There has been a shift in the past few years: companies are addressing societal problems not as charity but as a way to make money and expand opportunities. Here are three ways to improve your company’s ability to innovate by contributing to the fight against social problems:

1. Create a bigger pool of ideas. Don’t focus just on your market or function, but think about how solutions in your market can help serve a broader audience. This expanded thinking will put more ideas into your innovation funnel.
2. Increase partnerships. Committing to helping other people inspires a willingness to reach beyond the company walls and build new partnerships that often lead to new ideas.
   
   
3. Focus on solutions. When employees know that their ideas will help people, they are more likely to feel motivated to focus on innovative solutions.

This content courtesy of Harvard Business Review and adapted from “Leadership Yoga: Innovation Advantages from Seeing Disadvantage” by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. View the full post here

Today’s Adrenaline Video - Red Bull “Psycosis 7”, the worlds longest DH Mountain Bike Trail. Watch in amazement as riders launch over 50ft gaps at 40-60mph!

In the Ann Arbor office today, man this place is cool. Adrenaline Commerce, LLC shares space with Alfa Jango at the Northern “Tech” Brewery” in Ann Arbor. Check it out on Google Street View…

It’s holiday season again already! Just when you thought you could put your feet up after the Christmas rush and New Year madness, you realise you should have already started your next promotion campaign. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and according to the US Greeting Card Association, more than $16.9 billion is spent on the holiday. The average consumer spends almost $120 and as an online store owner you know you can’t afford to pass up your share of the spending this holiday…

Read More…

Hard at work in the office

1.  NO TIES, and especially NO BOW TIES.
(Bow Ties will be cut off immediately, Ties get 1 warning)

2.  Casual Attire IS an Expectation. Suits are not allowed.
(Suit Coats or Pants can be left at the door, take your pick. We prefer that you keep your pants on)

3.  Meetings ALWAYS start 5 minutes late… we’ll try to be 5 minutes early.

4.  We take our lunches at random… if you really need to find us, stalk us on FourSquare

5.  Friday Lunches have been known to run over into Beer:30… We can be found in the Tech Brewery across the way.

6.  NO ONE is allowed in the office BEFORE 8:00am
(unless you are still in the office from the previous day)

7.  SMILE, you’re really ugly when you frown.

8.  Have FUN, Stay a while, Tell EVERYONE how cool our office is.

9.  IT’S ALWAYS THE “RIGHT” TIME (SOMEWHERE).

The phone calls usually go like this:

Caller: “I want a website for my business.”

You: “What kind of business do you have?”

Caller states the nature of the business, launches into a list of pages that he or she wants on the site, and then asks you for a price quote.
Not a very satisfying encounter, is it?

Turn a bad experience into a good one with the right questions… some great examples after the jump!

Read the rest of the blog post that featured the above Video… after the jump

With more than 350 million active users, Facebook’s population has exceeded that of the United States. According to its statistics page, the average user spends more than 55 minutes each day on this social media site, and he or she becomes a fan of at least two pages per month.

Since Facebook opened up its platform to developers, the apps and pages available for commercial use have greatly increased in number and influence. Many online retailers have used it as a marketing technique or, in some cases, even as an online storefront in itself. There are many options for using Facebook to market your business, and in this article we’ll be looking at five examples of merchants who have used this popular social media tool to bring more traffic to their online stores.

Read more after the jump…