by Sue Horner | Aug 10, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It’s so refreshing when a CEO sends out something that actually sounds like a human being might have said/written it. That was the case when Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, issued an announcement about Amazon buying Zappos. I liked that he apologized “for...
by Sue Horner | Aug 4, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A thank you card arrived today in my mail, signed by someone I had never heard of. Turns out she is part of my local library’s summer reading program, just one of the programs the library notes it is able to run thanks to donors to their literacy efforts....
by Sue Horner | Aug 2, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
When interviewing someone for an employee newsletter article, I always ask the meaning of unusual terms, acronyms (a word, like OPEC, formed from the initial letters of other words) and initialisms (a group of initial letters pronounced individually, like CBC). People...
by Sue Horner | Jul 28, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you write for a company, its lawyers may have LOTS to say about what you can and cannot say. Here are some suggestions for avoiding approval problems with lawyers: 1. Consider what’s going on. In a time when lawyers are super-super-sensitive, like a lawsuit...
by Sue Horner | Jul 20, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
While countries around the world worry about swine flu (sorry, H1N1), I’m here to tell you there is another insidious virus sweeping at least the blogging world. Yes, some online Dr. Evil is secretly going around stealing our mojo. You know you’ve noticed...
by Sue Horner | Jul 10, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Everyone can write, can’t they? But it takes real skill to come up with truly awful writing, like that celebrated by the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.(Sadly ended in 2025.) This is almost as much fun as the Oddest Book Title of the Year contest. But...
by Sue Horner | Jul 6, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In the movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You” (seen on the plane on the way home from San Francisco), Drew Barrymore’s character laments the sorry state of communication with the opposite sex: “I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work,...
by Sue Horner | Jul 2, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My car insurer claims it is working on “greening” its operations, and not a moment too soon. I’m drowning in paper. True, I laid a number of changes on the company over the past two months. I bought a new car that had to be added to my existing...
by Sue Horner | Jun 24, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Have you noticed lately that the bloggers you follow are posting a little less frequently? For me, there’s a direct correlation between deadlines looming and a slowdown in both reading and posting to blogs. I’m disciplined about working when I have to be,...
by Sue Horner | Jun 21, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The 2009 IABC World Conference in San Francisco was a whirlwind of learning opportunities and social events. (Great promotional clip for it here.) Here are some of the highlights: Brian Dunn, COO and soon to be CEO of Best Buy: Down-to-earth, personable, enthusiastic,...
