If you want to make yourself instantly unpopular, say this in a sales meeting: “Marketing is not a sales-support function. Sales is a marketing-fulfillment function.” But make sure the door is unlocked, the hallways are clear, and the elevator is held...
Hype Dreams

Hype Dreams

Dow Jones hasn’t updated its list of the top gobbledygook terms since 2008. But the world hasn’t changed all that much over the past few years. The business lexicon has changed even less. Buzzwords are like Pit Bulls with ankles: Once their jaws are clenched, it...
Design vs. Fashion

Design vs. Fashion

On a staff call one morning, Jonathan Spiliotopoulos, our Magnificent Maven of Multi-Media Machinations, said this: Helping people make important decisions is the very definition of design. Because I’m a writer, as opposed to one proficient in visual or graphic...
Land of Confucian*

Land of Confucian*

First I would straighten out the language. (Confucius, asked how he would restore order to the world) I’ve worked for three of America’s major insurance and financial services organizations. Those are the terms by which those companies chose to describe themselves,...
No Treats?

No Treats?

The Bennett Boys, Crush (front) and Tar (back), are looking skeptically suspicious, even though they’re rockin’ their cool black hoodies. It seems they heard a rumor that there are no more treats. While the rumor is, so far, unsubstantiated, it’s...