Toyota's 2009\u20132011 unintended-acceleration recall produced the most consequential recall communications restructuring in modern automotive history. The operational discipline that emerged \u2014 six structural reforms, sustained CEO accountability, NHTSA disclosure velocity \u2014 is the playbook the industry still studies.
Yellow Pages was the canonical local-discovery channel for four decades. The 2010 redesign was a real product improvement to a product fewer and fewer people used. The cleanest case study in what happens when a distribution channel collapses out from under a brand.
Ford reported its first annual profit since 2005 in late January 2010 — $2.7 billion. Two weeks later, it's the only Detroit automaker to have avoided the federal bailout. The One Ford operating architecture, the Thursday BPR discipline, and the Fiesta Movement global asset pool produced the result. The collective-intelligence case every communications leader should be reading.
Apple's iPad is caught in a media frenzy that will end up in building a strong brand, selling the product and surpassing all expectations.
Apple is expected to announce a tablet this week. If it runs a variant of the iPhone OS, the App Store gets a second front door — and every device category that runs software gets pulled toward the same platform model.
Holiday Inn in the UK is offering the most gratuitous hospitality of any hotel chain there. Human bed warmers. Two hotels and one in Manchester announced the service due to falling temperatures this year. On request, human bed warmers climb into sheep suits and warm guest beds. Kinky.
Journalism's most interesting careers now run through indie magazines, blogs, and email lists — and treat the journalist as the operator of a small business rather than the employee of a large one.