For their book, "Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results," Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg spent a decade asking senior executives in every major industry on every continent two key questions about innovation in the high tech age: How important is innovation for the success of your company and how satisfied are you with the level of innovation in your company. While all of the executives ranked innovation as very high and the key to growth, most had a low level of satisfaction with innovation in their own companies. And they wondered how to actually generate novel ideas and do so consistently.(...)

If you're like most business owners, you've probably dabbled with some form of electronic marketing (also called "Internet marketing" or "online marketing") to promote your brand and expand your company's reach using email, social networks, online advertising, or similar types of digital media. While the concept of e-marketing is not new, the tools that are available to help you in your e-marketing efforts continue to evolve and improve. This article will provide an overview of some of the options out there, and how you can leverage them to most cost-effectively reach existing and prospective customers through the Internet.(...)

In the May/June edition of this magazine, I wrote an article based on the bulletin "The Systematic Cleaning of Glass" commissioned by the Glass Committee of the International Window Cleaning Association (IWCA). Authored by Paul F. Duffer, Ph.D, educational program adjunct to the committee and former research associate for Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG), the bulletin's aim is to educate building owners into having their glass cleaned more often, otherwise facing the possibility of scratched glass. More over, the bulletin suggested the hiring of professional window cleaners, such as IWCA members. Its content stirred some controversy partly because of what it postulated about what can cause scratched glass.(...)