Marketers Find Web Chat Can Be Inspiring

International Business Machines and a handful of other major marketers, including casino operator Harrah’s Entertainment and software giant Microsoft, are experimenting with developing ad campaigns based in part on what consumers are chatting about on the Web.
For decades, advertisers have relied heavily on sometimes-dated consumer surveys and focus groups to provide grist for their ads. [...]

Launching Startups in Retirement

For 15 years, Dorothy Atkins kept a diary during her long train rides back and forth to work as a project manager at a large San Francisco bank. “I always used commuting time to write out my hopes and desires,” Atkins says. She also did a lot of drawing, illustrating “pearls of wisdom” imparted from [...]

Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati by the Numbers

• NKU Index: Sluggish Economic Recovery Predicted NKY/Greater Cincinnati
• CEAD Adds New Privately-Owned Residential Building Permit Data to its Website
• Cincinnati MSA Continues to See a Decline in Building Permits Authorized
• What is my home worth?
• I Need to Know: How much to pay my employees
Sluggish Economic Recovery Predicted for NKY/Greater Cincinnati
By Feng Guo (guof1@nku.edu) [...]

Two Kentucky High-Tech Companies Awarded Funding for Expansions

FRANKFORT, Ky. ‘ The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) awarded two high-tech Kentucky companies, Louisville Bioscience, Inc., and Laboratory and BioDiagnostics, LLC, (LabDx), state funding. The companies are anticipated to create a combined 36 new high-tech jobs at an average annual salary of over $64,000. (Manafacturing & Techonology eJournal, October 29, 2009)
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Small Business Crunches Numbers

Small business has fought the health-care bill as too costly. That made Saturday’s vote bitter to many of the nation’s roughly 30 million such entrepreneurs, if welcome to some.
“With unemployment at a 26-year high, the punitive employer mandates and atrocious new taxes will force small business owners to eliminate jobs and freeze expansion plans at [...]

Small Business Gets Breaks in House Financial-Overhaul Bill

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are adding sweeping exemptions to financial-regulation legislation that would benefit small businesses, a move that is irking some consumer groups and liberal lawmakers who contend that could compromise the effectiveness of the overhaul.
Bills currently under consideration in the House exclude thousands of community banks from oversight by the proposed Consumer Financial Protection [...]

Growth Through Innovation

Innovation can steer a company’s strategy, even in tough times (BusinessWeek)
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Godiva Goes to the Supermarket

In 1926, a Belgian boutique began selling smooth, indulgent chocolates in a luxe gold box. The upscale approach has worked well: Godiva has grown into a $500 million product sold at more than 10,400 stores around the world. Now the chocolatier is going mass market. While adhering to its original recipes, Godiva is selling lower-priced [...]

Hershey’s Arrested Development

Buried within Hershey’s (HSY) Web site is a section that invites consumers to pitch their own ideas for new products. “We are seeking innovative concepts,” it reads. “What’s your big idea?”
Hershey could certainly use the help. The innovation cupboard at the $5.1 billion chocolate maker has grown bare. In the mid-2000s, Hershey regularly launched over [...]

Louisville’s Sypris Sells Test & Measurement Business to Tektronix

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sypris Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq/NM: SYPR) has completed the sale of its Test & Measurement business to Tektronix.
Commenting on the announcement, Jeffrey T. Gill, president and chief executive officer of Sypris Solutions, said, “The completion of this transaction with Tektronix marks an important milestone for Sypris Solutions. The proceeds from the deal will [...]