Articles & Reports

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
September 25, 2009

I'm at the Inc. 500 Conference, America's leading conference for entrepreneurs. I'm at a seminar listening to speaker Erika Andersen who is the CEO of Proteus International. Her company helps other companies think about ways to grow through being strategic. By the size of the room and the attendance of this session (130 people and full) it sure seems like entrepreneurs are craving information for how to grow in this economy.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
August 20, 2009

I'll admit it, I love watching any TV show with Gordon Ramsay in it, but "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" is my current favorite. He’s the antithesis of the stereotypical woman leader; he’s brazen and harsh. He swears like a sailor and belittles people. Not my style of leadership, but it makes for great TV.

I like the show because he gets down into the inner workings of a small business and peels away the onion to find any issues that might be hampering the business from growing.

So, I've outlined 6 things we can all learn from Gordon Ramsay, followed by a question you can ask yourself to see how you rate by his business strategy.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
July 24, 2009

Here at VerticalResponse, because of the nature of our low-cost, easy-to-use e-mail marketing solution, we tend to cater to a lot of small businesses. We have a pretty low risk product with a free online trial. Because of this, we attract all walks of life on the business front from the mom and pop shop, to a company that has 500 employees and umpteen thousand customers.

Over the course of the eight years we've been in business, we've had to "break up" with a bunch of customers for various reasons, and you know what I've come to terms with? It’s OK. Not every customer is right for every business.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
July 16, 2009

I was watching one of my favorite movies, The Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon. I think I probably have seen this movie about 10 times and not just because Damon is a cutie. On this 10th time, I started watching and listening more intently at certain aspects of how women and men react differently in certain situations. What I discovered was that there seemed to be direct correlations between the movie and the real business world.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs"
June 25, 2009

I have been in countless business situations and discussions where emotions tend to take over and we end up harboring some sort of resentment towards the other party.

"Remember when Sally told me that I could be doing a better job? Even though she’s my boss, I’ll never forget that." Conversations like this happen all the time and in general, it’s likely a woman talking. I am so jealous that men seem to be able to air their dirty laundry and just move on, in business and outside of business. It drives me nuts!

Ladies, I don’t mean to generalize but we do act this way. We’ll inject our emotions into a heated conversation or we’ll go back and forth in a passive-aggressive e-mail exchange until we get the last word whether the other party is a man or a woman.