The coupon is as American as apple pie, and American shoppers love a good bargain. Some people love to clip coupons and some feel that it is beneath them, that somehow using a coupon makes them less of a person. I’m not quite sure I understand that one, but to each his own. Despite American’s aversion to haggling, there is no doubt that there are a lot of goods and services in America with variable prices. It is just that in most cases, instead of asking for a deal, you have to know about a deal ahead of time. This usually means knowing where to find the coupon.Similar to the stories of three people in a row of airline seats having paid vastly different prices for seats next to each other, in the same way, three diners may all be paying different prices for the same entrees. Whether companies want … Continue reading →

Some might say it is a step forward, some a step backwards, but coming soon to a Jet Blue airplane near you–access to Yahoo! Mail (e-mail) or Yahoo! Messenger (instant messaging client) for free in the sky via WiFi access points.You won’t be able to access the web willy nilly, but a separate agreement with RIM will allow feeding your Blackberry addiction too. Now what good is their in-flight television system? People won’t be able to get away from the office. Check out the full article over at Engadget. Is this a step forward or a step backwards?What do you think?The innovation in this example comes not from the fact that Jet Blue is offering in-flight e-mail and instant-messaging, but in the airline and Yahoo! recognizing that even though the bandwidth they have available is not sufficient to support unrestricted web browsing, there is still something interesting that the partners … Continue reading →

As an independent consultant, I try to talk to as many other fellow practitioners as my schedule allows to keep abreast of what others are experiencing and doing. What I have found in the area of billing clients is that there are a myriad of ways of receiving compensation for the work that we do. Everything from traditional hourly/daily/weekly to at-risk payment types like graduated rates, milestone payments, equity stakes, contingencies based on achieved savings, royalties, and even retainers.Of all the different methods that I’ve seen, I think that royalties and savings contingencies make the most sense in revenue augmentation and cost reduction scenarios. Companies should be willing to reward those practioners that deliver real revenue increases and cost savings, and practioners should be willing to accept lower compensation if they don’t.But when it comes to looking at innovation projects and innovation process then I think that the retainer model … Continue reading →

I came across a couple of interesting articles on businessweek.com about relatively new payment solutions that people are looking at. The first article is about a company called National Payment Card that links your bank account to your drivers license or store loyalty card – creating a virtual debit card protected by a PIN. Transactions are processed as e-checks through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) bypassing costly interchange fees charged by Visa, Mastercard, and others for processing debit and credit card payments. In the areas where this is up and running, some consumers find this payment option quite handy (especially when coupled with a discount) and others avoid it out of fears of identify theft.What do you think? Would you sign up for a solution like this?The second article is about the GratisCard (which is now known as the RevolutionCard). The RevolutionCard is backed by Steve Case (founder of AOL) … Continue reading →