Forget about Occupy Wall Street.  I want to start a movement to Occupy Verizon.  Verizon is the reason why the government has disallowed monopolies.  If you want a landline in New York City, Verizon is the only option.

Having a monopoly is a privilege of which Verizon abusing.  Case in point:  I run a consulting business.  All we have is our minds and our ability to communicate.  This is why I am adamant on having land lines and reliable internet service.  I am moving my office to from th 2nd Floor to the 3rd Floor of 62 Grand Street in Soho. Over one month ago, I scheduled an appointment with Verizon for today, October 18, 2011 (the earliest date they could give me) to 1) install two jacks on the 3rd Floor, 2) move my landlines to the 3rd floor and 3) my high speed internet access to the 3rd floor. 

I was told that if I wasn't present, Verizon would charge me $199.00.  I received email confirmation on Sunday, October 9th.  I noticed the floor number said 5 and not 3.  I called and was assured that the floor number was corrected.  I received a phone call yesterday confirming the appointment and was assured of the correct floor number and that the technician would come between 1pm-5pm on October 18, 2011.  At 3:45pm, I called Verizon, was transferred from Customer Service to Billing (after explaining my story twice) and then was disconnected when the Billing department tried to transfer me to Repairs where the order is being serviced.  I called back and spoke to a Repairs representative who informed me that if they weren't able to come at 5pm, I would need to reschedule another day!

While Verizon Customer Service rates an A in terms of friendliness, unfortunately, all of the goodwill is wiped out by the company's inability to support their Customer Service team by providing the customer with where you are in the queue or better yet with a technician who will actually perform the service requested and PAID FOR. 

One of my clients, has experienced similar issues.  It took Verizon 6 visits to finally get her landlines and internet installed.

This cannot go on.  Unfortunately, until there is another landline provider, Verizon can and will continue to walk over its customers.  Shame on them.

Since 2009, I have worked with and observed a number of Western companies doing business in China.  Doing business in China is extremely painful and hard and most of these companies will tell you that they bear the battle scars.

Most companies get it wrong.  I wanted to point out a company that appears to be doing it right.  Led by CEO and co-Founder, David Liu, The Knot has positioned itself to successfully leverage the China market.  Specifically, in order to be successful, a company must do the following:

1.  Speak and write Mandarin fluently.  Most companies ignore this and staff their offices with non-Chinese speaking staff or with soley Chinese staff who are not familiar with the way business is done in the West.  The Knot has staffed its office with Chinese-born U.S. educated leaders.  This gives them tremendous advantage as they have Management who they can rely on to flawlessly execute their strategy.

2.  Invest in training and education of their brand.  Everything is new to the Chinese and as a result, they need to be educated.  The Knot has taken a very clever approach by creating "International Chitchat" where Chinese brides-to-be can type their questions into a Knot powered forum, have their questions translated into English for American brides to answer.  Everyone knows that brides love to talk about their weddings and are information hounds.  This is a great way for the Knot to win the "hearts and minds" of both Chinese and American brides.

3.  Offer a differentiated product.  In this case, The Knot has positioned itself as a portal where global brands can easily use to run their campaigns and/or sell their products.  Setting up their own e-commerce is very difficult due to the tight regulatory environment.  The Knot has made it really easy for these brands to piggy back off the Knot's system.

I look forward to tracking the Knot's continued progress.  I think their next step is to position co-Founder, Carly Roney as the "Martha Stewart" of Weddings to the Chinese.

I am not sure if it is a generational thing but business etiquette seems to be disappearing in the workplace from the Generation Y group.

The first example happened to me last Friday, September 30th.  I was invited to speak on a panel of leading bridal web site.  They contacted me in August, asked for the presentation by September 19th so they could incorpoate it into their master presentation.  I gave the the presenstation on September 9th.  The company representative J., said she needed to edit the presentation to fit into the alloted time slot and gave me her suggestions which I agreed.  She also mentioned that she wanted to put the presentation in a master template which I agreed.  I received the presentation last Friday, 48 business hours before the presentation (scheduled to take place this Tuesday at 6pm).  The presentation was unrecognizable.  J. made changes above and beyond what was agreed.  Specifically, she 1) changed the wording so the points were no longer correct, 2) consolidated points, 3) changed my photos and 4) placed all of my content into her company's presentation template.  What was surprising to me was how surprised she was that I expressed displeasure.  And she told me that I had approved these changes (which I did not and had the emails to show her). 

The second example occurred this morning when I was providing an informational interview to a recent graduate.  Not only was he grossly uprepared, he asked me if I could edit his resume for him!

In fairness, I am sure it is a combination of both me and them.  All I can think of is the song "Kids" from the musical "Bye Bye Birdie"'- "Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way.  What's the matter with kids today?"

I have to admit.  I haven't watched television (other than the news shows) in over 20 years.  I was a bridesmaid in a wedding where the groom's childhood friend, Kevin Bright was the co-creator and producer of "Friends."  The groom and groomsmen thought it was hilarious to tell him that I never had seen a "Friends" episode.  It was so bad that one of my employees pared down my Time Warner Cable subscription from all channels to just the basic service (e.g. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, TBS, CW).

So I consider it a testament to the Fall 2011 network programming that I am back to watching television.  I am hooked on Revenge, set in the Hamptons, about a girl who take revenge each week on a character who has been responsible for ruining her father's life.  I also am enamoured with Pan Am.  I feel like the Owen Wilson character in Woody Allen's film, "Midnight in Paris" where the past looks much better than the present.  And finally, never a sitcom comedy person, I am addicted to "The Middle" and "Modern Family."

I am predicting the resurgence of networks.  After decades, Showtime and HBO no longer have a lock on great original programming.