Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line: FunnyBusiness

How Facebook ,Twitter, Blogs, And YouTube May Force Kellogg's To Do The Backstroke On Firing Michael Phelps

As soon as Michael Phelps confirmed he was the man with the bong, the media started talking about the amount of corporate endorsements he could lose. Turns out,so far, just one company has turned its back on Phelps--Kellogg's. Now the company is facing a social media backlash and it may make other companies  think twice about rejecting Phelps for his social recreational activities.

Ever since a group of Mommy Bloggers used the power of; Twitter to remove an Advertising Campaign for Motrin ,all in just one weekend of Tweets, corporate America has had to consider consumer reaction about  it's decisions in ways that it never has had to before.

Kellogg's obviously doesn't know its consumers or it got some very bad research because their decision to drop Phelps is now tarnishing their brand image..
Kellogg's has now become the butt of online jokes,and calls for boycotts. For Kellogg's, who said they were dropping Phelps because the behavior was not consistent with their image, the decision to drop Phelps may be the worst branding decision the company has ever made.

Instead of winning public approval  for their decision, the company is now a laughing stock. The brand image is taking a beating and the word hypocritical is now being associated with the brand.
As Cenk Uygur on Huffington Post writes,

This is a decision that would have been absolutely justified in 1955. But this is 2009. No one gives a damn. In fact, they are more likely to lose customers than gain them by making such a public display of their displeasure.

You know how many people have smoked marijuana in America? A whopping 42%. That is a huge chunk of the country Kellogg has just personally insulted because they are saying implicitly that their behavior is so wrong that they would fire them over it.

But what's worse is the even larger percentage who don't care if anyone else smokes marijuana and are turned off by anyone else who judges them for it.

The Tweets about Phelps and Kellogg's are funny,double -entendre filled and definitely not brand friendly for Kellogg's.

Over at Facebook  there are 42 pages calling for a Kellogg's boycott . Meanwhile, at Kellogg's customer hotline they seem to be getting more calls about their Phelps decision than questions about the peanut butter salmonella outbreak.

Then, of course,there's Seth Meyer's  brand bashing Skit On SNL that is now on YouTube hit. Can you say Snap, Crackle, Pot?

Update: NBC is reporting the owner of the bong in the Phelp's photo had put it on eBay hoping to get $100,000. Instead, he's been arrested.

Tired of Bad Corporate Executive Behavior? Take A Lesson From A Japanese Executive

Imagine working for a major corporation in America where the CEO takes a bus to work, eats in the regular lunchroom and sits at a lunch table with everyone else. Imagine a CEO whose office wasn't on the 29th floor who, instead ,works in an open area with everyone else.

The CBS Sunday Morning Show  and CNN have both run feature on the head of JAL-- Japan Airlines' CEO Haruka Nishimatsu.--a CEO who follows an anti-perk philosophy choosing instead to put his focus on the employees.

There's no one person being on top," he told us, "and one person being on bottom, in an organization such as ours."

Got an idea? Tell him at lunch in the company cafeteria because he wants people to share.

"I go there," Nishimatsu said, "to raise morale and motivation."

And he motivates one-on-one, regularly popping into planes, chatting with flight attendants, even helping sort the newspapers.

"I'd like to just find what is going on at the front line," he said.

All CEOs say that service is important, but Nishimatsu goes a step beyond. He says that if you're having a bad experience, don't get angry with the people you're dealing with … blame the person in charge.

As far as his compensation goes, one year he made $90,000 because when he cut everyone else's salary , he cut his own.

Let's see..$90,000. Isn't that about the amount Merrill Lynch's CEO John Thain spent on a trash can?

Go figure

Thinking of Wearing Cowboy Boots to Work? Think again

Sometimes you don't know what you don't know until someone decides it's time to tell you. So goes the story of my beloved cowboy boots which, for the past five years, I have mistakenly thought were fashion boots.

Fashion boots,I figured, were perfectly acceptable to wear in the workplace. I guess I should have spent more time reading that Glamour magazine when I was at the hair salon. If my client had not given me a heads up that my fashion choice of mixing cowboy boots with casual business attire was sending a message of unprofessionalism I could have found a picture of myself with a big black bar over my eyes in the infamous Glamour 's Do's and  DON'Ts section.

Even worse, I could have lost my client. Over a pair of cowboy boots. Over the years I have written about business dress codes. One of the first posts I ever wrote  was  over my amazement that Open Toed Shoes were not acceptable business attire. I was shocked at that bit of news.

A friend, who’s a banking industry consultant, was the first to inform me she would never wear open-toed shoes on a client call.

“ Why not?” I asked naively.

“Well,” she started, trying to be diplomatic, “the banking industry is conservative. The women all wear pumps.”

It reminded me of when I was 11 years old and living in a small town in Appalachia. We were “imported Yankees,” and often not aware of local custom. Being unaware, my family thought it was perfectly fine for me to walk home from school.

But, I found out differently. One day I asked my friend Beth to join me. She asked her mother, who firmly said, “No. Ladies don’t walk.”

Some 40 years later I learn ladies don’t wear open-toed shoes to work. Where have I been?

Obviously I haven't learned my lessons when it comes to shoes. To say I was dumbfounded when my client shared that there was concern about the way I dressed isn't even scratching the surface of my reaction. Until that moment, I smugly thought I was one of the better dressed people in this particular work environment. This is a business environment that touts business casual.

People wear jeans on Fridays. The rest of the week -- at least to my untrained fashion eye-- leaning more to the casual than business in the business casual equation.

I foolishly thought I was dressed up. I wore skirts, scarves, pins, jackets, pantyhose and I am careful to not show cleavage-- much more a turtleneck girl than a camisole one.

For a fleeting moment I thought the problem was with the client. But a quick search on Google uncovered that evidently every woman in the working world except for me knew that Cowboy Boots are the winter equivalent of flip flops.

While there is documentation that says Cowboy Boots are not acceptable in the workplace, I have not found anyone to explain why Cowboy Boots shout Unprofessional and a pair of suede boots with fringe says fashion forward. 

That is the question I want answered. Who made up that rule about Cowboy Boots and why are the treated differently than other fashion boots?

Read more about Cowboy Boots in the workplace at my BlogHer  post Really!?! Cowboy Boots Are A Dress Code Violation.

Strategies To Succeed In The Recession. Technical Writer Pam Mandel

2008 was Pam Mandel's best year ever. A technical writer, Pam completed her last project in December. On her own for the past five years, the first quarter is historically slow for Pam so right now 2009 is not feeling very different from 2006, 2007 or 2008.

"My experience with the recession is not what the papers are saying about the recession."

And yet....everyone Pam is talking to says it is different. A call from a recruiter reinforced it is different. The recruiter had a potential project.  The only problem -- the client was paying half of what Pam's normal rate is.

Pam turned the project down. After all, her first quarter is usually slow and she has planned financially for a slow quarter. This early in the year she is not ready to cut her rates in half .

In the meantime, Pam is doing two things very differently this year.

1 Using LinkedIn. .Pam is being more diligent in asking clients after she finishes a project to provide a recommendation on LinkedIn, And On LinkedIn she is letting people know of her availability with this message.

Pam Mandel is actively seeking new technical writing clients.

2. Networking - In the past, Pam may have skipped some networking events but now she says she's not blowing them off and is attending them instead. At the last one she attended, Pam says she did meet someone that could possibly have some work --someone she would never have met had she not attended the MeetUp.

Regardless, Pam is not nervous about 2009. She says she lives low to the ground and has always approached work as something that needs to fit into her life rather than her life having to fit in around work demands.

Her life involves a lot of travel which you can read about at her blog Nerd's Eye View.

What new strategies are you using to succeed in the recession?

Who Needs An Office? Meeting In A Horse Barn

After listening to the concept for my new business venture, my friend Dan H. thought it would be important to get some feedback from one of his colleagues. Bill M lives outside Bellingham, WA and has a stable with horses.

Since we called Bill when we were already in the car, Dan H assured him that our intention was to meet outside by the barn. We also promised  the conversation would not go longer than 30 minutes.

It didn't. I thought we would just stand around and chat. But I forgot I was traveling with Dan H. who, is a boy scout at heart, and  is prepared to have a dynamic meeting whether it's in a fully-equipped corporate board room or outside a stable with a horse, eager to participate.