THE WALL STREET JOURNAL just distributed an interesting yet disturbing news alert.  It seems that Whole Foods’ CEO posted comments about his company and competitors on Yahoo’s stock forums for the past eight years.  Under a pseudonym.

This is just plain dirty. 

I admit that despite my time in the trenches, I tend to be naive about things like honor and sportsmanship.  But this really grates, especially since THE NEW YORK TIMES made this guy sound like such an example for the rest of us.  He was even quoted as saying, "love is the only reality."  I’d like a copy of the dictionary this guy is using.

Furthermore.  Now we not only have the question of how much content in speeches and blogs is actually conceived by executives, we find out we have one high-profile guy who spends his time on message boards trashing the competition.  This kills me.  A lot of these so-called leaders leave it to inexperienced minions or conniving PR agencies to draft content that they then get up and read or publish in a blog.  Now we have one who has the time to horse around on message boards.  In my book, this is gaming the system.  And I hope he broke some law.  And I hope the Big They enforce it.

Meanwhile, I had gotten tired of Whole Foods anyway, after a brief return last fall.  Between the precious prices and the patronizing messages, I figured that other folks could pay for the limousines.  Whole Paycheck indeed.  Yet again, we have a guy who makes up his own rules while pontificating about what the rest of us should be doing, including the US Government.  I’ll buy my fancy chocolate elsewhere, folks.

I don’t like to get personal on this blog, mainly because it’s largely unnecessary.  We can find ways to address our problems and issues without resorting to trashing other people.  I want you to know this post is not random shouting, nor is it personal.  I’m just sick and tired of being lectured by people who only look in the mirror to see if their pores are too large for the camera.  People, we have to start thinking about whom we define as successful and what we are measuring.  It’s got to be more than financial prowess,  strategic voodoo and shell games.

If this turns out to be something different from what the JOURNAL is reporting, I’ll be the first to apologize.  But if the paper is right, let’s find a rule that this narcissist broke and go after him.

Just had a top-drawer customer experience that speaks to what we call building brand loyalty.

Drake’s Cakes makes packaged pastries, and when I was a kid in Pennsylvania, you begged your mom to put Drake’s — in my case, Yodels — in your lunchbox.  I don’t know what it is, but their products always tasted better than the "big" names.  Between Drake’s and TastyCakes [Philadelphia, I think], my store-bought sweets territory was covered.

Then we moved to Virginia, No Man’s Land for Drakes.  I never thought of asking my grandmother to ship them down to us.  And Mom was too busy asking her to send ricotta.  So if on a visit up north I came across Drake’s or TastyCakes in a grocery store, I would hoard them.  Long after, when I moved to Chicago, I would often find a care package of TastyCakes in the mail from my dad or my grandmother.

Last week I learned that a friend is in the hospital, and she loves Drake’s coffee cakes.  So I went online tonight to send her some.  I had a bit of trouble navigating the website.  I placed the order and it completed before I could enter the gift address.  I sent an emergency email, but then I decided to call the number on the website and leave a message, just to make sure someone called me from the east coast on Monday morning.

I got what I though was voicemail for the receptionist — a homey touch — and proceeded to leave my information.  But then, the phone picked up and I was talking with a guy named Rick.  At 1 am Long Island time.  Who explained that he had to run up to the front from the back, where they were loading orders on the truck.  I was stunned.  In a good way.

Rick found my order immediately, started looking for my email and then took the gift address manually.  We had a short but nice conversation, and I learned that Drake’s is seeking to build a national customer base, so everyone’s working hard to honor the online demand and respond quickly.

Besides being fun and heartwarming, this experience just made me happy to be doing the kind of work I do.  Whether it’s a startup or an established company, this is the kind of experience you cannot manufacture.  But it shows that management is "living" the brand strategy and integrating it with production.  And tonight’s experience proved that it is still possible to create the seamless link between strategy and execution.

The vignette with Rick is only something that comes from the intangible yet actionable motivation of an employee.  Rick sees a direct, cause-and-effect connection between Drake’s management strategy and his role in distributing product.  Obviously, this company is involving everyone inside with the goals it’s trying to achieve outside.  That’s where branding rubber hits the road.  And that’s why I do what I do.  Bravo, Drake’s.  And thank you, Rick!

This is the first I’ve heard of Spike Lee’s next movie.  It’s about a significant event involving the Buffalo Soldiers, a segregated US Army unit that fought with nobility and bravery in World War II.

This is also the first I heard of the event, which happened in Italy.  The book on which the film is based, Miracle at St. Anna, sounds excellent.  And it’s a good sign that Mr Lee is collaborating with James McBride, the book’s author, on the screenplay.

Here’s the interview.  I’m glad to have read this today, when we need news of art that lifts and teaches, even when it must illuminate the crimes that contradict the principles of our beautifully conceived nation to do so.  This seems to be a story fit to take its place alongside all the other tales of what is necessary to make independence real for every citizen.

Happy Fourth of July!

This morning while I was doing stuff at home, I Love Lucy was on, in the background.  The episodes featured Tennessee Ernie Ford as a hillbilly bunking with the Ricardos.

Being a hillbilly myself, I looked him up and learned that he was born and raised in Bristol, Tennessee, about 60 miles from where I spent the second half of my childhood, Big Stone Gap, Virginia.  And he’s buried in Palo Alto. 

A nice life story.  Read about him on IMDb, Wikipedia and the official site.

Quentin Tarantino apparently has been dissing Italian cinema, and his remarks at Cannes have invited incisive commentary from Pedro Almodovar.

Read to the bottom of the article, where screen icon Sophia Loren lets loose with one of her trademark, cut-to-the-heart-of-it calls.  She really is great with the soundbite. 

Here is another one, attributed to her years ago.

Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.

That was Miss Loren’s answer to a question about her beauty secrets, as the story goes.  I borrow it all the time, to explain a lot of things.

In today’s tell-all times, we can all learn something about the magic of knowing when to hold back just enough information while answering a question with wit and grace — and when, in the case of Miss Loren’s comment about Tarantino, to launch a salvo.