by Walter Gray—

Facebook as a Business Marketing Tool:

Does your business have a likability problem, asks a writer for The Boston Globe. More than a half billion people worldwide use Facebook, and while the social network was initially about staying in touch with college pals and making sure your old flames weren’t dating someone more attractive than you, it is evolving into something else: a way for companies to communicate with current and prospective customers.

Just as you can “friend” someone on Facebook, you can “like” a business. And being liked by enough Facebook users can have a powerful impact, helping build awareness without spending anything on marketing. “Every demographic is moving onto Facebook, so every business should have a Facebook page,” says Michelle McCormack, founder of Boston-based digital strategy firm LoveTheCool.

Can We Talk?, Boston Nonprofits Plead

For the first time, Boston’s major tax-exempt institutions – its premier hospitals, universities, and cultural centers – are being asked to make regular voluntary payments to the city based on the value of their property to help offset the rising cost of city services and cuts in state financial aid, according to The Boston Globe. While many of the city’s nonprofits have been making so-called Payments In Lieu of Taxes for years, this marks a major change to a system that feels to to some organizations uncomfortably close to tax bills. Boston officials recently mailed letters to 40 major nonprofits asking them to pay up to 25 percent of what they would owe if their properly were not tax exempt.

Shanghai Thumps U.S. in School Reform

The recipe sounds familiar, says an article in Bloomberg Businessweek. Merit pay for teachers, rigorous testing, national academic standards. Is it a school turnaround effort in New York City, New Orleans, or Los Angeles? No, it’s happening in Shanghai. Over the past decade authoritarian China has been able to achieve what has eluded generations of educators in the U.S. who have had to contend with political feuds, a history of local control of education policy and the inherent difficulties of reaching consensus in a democracy. Shanghai , population 20 million, topped all rivals in the Programme for International Student Assessment, a closely watched gauge of educational achievement. The U.S. ranked 31st in math among the countries and regions tested, 23rd in science and 17th in reading.

President Simmons of Brown Opines

Asked by a magazine columnist “Are the humanities still relevant majors in this country?”, Ruth Simmons replied: “Now those are fighting words. If I can give a very substantial injection of humanistic thinking into corporations, boy, that would change things a lot.”
“How so?”
“A broader focus away from narrow quarter-to-quarter, bottom-line thinking. I often say that shareholders should feel very responsible for how responsive corporations are to the public trust.”

Trump for President (or whatever)

There’s been a 460% increase since January 1 in the price of an Intrade bet than Donald Trump will get the 2012 Republican nomination, quotes Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Why it merits “bubble” status? Bettors give him a 5.6% chance of getting the nomination, ahead of Sarah Palin, Jon Huntsman, or Mike Huckabee. Not to worry. Stranger things have happened. Ronald Reagan was in Bedtime for Bonzo.

Workplace Loyalty Out, Trust In

Is loyalty in the workplace dead? Just last month, according to a New York Sunday Times article, a workplace expert proclaimed that it was. In the Financial Times, Lynda Gratton said that it had been “killed off through shortening contracts, outsourcing, automation and multiple careers.” These days, Ms. Gratton commented, trust is more important than loyalty: “loyalty is about the future – trust is about the present.” Serial career monogamy is now the order of the day,” she concludes.

Coaches Win Game of College Salaries

Pity the poor presidents of colleges with major athletic programs, begins a book review in The Wall Street Journal of “Big Time Sports in American Universities” by Charles T.Clotfelter. In 1986, presidents at 44 public universities with teams in the five most established athletic conferences actually made, on average, a little more than their coaches: $294,000 for the presidents, $273,000 for the coaches; full professors earned about $107,000. By 2010, the professors’ income, adjusted for inflation, had climed 32%. University presidents’ pay had gone up 90%. The football coaches pay had jumped to more than $2 million – it had “increased by an astounding seven and a half times.”

Senator Brown a Shoo-in for Senate

Scott Brown, the cool cat who shocked his Democratic opponent in last November’s special election to fill the Ted Kennedy seat in Massachusetts, will be running for a full six-year term in 2012 and can’t seem to locate a meaningful opponent. Joseph Kennedy Jr. was initially hailed as a potential winner but both he and Ted’s widow, Victoria, subsequently said “thanks but no thanks.” Brown has cooperated somewhat with Democrats on major legislation enough to claim bi-partisanship.

Who Holds U.S. Households’ Purse Strings?

While the answer may be a little murky, best estimates claim women control up to 80% of a households’ spending, according to a Wall Street Journal article. So how good is that number? Many industry analysts believe men really do play more of a role than the 80% suggests. Especially when it comes to cars and electronics. What gave rise to the 80% figure, marketing consultants note, was an effort to draw attention to women’s preferences and purchasing power which for decades was often overlooked by product designers and advertisers.

Doing Business in an IT Age

In a digital economy Information Technology (IT) is the foundation for doing business, reports an article in The Wall Street Journal. CEOs at every level need to think about – and answer these four questions:
Question #1 – Are we using technology to transform our business, or are we just adding bells and whistles to existing processes?
Question # 2 – Are you ignoring important business differences as you standardize processes across the company?
Question #3 – Who is making sure the company’s digital strategy is being implemented?
Question #4 – Is electronic data empowering your people or controlling them?
There’ll Always Be An England, Possibly
The royal wedding gave us pause to appreciate the magnificence of the Abbey and the royal family. But hey, folks, things aren’t what they used to be. Queen Elizabeth gets high marks but the rest of her family is in the D- range what with Prince Philip, Camilla, Andrew and his ex-lady, Fergie. The Prime Minister has taken a few knocks for suggesting people organize street parties to celebrate the wedding. And bad times economically have dented the old order. British discipline – the staple of many films, books and even wars – have diminished, especially in schooling. The influence of the Church of England, the nominal faith of some 70 million Brits, is so weakened that less than 5 percent of all Anglicans are regular churchgoers.

State Workers Head for Exits

Because they are worried about job or pay cuts, reduced retirement benefits, elimination of collective bargaining , furloughs and layoffs, many state workers are retiring earlier than expected causing worries about qualified replacements in fields such as nursing, teaching, legal staff, engineers and managers, according to an article in Bloomberg Businessweek. In combat states such as New Jersey and Wisconsin, retirements have jumped 60 percent in NJ while in Wisconsin retirements are up 79 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

So Long Umass, It’s Been Good to Know Ye

Once you jump into the cesspool of big-time college football, you have committed to spending that knows no ceiling, writes Derrick Z. Jackson in The Boston Globe, reflecting on the University of Massachusetts’ move to the Mid-American football conference. “Just ask the University of Connecticut,” Jackson says, adding “It made the prized Fiesta Bowl last season, and for its fantasy of reflected glory and getting clocked by storied Oklahoma, it lost $1.6 million on the trip.