by Willy Franzen on August 14, 2008
A company’s home page should make it instantly clear what the company is about. For many companies this is not the case. There’s all kinds of fluff that fails to give potential customers a proper brand introduction. Menlo Innovations doesn’t make this mistake. Their home page introduces a problem: “In 2004, the U.S. wasted over $55 billion on failed and poorly run software projects.” Then it identifies the cause: “These failures can be traced to a lack of understanding of the business issues being addressed and the wrong implementation methodologies being used.” Finally the home page poses their solution:
Menlo Innovations applies High-Tech Anthropology® to help our clients fully understand their business problems and opportunities. If the solution requires software, Menlo either develops the software within our Menlo Software Factory or The Menlo Institute trains your staff to use proven methodologies to develop the software themselves.
It’s clear. It’s concise, and it gets to the point. There’s no misunderstanding about what The Menlo Institute does.
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by Willy Franzen on July 1, 2008
I’ve written before about how run down the house that I lived in during college was. It was in constant need of maintenance, which mostly consisted of quick fixes that would break within a week. The giant ball of mold that started growing out of the ceiling received a little more attention, but not much. The guys who did maintenance on our house were always nice (even if the landlord was a total jerk), but it made me a bit uneasy knowing that they had a key to my place – if you know what I mean. Since my roommates and I weren’t paying for the “maintenance,” we didn’t have any say in who was working in our house. If we did, we would have used a service like ReliableRemodeler.com, which connects quality contractors with homeowners.
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by Willy Franzen on June 30, 2008
The word “faction” usually insinuates dissension, discord, or disagreement. We hope that Faction Media media chose their name because they are dissenting from the norm in the marketing solutions that they offer their clients, not because of a factious office political climate. Faction Media’s focus is on “business-to-business digital marketing with measurable ROI.” They do so through services such as strategic planning, digital marketing, search engine marketing, interactive development, systems integration, analytics and insight, media buying and planning, and content development. They sound like an interesting company, and they are hiring at the entry-level, so let’s take a look.
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by Willy Franzen on June 23, 2008
For some new grads it takes them a realization before they can get anything done in their job search. For some companies it takes Realization to help them get projects done and accomplish the goals that they set out to achieve. Realization provides their clients with execution management systems that help managers do 2 simple things:
1. Keep all work across all departments and across all levels of management tightly coordinated.
2. Exercise proactive control – stamp out small problems before they become big problems that require firefighting.
These may sound like things that companies should be able to take care of themselves, but clearly they can’t. Otherwise, Realization wouldn’t exist.
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by Willy Franzen on June 17, 2008
We’ve said before that using magazine lists to find a job can be extremely helpful in terms of idea generation. Today we’re going to talk about the company that is behind two of the most helpful magazine lists for job searchers. The Great Place to Work Institute is responsible for compiling Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and HR Magazine’s Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America. After more than 20 years of research, the Institute has found that “trust between managers and employees is the primary defining characteristic of the best workplaces.” If you’re looking for a job where you can trust your manager, why not consider the company that is known for identifying great places to work?
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by Willy Franzen on June 6, 2008
I spent last summer building One Day, One Job – the site, the idea, and the business. A lot has changed since then, but I remember that the test post that remained on the home page through much of the site’s development was titled “Hello.” Today’s post will be a fitting replacement as it is also titled “Hello,” and it is about web development. Hello is a Culver City, CA based interactive design agency. They have an extremely impressive portfolio, and they also look to be hiring at the entry-level.
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by Willy Franzen on May 29, 2008
Most people like shoes. They protect your feet, offer support, and keep you warm. Some people love shoes – love them to the point that their loved ones (not the shoes) are likely worried about them. Oddly enough, the people who deeply love shoes often seem most interested in shoes that barely protect their feet, offer little support, and provide little or no warmth. We don’t really get that. Zappos.com puts these people to shame. As a company they have a shoe obsession that is far worse than that of the most Sex and the City addicted, Daily Candy reading, New York City fashionista. Why do we say that? Because Zappos.com is obsessed with everything shoes, not just the shoes of some designer whose name you’re supposed to know.
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by Willy Franzen on May 27, 2008
There’s no getting around it – when it comes to the web, how you look matters. The easiest way to separate a spammy site from a quality site is a quick glance at the design. Yes, there are examples like Google and Craigslist that have become wildly successful despite (or because of) their sparse designs, but they are rare exceptions. When a visitor hits a web page, there are just a few seconds to convince the visitor not to press the back button. There is almost no better way to draw in and engage a visitor than a beautiful, usable design. Judging from Viget Labs’ own site as well as those of their clients, we’re pretty sure they understand the importance of great web design. Beyond design, they also help their clients focus on creating “solid web strategies” and developing “functional applications that actually work” while leveraging “the latest online marketing tactics to grow their reach.”
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by Willy Franzen on May 25, 2008
I grew up in suburban Connecticut, but I spent a lot time outdoors, both around my house and in more wild places. During my childhood I rarely saw deer, turkeys, coyotes, or hawks. Only a few times did I ever hear or see a woodpecker. Seeing wildlife was special. As I got older that began to change. I see all of the above relatively often now, and I swear that I hear a woodpecker banging away every day now. I definitely consider this a victory for local conservationists who have worked hard to save and bring back wildlife habitats; however, I also know that many species of flora and fauna are still in danger across the world. Conservation International is an organization whose mission statement should be “saving life on Earth.” Instead they have chosen the slightly less terse:
We believe that the Earth’s natural heritage must be maintained if future generations are to thrive spiritually, culturally, and economically. Our mission is to conserve the Earth’s living heritage – our global biodiversity – and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.
Either way, they’re doing great work towards helping the world balance the needs of society with nature.
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by Willy Franzen on April 20, 2008
We apologize in advance to the fans of the New England Patriots and the Memphis Tigers (and any other team that has recently failed in a Championship game), because this is going to be a little bit painful for you. How can a post about a “Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice” be painful? Because World Vision is an organization that has worked out deals with major sports leagues (like the NFL, whose jobs we’ve featured) to administer the donation of Championship paraphernalia that was produced for teams that didn’t win a championship. The NFL had to take a gamble on producing Super Bowl Winner t-shirts for a team that was 19-0 going into the big game. That gamble didn’t pay off for them, but it certainly did for the people who World Vision helps.
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by Willy Franzen on December 16, 2007
What’s more fun than a playground? Nothing. That’s why you should work for KaBOOM! - a non-profit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in the USA. Darell Hammond started KaBOOM! in 1995 with its first community playground build after he read about two children who suffocated while playing in an abandoned car in Washington, D.C. He wanted to make sure that a tragedy like that would never happen again. Today KaBOOM! is building hundreds of play places every year and giving children – especially those in low-income, urban neighborhoods – safe places to have fun.
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