OFB 56 | Inappropriate Holiday Thankyous To Customers

[audio http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/ofb.s3.amazonaws.com/OFB56_SayThankyouToCustomers.mp3]

OFB 56 | Saying thank you should not be reserved just for Thanksgiving, HP has no thanks for Autonomy, WalMart survived “no thanks” from workers, SAC Capital are just thankless bastards. On this edition of OFB Tom, Ken and Brian get in the spirit of the season and discuss saying thanks.

First, some Hot Potato News items ….

HP took another black eye in their strategy with a writeoff of $8B of the $11B acquisition of Autonomy, alleging accounting irregularities and fraud. Can you find a more dysfunctional Board and Management team in what was a great technology success?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2012/11/20/hp-and-autonomy-buyers-remorse-or-worse/

OUR WalMart (Organization United for Respect at WalMart) staged demonstrations at WalMarts throughout the country. The impact -- not that much. Maybe WalMart needs to learn more about saying thank you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/22/walmart-strike-dallas_n_2175697.html

SAC Capital is in hot water again with the SEC, this time for a $276M insider trading windfall. Mathew Martoma is the trader who was arrested. Steven Cohen is the owner of the fund and is under SEC investigation for the umpteenth time. Maybe this time it will stick?

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-21/business/sns-rt-us-sac-insidertrading-falloutbre8ak1h6-20121121_1_cohen-and-sac-insider-illicit-trades

Discussion Item -- Saying Thank You

The Thanksgiving season is a time when we all pause, take a breath, and reflect. We give thanks for all of the good things in our lives.

Focusing solely on business (we are OFB after all), we should all take time to say thanks.

Say thanks to family and friends. They support you so you can continue on.

Say thanks to your employees. Without them you cease to exist.

Say thanks to customers. Without them you cease to exist.

And most importantly, don’t have the business say thank you. Get personal. You say thank you.

Tell us what you think. How do you make 30 seconds work for you? Email Tommy or Ken at [email protected].

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