History shows us that most empires become unwieldy, difficult to manage, expensive to maintain, hard to control and most of them crumble. Just look at Russia, Rome, Great Britain, Nazi Germany, Alexandria…..on and on. In fact, what empire do you know that has grown by conquest is still in existence?

The conferencing industry is a great example of where empire building has created bigger companies, not necessarily better companies. Grown primarily through acquisition,

It’s the end of an era in the conferencing industry and I’m sad about that. Raindance had an incredible corporate culture, young and talented employees, an advanced technology and data system, a well-developed web product, and loyal customers. InterCall, in their infinite wisdom, decided to dismantle all of it. On September 1, 2010,

Although this may tarnish my CEO image, I still really like the Oprah Winfrey show. My bet is that when Oprah and Burnett show up in Atlanta this summer, they are not only going to be looking for talent, but also for a concept. At the risk of one of my readers taking my concept, I thought I would share it on the blog, then ask for you to respond to it so that I have time to refine it. (Yes, I am going to the audition in June!) So blog readers, what do you think?

For those of you who live in Atlanta it’s hard not to know about Clark Howard.  He’s the host of a consumer-focused talk show on WSB Radio that is now nationally syndicated.  He also appears on the Headline News Network.  Clark is about the cheapest guy I know and proud of it.  He’s an expert [...]

A while ago, I shared my “mystery shopping” experience in the conferencing industry.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, a mystery shopper is someone who uses a service, shops in a store or eats at a restaurant and gives feedback for improvement to the owners. InterCall was the focus of my mystery shopping adventure [...]

One of the trends that has been ushered in with the new administration in Washington is the attempt to reign in our financial institutions such as banks and credit cards.  Shortly, a credit card reform act will take affect that attempts to prevent the credit card companies from taking advantage of their clients.  Because we [...]

InterCall is by most measurements the world’s largest conferencing company.  In the early days they grew by showing businesses how efficient conferencing was, then they shifted to snapping up smaller conferencing companies and acquiring their customer bases   Recently, they have added revenue through rate hikes, fees and surcharges to stay even in the face of [...]

One of the most profound decisions an entrepreneur or business leader can make during the course of running a business is the decision to have partners.  Partnerships can have a downside that comes with the complications of having to collaborate and compromise.  They can lead to power struggles and a lack of understanding about how [...]

I decided to mystery shop my competition to find out what their customer experience is really like. I sent my husband, Bruce, on a mission to become an InterCall customer, which should have been an easy task, right? Here is a timeline and diary of that experience:

InterCall is the largest conferencing company in the world and has been around for almost 20 years.  I should know, because I was one of the founders in 1991.  For the better part of the ‘90’s, InterCall grew revenue the old fashioned way.  They met with companies, articulated a strong value proposition and showed companies [...]