On tonight's episode of "Undercover Boss" on
CBS, president and CEO Andy Wirth gets a makeover and goes undercover to
Lake Tahoe, Calif. The Squaw Valley mountain is famous for hosting the
1960 Winter Olympics and the epicenter of big mountain skiing. Alpine
Meadows offers a family-friendly atmosphere with excellent snow sports
for the entire family. The founder of the empire was Conrad Wirth,
Andy's grandfather, who was the Director of the National Parks Services
for eleven years. When Andy took over, he purchased Alpine Meadows to
give the two resorts a more family-friendly atmosphere, where Squaw
Valley mainly catered to the expert skiers.
However, while
Ford certainly saw the potential for soaring profits by basically
eliminating their payroll costs in Mexico where the daily minimum wage
is about $4.50 a day, they did not count on their business plan becoming
another casualty in Mexico's raging drug war.
For
firms who rely on billable hours, marketing often takes a backseat. Make
that change. Retreats are a perfect time to create and set clear
expectations for attorneys and partners for non-billable time devoted to
marketing and business development. And don't forget to reward the
performers!
straight
from the source
Hannah's was just a hole-in-the-wall, long and
narrow with a bar running almost the whole length of the building. The
brick on the face of the building, and the white wooden door outside,
were nearly black from years of soot from the coke plant and steel
mills. Patrons tended to be older folks who spent what was left of their
paychecks on booze, Polish sausages, hard-boiled eggs, and illegal tip
boards. In 1970 my husband bought a Dodge R/T for $5000. The
price of the car was usually a bit less, but this particular car had all
the bells and whistles needed to be a true Muscle Car. If kept in mint
condition this car would now be worth approximately $50,000. He was
young and foolish though; blew up the engine, and just trashed the car.
To this day, the thought of his youthful waste makes him kind of
sick.
If your firm were a car what would it be? Strong and tough
like a
buy truck doors? Sleek and
fast like a Ferrari? Sophisticated and state-of-the-art like a Mercedes
S-Class? How about an ice cream flavor? A beverage? A movie genre? All
of these exercises not only make for a lively discussion, but work to
help define your firm personality. Once that emerges, look for ways to
incorporate it in your firm's daily business- from answering the phones
to your letterhead. RSR Motorsports first raced a Honda Civic Si at Daytona
last year, and now all three of the team's Street Tuner class entries
are Civics. The 2012 season was a chance to learn the car, though
success came quickly in the form of a win at New Jersey Motorsports Park
and third at Barber Motorsports Park. You can do the checking of the wheels and the tires
yourself. However, one auto group, the Car Care Council, do extremely
suggest that it would be best to leave the checking of the other
mentioned parts to experts. Make sure you have professional technicians
or car mechanics take a good look at the steering, alignment, and
suspension of your vehicle. That pothole may have given you and your car
problems that you never thought possible. In October, the U.S. State Department released a the results of a
survey of 220 U.S. private companies which showed 15 percent of them
have postponed investments or expansion plans in Mexico due to the drug
violence now paralyzing that country.