http://www.inc.com/articles/2010/02/rob-dyrdek-QA.html

Doesn’t look like much is changing if you are planning on upgrading from Office 2007 to 2010. What do you think?

If you’ve been following the news recently, Conan O’Brien has a twitter account and has amassed over half a million followers in just a few weeks.  To date Conan hasn’t been following anyone until yesterday when he decided to follow a random person who “likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs”.  Sarah Killen’s life has now forever changed (she now has over 10,000 followers and counting)…hilarious.

DJ Ruth Flowers just wants the kids to have fun. Flowers is a 69-year-old Disk Jockey who spins at the most prestigious nightclubs in Paris.

Note to self: if you are going to interrupt a college professor by wearing a chicken suit and do the chicken dance, make sure he isn’t a Chuck Norris wannabe.

I was at a Starbucks drive-through when I noticed the license plate frame of the car in front of me.  The license plate read “Outta my way I’m going to Starbucks!”.  The reason I took the picture was it was interesting to me that I was in a long line of cars for a $4 latte and the car directly in front of me loved the company so much they proudly displayed it on their license plate.  What does it say about a company when people (not companies) make and sell license plates which allow you to display your affection for a particular company?

I don’t think it is too difficult to create a company people will love and respect so much they will tell the world about it.  Companies of course try to attract customers to get them in their door but are some companies simply looking to get customers in the building, or are they looking to build relationships with their customers?  I think you can build a relationship with your customers through your brand, transparency, serving the community it serves, customer service, quality products, and differentiating products.  I think if you do any of those things to a high standard (not too difficult these days) customers will come back and they may even be so passionate about your company they will tout it on their license plate.  Is there a recipe for the success of a company?  If you were to make the perfect recipe for a company you love so much you wanted to share it with the world, what would it consist of in your opinion?

This FastCompany Magazine (one of my favorite magazines by the way) video discusses Voodoo Donuts in Portland, OR as well as Zipcar which are two business who have been able to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/

Photo by Ed McCulloch

I enjoyed the Inc. Magazine article on Josh James, one of Omniture’s co founders who “says he has no special love for technology. But he has long seen its possibilities. In 1996, he and a college classmate launched a webpage-building service when businesses were just discovering the Internet. Fueled by tens of millions in venture backing, James built Omniture, based in Orem, Utah, into a thriving Web analytics and online marketing company whose software tracks Web traffic for companies such as Toyota, Gap, and JetBlue. James took Omniture public on his 33rd birthday, in 2006. Last October, Adobe purchased the company for $1.8 billion.”  >> Read the full article