On July 15, every US business with more than 25 employees received a notice from Heaven strongly suggesting they stop threatening staffers with “Come to Jesus“ meetings. “Jesus is not at these meetings,” says Heaven spokesperson Julia Simpson. “It is therefore inappropriate to use His name as a means of...

Effective April 1, big box retailer Mertzin will search every customer on their way out of its stores – an increase from the current 55 percent. “At Mertzin every one of our customers is equally important to us,” says CEO Marilyn Nixwell. “By searching all of them we're showing we're...

On December 19, Portland department store Fillner’s achieved a goal it had sought for 50 years: The longest checkout line ever recorded - over 1.2 miles, with an average customer wait time of 7.5 days. Just a year earlier, the line was three blocks long and the wait only...

A popular employee at Milwaukee’s Lamernoy Genistics is taking its CEO to court over the right to keep using a friendly greeting he says he invented and has been using for over 20 years.   Says analyst Max Torrey:  “I go up to people, put one hand on their left...

Featuring your staff, buzzwords, key initiatives, and boxes to think outside of

Chicago home goods maker Peers & Webb has achieved the goal that has eluded businesses for over a century: A product package that is absolutely impossible to open. On September 15, the American Packaging Institute certified the hard plastic cover on P & W’s Aunt Annie’s Twin Flashlights as Guaranteed...

Seven people were injured Wednesday when the “Policy” and “Procedure” camps came to blows at the annual Business Terminology Conference in Wilmington, Delaware. The two sides each believe theirs should be the word companies are mandated to use when describing “a set of standards to which a company and its...

Most weeks you’ll find dozens of networking events around Detroit where gather at restaurants and hotels, put on name tags, and talk to each other about synergies. “It’s best when you network with lots of people,” says Troy attorney Janine Turnquist, 38, “but sometimes you end up spending the whole...

Gas prices across the USA have risen past $3.00 per gallon – the first time they’ve been that high since 1877. According to PumpPriceUSA, the consumer group that goes around buying gas and writing down how much it pays for it, the average per-gallon price for regular gas is $3.15. Each...

While qualifications, skill sets and core competencies are essential, what you say when you shake the boss's hand can really seal the deal.

In these chaotic and uncertain times it’s acceptable, even expected, for a company to do some teetering – but virtually all experts agree that this should never take place on the brink.  “Teetering can be healthy for a business as long as it's being done in the right location,” says...

When you screw up big time at Laffoon and Sons, you won't merely be whispered about and shunned during the company's mandatory volleyball games. You'll also spend some time standing in the hallway - facing the wall and wearing a dunce cap. “Too many mistakes were costing us too many millions,”...