Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

A tragic plane crash has claimed the lives of representatives and executives from several companies, as a small jet crashed near the southern Minnesota town of Owatonna.

There are at least eight people killed as a result the accident. Some confusion remains to how many people boarded the last stop before the crash, as several passengers were said to have been picked up, but the actual number hasn't been able to be confirmed yet.

Crash investigators are still searching to see if there was another passenger on board that hasn't been accounted for yet.

By marching to his own beat, Buffett was able to surpass his competition. He wasn’t afraid to try something new. After all, “if past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.”

Many people misunderstand the willingness by Warren Buffett to take risks. He's more than willing to, it's just that he knows how to take the right type of risk; not risk just for the thrill of partaking in risk.

Reinsurance is one example. He's willing to reinsure anything if the customer is willing to pay the type of premium required to manage the risk.

The one risk he refuses to take, is partaking in something that could permanently destroy a company. That's part of his risk-managment strategy.

With cheesecake slices at the Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE) going for up to $6-a-slice, the celebration of National Cheesecake Day gives us cheesecake lovers an opportunity to go get an inexpensive slice of cheesecake at the restaurant. Today slices are going for $1.50. Not bad!

The caveat is you do have to dine-in to get the discounted dessert. Customers get one cheesecake slice each.

It does seem obvious, but these types of promotions are almost always successful for customers, and are definitely needed during these types of economic times where people are counting their pennies.

S & A Restaurant Corp., which operates Bennigan's, Steak & Ale and The Tavern restaurants, has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 today, effectively putting it out of business. A Chapter 7 filing means they will sell off all their assets and pay off their debtors from the proceeds.

Even with the filing, those businesses that are franchised out will continue operating, as only corporate-owned locations will be shuttered. Bennigan's has 150 franchisees that will continue operations at this time.

Steak & Ale will be completely shut down, as all 58 restaurants were company owned.

Dualstar Entertainment Group LLC: Foundation of the Empire - Becoming Major Brand

The strategy to enhance the Dualstar brand has started to pay off after several years, as in a number of categories it has become the No. 1  selling brand in America. It has also spread out to include at least fifteen other countries in its marketing sights.

In the tween girl category, Dualstar is now the leading fashion and lifestyle brand, and as a video franchise marketing girls, it's the top in all of American history.
 
Considering it usually takes between five to ten years to build a solid brand, Dualstar is successfully traversing the rapids in this vital demographic, and is making headway in older demographics as well.

Dualstar Entertainment Group LLC: Foundation of the Empire - Selective Merchandising

Another big change the young ladies went through was the willingness to be more selective in their merchandising. Rather than a scattered approach, where they almost tried anything and were loathe to drop a product, they completely changed that around.

What made them finally realize the need to do this was they were having trouble maintaining the core identity of their brand. So with the help of their new CEO Diane Reichenberger, they went through their products and in some cases got rid of entire categories they had included in their lines.

If it didn't fit with their corporate image and purpose, they started to drop a variety of items.

Dualstar Entertainment Group LLC: Foundation of the Empire - Marketing to tweens and teens

When the Olsens took over the company, they were right at another transitional stage they had to deal with in the past, when they went from tween to teen. Now they've been working on moving some from teen to young women.

As far as the change from tween to teen, they had to work on ways to remain relevant to young girls up to about 12-years-old, while reaching out to a teen market that is completely different.

One simple and interesting thing they did, was to keep their name in the front of the tween demographic, by allowing their images to remain connected to their clothing line. What they did was put it above the clothing racks where it could be seen, reminding their tween audience it was them they were dealing with.

This is something tweens relate to completely.

One of the more inspirational stories of the last several years has ended today, as "Last Lecture" author and video star Randy Pausch lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 47.

Pausch become wildly popular from his story of the battle he went through - and lessons learned, not only through out the process, but throughout his life he lived fully.

In the video that was viewed by millions, he talked about the importance of childhood dreams and how he achieved his, and helped others to achieve theirs. The video, and his book by the same name, also goes on to encourage others on how they can do the same.

Randy Pausch was married, and survive by his wife Jai; three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe; and his mother and sister.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Is this making something little go a long way? Maybe it's "in you hair today, gone tomorrow."

Either way, a woman in China discovered that her hair band was unraveling, and when she took it off an looked at it, she cut the thread off and found some recycled condoms inside. Evidently there was no "shrinkage" involved, as they were found to be unused. I guess.

Now the obvious question: How can a condom be recycled if it isn't used?

Another question is why were they recycled. My friend over at Pan Asian Biz suggests maybe quality is one of the reasons the Chinese have so many people.

The federal minimum wage increased by 70 cents today, which will affect about 2 million American workers. It jumps from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour. Next year the final of the three yearly increased will bring it to $7.25 an hour.

It's projected that the final increase will have an impact on over 5 million workers, as the hourly rate will surpass some of the existing states which have higher standards in place.

Already a number of small businesses are having to increase prices and pass the artifical price hikes to their customers, effectively increasing inflation. Profits are slim for a lot of small businesses, and the harmful miniumum wage laws make it more difficult to compete.