We had the honor of presenting to the MBAs at the University of San Francisco. Professor Thomas Maier gives a unique class on business modeling, research, and development where students form into teams and become their own virtual “consulting” firms. But that’s where the virtual meets the real world. Each team takes on a challenge […]

The success of the Barefoot Wine brand is living testimony to the problem-solving methods Bonnie Harvey and I employed in our early days. You can use these same methods to help overcome the problems your business faces on its journey from start-up to build-up and from build out to enterprise. Barefoot Wine is now the […]

We like to say, “Do what you do best, and delegate the rest!” That sort of flies in the face of, “If you want it done right, do it yourself.” Is there a middle ground that gives you the time you need to focus on moving the company forward using your best skill sets with […]

Because we successfully built a popular consumer packaged goods brand, now known the world over, we are often asked about packaging. Our audiences want to know, “What’s the latest in packaging?” and, “What are the new trends?” After all, the “P” in CPG is “package.” In the 1967 movie, “The Graduate,” a young man, recently […]

Michael’s grandfather, John Francis Houlihan, came over from Ireland in the late 1800s. He was 19 years old. The only passage he could book was above deck on an ocean steamer headed for New York loaded with cattle in the hold. All the immigrants had to make the crossing above deck, exposed to the inclement […]

The European Union finally voted this week on a proposition that’s been on the table since May 2018. It’s a proposition to ban single-use plastics. How this finally happened at this highest level of European government is a testament, in our opinion, to the more intelligent use of social media. Enlightening documentaries like David Attenborough’s […]

Salespeople have been given a bad name. It is depicted in The Music Man, the musical decrying the manipulating tactics of a salesman selling horns in a town where no one needed them.  It’s portrayed in old movies like Used Cars, where unsuspecting folks are tricked into buying wrecks. And it is in our minds when […]

We recently had the opportunity to speak to the Aalto Fellows, a group of the top students from Aalto University in Finland. They were in Silicon Valley for the entrepreneurial tour and we caught up with them at Stanford University. What was most impressive about this group was that it was organized and financed by […]

We hope it’s an individual and not a company-wide problem. It could be poor hiring or poor training that results in certain counterproductive tactics that account executives and customer service representatives in big companies increasingly use. It seems to occur when companies oversell goods and services and then are unable to adequately service their accounts. The […]

M&B were interviewed on “The Tony Durso Show” by host, Tony Durso. To listen to their interview, please fast forward to 32:06