In the fall of 1982, Johnson & Johnson learned that seven people died from use of their Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules. Someone had maliciously laced the product with cyanide and then returned the bottles to the shelves of Chicago stores. How Tylenol handled the situation from there has since become a legendary study in crisis management. They removed every single bottle of their product from store shelves nationwide. And in 2010, when Toyota is faced with a public safety challenge of their own, we get an ad campaign before the problem is even solved.

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Author Marty Neumeier coined "The Onliness Statement" and it has become one of my favorite tools for brand strategy. It's the easiest to get wrong and the hardest to get right.

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Leadership Atlanta is the largest and longest running program of its kind in the country, and we've had the privilege of walking their leadership team through the rebrand process.

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There's a video store just a few miles from work and home called Videodrome. A tiny shop, it can't quite compete with Blockbuster (who now can't compete with Netflix). But it doesn't try to.

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Introducing the all new Swift School!

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I drive a scooter. Almost every day for the last two years - unless its below 22 degrees, icey, or a downpour - I'm riding on two wheels. For the first 3 months I loved it. Loved parking on sidewalks, paying $5 to fill up my tank, scooting past traffic jams. You can cheat a lot of road rules on a scooter. But after two winters & two wipe outs, the love has faded fast. I now see a different side to my scooter rides. No trunk, gearing-up, helmet head, exposure to the elements, no Interstates - all of these things had just about gotten on my last nerve. And then my muffler fell off.

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Hello again! Daniel Cole here again with another guest post on the Matchstic Blog. Early last week, my colleague Craig Johnson introduced to me an interesting program called Mouse Path. What makes it so interesting is that it records mouse movements and then produces a visual outline of those movements. Resulting in stunning images such as this:

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My wife and I traveled to Europe a little over a year ago. I do not speak French, but nonetheless, in some quasi-attempt to respect French culture and language I tried to engage the locals in French first...even if only to ask if they spoke any English. I ventured a bit too far into the language one night while trying to order dinner at a local cafe. Speaking to the waiter with a weird combo of French & English, I later found myself being served two full plates of food - two entrees for just me - by a very confused looking restaurant staff.

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We like to pick a book out every couple months to read as a group here. It serves as a nice platform to start conversation about new ideas and how they might apply to what we do. We're currently about half way through with Linchpin, the new book from author Seth Godin. The basic premise is this: How to be remarkable. That is, the future is in ideas -- the ones who will succeed are the visionaries. Those who create the kind of value that can't always be measured by numbers. The Jobses, the Dylans, the Bransons.

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This year we've had the privilege of working with the Atlanta chapter of Entrepreneur Organization (EO). EO is a dynamic, global network of more than 7,000 business owners in 38 countries and is the catalyst that enables entrepreneurs to learn and grow from each other, leading to greater business success and enriched personal lives.

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