Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

What if your bike ride to work meant you got free stuff at stores? Recyclebank is going beyond just offering rewards for recycling, giving London commuters fresh incentives to walk or ride.

Wiretap Affair Could Oust Murdochs . A key shareholder group is maneuvering to oust Rupert Murdoch and his two sons from the management of News Corp., calling for the board to eject the men and for an independent investigation into the phone hacking scandal --the aftereffects of which are still echoing around the world.

The iPad has made tablets a fading memory, but these four 7-inch tablets may actually be a better fit for your business. On a sunny day in April of last year, Apple released one of most game-changing gadgets ever

In a Q&A with Inc.com, OfficeMax founder argues that consensus-building is over-rated. Sometimes a leader just has to decide. Michael Feuer started OfficeMax from scratch in 1988, and built the office-supply chain into a 1,000-store behemoth before selling it to Boise Cascade Corp

Jay Steinfeld, founder and CEO of Houston-based Blinds.com, used to be--well, a jerk. He would criticize employees regularly and rarely dole out praise.

To break out of the mismanaged systems in which we find ourselves, we could turn to robots, whose cold logic would override our selfish needs. Or we could turn to social entrepreneurs, who work outside the system to find new solutions. A few years ago in the wake of the failure of governments to sign an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases in Copenhagen, we fell into a discussion on fixing the system: Let’s get computers to do it for us.

“You shouldn’t wait for change—you should pioneer it,” said Paul Block, CEO of Merisant, the company that makes the sugar substitute Equal, and his remark pretty well summed up the theme of last Thursday’s conference session, “Growth and Innovation: Leveraging the Momentum.” A standing-room-only audience attended the panel discussion, in which Block was joined by serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman, CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Digital Media Arts Academy, and Lisa Price, CEO of Carol’s Daughter, a cosmetics company she launched 18 years ago while working as an assistant writer on “The Cosby Show.” Perhaps the best illustration of Block’s precept came from Price. Four years ago, she said, she and her management team had detected early signs of a major change in the tastes and preferences of their customer base, principally African-American women

Do your employees know when to throw out the rule book and let your philosophy guide their responses to the unexpected? Recently I saw a "pop-up" concert performed by my friend Lenni Jabour at a big-box book retailer named Indigo in downtown Toronto. A pop-up show is an unannounced event in a public space, and in Lenni's case, she has chosen to commandeer pianos lying dormant in public places–without permission.

Combining principles of conservation with the needs of agriculture might be the only way to keep growing enough food to feed an exploding global population.

Five tips on beating out the competition and making your business stickier The ease with which Google+ is now competing with Facebook for mindshare has me thinking about barriers to entry. Warren Buffett famously invests in businesses with what he calls a protective "moat" around them, meaning that they have some protection from competition that allows them to control their pricing. Big companies lock out their competitors by out-slugging them in capital infrastructure investments (anyone care to compete against CN Rail)

Encouraging your employees' creativity can not only create an engaging work environment, but create new business. Seven experts share their tips on getting employees to share their ideas. The origin of the humble Post-It Note is perhaps the best-known story about a million-dollar innovation that sprang from an unexpected place within a company

Barry Hartzberg, describes how he created a comfortable, family feeling at Satory Global, the management and consulting IT firm he co-founded.

A look at the companies competing to be top of the class in the digital textbooks market College tuition continues to rise, but textbooks may be getting cheaper—and a lot more portable. Instead of lugging a backpack filled with heavy volumes, some students have begun using electronic textbooks, which typically cost less and can be read on a laptop or tablet

Learning how to properly qualify a sales lead can be the difference between landing a juicy new business deal or wasting lots of energy barking up the wrong tree. Before the Internet flattened the business world, salespeople used to put significant energy into every single sales meeting. When sales prospects were few and far between, each one would warrant a high-level of attention and courting.

(Hint: You're already doing it just by reading this.) Here's a novel way to increase productivity: Try browsing the Internet.