Customer Service Hero: Trader Joe's

When was the last time an anonymous customer wrote a song and produced a music video praising your company? This YouTube video, called "If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's," has been viewed over half a million times.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Creativity | Customer Service | Leadership | Competitive Advantage

4 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 6:17 PM

Everyday Criminals

Here is a fascinating story about groups from extreme poles of the political spectrum finding common ground in opposition to the federal government's sweeping, yet vague, criminal justice machinery:

Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice

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Categories: Entrepreneurialism | Leadership | Ethics

0 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 11:46 PM

Entrepreneurial Culture in the Schmatta Trade

Some of the upscale thrift stores along Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles organize their used clothing by decade. Browsing through the racks, one sees that the items from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s are vibrant, daring, and in surprisingly good condition. They were obviously very well made. One also notes that nearly 100% of these shirts, dresses, skirts, jackets and pants were made in the USA.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Entrepreneurialism | Leadership | Family

7 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 6:14 PM

Third Person Narrative

Third-party perspectives help a company better know itself, even as a one-person start-up. After your business gets big, outside points of view become essential, because when you reach the top of a mountain, you can see a lot, but you can no longer see the mountain. 

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Management Skills | Entrepreneurialism | Leadership | Competitive Advantage

10 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 12:25 AM

When Addition Becomes Subtraction

Public education supporter Jamie Vollmer notes that during their first 260 years, public schools played a very narrow role: "they were created to teach basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, and to cultivate values that serve a democratic society (some history and civics implied)."

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Categories: Education | Leadership | Family

19 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 7:30 AM

Contemplating the Thinkable

Many people over forty did not believe the Berlin Wall would come down in their lifetime. Of course, many people did not believe CDs would replace vinyl LPs, or that Arizona would ever go to the Super Bowl. Not only do these unthinkable things happen - they seem to happen suddenly.

For sixty years, almost no one has believed there can be peace in the Middle East, but the wheel of history is gaining momentum. As we saw with the Iron Curtain, when enough people demand change, change comes.

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Categories: Leadership | Economics | Optimism

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 11:22 AM

The Healthcare Questions We're NOT Asking

From the White House to the Wall Street Journal to the table next to you at Starbuck's, everyone seems to be talking about healthcare. Except that they're not. What people are debating right now is how to pay for healthcare. That's a tough enough question, but society might be better served by asking some tougher questions first.

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Categories: Education | Nutrition | Finance | Leadership | Economics | Ethics | Environment

7 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 9:44 PM