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By Posted on Posted in Business, Companies, Workplace No Comments

clever stupid

If you are an employee, it means you have a boss. No matter at which level you are working, it means you have a boss. If you are a newcomer to any business or holding a managerial position, then you have a boss.

And as we would all agree, bosses come in 2 different packages: the clever and the stupid.

If you have a clever boss, then you are in heaven. And most of the times, you would wish you are as clever as your boss is. You admire his personality, his attitude, his character. The way he is managing people around him, taking decisions, playing smart games, giving you the option of having a brain exercise every day, for every case or business situation and the best part is when you learn from him. This learning would be your asset, taking advantage of him or even abusing his cleverness (that is fine for a good cause). Leaving the office every day and taking home with you something new originating from your clever boss and feeling happy because he is challenging you to find solutions, to come up with decisions, the right ones.

This is the ultimate dream of every employee, being respected and appreciated by his boss for the job he is doing, for the effort he is putting in place to make things happen and when you find out that your boss is aligned with you then you will be happy employee.

If you have a stupid boss, then you are in hell. Things will by themselves become hard to achieve. It would be almost impossible to convince such a boss with anything you know or you experienced. And it is quite weird that stupid bosses are most of the time stubborn people (but luckily you might also find a stupid boss who is ready to learn, good luck). These stupid bosses are hard to please, no matter what you do or the result you present, they are always not happy and they want more without taking into consideration the variables involved in the story.

This is the ultimate nightmare of every employee, being stuck with a stupid boss and trying hard everyday to keep his mood the same or doing things he is not convinced in 1st place to do, but just applying the orders he is receiving, without mentioning the tiring mental situation he has to survive with such a boss.

You might be wondering what kind of boss I am dealing with???

Photos Credit: http://www.neatoshop.com/product/Clever-Stupid

By Posted on Posted in Acquisition, Brands, Companies No Comments

The French dairy cooperative Sodiaal and PAI have formalized this morning the news that they granted exclusive negotiations with General Mills for the acquisition of 50% of Yoplait.
Sodiaal holds the joint control of the company that owns the trademark and will be a shareholder of the operating company.

The transaction amount is 800 million euros, and General Mills offer puts Yoplait value at around EUR 1.6bn, and means the French firm step up its game in compting with market leader Danone.

General Mills is no stranger in this case, since the group is the Yoplait franchisee in the U.S. since 1977. The US is the largest market for the Yoplait brand after France, its sales reached $ 1.55 billion.

By Posted on Posted in Companies No Comments

The post originally appeared on Dyn.com, a world leader in managed DNS, powering the best brands on the web including Gowalla, Mashable, Twitter, Wikia and more. Follow @DynInc on Twitter.

  1. Don’t Block Social Networks
  2. Allow Browser Freedom
  3. Work in the Cloud
  4. Don’t Ban Personal Cell Phones
  5. Friend/Follow Your Employees
  6. Even Better, Set Up a Company Social Network
  7. Set Up Company Music Playlists
  8. Offer Rewards For Location-Based Service Achievements
  9. Feature All Your Staff on Your Company Website
  10. Set Up an Online Comments System

To know more about what is happening in the mobile platforms, applications and startups in the MENA region, consider visiting the ArabNet 2011 Shift Digital Summit, from March 22-25, in Beirut-Lebanon, which will draw over 1,000 attendees and 80 speakers from around the world. It will include a Developer Day (March 22), Two Forum Days (March 23 & 24), and a Community Day (March 25).

By Posted on Posted in Companies, Consumer, E-tailing 2 Comments

They are everywhere on the internet and trending worldwide. Everybody wants to be in this business called “Deal Of The Day” and clones are popping up in every county but still the biggest player is Groupon.

The idea for Groupon was created by now-CEO and Pittsburgh native Andrew Mason. Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website (also called group buying) that is localized to major geographic markets worldwide. Launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City, and Toronto. As of October 2010, Groupon serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 35 million registered users.

In October 2010, Yahoo! was rumored to have offered over $3 billion to acquire Groupon.[26] On November 30, 2010, it was reported that Google offered $5.3 billion with a $700 million earnout to acquire Groupon and was rejected on December 3, 2010. After the rejection of the Google/Groupon buy-out, Groupon was identified as a possible candidate for an initial public offering by 2013.

Before its expansion into the MENA region (Middle-East & North Africa) with its launch of Groupon UAE on March 1st 2011, already 2 companies were up and running, trying to cover the region before the arrival of the big player.

Both companies are based in Dubai, UAE. Gonabit is backed up by Bayt.com and Cobone by Jabbar Internet Group.
In my opinion, both of them are waiting for a buyout offer from Groupon based on their users database and turnover (which is not known), but I am not sure if Groupon itself is interested in such offering after their arrival into the region.

Specially that Cobone site is not showing any deal-of-the-day and that is a bad sign for a service who said it will offer its users or any potential web surfer a daily offer. I never registered for both sites, even they both had/have appealing offers for Lebanese consumers but when I decided to write this blog post, I was really disappointed seeing a “coming soon” sign.

Unfortunately Gonabit and Cobone did not manage to be present in all major capitals of the MENA region before the arrival of Groupon, so the race is on with the only difference between the 2 local players and the American giant, the cash flow.

Surely Groupon will handle the game in a more aggressive way trying to drag the local players down on their knees in order to get them out of the market.

CEOs of Gonabit, Cobone & Groupon M.E., Dan Stuart, Paul Kenny & Faisal Haq will be present in Beirut between the 22nd and 25th of March for the Arabnet Shift Digital Summit. So let us wait to hear from them about it.

By Posted on Posted in Business, Companies No Comments

This story happened today in our office in Warsaw and it is about DHL and their documents deliveries, which i thought are more consolidated and combined in order to maximize each car they have on the street.

We have received 1 dox almost an hour ago, then few minutes later another DHL guy appears having another dox for us. For me it looked so weird, having received 2 dox with the same courier company but with 2 different delivery men.

I am not experienced in the express courier industry, but logically for me and from what I read about this industry in books and online, every morning all packages are scanned electronically and should be consolidated in order to cut cost on delivery and operation charges, but seeing this in our office makes me wonder how DHL is operating.

I am sure that DHL is one of the most advanced express courier companies technologically and Germany is not far from Poland (456km of borders), and the Warsaw hub should be a very active one for both countries.

Maybe I missing something in the background, but for me it is just about logic. And in my humble opinion, DHL simply lost some money today by sending 2 cars and 2 employees to the same address.

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By Posted on Posted in Acquisition, Brands, Companies No Comments

Yes, when you hear this posting title on TV, you might automatically link this to a known brand. But wait, is not this supposed to be addressed to men ??? Surely it is. This is the famous Gillette business line for its men shaving blades line but what about women chunk of this line?

gillette business line

Gillette has been in the women shaving blades business long time ago, since they launched the first Sensor for Women which is still produced until today but moved into the Venus line with a wider range and a new business line which until today it did not make the same effect of the men’s one.

I have seen and heard the women ads rarely on our national TV channels and i have seen many promotion in supermarkets but never managed to have it by heart, keeping in mind that usually men are attracted more to women ads, would it be on TV or printed, because of the beautiful women appearing in those ads.

venus line

What’s Gillette position about their priority between the men and women line?

Definitely the men line is the on the top of their list and is bringing more profit to the company but i am sure if they spent or will spend more on the women line, it will generate even more as women are very keen about their daily appearance and well-being. For women, spending money is much easier than men, not because men don’t like to spend it, but because when it comes to the external or body look between men versus women, the difference is so big.

Surely Gillette people have their plans and strategies for the women line, but as a small example, summer is almost over and have not seen any TV ads or billboard campaign for Gillette Venus in Lebanon and can not remember seeing any during my business trip elsewhere.

Gillette Venus line is as large as the men line, going from the system blades to the disposable ones with an accompanying line of gels.

venus disposable

Gillette Corporation was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2005, making this the largest acquisition in its history for the price of $57 billion.

Key Dates:
1901: American Safety Razor is founded by King C. Gillette.
1904: King Gillette’s safety razor is patented.
1918: Gillette manufacturers razors and blades for soldiers during World War I.
1942: The Cavalcade of Sports program is formed to oversee the company’s various advertising and promotional activities in athletics.
1967: Braun AG is acquired.
1971: Company is organized into four domestic divisions: the Safety Razor Division; the Toiletries Division (featuring Right Guard antiperspirant); the Personal Care Division; and the Paper Mate division.
1991: Gillette ranks 20th among the Fortune 500.
1996: The company acquires battery manufacturer Duracell.
2005: The company was acquired by Procter & Gamble

  Book To Read

Cutting Edge: Gillette’s Journey to Global Leadership
Ever since a forward-thinking bottle-cap salesman named King Camp Gillette first grew tired of shaving with a dull razor more than 100 years ago, the company he then founded has prospered impressively–despite ongoing threats of hostile takeovers and downsizing–by continuing to explore new geographic markets and introduce fresh consumer products. Cutting Edge: Gillette’s Journey to Global Leadership, by long-time business journalist Gordon McKibben, is a scrupulous, behind-the-scenes examination of the firm’s history with an emphasis on the modern period that began around 1975 and solidified Gillette’s deserved reputation as a worldwide powerhouse.

Procter & Gamble (PG) Stock Chart

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By Posted on Posted in Companies, Design, Logos No Comments

According to the ‘Top 100 Global Brands Scoreboard’ report the top 50 brands & logo designs in ranking order were:

Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, Intel, Nokia, Walt Disney, McDonald’s, Toyota, Marlboro, Mercedes-Benz, Citi, Hewlett-Packard, American Express, Gillette, BMW, Cisco, Louis Vuitton, Honda, Samsung, Dell, Ford, Pepsi, Nescafé, Merrill Lynch, Budweiser, Oracle, Sony, HSBC, Nike, Pfizer, UPS, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Canon, SAP, Goldman Sachs, Google, Kellogg’s, Gap, Apple, Ikea, Novartis, UBS, Siemens, Harley-Davidson, Heinz, MTV, Gucci and Nintendo.

  • The name does not describe the product sold (94%)
  • The by-line tag is not included in the logo (90%)
  • The font style is clean and clear (84%)
  • The logo design uses one colour only (74%) (white & black not counted as a colour)
  • The logo design uses letters only without the symbol (74%)
  • The logo design is a made-up name or ACRONYM (72%)
  • The logo design is rectangular in shape (66%)
  • The logo design is one word only (62%)
  • The logo design includes the trademark symbol (54%) & is placed in the top right (48%)
  • The name is 6 letters or less (52%)
  • The name uses upper & lower case (44%) (excluding ACRONYMS)
  • The background is filled and solid. (52%)
  • The pronunciation includes three sounds/syllables (44%)
  • The predominant colour base is blue (40%)




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