Management

Last week, I got an e-mail from a former student of mine telling me he was starting a company with mail order as one of its distribution channels. He had a neat idea, and I thought the items he was about to sell had merit. Clearly he had his product line thought out well.

It pleases me to no end when this happens: a budding entrepreneur, about to stake his claim in the business world. Then I get the question that I dread: “How do I buy a list so I can grow the business?” How do I buy a list? Oh man, haven’t I

For some reason, I often feel the need to reflect back on my past experience in the catalog/multichannel business when I write these things. Is that typical for these kinds of columns and newsletters? Or at 47, am I just gettin’ old? Hopefully the former, because here I go again. These days, it seems like more and more “rules” of cataloging must be changed for myriad reasons: to account for unfair postal rates, to cater to consumers’ reduced attention spans and to accommodate catalogers’ increased reliance on other marketing channels, namely the Web and retail for consumer marketers and the Web, distribution advancements, telemarketing and

Mark Amtower, who’s made a career of helping B-to-B catalogers and other direct marketers sell to federal government agencies successfully, was the keynote speaker at a luncheon during last week’s MeritDirect Co-op in White Plains, N.Y., addressing the types of companies and people catalogers ought to steer clear of. In his presentation, “Six Habits of Highly Defective People ‘Who Just Don’t Get It’,” Amtower humorously, but quite seriously, described these top six in reverse order. 6. A really big company with name recognition, but not built on customer satisfaction or client relationships — instead, built on corporate acquisitions. Such companies “rarely have substance

As has been its annual custom, B-to-B list firm MeritDirect’s annual co-op event in White Plains, N.Y. on July 12 was kicked off by a provocative and entertaining presentation by catalog veteran and futurist Don Libey. Having heard Don speak plenty of times in the past (and despite his frequent speaking appearances, rarely does he repeat a single concept, strategy or idea), I’ve long since learned how to filter through his motivational pep talk and the meat of what he delivers. While always entertaining, his shtick is always chockfull of meat, but it often looks beyond tomorrow. And after all, we all want to

BACKGROUND: Howard Flax, CEO of FLAX art & design, comes from a long line of art supplies dealers, stretching all the way back to 1938. The first Flax art supplies business was a store in San Francisco founded by Herman Flax, Howard’s grandfather. Other family members followed suit, with stores popping up from New York to Phoenix to Los Angeles. After Herman passed away, his sons Philip and Jerry ran the business. Now, Philip is the chairman, and his sons Howard and Craig, vice president of marketing, run the only Flax store that boasts a catalog. Here, third-generation Flax businessman, Howard Flax,

Last fall, we launched a reader poll on our Web site, CatalogSuccess.com. If you’re a cataloger/multichannel marketer and you’ve never seen it or voted (anonymously, of course), I encourage you to do so. You’ll find it on the top-right corner of our home page. As I thought about what to write in this edition of The Corner View, it dawned on me that we’re sitting on some pretty useful information. So I decided to take a look at some of our past poll results and offer my two cents on what they mean to you — and how you might want to

In last week’s blog, I discussed salary levels in the catalog/multichannel business as they relate to other industries. I got a pretty strong reaction from Wendy Weber, president of the direct marketing recruiting firm, Crandall Associates.

For those of you who have missed the blog the past few weeks I’ve been discussing hiring practices in direct marketing. (You can find them and all past posts on the CatalogSuccess.com Web site.) This thread started with a poll stating that the direct marketing industry was having a tough time finding strong talent. So for this week, I asked Wendy to weigh in with her thoughts

It’s amazing how upbeat people can be at industry events regardless how well or poorly their businesses are doing, isn’t it? I just wrapped up a month in which I attended two major conferences (ACCM in Boston and Internet Retailer in San Jose, Calif.) and despite the striking difference among attendees, it seems that everybody’s doing just grand. But are they? Having flagged as many of you down as I could to ask you how you’re doing, I came away from ACCM believing you truly are. And as we look ahead toward the second half of the year and make holiday season plans, my sense

For the past two weeks, I’ve offered my take on what’s wrong with the catalog-marketing hiring market. I did this after a survey published by Bernhart Associates (www.bernhart.com) stated that 24 percent and 53 percent of direct marketing companies were having a “difficult” and “somewhat difficult” time finding top-notch talent.

This week, I submit my thoughts on the state of our industry in terms of hiring salaries. As a preface, it’s been a long, uphill battle, but I think that direct marketing is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves. It seems that the rise of the Internet has helped legitimize our

Last week, I discussed some recent trends in the catalog/direct marketing employment world. In this week’s part two, I dig into the actual hiring practice.

The H.R. Issue: My Rx For Failure

Note to the H.R. department: I’ll review my own resumes, thank you. I know this may not make some people happy, but having H.R. managers screen applicants for hiring managers is like having Dracula accepting a day job; some things are just not meant to be. Let the H.R. folks at my applicants after I’ve sorted out my top few candidates. Then, they can ask them dumb questions like these:

“Describe to me a