My CEO Life is the blog of Simon Baker, the ex-CEO and Managing Director of the REA Group. He is now building a new business called Classified Ad Ventures. This blog looks at real business problems and provides real solutions - ones that any manager around the world can follow and implement.

Top 10 CEO’s Who Never Went to College

September 1st, 2009

A great posting came across my desk ther other day that listed the top 10 CEO’s around the world that never went to college (uni for those in the UK and Australia). All the CEO’s are well known. Of course there is Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on the list. However, some of the other names were a little surprising.

Read more…

10 Cool New Online Tools at Inman Connect

August 5th, 2009

At the Inman Connect Conference in San Francisco Brian Boreo told the 1,500 strong crowd his top 10 cool new online tools to help any business.

Here they are …

Read more…

What Was United Airlines Thinking

July 12th, 2009

The story of Canadian Dave Carroll and United airlines is quite amazing. Dave is a country singer and he and his band were on a trip with United from Halifax to Nebraska that had a layover in Chicago. During this layover the baggage handlers at Chicago’s O’Hare managed to destroy his guitar.

Now you would have thought that United would pay for his guitar to be replaced. They didn’t come to the party claiming the Dave Carroll didn’t make a claim with 24 hours. Dave was given the complete run around with United refusing to take any responsibility for the damage.

So what did Dave do, he wrote a song about his experience and that song hit You Tube on Monday last week and has already had over 2.3 million views. Check it out … oh and it is called … United Breaks Guitars.

So what do we learn from this?

Well firstly, United must have some very questionable baggage handling techniques. If you are to going to fly United, I would try to take carry-on luggage or better still, fly another airline.

Secondly, United’s customer service approach seems to be designed to say “no” – no matter how legitimate your complaint is.

Thirdly, the $3k to replace the guitar is cheap compared to the brand damage that this whole episode is causing United. And there is nothing they can do about it now. The cat is out of the bag and will run its own course. In today’s social media world, you never know how poor customer service is going to come back and bite you.

Finally, Dave Carroll and his band have made this an opportunity to further their careers. 2.3 million people is a great audience. Hopefully they will release an album soon to take advantage of their new found fame.

Oh … and if you thought United had got off relatively light? Dave and his band have 2 more songs in the works.

The Rise of the Coffice

June 2nd, 2009

In today’s tough economic market more and more people are losing their jobs and struggling to find new ones. A by-product of this new world is that more and more people are becoming entrepreneurs and starting a wide range of new businesses. Now if you don’t have a job and want to be an entrepreneur you can work from home, rent an office or join the new trend of using coffee shops and cafes as your office – the coffice!

Read more…

Giving and Taking Feedback is So Important

May 25th, 2009

I recently wrote an article on one of the other blogs that I run in which I gave my view on a market and how the players are performing in that market.  Now the article was meant as a wakeup call for one of those players who I thought had become a little lazy however they took it as a slight against them.

This got me thinking about how you should give feedback and what could happen if you happen to take it as it is meant.

Read more…

Is Twitter a Business Tool?

May 20th, 2009

Everywhere you turn people are talking about twitter and the tweets that are flying around the internet. It is clear that people are signing up to twitter in their thousands and some people believe it can be used as a business tool – just check out the new book by Joel Comm and Ken Burge called Twitter Power – How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time.

However the question still remains is twitter a nice social media fad or can it be used as a serious business tool?

Read more…

How to Become an Entrepreneur

May 18th, 2009

I recently received the following email from a reader about becoming an entrepreneur.

I want to become an entrepreneur but I have no prior business experience. I have been researching possible business products and ideas. What is the best advice could you give to people like me with burning desire to become an entrepreneur but have no prior business experience? What are the things I can do to accelerate my learning curve?

Having been an entrepreneur for a while, here are my ideas about what it takes to become one.

Read more…

Launching Jobs Portal Watch

May 3rd, 2009

The team at Classified Ad Ventures is proud to announce that we have just launched Jobs Portal Watch – a sister site to Property Portal Watch.

Read more…

Classified Ad Ventures Update

April 30th, 2009

The last three months have seen the Classified Ad Ventures business go from strength to strength.  We now have a clear mission for mission for the business, a strong team in place and most importantly operations underway.  Here is an update on the business.

Read more…

As Always, Communication is Critical

April 29th, 2009

A topic that is often talked about in management magazines and books is communication.  It seems that an enormous amount is written on the topic yet management time and time again get it wrong.  I was chatting with a friend today about his work place and he commented that people are anxious and communications are not flowing.

This got me thinking – what are the do’s and dont’s of great communication from management to the employees.
Read more…

Latest Articles from Classified Ad Ventures Sites

  1. Today

    1. Shared Win 1 Of 3 iPads with SOBOX.

      12h ago via Property Portal Watch

    2. Posted seattle20.com Expands into Jobs.

      13h ago via Jobs Portal Watch

    3. Shared Agent-Owned Portal Launching in UK.

      15h ago via Property Portal Watch

  2. Yesterday

    1. Shared roost.com Swaps Search for Social.

      11:50pm via Property Portal Watch

    2. Posted “Jobs” Top Search Term in India.

      10:57pm via Jobs Portal Watch

    3. Posted roost.com Swaps Listings for Social Strategies.

      10:52pm via Property Ad Guru

    4. Shared immobilienscout24.de Launches TV App.

      10:52pm via Property Portal Watch

    5. Posted beyond.com Joins The Network.

      12:49am via Jobs Portal Watch

    6. Shared Challanges for Canada’s realtor.ca.

      12:12am via Property Portal Watch

  3. September 1st

    1. Posted Safe Tweets from tweetmyjobs.com.

      10:45pm via Jobs Portal Watch

    2. Shared zillow.com Teams with apartments.com.

      10:42pm via Property Portal Watch

    3. Posted Five Inspirational Real Estate Videos.

      10:41pm via Property Ad Guru

    4. Posted SEEK Revenue Up 35 Percent.

      2:19am via Jobs Portal Watch

    5. Shared IPGA Reports Revenue Jump.

      1:48am via Property Portal Watch

    6. Posted travelweekly.co.uk Relaunches Jobs.

      12:57am via Jobs Portal Watch

    7. Shared rightmove.co.uk Profits Up 40%.

      12:53am via Property Portal Watch

    8. Posted How Well Do You Know Your Audience?.

      12:52am via Property Ad Guru

  4. August 30th

    1. Shared The REA Group Looses Yet Another Senior Manager.

      8:45pm via Property Portal Watch

    2. Posted Social Recruiting Still in Background.

      10:36am via Jobs Portal Watch

    3. Posted Google Analytics Explained: Part 2.

      10:33am via Property Ad Guru

    Upstream

    Powered by Lifestream.