Merck CEO Raymond Gilmartin sees $1.4 mil bonus for 2004

File this in the "nice work if you can get it" category: Merck & Co. pharmaceuticals had a terrible year in 2004, a year that will likely result in the company going bankrupt if all those lawyers circling the wagons can be believed. In case you don't recall, Merck is the manufacturer of the ill-fated Vioxx, a $2.5 billion painkiller that is proving too weak to stop the pain of having to withdraw this faulty drug from the market after being associated with an extraordinarily high rate of heart attacks and strokes in patients who took the drug for longer than 18 months.

In business school, I learned that the #1 job of any company is to increase shareholder value. That's it. Everything else you do is secondary to this core job requirement. So how'd CEO Gilmartin do in 2004 in this regard? Well, the value of a share of Merck dropped 21% in 2003 and then dropped an additional 33% in 2004. Not so stellar.

And how did the Board of Directors of Merck, the Compensation Committee, respond?

Flying through Information Space with the Google Toolbar

Years and years ago I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Ted Nelson and his team at Project Xanadu, an important precursor to the World Wide Web (albeit one that never saw the light of day, as far as I know). Nelson is one of the early computing visionaries, the author of the seminal work Computer Lib/Dream Machines, and one heck of an interesting chap to talk with.

As best I can recall, Project Xanadu was built around the original vision of Vannevar Bush's Memex "information space", where text would be "linked" to other text in a manner remarkably similar to what we call hypertext today. Only better. But I digress...

What stuck with me from our afternoon was the imagery of "flying through information space" as a metaphor for Xanadu. Compared to the "sheets of paper connected with little strings" metaphor of the existing Web, information space sounds far better and far more appropriate.

American CEOs could learn from French Minister Herve Gaymard

French Finance Minister Herve Gaymard resigned from his post this week after public disclosure that he, his wife and eight children had been enjoying a luxury flat (apartment) in Paris that cost 14,000 Euros/month (that's about $19,000/mo), paid for by the French taxpayer.

A few months ago, this same Minister Gaymard told popular Paris Match magazine that he lived humbly because "I don't have the money." Meanwhile, however, it turns out that our humble former public servant owns two houses, two flats and a garage outside Paris, as well as a luxury flat in Paris itself that he rents out for 2,300 Euros/month.

FBI: "You Visit Illegal Websites" Spam Virus

Every time I read about a scam that's catching the public imagination, I'm always intrigued to actually receive a copy of the message so I can see for myself how believable it is. Currently the big scam is that there's a virus being sent purporting to be from the Federal Bureau of Investigation accusing the recipient of visiting illegal Web sites. If you haven't received the message yet, here's what it says...

Paypal is phishing target #1, but they still email their customers?

Imagine my surprise when one of the many email messages I received from Paypal today turns out to be legitimate! I received the following from "service@paypal.com":

A bit hard to believe on the surface -- and I admit that I viewed the source of the message, convinced it was yet another sneaky phishing scam -- but it's a legitimate message. Which absolutely begs the question...

Who are the most interesting business/tech people?

Consider this a pre-announcement of an audio interview series I'll be launch in the next month or so, but I'm planning on releasing a series of informal interviews with interesting and thoughtful people in a variety of different disciplines. To start, I'm hoping to talk with some of the bright folk in my local community, including parenting book author Rahima Dancy, communications expert Amy Gahran, digital artist and geek Tom Vilot, futurist and head of the DaVinci Institute's Thomas Frey, and eBay and Google affiliate expert Dan Murray.

Each will be 45-minutes to an hour long informal chats -- probably with the clink of teacups in the background -- that cover three basic questions: how did you get to where you are today, what are you doing today, and what do you envision yourself doing into the future? Each will be available as an MP3-format download in a podcast-compatible distribution mechanism, suitable for copying to your favorite MP3 player or burning to a CD for listening to while exercising or traveling.

Are Blogs the Digital Equivalent of ADD?

I've been trying to put my finger on what makes me have a love/hate relationship with weblogs, blogging and even RSS feeds, and beg your indulgence in consuming some electrons to share my thoughts...

First off, a true confession: I really like blogging and am delighted at how easily I am able to manage my Web site and focus on what I'm saying rather than how I'm producing it. It's creating a completely new communications paradigm, a complete change in what a Web site is all about, and my hat is off to the visionaries who have brought us to this point.

Confessions of a Boeing Airplane Seat Engineer

I don't know if laptops have gotten taller or I've gained, um, girth, but I can remember ten years ago flying around the United States and being able to comfortably work on my laptop until my battery ran out. Now there's barely room for an open book, let alone some 17-inch marvel of digital engineering. Intuitively, airlines are adding more seats and more rows to offset the ever-rising cost of running an airline, but getting the inside scoop helps clarify exactly what's been going on with this price-sensitive commoditized business.

That's why when my friend and fellow writer Michael J. wrote recently about his experiences as a seat design engineering at Boeing, I couldn't resist getting his permission to include it here on my weblog for everyone to read...

Reinventing Public Relations in the age of spam and weblogs

I got an amusing note from Bill Gram-Reefer, public relations agent for Hamrick Software: "Here's a Valentine's Day case study from Hamrick software: When a married couple became embroiled in a bitter argument over the poor condition of the pictures in their wedding album, they didn't go to a marriage counselor, instead VueScan helped save the marriage. See complete details at ..."

Not a bad bit of PR for a terrific Mac shareware scanner application package, except for the fact that I received it on the 15th of February. A day late and a dollar short, as my Dad would say. Logically enough, I responded with a quick note to Bill asking why this message arrived on the 15th of February, just to find...

What makes a successful blog?

My colleague Steven Streight, Web Usability Analyst, Content Writer, and Blogologist is working on a book about Web Usability and Credibility and sent me a couple of very interesting questions to ponder: "Why did you decide to start a blog?" and "What makes a blog successful?" I answered both, and include them here for discussion.

When his book is published, I'm pleased to say that I'll be in good company too: he's also sent the same set of questions to Mark Cuban, Cory Doctorow, Chris Brandon, Debbie Weil and Richard Edelman, among many other high profile bloggers.

GM, Fiat, Verizon and MCI: Both Sides of the Merger Coin

As a business analyst, I wonder sometimes if CEOs ever bother to read publications like the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review or even the Economist. If they did, they'd know that most mergers fail to produce the results expected and that some can be downright disasters the continuing fallout of the Hewlett-Packard acquisition of Compaq Computers comes to mind immediately).

The latest example of how too much zeal for mergers can result in a terrible backlash is General Motors severing ties with the troubled Italian car manufacturer Fiat. And we're not talking about an amicable divorce, either. According to The BBC General Motors is paying $2 billion cash within the next 90 days to avoid being stuck buying Fiat by 2009.

The Teaching Company: Selling by Giving Away

I've always been a big fan of The Teaching Company and have enjoyed listening to many excellent college lecture series. I've also always been impressed by how they do such a good job of demonstrating a savvy business maxim of "selling by giving away". This same maxim is the foundation of the tremendously successful shareware industry, for example, and even companies like Microsoft use this technique now, when they offer you the ability to download a fully functional 30-day trial of Microsoft Office 2004.

For Valentine's Day, The Teaching Company is offering a free MP3 download entitled St. Valentine's Day - A Medieval Origin by award-winning lecturer Dr. Philip Daileader of the College of William and Mary. It's worth downloading and is engaging and intriguing listening, and an informative substitute to the dreck available through podcasts.

HP's Fiorina doesn't get Valentine from Board, quits.

I've been tracking the performance and strategic management of HP CEO Carly Fiorina as I've watched her steer Hewlett-Packard further and further from the path of success in the challenging personal computer and peripheral industry. I've talked about Fiorina's rift with the Board, HP's dispute with Apple about the iPod, and HP saddles PC division to printer group, among other topics.

To reiterate, though, it was her reinvention of the company as a centralized management hierarchy, after decades as a loose collection of mostly autonomous divisions, that began concerning me, then her decision to saddle the successful printer division -- typically viewed as the bright spot in the HP portfolio -- with the failing personal computer division, rather than jettison the completely commoditized business. The acquisition of Compaq was really the beginning of the PC debacle at HP, not changes in the industry, but that's another topic entirely.

The news this morning is that Fiorina came into work, issued a press release, and walked out: "While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," said Fiorina in the press release.

"Google fires blogger!" and the evils of gossip and innuendo

An interesting bit of synergy: I was interviewed by WIRED magazine this afternoon for an article about confidentiality and blogging, and not thirty minutes later I'm spinning through my NewsGator subscription list and find not one, but three different sites blogging about how Google's Mark Jen might or might not have been fired from his position at Google.

Mark came into the blogosphere eye a few weeks ago when Google apparently asked him to pull down his "life at Google" blog where he shared his musings (and kvetching) about what it was like to be a Google employee after having just started working there a few days. The weblog reappeared, without much explanation of what happened.

Extended Service Contracts: pro-business, anti-consumer

I can remember the old days, the simple days when buying a consumer electronics product or appliance meant that you'd get to the cash register and their big question was "how do you want to pay for that?" Not any more, though: the big question of the twenty-first century is "did you want to buy an extended service warranty with that?"

You've heard it too. In fact, you can even buy extended service warrantees here on line. Just Google "extended warranty" and be prepared for thousands of questionable sites pushing various bad deals. Because, don't be confused about it, in almost every single case, extended service warranties are a very bad deal for the consumer.

Landry's buys Golden Nugget: Are Slots in Denver Aquarium Next?

You probably haven't heard of Landry's Restaurants, but you have heard about some of the many restaurant chains and entertainment facilities they own. They're the parent company for Joe's Crab Shack, the Rainforest Café, The Crab House, Landry's Seafood House, the Chart House and Saltgrass Steak House. They also now own aquariums in Galveston Texas, Houston Texas, and Denver Colorado, and quite a bit of additional property in Galveston, including the convention center and Pleasure Pier.

Diversification isn't anything new in the restaurant business, and certainly one thing that all of these restaurants have in common is an entertainment theme, so the synergy is pretty natural. But today Landry's announced that it's branching out in a rather serious way: It's buying the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas.

Who Owns Your Words, Blogger?

Thomas Duff has a very interesting article today about Walking the fine line when blogging... wherein he talks about his view that anything he says in his blog also inevitably reflects upon his employer. As a result, he says that he tries to keep "that line" in mind and only post things that his boss would be okay reading.

This is a fascinating topic, and one that certainly engages the imagination and passion of the business blogging and, yes, general blogging community because it cuts to the heart of our relationship with our employer.

Here's what I mean...

Amazon Prime: The inevitable next step when shipping is just a business component

Visited the Amazon home page recently? Today the company is announcing their new Amazon Prime program, a prepaid shipping program that offers the following two ostensibly compelling features:

• Free Two-Day Shipping on over a million in-stock items
• Overnight Shipping for only $3.99 per item—order as late as 6:30 PM ET

This is a beautiful example of what a company can do when they've componentized their business to a degree where shipping stops being a cost center and becomes instead a competitive differentiator.

GM VP Tom Stephens on Business Blogging

Tom Stephens, Group VP for GM's Powertrain division, isn't writing about business blogging, per se, he's just posting a note about fuel economy on GM's brand new Fastlane weblog from their executive team, but since it's a controversial topic, it's darn interesting to see how this particular posting, entitled Myths and Facts about Fuel Economy, plays out.

What most intrigues me about the GM business blog is that you can see them just starting to get the idea that the world has changed and that marketing communications (and public relations, for that matter) aren't what they were when these execs went to school. The locus of control has shifted and like it or not, corporate America, it's us consumers, us users, us writers, us, yes, bloggers, who are wresting back control over our daily consumption from the faceless Madison Avenue crowds.