Distributor News

In its latest cost-cutting move, the U.S. Postal Service has halted bonuses and other performance awards for managers and administrators, the agency's chief human resources officer confirmed in a Friday memo.

Effective immediately, USPS officials are barred from spending any money on cash awards, gift certificates, event tickets and other tokens of employee recognition, Tony Vegliante wrote in the memo.

Cybercrime has become big business and cyber criminals are looking for new targets. Bubbling up to the top of the list are small- and mid-size businesses.

In a recent article, I shared a personal story about what appeared to be uncaring customer service from VIZIO TV. I'd like to update you on the positive way this ended and add to the discussion on the importance of quality customer service.

PPAI announced Wendy Franklin, MAS, a promotional marketing consultant with Geiger and an avid volunteer for Promotional Products Association of the Midwest (PPAM), as the 2011 PPAI Regional Association Council (RAC) Volunteer of the Year.

Twenty-four months after the end of the Great Recession, where does the U.S. economy stand? The good news: Stock prices are up some 20% in the last year and Ben Bernanke has taken his hand off the printing presses. But whither the country's 27 million small businesses—defined by the Small Business Administration as companies with fewer than 500 employees, including a large swath of sole proprietorships—which account for nearly half the U.S. workforce and generate more than half of nonfarm-related output?

A new bill aimed at closing loopholes and ending fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs could rescue the economy. The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act focuses on ending the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses, a problem preventing the creation of upwards of 1.8 million new jobs. Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA-04) is expected to introduce the bill later this year.

The bill targets ambiguous provisions within the Small Business Act of 1953 that have allowed publically traded and foreign-owned firms to qualify as small businesses for the purpose of receiving federal small business contracts.

Woodinville, Washington-based Bensussen Deutsch & Associates Inc. (BDA) today announced the appointment of David Schwartz to the role of chief information officer. Schwartz comes to BDA from Expedia, where he was vice president of engineering.

If The Godfather taught us anything about business, it was this: It's personal. So when the news is bad—and for risk-chasing entrepreneurs, at some point it will be—a good communication strategy will save you the drama of becoming the enemy.

Take it from Dr. Robert Buckman, a medical oncologist and professor at the University of Toronto who's been breaking bad news professionally for decades. "Do it poorly," he says, "and people will never forgive you. Do it well, and they'll never forget you."

Buckman developed a protocol called SPIKES to teach physicians and businesspeople a better way to communicate bad news.

Although the Sunshine Act requires disclosures for grants and other funding of medical research, the majority of payment categories are focused on promotional engagements. A new report from Cutting Edge Information finds that drug manufacturers are feeling the burden of tracking promotional engagements, such as dinner meetings, across their global operations.

"The difference between paying a thought leader for a promotional versus a clinical engagement is that the promotional activities come with greater disclosure requirements," said Elio Evangelista, director of research at Cutting Edge Information.

Delaware has become the ninth state to enact a ban on baby bottles that contain bisphenol A. The ban, which will go into effect July 1, 2012, applies to all bottles and cups that can be filled with food or liquids and are intended for use by children under the age 4.

The measure passed the General Assembly unanimously 22 June. It is now headed to Gov. Jack Markell for his signature.

The eight other states with bans on BPA in baby bottles are New York, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont and Minnesota.