Jobbing

How does a big company hire when it wants to go start-up?

"What makes us different? I think it's the design of the clothing," Agathe Boidin, chief executive of Orchestra Prémaman USA Inc., the French kids' and babies' clothing retailer trying to make a place for itself in American retailing.

Everyone reads about beer and ping-pong tables at tech companies, but the techies who work at Goodway Group are over that with a capital O.

If you're going to the boss to ask for a raise, this is what you should do if the answer is no.

Everyone's got a theory about why more women aren't CEOs and what to do about it. Villanova business school dean Joyce Russell has hers as well. Hint: The answer combines kindergarten, Girl Scout cookies, math literacy, and, believe it or not, high heels.

It's easy to say `good job,' but here's advice from a Philly executive on how to praise an employee so it has a lasting impact.

Taking care of others? Start by taking care of yourself.

When the recession hit, it was like someone turned off the faucet. Sales dried up instantly. Banks weren't lending and more than a few home builders went belly up. Not Peter B. Rotelle's company, Rotelle Development Co., in Chester County. "It wasn't peaches and cream," he said. But there were no layoffs, he said, and the company paid its bills. "Someone in the land development business whom I respected at the time said, `Let me tell you: The best deal I've ever done is the deal I never did.' That stuck with me."

It started with a walk across the street by an employee who had no power to make a deal, no power to spend big money and no power to finalize a decision. Yet that one simple walk made all the difference for one South Jersey company.

Breathe in, breathe out. Now slowly open your eyes and read about how Susan Sweeney, president of GGB Bearing Technology, a 1,200-employee global company headquartered in Thorofare thinks that mediation and self-awareness has helped her company.

Part of it was luck. Part of it was grit. Part of it was practice, but eventually, a nanny from the Philippines learned enough to run a $7.8 million lumber company in South Jersey.

Shortly after Isabelita "Lita" Marcelo Abele became president and chief executive of U.S. Lumber Inc., taking over her husband's role, most of the employees quit. "They don't want the boss's wife here." It's actually a little more complicated.

What's the one statistic that tells business owners if their enterprise is doing well, or is about to tank big time? "It's the canary in the coal mine," says Corporate Synergies Group chief executive John Turner, describing how he uses it to rescue a troubled account.