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A Lesson From Baseball's All-Stars
July 15, 2009 9:15 am | by by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | CommentsAs a baseball fan, All-Star week is typically a mediocre point in the season for me: My team—the Milwaukee Brewers—doesn’t play for three days, our best talent risks injury in an ancillary ball game, and the American League always wins, this year being no exception.
There. I Fixed It.
July 1, 2009 12:21 pm | by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | CommentsI have a good friend who works for a large, reputable technology consulting company and we were speaking recently on some of the things his employer was testing in the technology realm. A couple of these upcoming advancements gave me visions of The Jetsons , while others—like a software program that automatically transcribes your voicemails into emails—seem a bit over the top.
Potato Salad & Algae
July 1, 2009 11:40 am | by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, Chem.Info | CommentsOne of the things I look forward to the most about the pending Fourth of July festivities is the wonderful combination of my dad’s grilled brats and my mom’s potato salad. This perfect storm of smells and flavors, washed down by a couple of cold well-brewed beverages, seems to relax me to a point in which I can actually feel any extra burden drop from my shoulders.
Coffee Crisis: 2009
June 24, 2009 12:03 pm | by David Mantey, Editor, PD&D | CommentsI’m writing from the heart of a brewing crisis in office parks around the nation and, quite possibly, around the world. In cube farms everywhere, production has been brought to a stand still because amateur office baristas are not heeding the Rules for Brewing posted above the Bloomfield Koffee King and making coffee two to three times stronger than the recommended dose.
Price Cuts You Can Do Without
June 18, 2009 8:24 am | CommentsEstablishing the loyalty of your customers can be accomplished using many tactics—and I’ve seen a few very blatant attempts in the past week by way of financial incentives. But it seems not all cash breaks are sure fire ways to keep folks coming back: Apple recently announced a major reduction in price point on some of its more popular electronic items, including its older model 3G iPhones, to make way for the new model 3GS.
Assessing The Trade-In Value Of Our Small Businesses
June 4, 2009 9:06 am | by by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO | CommentsIt’s rare that I’ll offer my condolences to the politically tunnel-visioned, but I feel obligated to do so for Dianne Feinstein, a democratic senator from California. Senator Feinstein, who authored the original Cash for Clunkers bill, has seen her solution for controlling auto emissions transition into another plot to help those who simply refused to help themselves.
Betting On An Economic Recovery
June 4, 2009 8:53 am | by by Luke Simpson, Associate Editor, IMPO | CommentsBack home in Australia, I religiously listened to Mornings with Ross & John , a breakfast radio show that used news as a backdrop for discussions about social phenomena, crime and sports. They tracked a number of recurring topics, such as: The evolution of the spelling of names — Khloei (Chloe), De’mon (Damon) Football players behaving badly — who was at the local strip club associating with the Hell’s Angels and known drug dealers? Habits of politicians — Obama’s thin frame was surely a sign that he still smoked.
Stimulus I Can Believe In
May 21, 2009 11:56 am | by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, Chem.Info | CommentsPresident Obama recently announced at the National Academy of Sciences’ annual meeting that he planned to allocate 3 percent of the gross domestic product to research and development. This represents the largest commitment to scientific research in U.S. history, and in more real-world terms, a better than $400 billion investment.
Leaving Little GTO In The Past
May 20, 2009 9:42 am | by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | Commentsh4 { font: bold 14px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000; } .byline { font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 4px; } .caption { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 4px; } .sup { position: relative; bottom: 2px; font-size: smaller;" } The first family car I remember from my childhood was a sea green Pontiac LeMans.
Your Pay Just Dropped 11 Percent
May 14, 2009 6:51 am | by by Luke Simpson, Associate Editor, IMPO | CommentsI like statistics that back up what I already know. The ones that let you say, “See, I told you we were in a recession,” or “Only 12 year-old kids are on MySpace.” Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics released figures showing changes in productivity and labor costs during the first quarter of 2009.
Guy Catches 13-Foot Shark
May 7, 2009 6:53 am | by by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | CommentsWe’ve had plenty of debates over swine flu in the office over the past week—mostly spurred by the sudden cropping up of alcohol-based hand sanitizer bottles throughout our workspace. The whole floor smells like a distillery. “Apparently there is some virus going around,” we joke as we slather this slick substance onto our hands.
Continuous Improvement Drives Index Performance
May 7, 2009 5:54 am | by by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, IMPO | CommentsAs anyone who has ever been associated with Lean or Six Sigma methodologies will tell you, the key to greater efficiencies is not just changing or correcting poor approaches, but striving for continuous improvement in all facets of an operation or function. It’s an on-going fundamental that is never ending.
Feeling The Recession Depression?
April 24, 2009 5:35 am | by by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | CommentsIn Wisconsin, the months of March and April aren’t necessarily spring. Some years we have dream-like spring days; ones where you get to use that word “unseasonably” as a precursor to describe the temperatures. This year, we’ve been using words like “gloom,” “wet,” and—my favorite—“severe.
The Motivation For Innovation
April 22, 2009 12:51 pm | by by Luke Simpson, Associate Editor, IMPO | CommentsIn an economic climate that demands efficiency and responsible spending, long term research and development (R&D) projects with no return-on-investment in sight can be a hard pitch. There is, however, evidence indicating that investing during a down economy pays off. SHOW ME THE MONEY According to a survey conducted by the Industrial Research Institute (ISI), R&D spending in the U.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
April 22, 2009 12:20 pm | by by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO | CommentsMy parents and their friends came of age in the 1960s, so growing up we were privy to stories about that turbulent decade. I learned what a protest was at a young age as my parents described to me the active response people took to events like The Vietnam War and The French Student Revolution of 1968.
