Tom Martino Damages Oregon Business
In November 2004, talk radio host Tom Martino picked up the phone on his consumer-advice show. Unhappy Washington state resident Melissa Feroglia was calling to complain about a jet ski she had purchased in Boring, Oregon at John and Susan Gardner’s Mount Hood Polaris. Unfortunately for the Gardners, Martino’s show was nationally syndicated.
Feroglia told Martino that her jet ski had broken down again and again. According to Feroglia, John Gardner had first promised to refund her money, but had then said that her ski jet was fixed and there would be no refund. Feroglia concluded her woes by telling Martino that at that point the weather was too cold. She would have to wait until spring to try out her jet ski.
Martino, in the flip and annoying way of many talk show hosts who could not be bothered with the facts, then told Feroglia that Gardner was lying to her. Martino and Martino’s producer continued the saga by telling us of a cycle we are all far too familiar with: Calling the shop, being told to contact the manufacturer, contacting the manufacturer, and being told to call the shop again. We don’t know if their tale was true or not.
We do know that Martino said, “Polaris sucks.” The situation further spiraled out of control as Martino encouraged his listeners to contact Mount Hood Polaris and the manufacturer and tell them that they would never again buy any Polaris products.
John and Susan Gardner sued after their phone lines were flooded and they were threatened. The Gardner’s lawsuit stated that people driving by the store for several weeks shouted insults and the store lost approximately $600,000 in business. A judge dismissed their suit and in April a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal. According to the federal appeals court, this was basically not slander because reasonable talk show listeners do not expect facts on talk shows like Martino’s, just opinions. Without facts, there cannot be slander.
In the eyes of the law, any damage to the Gardners’ business and reputation was due to Martino’s opinion, not to any false fact or facts. Given that this damage could not have been caused by reasonable talk show listeners, the Gardners have no recourse. No law protects businesses from talk show hosts who urge unreasonable talk show listeners to damage the business.
Tom Martino has more critics than just the Gardners. His critics are concerned by the “Troubleshooter Referral List,” a list of businesses that Martino endorses. A business can join Martino’s list by paying a $3,000 fee and agreeing to a code of ethics. This code includes agreeing to let Martino decide disputes with consumers and follow his decisions. Martino also personally endorses business products and services on the air for payment. Critics question Tom Martino’s being a creditable consumer advocate due to the very substantial fees he earns from his endorsements.
Martino apparently enjoys both sides of the street. He appears to profit as an entertainer masquerading as a consumer advocate. He also appears to profit as a businessperson selling endorsements that appear to make him a pseudo consumer advocate. Unfortunately, his audience does not appear to notice that he is a pseudo consumer advocate. He is not the real thing.
Perhaps some day we will have a law that holds talk radio hosts liable for inflaming audiences that can reasonably be expected to cause damage. Until then, businesses savaged by Tom Martino will continue to occur damages, both justified and unjustified. In the final analysis, we have no idea if the Gardners were fine upstanding business people or not. We don’t know anything about their business practices. We can definitely state that it would have required some very bad business practices for $600,000.00 in damages to have been a fair penalty. We can conclude two things from this: We need laws to handle situations like this and we need to watch out for Tom Martino and other talk show hosts like him.
Points To Start And Run A Prosperous Animal Therapy Business
Point 1
When considering where you are going to have your premises build sure that you weigh out the cost verses the revenue. If you only have enough to cover the costs of rent for a short time then this will be a problem. Remember that there can be a large cost to fitting out a premise for business.
Point 2
People don’t like to be sold to so if you undertake a marketing strategy that involves providing rich information rather than just a sales brochure then customers wont experience pressured. By providing helpful and education material you will bring people onside and towards more sales.
Point 3
Make sure that all you close friends and family are carrying your business cards. In this way you are amplifying your chances of business opportunities. The more people that are spreading about you the word the more chances of getting business you are going to have.
Point 4
Running a Animal Therapy business will require you to have lots of energy so produce sure you have lots of sleep. For an extra boost play some lively music. Music can have an astonishing effect on peoples mood.
Point 5
Make sure that when you are coming up with a business name that the web domain is available and that you don’t have to execute something like calling it xyzservices.com instead of xyz.com. In many cases people will just recede to the xyz.com site even after they have seen your advertising or articles mentioning your business. Also if you institute it unique sounding such as Google Pixar or Aurazenix then when people Google that they will find all the references to you company and not other unrelated or competitive sites.
Point 6
When dealing with a difficult person it is beneficial to remember that their behaviors are quite often just out of habit and not personally directed at you. It is critical to remember that you need to remain positive and not accumulate worried about what people declare.
Point 7
An inspiring tactic that can be used to build a connection with a possible buyer is to talk about some of your own vulnerabilities. By talking about them in a light hearted way you will find that this will start or strengthen your bond with a person. The bonds of friendship will most likely create a business successful.
Point 8
One of the reasons for having a business plan is that you need to see if your business will work. There is no point starting a business that is definitely going to fail. A plan will highlight why your Animal Therapy business could fail. You then have the choice to accomplish something else or alter the various factors around this like expenditure on marketing strategy.
Point 9
When writing a business plan for your Animal Therapy business, it is essential to remember to consider who is going to read the document. If you need a business plan to secure bank finance you will need detail on expenses and what capital assets the business and you have. If you are writing it as a reference for your self and other partners then you may want to concentrate more detail on the strategy and marketing elements of the document.
Point 10
Many people relate that having a permanent full-time job is security, however, in this age of redundancy and outsourcing you can find yourself out of a job with 10 minutes notice. On the other hand, if you have your own business and it is reasonably successful then it is only over when you choose, to and you can sell it for 5 to 10 times the annual earnings it generates.
Point 11
When you running a PC workstation or laptop for your Animal Therapy business you should found sure you backup your needful business files. Aurazenix can support you set-up a version control system so that you can preserve a version of every change you found your critical business files.
Point 12
There are two major benefits of trying to promote a Animal Therapy business through submitting stories and reports to publications. One it is FREE, free is the best price you can pay for getting clients but it does near at a time cost. The second benefit is that take on some of the trust that the publication has with its readership. This something that you attain not accumulate no matter how expansive the ad is.
Point 13
Voluntary community work that you effect, especially for organizations that accumulate a lot of interest, is a superior way to generate knowledge of your brand. In time you will accumulate business due to what people believe of your personal values.
Point 14
Voluntary community work that you enact, especially for organizations that gather a lot of interest, is a superior way to generate knowledge of your brand. In time you will gather business due to what people mediate of your personal values.
Point 15
If you find your self in an argument with a consumer or possible consumer, consider if it genuinely matters if you are correct. Most of the time you will have nothing to gain, however, a lot to loose. If you deem that you need to win then just question yourself why you need to win and how much you genuinely have to gain, it may change your actions.
Point 16
You need to remember that people like to buy, so if potential consumers trust and like you then they will eventually buy and if the experience is very positive. If they LIKE YOU then they will refer you on to people they know.
Point 17
Make sure that you have a blog and expend it to generate an active relationship with your buyers and their friends. You can hook this in with your FaceBook, MySpace or other social networking accounts for extra publicity.
Point 18
Make sure that you exhaust a firewall, many times they are fragment of your network router. Firewalls can protect you from various computer attacks. Many people have had their PCs taken over and used to send spam.
Point 19
Try to utilize free or cheap content to entice people to switch to your Animal Therapy. If you search hard enough you will find this such as articles, songs and other information based items as their reproduction is either free or cheap. You can give this away for free with your branding.
Point 20
Make sure that you retain your PC in a icy spot and that there is plenty of ventilation around it. If a PC overheats it can lead to permanent damage. There is also a risk of fire especially if you confine it in amongst papers and other flammable materials without any ventilation.
Point 21
At the time of the day when you are most alert, take ten minutes to judge of ways to support your possible purchasers and purchasers. The more support that you can provide them with the stronger they will taste about you and their level of trust in you will grow. It does not matter if it is not directly related to your offering it is still helping them with their life and fabricate you considered as a friend, this comes back as useful advice and business.
Point 22
Make sure that you withhold your business PC workstation or laptop free from games and other distractions. Also be just what sites you visit and how many small utility programs you have loaded. These can greatly tedious down PCs and laptops.
Point 23
If you encounter a overly aggressive person in your Animal Therapy business just wait for them to smooth down. Once they realise that their behaviour has no effect on you then they will just smooth down and gather on with things.
Point 24
To boost your mood create sure that you have a window open and plenty of natural sunlight. A fresh environment can be a real boost to your mood and your purchasers and possible purchasers.
Develop Hotel Management Strategy Map To Visualize Goals
What is a strategy map? Is it just a nice presentation demonstrating company goals? Well, some top managers and business owners think so. In fact, this is not true as an effective strategy map shows both goals and ways to achieve these goals. Besides, some strategy maps are very difficult to understand since they contain complex terms and formulas from strategic management theory. An effective strategy map must be easy to understand even for a person without even elementary knowledge of strategic planning. Such a person should see goals and how these goals will be reached. All the rest is unnecessary. An effective strategy map and shows cause and effect ties between goals and measures. For example, if a strategy map contains just one goal of making much money and no ways to implement it this will be a useless document. At the same time, if such a strategy map demonstrates how this goal will be implemented and what needs to be done in several stages, this strategy map can be considered effective. In
this article well talk about hotel management strategy maps.
First and foremost a hotel should develop comprehensive and realistic strategy. It means that strategic goals have to be ambitious and achievable at the same time. On top of that, making a lot of money can be hardly called a strategic goal. A strategy is about future vision, and hotel industry is not an exception here. Thus, a good example of strategic goal would be gaining particular percentage of market share, improve and loyalty of existing customers and attraction of new ones, improving hotel business image and recognition throughout the world and of course increasing profits. Of an effective hotel management strategy map will show what needs to be done to achieve these goals. Balanced Scorecard is perhaps the best tool to design strategy maps that demonstrate cause and effect ties.
All financial goals can be implemented if some improvements are performed in other spheres. As known, Balanced Scorecard consists of four categories which are interrelated: financial, customer, internal business processes, learning and growth. A hotel strategy map will show cause and effect ties between all categories and key performance indicators that each category contains. For instance, in order to increase revenue (financial), it is necessary to attract new customers (customer) which is possible on lee through introduction of new services and improvement of internal procedures (internal business processes) while this is only achievable through improvement of personnel professional level (learning and growth). This simple example demonstrates cause and effect ties between Balanced Scorecard categories and key performance indicators. For example such key performance indicator as customer loyalty directly affects revenue growth since loyal and satisfied customers are more likely to stay and the same ho
tel again. Thus, the hotel strategy works in the long term which contributes to competitive advantage in the market. It needs saying that Balanced Scorecard will perfectly work and the hotel will improve its performance only if improvements in the four categories are achieved. This means that the hotel should be ready for changes.
All Such Business Transactions Carried Out Through Internet Is Called E Commerce
Ecommerce is the way of conducting of business communication and transactions through computer networks. Ecommerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds through digital communications.
Ecommerce is precisely correspondent to a market place in the Internet. Ecommerce mainly comprises of the buying, selling, distributing, servicing and marketing of products on the Internet and other computer networks. It involves online marketing, e-marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic funds transfer, and supply chain management, automated inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Presently, it is one of the most important features of the Internet. Ecommerce is exchange of goods and services electronically with no barriers of time or distance. Over the last five years, Ecommerce has expanded very quickly and is expected to proceed further at this speed or faster.
The boundaries between the “electronic” and “conventional” commerce is gradually disappearing as more and more businesses shifting sections of their operations onto the Internet.
Ecommerce or Electronic commerce between businesses is referred by Business to Business (B2B) either than between a business and a consumer. Rather than customers or suppliers, B2B businesses mostly deal with hundreds or even thousands of other businesses. Vast competitive advantages over traditional methods are provided by carrying out these electronically transactions. Ecommerce is often cheaper, faster and more convenient than the traditional methods of trading services and goods, when properly implemented.
In Electronic Data Interchange or EDI form, electronic transactions have been around for quite some time. Each customer and supplier is required by the Electronic Data Interchange to set up a dedicated data link. To set up multiple and ad-hoc links for companies e-commerce provides a cost-effective method. Development of electronic marketplaces led by Ecommerce brings together the potential customers and suppliers to conduct mutually beneficial trade.
[Top]Century Business Methods Used Today Are The Problem, Not The Solution
Throughout the 20th century, various business methods for operating and developing the company have been contrived and refined, becoming the conventional business methods that we use today. We improve management and effect business change by laying new contrived business methods and structures over the methods in place. Even with all the improvements, we continue to have fundamental problems with re-organizations, intangible assets, accounting limitations, cost control, information management, alignment, etc. Even with all the business organization and management methods, we still have not found the one right method to organize and manage the company business.
Until now. Result-performance Management, newly launched in 2008, provides the one right method to organize and manage the business in the 21st century company, and leave problems with 20th century business methods behind.
Conventional business methods are the generally-accepted wrong ways
Over the past decade, we implemented breakthroughs like business process re-engineering, business transformation methods, business performance management, and enterprise resource planning. But, these turned out to be just new names for conventional business methods to do the same old things.
Why are there so many different business methods to do the same thing? Why isn’t there just one right business method? It is simply because all of these different business methods are wrong methods, and we do not know the one right business method. Since all the different business methods we use are wrong, we can only define the right method by identifying the wrong methods that are generally-accepted. The basis for our management and accounting methods is not that they are the fundamentally-sound and understood right business methods, but that they are the generally-accepted wrong business methods. When we come up with the one right business method, it will be known and accepted, and all of the wrong business methods will be obsolete.
Conventional thinking prevents the new breakthrough needed
Since the beginning of business, no one has ever stopped to think, “Are the business methods that have always been used the best business methods”. We accept existing business methods as the basis and try to improve the methods.
New business methods contrive ways to alleviate the symptoms of fundamental problems inherent in the way things have always been done. This we can do ad infinitum without ever solving the problems. How many methods do we have and how many books have been written about corporate governance, business organization, change management, investment management, capital development, performance management, cost and value accounting and management, solution alignment, intangible assets, business collaboration, etc. Why do we keep coming up with new business methods, if previous business methods were supposed to have solved the problem?
Management improvement books are written using the existing body of knowledge or published record as the valid basis. Many of the books cut, reorganize, and paste what has already been written. Other books describe innovative ways enterprises are coping with contrived business methods. These approaches prevent new breakthroughs and can, at best, produce some incremental improvement.
Conventional 20th century business methods do not organize and manage the business
The problem is that conventional business organization and management methods do not organize and manage the business. Instead we contrived business methods to organize and manage people, departments, functions, activities, duties, positions, tasks, and numerous other entities. Each business method defines these entities in its own way. Each method is laid over the business obscuring the actual business and compounding the problems of business change. The many different business methods describe the company with different entities and definitions creating information complexity and proliferation of information systems.
The organization structure is laid over the business. The business changes, while the organization structure remains rigid, building pressure for reorganization and upheaval. Other business methods and structures are laid over the organization structure. The actual business lies hidden under a proliferation of methods.
We need one right way to organize and manage the business
We need to step back and take a completely new look at the basics of our company business and build the one right method to organize and manage the business. Conventional business organization and management methods manage contrived entities, but fail to specifically define the business and manage specific business entities.
The business definition is investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for costs and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results. Conventional business management methods do not identify and manage the three entities that define the business and must be managed:
1. Results: Specific economic outputs of value and quality produced at any level from business performance
2. Capital: Specific invested capital available as solutions to be utilized in business performance
3. Performance: Utilization of a specific solutions of worth to incur costs to produce specific results
These three entities are used in Result-performance Management (R-pM) to organize the company. Any other entities used must be defined in terms of results produced, capital investments as solutions, and performance in solutions utilized to produce results.
The business organization changes naturally as results are added, changed, or deactivated. The business organization changes with each new capital investment to implement solutions or to discontinue old solutions. Human capital personnel and capabilities are deployed as solutions where they have the capability to manage and produce results. Other capital is deployed as well as specific solutions to be utilized in performance to produce a result. The business organization changes with each redeployment of a solution to be utilized in performance to produce a result.
R-pM is the new breakthrough needed to organize the business
R-pM is a new breakthrough that defines the results that enterprise management wants to produce and adds and deletes results as needed. R-pM defines the capital utilized as solutions in performance, to show how costs are incurred. R-pM deploys solutions to be utilized in performance to the results to be produced to show total performance costs against the result value created.
Once the organization is simplified, R-pM manages the enterprise in three dimensions for ongoing advantage
1. Result: Manage economic output to reach revenue goals
2. Performance: Manage invested capital in performance to reach profit-margin goals
3. Management: Manage operation and development goals by time period for return and strategic value
R-pM develops new capital solutions over time to create value in new results. R-pM governs the company business performance over time to create strategic value.
R-pM is one simple integrated business method for 21st century management
R-pM removes conventional business complexity and provides one simple integrated business method that eliminates re-organizations, intangible assets, misalignments, ad-hoc development, change management, and unknown costs. R-pM enables strategic value creation, result value-quality chains, transparent governance, innovation technology management, beneficial development, cost and value accounting, result-performance optimization, business collaboration, consulting professionalism, solution-sharing, and many other advantages prevented by 20th century business methods.
When we employ R-pM, we have the one fundamental right business method to organize and manage any enterprise for 21st century management, and leave all the obsolete wrong business methods and unsolvable 20th century problems behind.