Business
Included here is a selection of Yoder’s feature articles that have appeared in national publications.
IndustryWeek: Beware of the Coming Corporate Backlash
A few years ago, Monsanto Co. had the future in its pocket. The vast life-sciences company promised a revolution in agriculture so profound it would eliminate age-old obstacles to increasing the quality and quantity of the world’s food supply. The spread of its genetically modified seeds throughout the U.S., former chairman Robert Shapiro told shareholders, was the most “successful launch of any technology ever, including the plow.”
But when Monsanto president and CEO Hendrik Verfaillie stood at a podium in Washington last November to deliver “A New Pledge for a New Company,” it was a humbling moment. “We are making a new start as a company completely devoted to agriculture,” explained Verfaillie. “And we are doing this at a time when a shift in society — a shift that started perhaps 40 years ago — is approaching full maturity. That shift has been a movement from a ‘trust-me’ society to a ‘show-me’ society.”
Ode Magazine: Fixing the free market
In Quezon City, a new approach to funding funerals is just one way the Inner City Development Cooperative is bringing fresh life to this impoverished neighborhood of Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
The Inner City Development Cooperative (ICDC) offers microcredit loans, training in business skills and financial literacy, health care support, emergency programs and other services to urban squatter communities like the one in Quezon City. ICDC’s membership is comprised of more than 3,000 “urban settlers” who live in scavenged metal shacks with dirt floors built with materials gathered from nearby garbage dumps.
IndustryWeek: Thirst for Success
Prosperity in the U.S. makes it easy to forget that elsewhere business must navigate much choppier waters. In Latin America, for example, a region beset with currency crashes, political upheaval, and natural disasters, companies have learned to accept precarious conditions as an unavoidable fact of life.
Panamerican Beverages Inc. (Panamco), Latin America’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and distributor, has lived this precarious reality for almost 60 years. In that time the company has learned not only how to survive but to thrive in the erratic Latin American marketplace.
Home Office Computing: Into The Limelight – To Stand Out in a Cluttered World, Become a Recognized Expert
There are millions of small businesses vying for our attention. Yet, because the marketplace is more discriminating and skeptical, it’s hard to get noticed. To enjoy the greatest return on your marketing efforts, you need to rise above the crowd. You need an edge over the competition. In short, you need to become slightly famous by establishing an expert reputation.
Not so long ago, expertise was equated with the number of years you were in business or the college diploma that hung on your wall. That has changed as people have come to be more interested in results. If you can deliver, people will be interested in you no matter how brief your business experience or how bare your walls are of diplomas.
Costco Connection Magazine: BARTER 2.0 – An Ancient Idea Gets A Modern Twist
COSTCO member, Aaron Zarling, owner of King’s Mattress in Seattle, embraces an age-old strategy for making his idle inventory profitable. With the help of BizXchange, a business barter exchange, he gains new customers and offsets normal operating costs through bartering, trading mattresses for printing, advertising and employee incentives, all without spending cash.
“In this economy, cash business is harder to come by, which is why barter is an excellent tool for boosting profits,” says Zarling. “Barter helps us cover everyday business expenses and helped us expand our business by bartering half the costs of opening a new retail location. We even bartered mattresses for a Smart car we now use as our company vehicle.”