Commentary
Virgin on Business: R.I.P., Drugstore.com
An Icon of the dot-com boom proves loss leaders cant last forever.
Eighteen years isnt much of a business lifespan, especially in a region that has companies from the Klondike gold rush still operating. But the dot-com boom and bust might as well date from the Paleozoic Era for all the notice and influence those events command today. In the internet sector alone, too much history in…
Final Analysis: The Wells Fargo Mess
If you rob a bank and get caught, you go to jail; if the bank robs you and gets caught, well, never mind.
We are all responsible for maintaining the highest possible ethical standards in how we conduct our business and serve customers. After all, our culture is centered on relationships, and those relationships are built on trust. Our customers have high expectations of us, and we have even higher expectations of ourselves. These are the words of…
Commentary: A City for All
To avoid creating a Seattle of haves and have-nots, business owners must lead.
The secret is out that Seattle is a great place to live. We have water, mountains, coffee and no shortage of innovation. Thats led to a milestone: For the first time, weve joined the ranks of the 10 most densely populated big cities in the United States. All these newcomers, many of them highly paid…
Editor’s Note: Rule Weary in Seattle
City regulations may be well meaning, but small businesses are feeling put upon.
David Lee founded FareStart in Seattle to train chefs because he believed the homeless would benefit from the dignity of preparing food as a vocation. He launched Field Roast, a producer of vegan meats, because he considers the mass industrialization of animals as a blight on our culture. He has nurtured a caring culture at…
Virgin on Business: The Water Retention Issue
Battles over industrial development revive the familiar agent provocateur of the West: H2O.
A new toxic material is threatening the Northwest. Its safe enough for human, animal and fish consumption in its natural state, but it can be seriously hazardous to economic development projects and political careers. Its chemical name can be written as dihydrogen monoxide, or in shorthand as H2O. You know it as water. Water who…
UAV Law Takes Flight
What you must know if you plan to use drones commercially.
When an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) struck the Great Wheel on Seattles waterfront last November, it was a vivid demonstration of what can go wrong as more drones take to the sky. UAVs, once used mostly by hobbyists and the military, are now undergoing rapid advances in technology that unlock their potential to revolutionize commerce…
Creating an Affordable, Inclusive Puget Sound
Making room for our growing population will require more density in urban areas as well as innovation in transportation and office use.
Seattle has an enviable problem. More and more people are moving to the Puget Sound, so many that, by some estimates, the regions population could increase by one million residents by 2040. At the same time, Seattle is constrained geographically by water and hills. Our topography is scenic and beautiful, but it also makes it…
Mom to Employer: “Do You Mind if I Sit in on My Son’s Interview?”
More than one-third of managers are annoyed when job seekers get help from helicopter parents.
Do Mom and Dad know best when their children are looking for jobs? Not always, new research from staffing firm OfficeTeam suggests. More than one in three (35 percent) senior managers interviewed said they find it annoying when helicopter parents are involved in their kids’ search for work. Another one-third (34 percent) of respondents prefer…
Virgin on Business: Citizens, Beware!
Old and new taxing bodies are getting more creative and ever more opportunistic.
For decades, elements of Washingtons political class have longed for nay, lusted after an income tax, this state being among the seven currently without one. Washington voters have not shared the ardor for adding yet another tax, voting down proposals seven times, most recently in 2010. But obsession is not easily deterred, and the pro-income-tax…
Editors Note: The Case for Paine Field
Its time for the airport in Snohomish County to take some of the pressure off Sea-Tac.
Mukilteo is a divided community when it comes to Paine Field, the airport next door. Aviation enthusiasts who love to see the vintage aircraft buzzing about have bumper stickers that read I airplane noise. Anti-airport activists, by contrast, apparently play a parlor game called Stop That Project! in which guests are asked to come up…
Final Analysis: Rhymes with Uber
Some new ideas for the gig economy.
The sharing economy has changed America. Tasks we always considered menial and maybe a little annoying running errands, walking the dog, shopping for groceries now have enthusiastic champions who are happy to do them for us. If anything, this proves that companies like MyLackey.com remember it? were ahead of their time. Hard to believe MyLackey…
CEO Adviser: Paving the Way to Digital
How the Northwests leading asphalt company is embracing technology.
Whats the ROI on software? This is the question facing many leaders of traditional mid-market companies. For a well-established family-run business, there is often the temptation to invest in assets that can generate revenue faster in the short term instead of technology upgrades that dont deliver immediate profit. When I first met Mike Lee, president…
On the Way to Pension Reform
Seattles new changes are a good start, but more substantive work must be done.
The bankruptcy of Detroit which was $18 billion in debt and had to cut pension benefits for many municipal workers shows how critical it is for cities to have meaningful pension reform. Seattle recently took important first steps to change its pensions, but more fundamental reforms are needed. Pension commitments have become one of the…