Observe Business

The hiring process is the most important function that an organization can undertake. People brought onboard can turbocharge a company or drive it into the ground.

Zappo’s, the online show company, takes a very unorthodox view of the hiring process. They will train you, and offer to pay you to quit at the end of the initial training period. That way, if you don’t really want the job, but you feel like you have “already come this far, might as go all the way”, then you can use this money to justify your decision to quit. Check it out here and here.

This post by Clarence Ewing over at GLIPress, tells you which questions to watch out for. A very worthwhile read.

A lot has been written about how GM and their Detroit brethren Chrysler and Ford are a bunch of dummies. The news that they all took separate jets to plead for a bailout does not make them look any smarter.

This post over at graduated taste is awesome. It talks about what Richard Branson, one of the world’s best showmen, would have done had he owned GM.

Caveat: I have flown Branson’s airline, Virgin Atlantic, once from Los Angeles to London. I have to say it was among the worst flights I have ever taken. The seats were tiny and uncomfortable, the stewardesses had a nasty attitude, and the food was putrid. The nadir of the flight was on our approach to Heathrow, when all of the staff whipped out their cellphones as we were circling the airport, and started making evening plans.

BUT…when our connection on Emirates got delayed, they were quite helpful and nice.

The Japanese government is forcing their industry to modernize and become more efficient in exchange for helping them with a handout.

The government responded two weeks later with the $700 million aid package that promised to pay 90 percent of fuel price increases since December, but only to fishermen who found ways to reduce their consumption. The package also contained subsidies to help fishermen buy efficient new engines, like the hybrid.

You can read the whole article at the NY Times.

The US government gave out 20 times that amount to Detroit. I wish the US government had put some real teeth into their $14 billion handout!