By Ted Page, Captains of Industry
From the New York Times Magazine comes a story headline that just can’t be ignored: “Cows with Names Make More Milk”. A study of numerous British dairies published in the journal Antrhozoös in March found that cows with names (like Daisy) produce 6% more milk in a given year than cows without names (the ones with ear tags and numbers). “The naming,” suggests Catherine Douglas of Newcastle University, “reflects the humans’ attitudes towards the cows, and therefore how they behave around them.” Perhaps cows with names instead of numbers are better treated, and thus are happier and produce more milk. This is a startling revelation with implications for the business world. Think of the difference between the Apple ‘Mac’ and the ‘PC’. It’s clear that how we think of things, and the nomenclature for those things, are closely related to our behavior around them. I never shout at my Mac. I love my Mac. Do people really love their PCs? What’s more important, does my Read more Share This

By Lindsey Campbell, Captains of Industry

When it comes the creation of great inventions and new discoveries, public resistance to change is almost always included in the package deal. In fact,there was a “War on Telephone Poles”. The New York Times reported on February 6, 1889 that whenever telephone companies put up poles, citizens would saw them down — they’d even defend their sidewalks with rifles. They argued that they were Read more Share This

By Ted Page, Captains of Industry
Look at most corporate websites and you’ll see a common problem – the companies rarely say who they are or what they do in a way that’s concise and easy to understand. (i.e. Does anyone know what this means? “We help businesses to build for change with a new kind of software that lets business users directly capture their business goals — and then dynamically executes new solutions by eliminating software coding and automating manual work.”) As writers, we get so caught up with the fact that we are writing a “corporate” website that our language becomes formal, dull and verbose. We forget we’re talking to people who don’t have the time or inclination to decipher our corporate code-speak. Here’s a simple solution for clear writing that I learned when I was helping my daughter, Abigail, with her High School writing assignments. Abigail would get all tied up in knots trying to writer her all-important opening paragraph for her essay on, say, Ghengis Kahn. She’d read the paragraph to me, and it was typically a tortured, tangled mess. She was practically in tears. I’d put my hand on her shoulder and calmly ask, “What are you trying to say?” The next sentence she blurted out was invariably concise and to the point: “What I’m trying to say is that Ghengis Kahn was a ruthless but brilliant military strategist!” I’d say, “Good, Abigail. Write that down.” Try this the next time you’re writing a website, brochure or annual report. It really works. Just ask Abigail.

Thanksgiving is the most honest and straightforward of holidays, unencumbered by religious rituals and other things we know we really ought to be doing and replaced by the things we actually want to do. Eat pie and be with your family. I know turkey usually comes before the pie, but the pie stands out in my mind. When else in our lives do we go out of our way to eat pie? When else do we think about what type of pie to eat, pumpkin or cherry or apple or strawberry rhubarb or – and these are the magic words – pecan pie? This amazing variety of the thing that we never, ever think about at any other time is something to be truly thankful for. The aroma of pie says “Home” in any language. Biting into a piece first brings the teeth in contact with the flaky, yummy crust, which tastes of butter and childhood. Then there’s the fruit filling, baked to another level of sweet flavor that makes your eyes close. And when you’re done with that mouthful, there’s another, and another, and when someone says, “Would you like another piece?” you respond, “Yes, and I’ll have a slice of the pumpkin pie too, this time, with a little ice cream on top.” Whenever I hear someone on a cell phone bitching about the rainy weather, or the bad day they had at the office because every little thing didn’t go there way, I want to say to them, “Pie.” Some complainers might assume I’m a stray mathematician musing on an equation. But the savvy, the smart, the ones who seek out the real pleasures of life with their nose and taste buds, will smile and remember that, in the end, no matter how much your life sucked today – or through the wild recessionary, war-ravaged turbulence of 2009 – a good slice of pie is all you really need.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The Captains