By Quentin Langley It is often said that one way to filter whether a comment to a work colleague crosses line in terms of sexual innuendo is to ask yourself if you would say it in front of your romantic partner. Comments on Twitter should be subject to that filter, but also to whether or…

By Quentin Langley     This is an old story – thirteen years old – about long distance charges from MCI, a company which no longer exists, but it does show the power of the media. In this case it was the MSM – national radio in the US. It worked.  This American Life

By Quentin Langley Whole Foods Market has been attacked in what seems to be one of the rare fake brandjacks. Pastor Jordan Brown released a video and picture of a cake he purchased at Whole Foods in Austin, TX, bearing the inscription "Love Wins", as per his order, and the word "Fag" which as he…

By Quentin Langley Disney and its Marvel subsidiary are among the companies that have led calls for boycotts of Georgia – the US state, not the country in the Caucasus – if the religious freedom bill is signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal. The bill is aimed at protecting religious business owners from prosecution…

By Quentin Langley The Hill reports that supporters of Donald Trump are mounting a legal challenge to the campaign of Ted Cruz alleging that he is not a natural born citizen of the US, as required by the Constitution. Trump, of course, was a prominent supporter of the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was born…

By Quentin Langley Tech and engineering companies have not always been the best at providing career opportunities for women, so if you are a large global tech brand led by one of the most prominent women in business, it's probably not a good idea to start patronising women. Ginni Rometty is Chairman, President and CEO…

By Quentin Langley It seems that a Texas plumber has lost significant business when his van – still painted in his livery – turned up in Syria being used by Da'esh, the so-called Islamic State. According to the New York Times the plumber, whom this blog will not embarrass, sold his van to a dealer who…

By Quentin Langley Right at the heart of crisis management is investigating what went wrong. An early commitment to investigate and publish the results is critical. VW has committed to an external investigation. This is great, but they need to elaborate. A real independent investigation will be especially important in this case because the problem…

By Quentin Langley There have been many scandals in business, politics and pretty much every field of life. This one at VW is breathtaking in its scope. The deception seems not to be a matter of opinion. This is not Shell taking optimistic estimates of oil reserves and treating them as something proven.  It is…

By Quentin Langley Yesterday, the New York Stock Exchange was down for four hours due to "technical difficulties". There's been no further explanation, and initial reports did not even include that. Conspiracy theorists have been speculating, of course, with some talk of cyber attacks, though it is known that NYSE has also been disconnecting some…