FunnyBusiness: Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line

Funny Business seeking new name

That would be the blog "Funny Business "written by blogger and cartoonist Brad Shorr.

Here is his post announcing they would be changing their name.

"Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking to Elana Centor, who has been blogging since 2004 at her brilliantly named blog--Funny Business.  It's an excellent read--informative and well-researched  commentary on business culture.   

Elena and I felt our two blogs having the same name had become confusing.  For example, we're both honored to be on the Squidoo Z List, but people may not know which Funny Business they're voting for. (If you're so inclined, please log in to Squidoo and vote up both Funny Business blogs and our Word Sell blog--thanks!)

The solution?  This Funny Business blog is going to change its name!   For a number of reasons, we thought this made the most sense.

If you'd like to suggest a new name--fire away!  We'd love to get some fresh ideas!"

We were not the first bloggers to go bump in the night. In  June, AmberStar ,who has a philosophy based podcast called  Zencast ,discovered  that there was a band called Zencast with a podcast. She asked the the podcast discussion group on the Podcast Alley Forum for their thoughts.

Jeffoest offered:

You are missing a key data point (I think) that could help you with the decision and that is the fact that we DON'T know how popular or how prolific that other podcast is going to be as they are also brand new with only one podcast under their belt. It would be a shame to take on your 'second choice' name only to find out that that band just puts out one or two podcasts, for example. On the other hand, if the band podcast is very popular and prolific, confusion about finding your podcast gets heightened. (think google searches for 'zencast').

Thus I can't give you the right decision for you, only factors that I would consider in making the decision.... (wishy washy, eh??!)

In 2005, The Trademark Blog asked the question : Can Similar Blog Names Co-exist? Should Blogs Obtain Trademark Protection?

As to whether two blogs could co-exist with the same name, without speaking to the precise example given above, the analysis would be the same as to whether any other goods or services could co-exist under similar, namely the multi-factorial likelihood of confusion test.  The three most important factors would be similarity of the marks; similarity of the goods/services and similarity of the channels of trade.

That brings me back to Brad Shorr. Check out his blog.Help him come up with a new name.for a blog he says is about"office humor,  corporate cartoons,satire and occasional insight."

Image Credit: Brad Shorr. You can purchase his cartoons on mugs, mousepads, etc.

Another Year. Another Survey Finding Fault With Women Bosses

Let's start with the artwork to support this story highlighting a recent study out of Spain,reported in a London paper, conducted by German psychologists, saying that women bossses don't mentor, support,or promote other women.

At the end of the post by Rob at  Businesspundit, he offers the link where people can purchase the poster.

Yeah, I'm going right out and getting that one.

Then there are the headlines promoting the story that was originally posted in the London Times on December 31,2006. The Times Headline: Office queen bees hold back women's careers.
Businesspundit offers this headline:  Are Women's careers held back by other women?
RWDB-J.F. Beck's headline goes for a big bang: If Women Ran The World- KABOOM, and Bostonworks- The Job Blog headlines with:Note to Queen Bees It's Time To Buzz Off.

The problem with all these headlines and the festive artwork that is someone's idea of humor, is that it assumes this study, conducted in Spain with about 700 people, is valid and relevant. The headlines assume that just because someone did a study we should be treating it as if it is gospel.

Yes, the study is  fodder for clever headlines. Yes it's controversial--at least if you are a woman in business-- but does it deserve carte blanche coverage without any discussion about the validity of this study?

If you go beyond the headlines, you will immediately begin scratching your head and asking,"Were study participants Spanish? German? British? American?" Just how many women executives are there in Spain?

If a cross-cultural sample was used, are there any differences in the cultures? The Times article doesn't provide any of this information, instead choosing to report the findings as truth or is that truthiness?

The research, carried out by Garcia-Retamaro and her colleague Ester Lopez-Zafra, has just been published in the journal Sex Roles. They used 705 participants living in southern Spain to evaluate the credentials of a male and female employee of a make-believe corporation who were proposed for promotion to a managerial position as a production supervisor. After reading a description of the role and company, the participants were told to read each potential leader’s CV and imagine their characteristics and likely success by evaluating them on several issues related to the job. This included looking at the likelihood that the candidate would receive an increase in salary, whether they had the right skills and if they would win the acceptance of colleagues. They also assessed how likely they might be to receive promotion and were asked to take into account stereotypical traits of men and women such as sensitivity or aggression. The study says: “Female participants had a stronger tendency than male participants to view the female candidates as less qualified than the male candidate . . . they also thought that the female candidate would fare worse in the future in her job than the male candidate.”

So far, only one blogger has chosen to view the story with a skeptics eye. After posting the story in Hit&Run Nick Gillepsie asks.

Given the level of fictiveness built into the study (not to mention the small sample, etc. etc. etc.), I'd be interested in seeing actual employment advancement figures. But can "705 participants living in southern Spain" be wrong? Hmm...

As is often the case, the comments to Gillepsie's post tell a story of stereotypes and personal reality. As this comment from Karen,

I have to say that my experience confirms the study's conclusions. The two worst bosses I've ever had, and my nominations for the two worst humans on the planet not in charge of third world countries were never-married women in their 40's. (I was in my mid-twenties and thirties when I worked for each of 'em. They're both in the late 50's now.) The three single men I've worked for -- one divorced with kids, one never-married, and one gay -- were wonderful. The married women were wonderful. (The one married man with housewife was pretty bad, but he was only in charge of my department for about six months, and was dealing with fifteen major disasters at once, so I can't form a stereotype from him being a bully.)

Now, my current boss is a never-married woman who's a few years younger than I am, and she's delightful. My guess is that the Boss Beasts' horribleness was a product of being in the first large wave of women with professional educations. They were raised to be wives and mothers but they never did that, and resented like hell those younger than they were who managed to combine the two life-patterns. My current boss was raised in a much more open climate. It will be interesting to track these results over time. My guess is that it will take about fifty years, but that eventually this problem will go away, to be replaced by something else equally intractable.

Anyone who has worked in PR or hired PR firms understands that the media loves to report on studies and that the media will often give studies a free-pass. In other words, the media rarely investigates the study,choosing instead to report the findings and then rely on their readers to determine whether or not the study has validity.

Sloppy reporting, lazy reporting.

This is cross-posted at Blogher

Another Biggest Business Blunder Survey

In the spirit of easing into 2007, here is a survey sponsored by BPM Forum asking what you think twas the 2006  biggest business blunder.  Your choices are:

• The O.J. Book and Special: News Corp ‘Did It,’ Then Regretted It
• Options Backdating: Other Options Should Have Been Considered
• HP and Pre-Texting
• Google Censors Itself for China
• Wal-Mart and Blogging
• Bad Gas: Aggressive Amaranth Trader Fuels Huge Losses

You can also do a "write in" blunder.  To cast your vote, click here. They don't say exactly how long  the survey will be available. Have fun.

Should FunnyBusiness be my starter blog name?

                    

              
                      

Call it blogger's naivite. When I named this blog, FunnyBusiness I wasn't thinking long term.

I wasn't thinking that there was a newspaper columnist who owned the url for funnybusiness who might one day decide to start blogging.

I didn't think that another group of bloggers would launch their own blog called, Funny Business.

When you are in business, not thinking ahead is a problem. I have a problem.  In the next few days I will make a decision of whether to continue calling this blog FunnyBusiness or come up with a new name that  is less replicable.

I'm on the fence. But I'm thinking. You can read more at Blogher

Image Credit:Flickr Word Art

Notes from the Road NYC: Is there a new, new math?

It's early. I'm in a lovely hotel room in NYC. It has a kitchen and a coffee maker-something that is a rarity in New York hotels.

So when did they change the definition of a cup? All this time I've been working under the misguided impression that there were 8 oz to a cup.

According to Krups, I'm wrong. A cup of coffee is 5 oz.

Has anyone ever seen a 5 oz coffee mug?
If you have one, please send a picture.

                                                                                                

Help Create The Women's Executive Coloring Book

One of the best parts of having people leave comments on your blog is that you go visit their blog and find stuff you'd never otherwise see. That's the case with "The Executive Coloring book" circa 1961.

When I checked out Todd's blog, The Bullshit Observer: Politics, Advertising, Hollywood and Other Bullshit he had recently discovered this classic which is hosted by Adtothebone.com

 

I''m in a cafe right now near the Castro in San Francisco. Every single person in here stopped what they were doing just now and looked at me as I was cry-laughing uncontrollably about this Executive Coloring book.

Walk through the executive's day and color his things for him. For example, his briefcase. The instruction copy: This is my attache case. It helps people know I am an executive. It makes me look efficient,organized, competent. I wonder if it opens.

Not sure whether the coloring book was the real thing or a spoof, I went to Amazon. Here is what an anonymous reader shared,

"This coloring book for grown-ups is a forgotten spoof of the "Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" generation. Published in 1961, it became a best-seller, and was so popular that it was parodied in Playboy Magazine and talked about on the Tonight Show. If Jack Paar had a copy, you know it was cool! There is a potentially vast audience of martini-drinking lounge devotees out there who would love this book's tongue-in-cheek approach. If you can find a copy of The Executive Coloring Book, buy it!"

Still not sure whether this coloring book was actually created in 1961 and not a 2006 spoof, I did a Google search.That's when I discovered that in  1978 Leo Burnett, the ad agency that brought us the Jolly Green Giant had its own version of the coloring book, called The Adman Coloring Book

"THIS IS MY ATTACHE CASE. It helps people know I am an account executive. It makes me look efficient.Organized. Competent. I wonder if it opens."

Completely inspired by Leo Burnett's, parody,inspiration or semi-plagiarism, I decided it was time to create  The Executive Women's Coloring book.  The thing is I can't do it by myself and think this blog would be a great place to have a collaborative effort.

Here is my contribution.

In place of the attache case....
" This is my Hermes Bag.  It makes me look very successful. Martha Stewart carried one just like it to her trial every day.  Lots of celebrities have this exact bag. .I'm a vice president. I bought it on eBay. I carry my breast pump inside."

Want to add a caption or drawing.?Visit either the original Book or Leo Burnett's version and  write the gal's version.

If I could draw I would adapt the graphics but alas and alack I don't even do stick people all that well. But share your drawings and your captions and help create the "The Executive Woman's Coloring Book .

" I look forward to your contributions.

UPDATE;  I created a Wiki. It's my first so if it needs revisions, please let me know. But if you want to help create the Executive Women's Coloring Book, click here.

Fatique Management

When it comes to napping on the job, William and Camille Anthony have written the definitive book on the subject - The Art of Napping at Work.    Bill Anthony who runs a research lab at Boston University is a passionate napper. This is his second book on the subject -- the first was just a generic book on napping but the media seized on one paragraph in that book -- a paragraph about wife Camille's habit of using her bosses couch during lunch to take a snooze.  As Anthony explains in this podcast, it was when the Today show asked if they could tape Camille napping at work that they realized they had to write a follow-up book specifically targeted to the workplace.                                           

While Anthony says the concept of napping at work has yet to hit its tipping point, there are companies that are trying to provide napping services to the walking sleep deprived. To read more about napping in the work place, check out my post at Blogher.

Honey, I shrunk the World

While I still love my frequent flyer miles as much as the next person, I have not been diligent about monitoring them. My friend Nancy White has and what she has discovered is something that Northwest Airlines is apparently not sharing with their customers---in its world  the distance between two location is a lot closer.

I was checking my frequent flyer miles on Northwest Airlines and thought, hm, the total qualifying miles seems low, considering I flew from Seattle to NY, to Austin back to Seattle. Only 3,346 miles. That didn't seem right. So I went to the Flying Distance Calculator. Hm, quite a discrepancy. Considering the lower nautical mile figures, NW is crediting me about

NW Says LGA to IAH - 709 miles
Flying Distance Calculator says - 1229

Sea to Newark NW says 1201
Calculator says 2080

Houston to Seattle NW says 937
Calculator says 1626

Now if Northwest raises prices because fuel is going up, yet they are actually flying LESS miles due to some crazy math, something is wrong here. I'm losing 2088 miles (and, with my elite status, another 50% on top of that.)

This is the 25th anniversary of frequent flyer programs. There are some that say, there is now a chink in the chain of brand loyalty that frequent flyers have for their airlines. Prior to 1981 when people wanted to fly somewhere they would call a travel agent and say,

"I'd like to arrive in San Francisco around 4:00 p.m." 

However, after airlines launched frequent flyers, consumers completely changed their behavior. Instead of selecting an airline that met their schedule, they would say (still to a travel agent).."how close to 4:00 can Northwest Airlines get me to San Francisco?"

What used to be a 25 minute window of tolerance now opened to up to over 3 hours.

Dan Reed, at USA TODAY recently wrote a comprehensive article on the status of Frequent Flyer Programs.
Some of his findings:

The world's 180 million frequent-flier members - many hold memberships in multiple programs - are earning miles faster than ever. Their accounts are brimming with 14.2 trillionmileage points, up from 6.6 trillion at the end of 2000, estimates Randy Petersen, publisher of InsideFlyer magazine and WebFlyer.com. Frequent fliers earned 2.7 trillion credits in 2005 alone.

Reed also reported that while people are earning more points, airlines are giving fewer away.

Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester Research, says only 26% of North Americans who buy their travel online - and most of them do - profess loyalty to one carrier. Harteveldt says that frequent-flier programs have become "golden handcuffs" in which "elite status becomes a disincentive to change rather than an incentive to stay."

What went wrong? Well according to Rolfe Shellenberger, the marketing executive who brought the first frequent flyer program to American Airlines, they got "greedy."

Their purpose now is to generate more revenue" in the short term rather than maintain and build customer loyalty that will financially benefit the company over the long term, he says.

Indeed, U.S. airlines generated $4 billion in additional revenue last year by selling mileage points to partner companies at prices of up to 2 cents per mile. The partner - a credit card company, a car dealer or a mortgage firm, for example - will then use the points to reward their customers for purchases.

 

As it turns out Northwest is not the only carrier who sees the world as a much smaller place.According to Lilia Eflimora sharing a comment on Nancy's blog.

Nancy, could be legitimate reduce for the cheaper tickets. KLM resently changed to that: e.g. most of my latest flights to Russia were credited with 25% miles just because I had cheapest tickets. No gold wings anymore :(

The USB Mini Drive--Weapon Of Mass Destruction

IIn 2005 it was a top 10 business give away. In 2006, it"s on the 'most wanted' list for potential corporate criminals. That's right. the oh so convenient, oh so small, oh so coveted USB Mini Drive could soon be banned in a corporation near you because it has the power to be a weapon of mass destruction.

Steve Stasiukonis ,VP and founder of  Secure Network Technologies Inc. wrote a piece in Dark Reading all about the vulnerabilities corporations because of the beloved USB Mini. Here's a clue--buy stock in SuperGlu

As part of his business Stasiukonis is hired by companies to test the security of their networks. The client in this case asked them to really push the social engineering button. Stasiukonis writes,

Typically we would hang out with the smokers, sweet-talk a receptionist, or commandeer a meeting room and jack into the network. This time I knew we had to do something different. We heard that employees were talking within the credit union and were telling each other that somebody was going to test the security of the network, including the people element.

So here is what Stasiukonis did:  He took about 20 USB and had one of his folks write a trojan that,"

" when run, would collect passwords, logins and machine-specific information from the user’s computer, and then email the findings back to us."

Early one morning he "seeded" a bunch of USB drives in strategic locations:
the parking lot, smoking area and other place employees frequented. Then he got a cup of coffee and watched.

Surveillance of the facility was worth the time involved. It was really amusing to watch the reaction of the employees who found a USB drive. You know they plugged them into their computers the minute they got to their desks.

I immediately called my guy that wrote the Trojan and asked if anything was received at his end. Slowly but surely info was being mailed back to him. I would have loved to be on the inside of the building watching as people started plugging the USB drives in, scouring through the planted image files, then unknowingly running our piece of software.

After about three days, we figured we had collected enough data. When I started to review our findings, I was amazed at the results. Of the 20 USB drives we planted, 15 were found by employees, and all had been plugged into company computers. The data we obtained helped us to compromise additional systems, and the best part of the whole scheme was its convenience. We never broke a sweat. Everything that needed to happen did, and in a way it was completely transparent to the users, the network, and credit union management.

As interesting as this possible threat to corporate systems is the ethical discussion that follows the article. Not all readers are amused at the company's tactics to test the security of their system.

As one writer suggested, the easy fix is to simply Superglue all USB ports on corporate computers.
Net Net-- don't be surprised if someone from tech support stops by your desk later today with a bucket of Superglue--why deal with the real problem, when Superglue will do.

Hat Tip to the Daily Irrelevant.

Image Credit: Flickr member, Kansir

 

Your Special Blend

For the past year, Caitlyn has been working at Starbucks, part time. She took the job for the benefits. Starbucks is one of the few companies that allows employees to get benefits for working 20 hours a week. There is a catch-- if you drop below the 20 hours, your  benefits are yanked. This means there has to be a tacit agreement with the "scheduler" that you will always average 20 hours a week.

So while Starbucks does offer these benefits to part timers, receiving and keeping them are two different things.

Starbucks calls their employee benefits package "Your Special Blend".

"Partners that

work full time or part time (20 hours or more per week) may participate in a variety of programs, and make choices based on individual needs and interests. Depending on job and personal situation, a partner’s total pay package may include:

	Progressive Compensation Package
	Healthcare Benefits (Medical, Prescription Drugs, Dental and Vision)
	Retirement Savings Plan
	Stock Options and Discount Stock Purchase Plan
	Income Protection Plan (Life and Disability Coverage)
	Management Bonus Plan
	Adoption Assistance Plan
	Domestic partner benefits
	Referral programs and support resources for child and eldercare
	Discounted Starbucks merchandise
And of course, all partners get a pound of coffee each week.

So for an entire year Caitlyn made put in her time creating half caf, skim super dry  grande caps with a shot of hazelnut. She didn't love the work. She did love the benefits.

Then there was a change in management. The new manager hired three new people --people she had worked with at another location and began slashing the hours of some of the regulars.

Instead of getting the 20 hours a week needed to qualify for insurance, Caitlyn is now getting anywhere from 18 to 9 hours.

When she went to the manager and explained without the hours she wouldn't qualify for the insurance, the new manager was less than sympathetic saying  the reason Caitlyn's hours were being reduced was because she couldn't start her shift until 6:00 pm and the manager wanted her to start at 4:30 pm.

As Caitlyn explained, " I started at 6:00 pm for the past year without any problems, now this manager says I can't close effectively unless I start at 4:30. It doesn't make sense. We don't close until 11:00 p.m."

According to Caitlyn she is not alone-- her friend Janna ,who happens to be pregnant ,is in the same boat -- her hours have been slashed and she will no longer be eligible for Starbuck's Special Blend of benefits either.

Is this typical? Unusual? What is the experience of Starbucks part -time workers?Is this a trend or just an unusual situation at one lonely Starbucks?

Image Credit: Flickr member Recent Topics
Note: Caitlyn is a pseudonym. She is continuing to work at Starbucks for the time being.