Here’s another example of how powerful, versatile and meaningful a tool barter can be in the right hands. It also shows the business acumen of Tom Cruise and his longtime associate Paula Wagner, who were dumped by Paramount Pictures, after a decade of success.

In November Cruise and Wagner stuck a deal with MGM’s chairman Harry Sloan to revive the long dormant United Artists (UA) movie unit. As part of the deal Cruise/Wagner will have Read the rest of this entry »

For me, I find reading some of my notes of years past is a good way to stay grounded. Here’s an example of what I mean.

“To make 10% consistently is a great achievement, very few people achieve it.”

—Philip Carret,
founder of Carret & Co., New York City

Years ago, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke Read the rest of this entry »

Which firms would you rather compete against? Those with no ad budgets, or those that spend excessively to create new business? The answer to this question is rather obvious, isn’t it.

Sometimes we get so caught up in running our company, we forget the importance of new customer development.

Always remember: we’re in the customer development business.

There aren’t many, if any, Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, May 16, Black Enterprise magazine will name Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Inc. its 2008 BE100s Company of the Year. The announcement will be made before an audience of nearly 2,000 African American businesspeople and entrepreneurs at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by General Motors in Charlotte, North Carolina.

For those who gather that evening, Winfrey is not just a talk show host and more than a mere business woman. She is a legend, an icon—but mostly, a mentor. Her unprecedented success in American business serves as Read the rest of this entry »

Online industry leaders will be discussing “Restaurant Marketing in a Digital World”
at the 2008 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.

Online industry leaders will gather at the 2008 National Restaurant Association to discuss the state of Internet marketing in the restaurant Read the rest of this entry »

The International Reciprocal Trade Association’s 29th Annual Convention will be held September 22 through September 25, 2008 at the Westgate River Ranch Resort, near Orlando, Florida.

Representatives from domestic and international corporate and retail trade exchanges, as well as local and community currency systems will be in attendance.

For more information on the International Reciprocal Trade Association Read the rest of this entry »

BBX Holdings Limited (BBX) announced that its BBX franchise in China, ‘BBX China’, has commenced trading which is expected to create a significant volume of cross-country barter trade.

BBX, a cashless trade exchange, has offices and/or franchises throughout Australia and New Zealand, with 6,000 member businesses and over 8,000 individual card holders. Member businesses in these two countries traded in excess of $188 million in the financial year ending 30 June 2007, averaging over $33,000 per active member business.

The BBX China franchise is expected to bring the number of BBX members globally to 300,000. Franchises Read the rest of this entry »

Think of the exposure Adidas has gained over the years from their barter deal with the New York Yankees. A 10-year deal first signed in March of 1997.

It’s staggering to think of the many tens-of-millions of people who have seen the Adidas name prominently displayed on the cover of the Yankees Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who have asked where you can read all of the back issues of the commentary “From The Desk of Bob Meyer,” here is the Read the rest of this entry »

Here is an idea we came across recently that we wanted to share with you…What are your thoughts about Read the rest of this entry »