June 29, 2007

Happy Sudsy Fourth
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:06 PM

As we look toward the celebration of our nation's 231st birthday next week, what is more on Americans' minds than. . .beer consumption?

Yes, that's right. The nation's brewers report that the single biggest sales event of the year is the Fourth of July:

This year, many Americans will celebrate the Fourth of July with backyard barbeques, family, friends, and a cold beer. According to IRI InfoScan data, the Independence Day holiday period is the number one occasion for sales and servings of beer in the United States, ahead of Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Super Bowl Sunday. Beer sales during the Fourth of July holiday also contribute to the billions of dollars of economic activity generated by the beer industry annually. In 2006, this activity accounted for 1.4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

The brewing industry directly and indirectly contributes nearly $190 billion to the U.S. economy, according to an economic impact study commissioned jointly by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA). This impact includes more than 1.7 million jobs paying almost $55 billion in wages.

"Independence Day is the perfect time to celebrate America's rich brewing tradition and the economic contributions that helped build our nation," said August A. Busch IV, president and chief executive officer, Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., and chairman of the Beer Institute. "We all know the role George Washington and the Founding Fathers played in forming our great nation, but less well known is that many of them were brewers who proudly promoted the brewing industry throughout the colonies. Their vision to establish beer as an economic force for the nation's future served the country well during its infancy, and the brewing industry continues to serve as a force for economic prosperity to this day."

Wow, nice historical justification for your business, Gus. Citing George Washington, no less. ('Course 'round these parts we've got our own patriot brewer, none other than Sam Adams.)

What business are you in? And is it seasonal? Many consumer businesses point to Christmas as the crucial time for the entire year's sales. But Anheuser-Busch and colleagues like Independence Day just fine.

So, be sure to do your patriotic duty this week/weekend and go out and buy some beer.

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June 27, 2007

Lawyers, guns and money don't always mix
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:23 PM

O.k., lawyers aren't going out and shooting themselves en masse, but it might be good to lock away the guns cuz a whole heck of a lot of them are suffering from depression.  At least according to a recent article in the Boston Globe.

There is a myriad of reasons why lawyers find themselves spiraling into despair.

Heavy law school debt frequently forces graduates into high-paying jobs at private firms, where intense deadlines, staggering billable-hour requirements, and grinding hours are routine. Even veteran lawyers often find themselves disillusioned by the increasingly business-like practice of law.

The conflict-driven nature of the profession also plays a role, as does traditional legal training, which conditions lawyers to be emotionally withdrawn, a trait that can help them professionally but hurt them personally.

And the personality type frequently drawn to the law -- perfectionist, high-achieving -- is particularly vulnerable to becoming depressed, said Lawrence T. Perera, a lawyer at the Boston firm Hemenway & Barnes and former co chairman of the Boston Bar Association's Peer Support Committee.

"You add those up and it's a huge toll on a person -- even a very, very stable and capable person," Perera said. "Excessive pressure causes depression. It breaks people in one form or another."

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June 25, 2007

Drug firm eyes local expansion
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:22 PM

Life sciences folks, take note:

An international pharmaceutical company [Shire Pharmaceuticals] is eyeing Lexington as its new center of operations for genetic therapies, promising hundreds of high-paying jobs and a $394 million investment over the next four years.
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The publicly traded company, founded in the United Kingdom in 1986, researches and manufactures drugs across the globe. The division of Shire that is looking to expand to Lexington is Human Genetic Therapies, which researches treatments of rare genetic diseases. Specifically, the Lexington plant would produce at least two drugs: Elaprase, which treats Hunter syndrome, and Replagal, which is used to treat Fabry disease.

Read the full piece from today's Globe.

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Blogging for jobs
Posted by Diane Danielson at 12:50 PM

Penelope Trunk, writes in her column in the Boston Globe about how people are using blogs to break into industries and make a name for themselves. 

One of the best ways to make a big leap in your career is to blog. Blogging allows you to create a high-quality network for yourself based, not on the old model of passing out business cards, but on a new model of passing out ideas. Contrary to popular opinion, blogging is not for college kids holed up in their dorm room posting photos of themselves. Blogging is so text-intensive -- in terms of both reading and writing -- that the amount of time required of a blogger makes it unattractive to college students.

As a blogger, I can attest to what Trunk says about it being an ongoing learning experience, as well as a great way to build credibility and create a new network (with other bloggers) through your own blog or commenting on theirs.

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June 22, 2007

Why we'll always have Paris
Posted by Diane Danielson at 5:19 PM

Naomi Wolf looks into the "damsels in distress" appeal of Paris, Lindsey, Britney, Anna Nicole and even Princess Diana in the Washington Post earlier this week. 

Most American women are becoming ever more comfortable with their capabilities as they break into new professional roles, learn how to do electrical wiring or automobile maintenance, tackle life insurance, IRAs and tax planning on behalf of the many configurations of family they are nurturing, or even put their lives on the line as warriors in Iraq. They are surprising themselves and the culture every day by not falling apart as they take on tasks that the prefeminist world was sure would lead them to collapse in a heap, needing smelling salts.

Yet at the same time, the culture seems increasingly obsessed with showcasing images of glamorous young women who are falling apart -- sometimes seriously, even fatally.

In contrast to the women above (or girls, might be a more accurate moniker), she cites Queen Latifah and even Anne Hathaway as women who are doing it all and giving back.  So, why do a self-proclaimed Queen and an on-screen Princess manage to stay above the fray?  I was curious as to their role models and education - as those listed above, despite having some talents, didn't have much of either.

Turns out Anne went to NYU and according to Wikipedia "She referred to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to successfully "grow up".   

Queen Latifah didn't go to college, but seemed to have a strong role model in her mother Rita Owens who stretched the family finances to get Queen (then Dana Owens) into a good parochial school with drama and sports programs, and supported her career.

As Wolf points out, it does seem strange that we worship the weak and distraught, when there are so many women of substance out there who should be celebrated.

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June 21, 2007

Summer job thoughts
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:23 PM

Ah, summer. June 21, the solstice, and all that. It's finally here.

But if you're working or looking for a job - and my guess is that takes in most of you - you still need to be mindful of a few things.

Here are a couple of items from our new partner, Monster.com, to help you keep those wheels turning. First, for you job seekers out there, a piece on keeping that search going in the summer heat:

. . .[H]ow can you balance a well-deserved break with the solid job-search preparation you'll need to do? Think R and R: rest and research. In other words, do some digging, but keep it low-key. Here are four ways to do it.

And for those of you already in the workplace, some fashion tips for warmer weather:

Those hazy, lazy days of summer can make a business suit feel as comfortable as a suit of armor. Fortunately, you can make a professional statement and still beat the heat with these tips.

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June 18, 2007

Friendly's gets scooped up
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:25 PM

Hard to believe, but yet another New England institution has been swallowed up by outside financial interests.

This time, iconic family restaurant Friendly Ice Cream Corp., based in the central Massachusetts town of Wilbraham, has been acquired by Sun Capital Partners.

The company, which holds a sweet spot in many New Englanders' hearts, has a long and storied history:

Friendly's was started in Springfield in 1935 by brothers Prestley and Curtis Blake. Prestley Blake sold the company in 1979, but he remains a major shareholder and vociferous critic of the company's current management.

Friendly's now runs a chain of 514 company-owned and franchise restaurants in the Northeast and distributes ice cream through more than 4,500 supermarkets and other retail locations.

"Friendly's is an iconic brand name in the family restaurant sector and we are excited to add this great franchise to our portfolio of restaurant investments. We look forward to working with management to build on the legacy of this great brand and reinvigorate and expand the company within and beyond their historical markets," said Gary Talarico, managing director for Sun Capital Partners Inc.

While Sun looks ahead to building and extending the brand, you can take a nostalgic walk back through time in this photo gallery of the Friendly years, from its founding during the Depression to today.

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June 8, 2007

How to run a women's initiative program
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:03 AM

Businessweek is running a story about how to make a women's initiative work using examples from Best Buy, Deloitte and GE. Great stories and great examples - and if you need more you can find some in Sylvia Ann Hewlett's book Off-Ramps and On-Ramps. But, what happens to the rest of the women who don't work for those handful of fortune 500 companies that "get it" and put mega-budgets behind it? From the Businessweek piece:

Corporate women's networks frequently get a bad rap--for good reason. The groups frequently toil on the fringes, hosting "lunch and learns" and book clubs that rarely provide the skills or exposure women need to rise in the ranks. Often, "these initiatives are run by people who don't really have much power," notes Claudia Peus, a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. When she interviewed more than 900 female executives about critical factors in their success, they ranked programs for the promotion of women last. "The spontaneous reaction was, 'They don't work.'"

It's an issue - how do you keep your women engaged and not marginalized if you don't have a budget or the senior management buy-in to do so?

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June 7, 2007

Good news on the local economic front
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:28 PM

Here's some good news from the Boston.com Daily Business Update:

Massachusetts' economic growth accelerated last year, outpacing other New England states. . .
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Massachusetts's productivity, or output per person, was the third highest in the nation, as measured by value, the Commerce Department said. Each person produced nearly $47,000 in goods and services, compared to about $38,000 nationally. Delaware, at $59,288, and Connecticut, at $50,332, led the nation.

The Commerce Department attributed the high per person output to "a concentration of high value industries, such as financial services."

We hear a lot about all the intellectual capital around here. Looks as though it might just be paying off.

Based on this report, here's my entry for a new economic development slogan for the region: "If you're smart, you'll stay in Massachusetts."

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June 6, 2007

D-Day
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:01 PM

If D-Day, June 6, 1944 - the largest invasion ever, years in the planning and involving several allied countries, hundreds of thousands of troops and countless ships, planes, and other munitions, and over 230,000 Allied casualties - had not been a success 63 years ago today, we might all be speaking German now and working at very different kinds of jobs.

So take a moment to pause, reflect, and remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice that we could be free to live our lives as we do today.

Links of interest:

Boston Globe "This Day in History"

Encyclopedia Britannica's thorough coverage of the D-Day battle, in text and image

PBS' American Experience film, D-DAY

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June 4, 2007

Valedictorians speak
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 2:44 PM

You were valedictorian of your high school class, right?

Right. Well, here is this year's crop of Boston high schools' best and brightest, and you get a chance to see what they have to say about their future plans, in two different ways.

First, you can check them out in the photo gallery. Above is Greta Cuko, 2007 valedictorian of Brook Farm Business and Service Academy:

"Albania is not a very well-developed country. . . . I want to help make it better for the people who live there."

Or, you can see several of this year's top students talk about their views and future career plans in a series of videos.

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