Phood and bepherages

By Maura Welch  |  April 2, 2007

BusinessWeek
Consumers spend serious bucks in their quest for health, fitness, and wellness . . . and food companies are onto it. Overall the food industry is growing at 3 to 4 percent. But foods that provide extra nutrition, energy, and medicinal benefits are growing at 20 percent. Thirty percent of shoppers say they are more likely to buy such foods, called ‘‘phoods’’ and ‘‘bepherages’’ because of their pharmaceutical benefits, even though studies on them are inconclusive. Please pass the Smart Balance Omega Plus Buttery Spread.

Marketwatch

Here's a disturbing number: 41 percent of companies are "struggling to find qualified workers for at least one position, according to the survey of 2,400 U S firms." Why? Lack of skills. What's the hardest job to fill with qualified talent? Sales reps. While there are plenty of applicants, many lack sought-after skills for business-to-business and retail sales. It will get worse. Projections are that "an additional 736,000 retail sales people and an additional 187,000 sales representatives are going to be required by 2014."

Fortune, TechCrunch

If you're not on Facebook or MySpace, you've probably never heard of Photobucket. But it has 38 million members and it is growing by 80,000 members per day. What is it? Go there to dump all your photos and videos in the bucket and then link to them from anywhere. So even if you switch from MySpace to another social network, you don't lose all your pictures. It claims to be breaking even this year and TechCrunch reports that it is being valued at "$300 million to $400 million or more" by Lehman Brothers.

CNNMoney

On April 4 General Motors is set to unveil three new Korean-designed minicar concepts and give potential customers a chance to vote on the best one. With U S sales in the minicar segment rising 59 percent in 2006 to 314,225, from just under 200,000 in 2005, car makers are interested in gauging U S interest and appetite for the anti-SUV idea. Toyota has the Yaris. Nissan has the Versa. Honda has the Fit. And DaimlerChrysler plans to bring its European Smartcar to the United States in 2008. On April 4, cast your vote at vote4chevrolet.com.

BoingBoing

We've covered continuous partial attention here before. And now recent studies say that "multitasking may be an illusion that actually hurts productivity and increases error." While our brain is capable of trillions of synaptic connections, we just aren't that good at doing two things at once, let alone three or four. One study found that it took an average of 15 minutes following an interruption like an incoming e-mail (or reading this blog post) for workers to return to dedicated mental tasks.

Mercury News

If the consumer side of you can choose which songs to listen to and where you get your news, then why shouldn't the worker side of you have choice too? That's why Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings founded his company on the idea of employee autonomy. Work at Netflix and you can take as much time off as you want, as long as you get your work done. "Vacation limits and face-time requirements, says Hastings, are "a relic of the industrial age." At Netflix workers are treated "as adults." I wonder if he'll provide the same advice to Microsoft, now that he's joined its board of directors.

Guy Kawasaki's blog

Guy Kawasaki blogs about an interesting study covered in Science Daily about the relationship between compensation and productivity. Which fosters greater productivity: pay-for-performance bonuses or merit raises? A Cornell study says that a bonus yields better results. Far better. While Guy admits that compensation is complex, this study found "a 10-to- 1 advantage for bonuses." Yeah. I never met a bonus I didn't like.