As a veteran marketing teacher and public speaker, Ann Swanson, a consultant for the Idaho Small Business Development Center, has long observed there’s just something different about teaching to a women-only group. Educators who promote all-women schools have been saying ...
Read More »Lawyers can make themselves more likeable 
When selecting legal counsel, corporate counsel consider likability to be a key factor. But what qualities — aside from courtroom victories — make a lawyer more likable? * Be a good communicator How do potential clients prefer to be contacted? ...
Read More »It’s important for Idaho’s health exchange to remain under state control
In 2011 my company, Premier Technology, made a simple yet significant change in the way we did business. We committed to buying a greater share of materials needed for our operations from Idaho suppliers. And we did it without sacrificing ...
Read More »Idahoans need buying power in health care
When I was campaigning for my very first time back in 2012, tens of thousands of people were excited about my candidacy because of my innate ability to actively listen to the people whom I represent. They understood that I ...
Read More »Parking up the wrong tree?
There are renowned debating societies in the Netherlands, in Greece and at Oxford in England, but the best debates of all happen in the newsrooms of U.S. newspapers. Just such a debate – short but substantive and spirited – took ...
Read More »After surging in 2013, markets take a breather
After 2013, when the markets packed three years of returns into one, they stumbled out of the gate in 2014. In January, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 5.3 percent, the S&P was down 3.6 percent and the Nasdaq ...
Read More »Is 2014 the ‘Year of the Cloud’ for lawyers?
I’ve been writing about cloud computing since 2008, but more often than not my claims that it was the future of computing were met with skepticism, especially from legal professionals. Even so, I maintained this view and have long believed ...
Read More »Welcome to middle age, Facebook
If you use Facebook, you’ve been through the birthday avalanche. All 837 of your friends get reminded that it’s your birthday and, Poof! At least 835 of them send you a greeting. I do. I feel obligated once I’m reminded ...
Read More »Employers: Start now on preparing for ACA 2015 deadline
Last July, when the Obama administration announced the one-year delay, until Jan. 1, 2015, in imposing the employer-shared-responsibility penalties of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, many Idaho employers slammed the brakes on their compliance efforts. Even though 2015 ...
Read More »Meet GINA, the genetic-information shield
Last month, Founders Pavilion Inc. paid $370,000 to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit in which Founders Pavilion requested family medical history on pre-employment medical exams of applicants. Since the enactment of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act in ...
Read More »