The key to any business relationship, but especially a trade relationship where external factors, like governments, have a role to play, is making sure you’re committed for the long run and prepared to ride out any rough spots. You need to be committed to transparency and fulfilling your obligations. This is especially true for a U.S. company doing business in China. These principles can serve...
I got my first job when I was 16 — a pool cleaner. I was earning a paycheck for the first time, and my mom immediately took me to the bank and made me open an account. It was at this time I also got my first credit card at Mervyn’s. My mom said, “You need to start saving and building your credit.” This was the early 1980s; she was well ahead of her time with this important advice.
Fast...
In our socially-distant new normal, the living room has become the office. The backyard has become the gym. And the internet has become the only channel through which we can create and maintain deep connections to the outside world.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: the internet as a primary space for deep connections? It seems pretty contradictory. Social media and other...
The phrase “think global, act local” has been around for years prompting many of us working in global businesses to be sensitive to how our initiatives play out in different parts of the world. But not until the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has there been a global emergency that has truly required everyone, everywhere to care about what is happening in their own communities, as well as the...
The challenge of running the communications function has gotten exponentially tougher. The role of a Chief Communications Officer is now like a hockey goalie attempting to deflect nonstop slapshots, while simultaneously directing their team down the ice. It reminds me of what’s happened to educators over the past 20 years.
Teachers used to focus primarily on educating students. But now...
The other day, as I was in my home office conducting a Webex meeting with my leadership team, my 10-year-old son, Simon, sat nearby at the rolltop desk that sometimes doubles as his study carrel. He was on Zoom, taking a virtual robotics class one of his teachers is offering as a summer-enrichment program.
It struck me yet again — how much daily work and life have changed, and yet has...
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” So said Mark Twain in a cable from London soon after learning that U.S. newspapers had mistakenly published his obituary.
A similar message could be sent to pundits who have, for many years now, predicted the demise of big-box retail. Over the past several years there have been a handful of retailers whose misfortunes have reinforced...
We can anticipate many things that could go wrong during a production shoot, but melted chocolate was definitely not first on our list.
As shelter-in-place orders swept the U.S. in March, we relocated our production studios to the homes of our studio leaders. Our newly hired creative in LA started on a shoot for a candy client, but it didn’t take long before we needed to make more...