The firing of Jill Abramson, former executive editor for the New York Times, is still making headlines a week later mainly because she is a female executive who might have been ousted for being pushy and brusque. She also may have gotten a bad rap for questioning why her compensation was less than her maleRead… Read more »
Take away the booze, the smokes, the short skirts, the sexism and discrimination, and there are several leadership lessons women (and men) can learn from the popular TV series Mad Men. In case you are not familiar, Mad Men is about the comings and goings at a Madison Avenue advertising agency during the 1960s. DespiteRead… Read more »
I started my career in newspapers – first as a reporter and then later as managing editor for the Newspaper Association of America – and then, after the newspaper industry imploded, I moved onto government contracting, helping agencies with their outreach and communications functions. The dramatic marketplace changes that the newspaper industry faced in theRead… Read more »
My daughter’s basketball team lost eight games in a row this season, which is quite a shift from last season when they came in second in the division championship. The main difference this year is they lost their star player. While it provided a great opportunity for the players to take a more active roleRead… Read more »
Reading Alan Pentz‘s recent blog post about the federal government and social media got me thinking about the federal government and marketing, in general. The government tends to shy away of the idea of “marketing” because it equates it with selling a product but marketing is about more than hawking wares. Marketing is also aboutRead… Read more »
During my first week as a federal contractor, one of my clients asked, “How are you going to make my life easier?” That was her bottom line. If I couldn’t guarantee that we (myself and the team I managed) would ease her pain points and not create any new headaches for her, she wasn’t willingRead… Read more »
Shutting down the federal government in a 24/7 world isn’t easy. During the last government shutdown in 1995, the Internet wasn’t yet mainstream. That didn’t happen until 1999, so workers weren’t wired to check and respond to email from anywhere, anytime. Government workers didn’t work remotely in 1995. The Telecommute Enhancement Act of 2010 hasRead… Read more »