It was 16 months ago that I first read the New York Times article about “retargeting ads.” We’ve all encountered them – and most people find them as welcomed as bedbugs (and even harder to get rid of).

The technology is simple enough. Some honest and unsuspecting prospective customer visits an unscrupulous merchant’s website, and ends up with a cookie in his browser settings. Next thing he knows, he finds himself being stalked by that merchant – or others selling the same or similar merchandise. Read more

The question I asked was, “What were the defining qualities of the best business presenter you ever saw?”

Without hesitation, the German executive I was working with gave me this quick list:

• Energy
• Enthusiasm
• Rapport

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Sixty years ago, my father had an insurance agent named Jack Josephson. Jack was the embodiment of customer service. He answered his own phone, spoke in simple terms, told the truth, and would drop anything he was doing to respond to a client with a claim. Jack was a good guy in an age of good guys – but since good guys were everywhere in the ‘50s, he went pretty much unnoticed. Jack worked for Prudential, the “Rock-of-Gibraltar” company. It seemed to fit. Jack was always there, never changing, solid. He was an honor to the brand he served. I remember the day I learned that Jack had died. And though I never really knew him personally, I felt like I had lost a part of my childhood.
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It should be the difference between attending a live presentation and simply being handed over a document to read.  But, unfortunately, for just about every business presentation, there is no difference.  And that’s a problem.
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A few years back, a young Marketing VP confided, “My first year on the job, I lowered our production costs, reduced our dependence on outside services, improved our mail and email response rates, and turned around a departmental morale problem, only to be chided by the CEO, at my year-end review…”
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