Why look after your customers?

Another interesting David vs. Goliath story as Dave (not David) Carroll gets his own back on what seems to be the easiest industry to have a stab at these days, represented here by United Airlines.

He was travelling with his band when they saw the ground crew throwing their guitars accross the tarmac through the window of the plane. On arrival his guitar was in pieces and United refused to admit responsibility or pay for repairs even though he tried speaking to a number of people during a year of complaints.

What better way to exert revenge than to write a song, "United break guitars" which has become the 20th downloaded music on iTunes (presumably the first 19 are all Michael Jackson songs)

So now, Dave is rich from selling the songs and United has lost 10% of it´s share value around $180 million, they have now offered to pay for a guitar, post song, but been told to donate the money to charity. Tailor the guitar makers are giving Dave a new guitar so he can use them in his next 2 songs about United.

Forget casual Friday

How do you get your numbers up? Naked Friday.

Well this company in Newcastle had been suffering with the recession and hired a consultant to give them some ideas of how to pull the team together and get them back on a winning track.
The solution was to all go to work with no clothes for the day.

Apparently this breaks down barriers between people and departments and leads to a much better working relationship, which in this case has apparently turned the company´s fortunes around.

A few of the staff were a bit shy, but there was an introduction process leading up to Friday including photocopying body parts one day and sketching a nude model on another.

Perhaps we should think about implementing this strategy, although maybe we could wait for warmer weather and one or two changes to the headcount might be wise.