FOXNews published a health article in January titled “Plastic Surgery Regret on the Rise, Fueling ‘Revision’ Practices”. In typical Fox fashion, the article was rather alarmist. The blurb featured one plastic surgery horror story from a woman who was unhappy after two nose jobs, followed by a quote from respected surgeon Andrew Jacono stating that 1 in 3 surgical procedures is a revision.

Can this be right? Or is there a better explanation for all the revisions going on in American operating rooms?

Here are three practical reasons we propose that may explain the “1 in 3″ statistic – and only one of them is a fear mongering idea: Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve worked for many companies, from a large subsidiary of Viacom to a suburban mom-and-pop retail shop. The jobs were all sales oriented, to an extent, and relied on relationships with customers to keep the business afloat. Yet strangely, the one thing all of these businesses – the large and the small – had in common was that we never used a CRM.

Why the aversion? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are great for organising sales information. For example, look at Flightdeck CRM. Their website spells out quite plainly exactly what you can do with a CRM; everything from lead sheets to contact management is fair game. Yet the businesses I’ve worked with have used a variety of other methods to accomplish these goals, from good ole pen and paper to massive Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that were just begging to be corrupted.

So what’s out there in the land of business management software systems? I like the Flightdeck CRM, and their website for that matter. The language on the site does require a certain degree of understanding of business management, but that’s par for the course – you’re talking about high-spec company software here. But what’s great is, although there’s some jargon, the site has a very matter-of-fact approach to their sales pitch. The menus are clearly laid out (and colourful!) in a “Tell me this” way (“Tell me why Flightdeck is different”, “Tell me how Flightdeck can help me”, etc). Plain English is a wonderful thing. Read the rest of this entry »

Two young women who reportedly caused a disruption on a Southwest Airlines flight from Tampa to Los Angeles are accusing the airline of discrimination – because they’re pretty.

“I think they were just discriminating against because we were young decent-looking girls. I mean, nobody else on the plane looked like us except us,” commented Sarah Williams, who was questioned by police officers after having a profanity-filled argument with another passenger. “[The flight attendants] were like older ladies. We were younger. Who knows, they could have been just jealous of us because we were younger.” (view the video here)

That’s right – we all have chips on our shoulders because we’re uglier than them. Read the rest of this entry »

Toshiba – the lone holdout still manufacturing HD DVD players – announced on Tuesday that it would give up manufacturing HD DVD, leaving Blu-ray technology as the standing eight count winner in the next-gen DVD format battle.

Toshiba’s concessions follows an announcement by retail giant Best Buy that they were putting their marketing power behind Blu-ray; Netflix and Wal-Mart have similar commitments in place, and most major movie studios have also backed the technology. Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody has a website now, and gone are the days of glitter text, animated GIFs and MIDI files playing in the background. A quality website is no longer just a “homepage” but a multi-million dollar corporate marketing campaign available, at the click of a button, to a global audience.

Everyone wants that low-cost professional edge – but they don’t need it to be delivered in the same way. “Corporate” websites are fine for accountants, law firms and – dare we say – large corporations. However, not everyone needs this uber-professional presentation; it just doesn’t represent most industries. In fact, it doesn’t represent most industries.

Here are our Top 5 Signs Your Website is “Too Corporate”: Read the rest of this entry »