Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill Magazine

Over the past five years, Anthill has made a point of writing about new and effective ways of conducting business. The underlying message has always been: the rules of business have changed – businesses must adapt or perish.

In our hyper-connected world, success usually boils down to the degrees of connection to your goals. We recently stumbled on an article by Alex Iskold titled A Guide to Business Development 2.0, posted on the excellent blog ReadWriteWeb. Cultivating gravitas for any old term by tacking on “2.0” is all the rage these days, but business development is an example of something that has experienced a seismic shift in recent years. Iskold begins with the premise that “cold calling is dead” and goes on to discuss the best new-economy ways to kick down doors and make sales without building a platoon of cold-calling salespeople sitting on fat rolodexes and fatter salaries.

If you occasionally wonder whether your business retains vestiges of old, ineffective business development methods (or if you know you still have a long way to go), this post is a must read.

Visit A Guide to Business Development 2.0 - www.readwriteweb.com

Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill Magazine

We’re fans of the site Ads of the world, which tracks the most innovative and witty advertising across all mediums. If you are at all interested in advertising, it’s well worth perusing. But if you’re looking for a real giggle, our website of the week is a blog post dedicated to professional advertising ruined (or improved, depending on your shade of humour) by unfortunate placement.

Display advertising is an enduring favourite for brand marketers seeking to boost sales. It’s a sophisticated industry filled with extremely bright and creative people crafting seductive messages that cut through to consumers. So imagine their horror at seeing the fruits of their labour perverted by placement that is unfortunate, but perhaps not entirely coincidental. Check out these 15 hilarious examples.

Visit 15 Unfortunately Placed Ads - www.oddee.com

Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill Magazine

If you’ve ever seen the movie American Psycho (based on Brett Easton Ellis’s extremely dark novel), you will surely remember the “business card” scene in which Manhattan investment banker and surreptitious serial killer Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) engages in a business-card-off with colleagues. (Watch the scene.)

While Bateman’s taste was decidedly minimalist, many people go to elaborate lengths when designing their business cards in an effort to leave a lasting first impression. Looking for inspiration? Check out these examples of ‘thinking outside the rectangle’.
http://reencoded.com/2008/05/20/42-awesome-business-card-designs-with-links-to-100s-more/