Infotrade

Getting the phone number for a company is easy: it’s listed in every directory, and the company wants you to call it so it can sell you something. Finding the direct extension of a customer service manager? That’s not so easy. Here’s a true story: I was at a recent customer service conference, and after a friendly conversation with several managers, I offered my card. They didn’t reciprocate, instead claiming they had “just run out.” Yeah,  right. They were afraid I’d publish their phone numbers online. (With good reason; I would have.) Maybe it’s just me, but you have the right to call the vice president of customer service or even the president of the company when his or her team fails to meet your expectations. You shouldn’t have to wander aimlessly through the phone tree of a company, pressing “zero” in the hopes of being transferred to an offshore call center. No, you deserve better than that. Here’s what happened to Mark Ladisky when he tried to contact Spi...

If you think it's tough being a manager these days, try being an employee. Most are in the position of having to go with the flow because of the current economic conditions. But that doesn't necessarily mean they do so with a smile on their face. Here are ten things your employees wish you knew about them: 1. They are happy to have a job.  But that doesn't necessarily mean they are happy in their job. Big difference. People who are happy in their jobs act a lot different than those grateful to have a job. They are highly engaged and will do whatever it takes to delight the customer. The other group simply floats along praying for the day they can tell you really what they are thinking. Most likely they will do this as they hand in their notice. That is if they even give notice. 2. You're not the boss of me.  My five year old used to say this to me all the time. That is until I corrected her by telling her that actually I was the boss of her and that what I said ...

We live in a world full of benchmarks and rankings. Consumers use them to compare the latest gadgets. Parents and policy makers rely on them to assess schools and other public institutions, and sports fans like them for help in sizing up their favorite teams. But what about when rankings are used at the office for appraising staff performance? It's often assumed that employees who are benchmarked against each other work harder, to either hang onto a high ranking or raise a low ranking. However,  Iwan Barankay , a management professor at Wharton, calls that assumption into question in a new study titled,  "Rankings and Social Tournaments: Evidence from a Field Experiment." "Many managers think that giving workers feedback about their performance relative to their peers inspires them to become more competitive -- to work harder to catch up, or excel even more. But in fact, the opposite happens," says Barankay, whose previous research and teaching has focuse...

What is a  must-read book ? For me, it's a book that explores, in a compelling way, a  must-know idea  — one that altered my perspective long after I had forgotten the book's narrative and details. The following five books are a small sample from a longer list of must-reads, but they have two things in common. First, they forced me to confront how superficial and inadequate my thinking was in assessing different kinds of complex problems. Second, they took the important next step of introducing more sophisticated approaches to tackling complexity, which I have been using ever since. The Black Swan , by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Taleb's book is a category unto itself — it has no obvious competitors. Like any outstanding book, the scope and depth of its ideas cannot be fairly summarized, but his central argument is that we live in two worlds. The first world can be described by basic statistical analysis and a common-sense version of cause-effect relationships; it is a world...

If you met the CEO of a major corporation, would you know what to say? What if you’re an unhappy customer? Would you be able to clearly and effectively communicate your problem? The most high profile confrontation between rank-and-file consumers and a CEO happened this May, when the CEO of a large investment firm was confronted over trading losses at a shareholder meeting. Accusations flew. Tempers flared. The CEO refused to engage — simply saying “thank you” when presented with a list of grievances. And that’s the thing: even if you  could  talk to a CEO, would it do you any good? Executives speak another language and are governed by a different set of rules. Is it something they pick up in business school? Or did they learn it under the tutelage of another manager at an executive retreat? Who knows? But what I  do  know is this: even if you can get a CEO on the phone, it won’t do you any good — unless you know what to say. Here are three important fa...

Editor’s note:  Derek Andersen  is the founder of  Startup Grind , a 35-city event series hosted in 15-countries that educates, inspires, and connects entrepreneurs.  He also founded Commonred (acquired by Income.com) and is  ex-Electronic Arts. I spoke with a robotics engineer and PHD from Stanford this week about looking for a job. He’s not the type of guy that easily joins your startup but he described two recent attempts. One was an email from a recruiter that as he described used “plenty of buzz words”, while another email came from an engineering team lead on the special projects group. Can you guess who he went to meet with and who he didn’t? When interviewing Kleiner Perkins Partner Mike Abbott at  a recent Startup Grind  event in Mountain View, this is one of the critical elements that Mike points out when it comes to hiring the best engineers. Engineers close engineers. Mike has plenty of experience, having t...

View Photo Associated Press - Matthew Marcus works at his desk in the basement of Kansas City Startup Village in Kansas City, Kan., Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. Marcus started the Village  … more   KANSAS CITY, Kan.  (AP) -- Inside a small bungalow on the street separating  Kansas City , Kan., from its sister city in Missouri, a small group of  entrepreneurs  are working on their ideas for the next high-tech startup, tapping  Google  Inc.'s new superfast  Internet connection  that has turned the neighborhood into an unlikely settlement dubbed the "Silicon Prairie." The home on State Line Road is one of several startup-friendly locations that have sprouted up in Kansas City  in recent months. The catalyst is Google Fiber, the search-engine giant's fiber-optic network being tested in the Kansas City area that advertises speeds of up to a gigabyte per second — a rate that massively exceeds the average Internet sp...

Michael Cummings advises hopeful entrepreneurs about different risks of the startup world. Years ago,  Michael Cummings  wanted to start his own company. But he was not confident and unsure about the future — he was wavering. Hearing this, his wife handed him a slip of paper with a quote from Mark Twain. “ Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do, than by the ones that you did do,”  it read. “So,  throw off the bow lines. Sail away from safe harbors. Catch the trade winds in your sills. Explore, dream, discover.” Cummings still carried that message in his pocket Tuesday evening at Via Vita in Bellevue as he shared his best entrepreneurial tips to members of the local non-profit  entrepreneurial network TiE . That Twain quote, he said, is still the most important piece of advice he’s received over the years. This Mark Twain quote was given to Michael Cummings by his wife years ago. He still ca...

Although Wikipedia is a great place to find information, it's subject to incomplete citations, biased views, and inaccuracies. And when you absolutely have to have undisputable facts, that's just not good enough. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives out there that can deliver with high quality accuracy, and we've listed 25 of the best here. Citizendium : This wiki focuses on credibility, using both the general public and credentialed experts. It works just like Wikipedia, but better. AmericanFactFinder : This database from the US Census Bureau is a great source for information on housing, economics, geography and population. The Linguist List : The Linguist List is home to a peer-reviewed database of language and language-family information. Intute : Created by a network of UK universities and partners, this database is full of evaluations from subject specialists. Classic Encyclopedia : This online encyclopedia is based on the 1911 11th edition of the Enc...