Fast Company-Carpet People and Tile People

The "Tile People" Versus the "Carpet People"
By Roberta Matuson

A while back I encountered an interesting phenomenon, while conducting employee focus group meetings. Employees kept talking about “the carpet people” and the “tile people.” At first I thought these terms were industry specific. However, after hearing several sarcastic comments, it became clear to me these terms were being used to differentiate between professional employees, who sat in nicely carpeted offices and cubicles, and manufacturing personnel, who had tile beneath them.

Confused, I probed further. It was then that one of the “tile people” informed me that there was a distinct line (a door) where the tile ended and the carpeting began. In management’s defense, the work space set up for those “tile people” assembling the product seemed in line with other light manufacturing environments that I’ve seen. It seems the real issue wasn’t the carpet or the tile. It was the door that had been put up between the two workspaces to insulate both areas from hall conversations.

Do you have barriers to productivity that you don't even know are there? Here's how you can find out and what you can do about it:

Read the Entire Article at: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/roberta-matuson/management-escalator/tile-people-versus-carpet-people

Companies that Headhunters Avoid-Business Week

When Revlon (REV) hired Jack Stahl as CEO in 2002, the board thought he'd be a boss who could turn the cosmetics giant around. In his 22 years at Coca-Cola (KO), where he rose to president, the telegenic executive had become a darling of Wall Street for his financial savvy and operational discipline.

Stahl stumbled, however, when he left Coke. While he managed to pare down Revlon's heavy debt load, he lost millions on failed campaigns for new products, most notably an "age-defying" makeup line called Vital Radiance. Industry consultants say he relied too heavily on finance types who made basic marketing errors: The line was overpriced, curiously didn't incorporate the vaunted Revlon name, and used no-name models in its campaign. After four years of losses during which the stock lost roughly two-thirds of its value, Stahl left in 2006. "He didn't know what he didn't know," says Suzanne Grayson, a consultant who worked for Revlon in the 1960s and '70s. "He brought in statisticians instead of marketers, and the decisions they made were atrocious." Stahl and Revlon didn't respond to requests for comment.

Read the Entire Article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_37/b4146042031508.htm

Managing the Tweets

Web 2.0: Managing Corporate Reputations-Business Week
Companies are scrambling to silence errant messages while exploiting social networks
By Michelle Conlin and Douglas MacMillan

Zachary Weiner, the CEO of Chicago boutique ad agency Luxuryreach, has had quite a time in social networking land of late. Recent adventures include employees twittering about how demanding Weiner is, how hung over they feel, and how "totally not into" the client they are. Then there's the worker and her boyfriend who are lobbing character assassinations, sexual insults, and details of their therapy sessions at each other on Facebook. "I can't lie, I'd almost like to hear how it ends," says Weiner. "It's entertaining."

Entertaining, yes. But for executives worried about their companies' reputations, oh so terrifying. Every day it seems there's yet another social networking scandal breaking out, like the viral sensation of the woman who tweeted: "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work." Or the Ketchum public-relations exec who said of client FedEx's (

FDX) hometown: "I would die if I had to live here!"

Read the rest of the article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_22/b4133000631535.htm