It's not your father's Jaguar anymore

Truth is, it never was your dad's Jaguar it was probably your grandfather's Jaguar, that is if he was a well healed old duffer. Finding one of these mint condition old breeds - the car not the guy - can be the find of a life time.

When I was a kid a friend of mine nicked his old man's vintage Jag and we went for a joy ride around the, then, pastoral regions of Maryland. Dave did the driving, it was his dad's car after all, and I did the enthusing. When we accelerated through a long curve in the road I remember that it felt as if an invisible hand had reached up through the pavement and was drawing us down, steady and reassuring - just the opposite sensation one gets when over accelerating in today's SUV.

I was severely disappointed then, when several years ago, venerable Jaguar sold its goodies to mammoth Ford and my dream of owning my very own E-Type V12 Jaguar convertible went up in a puff of corporate suicide by balance sheet. Today's need for an automobile like the Jaguar might be in question but the fact is, today's Jaguar is not what it was. Evidence for this I draw from a comment overheard the other day. While witnessing an exchange between the drivers of two cars involved in a minor fender bump, the man who had rear ended the woman driving a new Jaguar said, with an impossibly straight face, "Calm down lady, it's only a Ford."


Art courtesy: Lance Russwurm
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News of another cash injection for Ford's ailing luxury sedan brand Jaguar suggests that the widening losses at the business continue to undermine Ford's recovery plan. However Ford is right to shore up the firm financially while its restructuring takes effect, though it should also hope that American consumers regain their penchant for sedans over SUVs.

The British sports car and saloon manufacturer has been somewhat in the wars of late, and the latest injection of funds from its US owner follows a £260 million handout from Ford last year. The seriousness of Jaguar's position has become apparent after the firm revealed that it racked up losses of £601.1 million in 2003 - a sizeable increase over the previous year...read the rest of the story Jaguar is on a long and winding road : Auto News

Dave's Blog/a magnate on magnets

Sorry, I couldn't resist

We recently stumbled on yet another example of the growing phenomenon of corporate blogs this one at Dave's Blog which premiered in December. Turns out Dave is CEO of one of the more innovative manufacturers to come down the pike in a while Magnetic Poetry, makers of those ubiquitous magnet word games that seem to be on everyone else's refrigerator.

Corporate blogs are popping up everywhere as more and more CEOs and non-profiteers rediscover that the quickest way to the consumer heart is familiarity - we want to know or at least feel we know our suppliers of cars, food, electronics and refrigerator magnets.

As publisher of a consumer-zine The Green Cutting Board I have had numerous occasions to write corporations with either a question or a complaint, sometimes just to praise a product that we have featured in our pages only to be ignored by the Corp entity - not the CEO mind you - the consumer affairs department, those folks who in my humble opinion are just a notch up the corporate ladder of useless above HR.

Blogging has that special aura of connectivity that can't be found in static web sites or disembodied talking-head-infomercials, it says the guy or gal that runs this company actually has a life not unlike mine or my neighbors, in fact, he may be a neighbor.

Anyway, not to belabor the obvious, corporates are increasingly discovering that a little blog-about on their web site is a good thing for business and, I imagine a good thing for the soul as well.

If you have a blog on your site or know and admire other Corporate /public blogs send them to us, we'd like to blog a list.