Last night, the Nashville advertising and marketing firm, Buntin Group, celebrated its 35th anniversary. I worked there for six of the 35 years (1985-91) with some creative and intense — and intensely fun — individuals. It was great to see — and catch up with — several folks from my era. It was a super event.

I love Jeffrey Buntin, founder of the Buntin Group and my boss — and then partner — for six years. Love is not a word I believe I’ve ever used in describing a business relationship, but it’s hard to not love Jeffrey Buntin. Okay, it was hard not to at times, but for me, those times were extremely rare and quickly forgotten.

I learned a great deal from Jeffrey during the six years I worked at Buntin. Some of those lessons, however, I didn’t know I had learned until many years later. I can’t thank him enough for his willingness to nearly always support me, many times when he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I think the key to our relationship was his steadfast (and accurate, for the most part) belief that I was deeply committed to bringing into the agency more money each month than I took out.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have such a bigger-than-life mentor as Jeffrey. I’m was. Thank you, Jeffrey. And congratulations.

Here’s a set of photos from last night’s party.

(I’m writing something for one of our magazines and need your help. What business lessons have you learned from your dog(s)? Read on, and add your lesson as a comment.)

For most of my life, I’ve lived with dogs. They’ve played different roles in my life: friend, surrogate-sibling (at times, I think my parent’s favorite child was the dog), worker (as in bird-dog), surrogate child (at times, my children have felt our favorite child is the dog), and, more times than I’ve realized, teacher. Indeed, by watching and observing, I’ve learned many business lessons from the canines who have mentored me. Here are just a few:

1. Always greet customers with excitement and enthusiasm, even when you just saw them three minutes ago. They never grow tired of thinking they are the most important thing in your life.

2. Don’t confuse your tail with a goal worth chasing.

3. Sleep as many hours a day as possible but always be ready to play when the chance arises.

4. Don’t be afraid to get dirty — indeed, relish it.

5. When the big folks are feasting, if you know how to work things, you’ll be able to feast, as well.

6. Barking a lot is annoying, however, if you don’t bark a lot, when you do, people spring to attention.

7. Don’t bark at the mailman. He’s been known to have a dog-treat in his pocket.

8. The more you display how you don’t need a leash, the less you have to wear it. Conversly, if you’re always tugging on your leash, you’ll always have to wear it.

9. The joy is in digging the hole, not in having the hidden bone. But it’s also reassuring to know there are a few bones hidden.

10. Biting someone never leads to anything good.

11. Continuously learning new tricks keeps you young.

12. Don’t forget to stretch yourself throughout the day.

13. Always make your masters think it’s they who are in charge.

14. (Add lessons you’ve learned to the comments…)

By the way, pictured in the photo accompanying this post are my current business mentors, Kate and Feste.

Technorati Tags: business, dogs, lists

The New York Times reports on a redesign of BusinessWeek magazine and BusinessWeek Online. My first click around the website is positive, however, I don’t have time now to dig in. Maybe this weekend, I’ll take a deeper look.

Here are a couple of instant head-scratchers from the NYT story:

“The Internet has hurt business magazines in particular, and the new BusinessWeek format — which includes more news summaries and fewer lifestyle articles — is meant to be more Weblike.”

What does the following mean: “The Internet has hurt business magazines in particular?” Specifically, what does “in particular” mean? I’d like to be provided the data that backs up what must be conventional wisdom that “business magazines” have been hurt by “the Internet” in particular. The term “in particular” begs for an answer to the question, “Compared to what?” Compared to news weeklies? Compared to newspapers? Compared to all other magazines?

I have blogged here often (continuously) about how the Internet will completely overhaul the role of certain types of business-to-business magazines and how business magazines are no longer necessary as a foundation on which to build a successful business-to-business media company.

However, I’m not aware of the research or data that backs up the conventional wisdom that “business magazines” (like BusinessWeek) have been hurt “by the Internet” in particular. Also, is there a possibility that it was not “the Internet” that hurt magazines, but other factors? (And by “the Internet” I’m not talking about the dot.com bust that killed business magazines — I’m referring to the use of the phrase as implied by the NY Times writer: something about the way in which the Internet provides news and information has “hurt business magazines in particular.”

Second head-scratcher from the NY Times article is this snip:

“The redesign comes from 18 months of planning, including a study of reader preferences. The main conclusions were that people wanted a format that was easier to navigate, as well as information culled from a variety of sources.”

18 months? I could have told them that in 18 seconds. (Sidenote: The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months.)