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COULD IT BE SATAN
AT THE CORPORATE GATE?
UNTIL last month, Michael A. McManus Jr., the chief executive of Misonix, a Farmingdale company that manufactures ultrasonic medical devices, believed the company's market price would rise if he could only get investors to pay some attention to the stock.
Now it's happening, but not in a way Mr. McManus could ever or would ever have planned. The acquisition of a minority share in his company by a California hedge fund manager, Robert L. Chapman Jr., has followed a script more like a soap opera than a battle for corporate control. MORE
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STILL EDDIE AFTER
ALL THESE YEARS
Eddie Antar's Crazy Eddie electronics chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed its last store in 1989. Estimates of stockholder losses ranged from $74 million to twice that amount. Mr. Antar fled the country in 1990 and two years later was arrested in Israel, extradited, and eventually served seven years in federal prison. In January, with little fanfare, Mr. Anfar began an unusual comeback as an Internet electronics retailer. The shouting, arm-waving commercials - the ones always ending with "Crazy Eddie is in-s-a-a-a-ne" - are being revived. And Mr. Antar's original ad director is coming back. MORE
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Business is Booming:
THE GRUCCI FAMILY’S FIREWORKS DISPLAY IN DUBAI WAS THE LARGEST IN HISTORY. FOR THEM, IT WAS JUST THE LATEST INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

Last December, as 2013 ticked to a close, a clutch of more than 200 U.S. fireworks technicians based temporarily in the United Arab Emirates heard the bad news: The four cargo vessels that Fireworks by Grucci, Inc. shipped out had been delayed by Typhoon Haiyan. The missing pyrotechnics were vital to staging what their client, the emirate of Dubai, was promoting as the world’s Largest Fireworks Display. MORE

PictureInterview with Ex-Im chairman Fred Hochberg
Political Opinions Differ, But the Ex-Im Bank Has Opened Doors and Markets for America's Exporters . One day last June, Ray Zuckerman, chief executive of Serverlift, a Phoenix-based manufacturer of transportation systems for data center servers, received confirmation he’d obtained a $250,000 insurance policy requested from the Export-Import Bank of the United States MORE

7 Technologies That Will Change Your Business

Which technologies, applications and products will most impact our lives—and businesses—in 2015?
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THE EVER-INCREASING PACE of technological change is a fact of our times. Each year, advances impact individuals, businesses and nations in various—and not always anticipated—ways. To help CEOs prepare for the threats and opportunities new technologies will bring, Chief Executive talked to experts to identify and explore the seven most significant technological trends shaping business today. MORE

My latest  blog posts, reports and features are here.

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SOUTHEAST REGIONAL REPORT
Strolling around his desk wearing a wireless headset, Governor Rick Scott of Florida cold-calls chief executives. After chatting about sunny weather, white sand beaches and lifestyle amenities, the governor launches into pitch mode, proclaiming Florida the country’s best place to operate a business. (Chief Executive’s “Best & Worst States for Business” ranks Florida first in the Southeast, and second in the country, behind Texas.)  MORE
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VIETNAM'S BOOMING ECONOMY OFFERS PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY-IF YOU CAN NAVIGATE THE GRAFT Back in 2001, Lafarge Concrete opened its first plant, a joint venture cement-grinding facility in Ho Chi Minh City-formerly Saigon-barely a year after the U.S. and Vietnam signed their bilateral trade agreement MORE
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COMMENTARY
Last week was a bad one for Long Island economic development. Several events unspooled that darken hopes for the emergence of a sustainable, non-politicized economic growth policy for the region.  MORE

CHANGING GEARS
AT LOCAL FOOTWEAR CHAIN, THE OTHER SHOE FALLS
 (Change is the only constant in today’s economy. In this series, I’ll be exploring the lives and careers of people and organizations as they reinvent themselves for a better tomorrow.)

 “It’s a shame we only have two feet.”

   The phrase belongs to Robert Yeganeh. If you lived on Long Island during the 90s and 00s, you’ll recall the Love My Shoes “It’s a shame” campaign from bus stops, print ads and radio spots. The message resonated with a breed of consumer called “shoe princesses,” for whom no week was complete without new mules, boots or sandals.

    Yeganeh played Prince Charming to Long Island’s Shoe Princess. The future prince started selling shoes as a teenaged immigrant from Iran, peddling footwear samples out of the Levittown flea market. “It was a way to meet girls,” he laughs.  MORE