Yesterday my wife phoned me from the Verizon store on 6th avenue and 21st street where she and my son went to upgrade his cell phone. It turned out that it was time for the Verizon carrot trick: that little extra inducement that ensures that we continue to play on the Verizon playing field rather then jump to another carrier. As it turns out, since we’re on a family plan, the carrot was especially juicy. …

Small businesses on Main Street are always challenged by the economy.  Small businesses are a bit quieter then they were a few years ago and now the challenge for small-town business leaders is to be creatively proactive. However, our capacity to be proactive, as shown in this story, is all too often restricted by the business we’re in. While sustaining a business in a small town is part of an idealized American dream, increasingly it …

In this world of technology, decision-making is sometimes surrendering to gadgets.  When I was a child, driving back to Brooklyn from our bungalow in Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey was always an adventure.  Sitting in the backseat of the 1956 Plymouth, my brother and I always wondered which way my father would take us–take Route 46 or not Route 46, take the tunnel or take the bridge, go down the Van Wyck or take the …

Social networking used to be pretty easy: it started with a handshake and, if you were lucky, it ended with one.
Now social networking, thanks to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, has become a 24/7 personal marketing campaign that involves pictures, well trimmed personal statements, and a brand of status anxiety only the Internet can produce.
Acquiring and managing networks (a.k.a. friends) online has developed it’s own prickly set of rules and nuances. Apparently, it’s a …

It seems everyone is using Twitter. However, Twitter, in cases, can allow users to get access to breaking news and help companies do market research.
I said it in Wednesday’s post: companies can’t just ‘hunker down’ during trying times. They need to invest in their core and, according to this piece in the New Yorker, start spending.
Forbes considers what US cities have the best employment prospects.
Interesting piece on how the recession may ‘shape’ America–and New York.
Foreign …

Ada Rosario Dolch has spent the first part of her career shaping NYC public school students into leaders, thinkers, and doers. She taught at John Dewey High School for 15 years and was principal at the High School for Leadership and Public Service from 1995 to 2004.
Today she is executive director of the Executive Leadership Institute—a organization committed to crafting, mentoring, and inspiring public school leaders in NYC. Ada’s passion, enthusiasm, and strength are contagious …