Vladimir Gendelman, CEO, Company Folders - Interview

Thanks to Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of Company Folders, for taking the time to answer a few questions about his company, their products, and their utilization to enhance your own business.

Thanks as well to Norman Birnbach, and to Margaret Bonilla of Birnbach Communications, Inc., for their assistance in facilitating this interview and for offering interview question ideas to provide deeper insights into the company.

Thanks to Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of Company Folders for his time, and for his comprehensive responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.

Increasingly, we see marketing materials being sent online. Does this mean that printed marketing materials will be going away?

Vladimir Gendelman: Actually, there is need and room in this world for both. Online media is strong when you want to reach your audiences quickly; for example, on their laptops, tablets or mobile devices. It is also great when you have materials that you need to update regularly, like a finance report.

However, you shouldn’t underestimate the advantages of printed materials. Print excels when you want to leave a lasting impression urging readers to take an action: pick up the phone and call, attend a webinar, go into more depth about the topic, etc. Additionally, print is the “new green” when it comes to eco-friendly business practices.

With more effective paper recapturing for recycling, eco-friendly inks and safe, water-soluble and recyclable coatings, printing is proving to be a more environmentally friendly option. It also has a one-time carbon footprint compared to electronic media, which requires the use of energy each time it is viewed.

When does it become apparent that it is time to up-level your presentation materials?

Vladimir Gendelman: I believe that there is an opportunity to improve your presentation materials every time you use them. When it comes to delivering effective presentations, simply speaking eloquently may not be enough to fully engage your audience. Sometimes it takes a little something to boost the focus or attract attention in a new, unexpected way. From branding your presentation room and thinking beyond basic signage, to ensuring your audience is comfortable and that you can be seen and heard, there are many important steps to take that will help you up-level your presentation.

Have you thought about incorporating video into your presentation? Are you bringing product samples for a show and tell? Are you incorporating demos? Last but not least, what is the quality of the printed materials you want to leave behind? Printed handouts are essential to reinforce your message and appeal to your clients, so they need to be planned with care.



Vladimir Gendelman (photo left)

In today’s economy, businesses all want quality marketing materials without spending a fortune. What are some of the popular ways to make high-quality, cost-effective presentation materials?

Vladimir Gendelman: At Company Folders, we offer customers a variety of ways to develop great looking presentation materials with techniques that are relatively inexpensive. Take die-cuts, for example. People are most familiar with rectangular die-cuts (the shape of most marketing materials). However, it is relatively inexpensive to do the unexpected: for example, develop product materials in a triangle or circle shape, or in a unique shape that matches well with the company’s product (think coffee-mug shaped notepads for a coffee retailer.).

Other techniques that can have a big impact include engraving, embossing, foil stamping and more. You don’t need a fortune to produce memorable presentation materials, but you do need to think them through carefully and work with designers who can walk you through the pros and cons of all approaches.

Not all businesses have an in-house graphics team to help put together the latest and greatest in marketing materials. What should businesses look for in a vendor?

Vladimir Gendelman: Aside from choosing a vendor committed to the printing and branding field with lots of referable, happy customers, you want to select a good partner. Your ideal vendor should have the passion and commitment to produce a good product; they should also have the branding vision and graphic arts/business acumen to help you enhance your brand.

Many vendors state that they can create folders or deliver other materials, but what you really need is a partner that thinks like a brand/advertising agency, has resident graphic arts and design experience, and can be a seamless member of your team.

We have talked a lot about how marketing materials should look. When does texture come into play?

Vladimir Gendelman: That’s a great question and actually applies to all of your senses. The feel of materials is particularly important -- and a great way to take your marketing materials to a new level. Marketing collateral with a unique textural coating encourages touch and interaction from your recipient, and it’s often available at a very affordable price.

For example, soft-touch coating can be used to give folders or other paper materials a suede-like texture reminiscent of professional, leather-bound binders. It’s an excellent way to create a noticeable tactile impression without investing an unreasonable amount of money. The more senses your audience can use to create a memory of your brand, the more they will feel engaged and likely to take action.

*****************

Vladimir Gendelman is the CEO of Company Folders (www.companyfolders.com), an online folder service that creates folders and other print marketing materials that enable customers to showcase their brand, provide customers with pertinent information, and stand out among their competition.¬¬¬¬ Company Folders offers the largest selection of folders and style options available in the industry.

Cartoon Round Up

Veterinary Highlights: Regenerative Medicine For Treatment Of Urinary Incontinence Study

American Kennel Club's Canine Health Foundation has listed a grant for research of treatment of urinary incontinence with multipotent muscle cells.

Having our own direct experience with regenerative medicine, such research is always very exciting to me.

Urinary incontinence affects more than 20% of spayed female dogs. It is typically caused by dysfunction of the muscles controlling the urethral sphincter.

There are, of course, treatments out there, from hormone therapy, drugs to strengthen the muscle tone of the urethral sphincter, collagen injections, surgery ...

Some of them I'd be more likely to consider than others.

What if injections of muscle progenitor cells into the damaged urethral sphincter could restore normal function?

Some existing evidence is behind this project, which is to determine how effective this procedure really might be.

This is certainly one of the things I'll be keeping my eyes on.

***
 
Source article: Treatment of Urinary Incontinence with Multipotent Muscle Cells: A Regenerative Medicine Approach to a Common Canine Health Problem

Related articles
Urinary Accidents
A Word On Incontinence

Living in Dangerous Times

 

By Alan Caruba

Bret Stephens, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, had a commentary, “The Other Bluffer”, in which he discussed President Obama’s and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements, respectively, on Syria and Iran; the former regarding a “red line” concerning the use of poison gas and the latter being Iran’s intention to make its own nuclear weapons.

The bluff is a game nations have been playing since there were nations. They seldom work against a nation with aggressive, bad intentions.

What is interesting about this is that dictators have been known to write books about those intentions. Adolf Hitler did with his book, Mein Kampf, in which he made clear what he would do, starting with tearing up the Versailles Treaty and later killing all of Germany’s and Europe’s Jews, though not necessarily in those words. Hitler first invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and when the great powers did nothing, he followed up with an invasion of Poland in September of that year. Perhaps he thought he could gobble up all of Europe, but what ensued was World War II.

In more recent times, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein thought he could pull off a bluff regarding weapons of mass destruction, perhaps assuming that no one would invade for fear of them. He had used poison gas against Iran during a long war and killed several thousand in an Iraqi city without more than expressions of international outrage, but the invasion of Kuwait was a serious mistake. George H.W. Bush’s decision to put an end to it. After 9/11, George W. Bush’s decision to invade deposed Saddam.

The long Cold War with the then-Soviet Union that followed World War II was a series of bluffs, threats, and proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam. The Communist takeover of Cuba by Fidel Castro led to the missile crisis that occurred when the Soviets installed long range missiles there. President Kennedy imposed a naval blockade in 1962 and waited to see what the Russians would do. They removed them and the U.S. essentially continues to pursue a policy that denies Cuba any recognition, though much of the rest of the world does business with that nation.

Stephens has grave doubts about President Obama’s statements about Syria’s use of poison gas which he regards as a bluff, predicting that “things will only get worse”  and noting that the “Israelis are now watching how the administration reacts when a rogue regime crosses the president’s red lines.” He predicts that “As the Assad regime realizes it can use these weapons without international penalty, it will unleash them again.”

“Sooner or later,” said Stephens, “it will figure out that the more widely it uses them, the quicker it can kill enemies at home and deter enemies abroad. A twofer. The administration will go from arguing that it’s too soon to intervene in Syria, to arguing that it’s too late.”

Obama’s fallback position will be to toss the problem to the United Nations, famous for never being able to do anything to deter aggression and usually dependent on U.S. military power to resolve dangerous situations.

Syria’s neighbor, Israel, has its own red line with Iran that has long since crossed it and Stephens believes that “Mr. Obama will treat evidence of Iran’s impending nuclearization the way he has looked at Syria’s use of chemical weapons.” Israel has no option other than to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities to deter being destroyed. If history is any guide, since Israel destroyed Iraq’s and Syria’s reactors, it is likely to do so at a time of its choosing. Every Middle East state will express outrage and then rush to their mosques to give thanks.

President Obama has looked at the way failure to respond forcefully and preemptive wars have brought down previous presidencies, costing the party in power the elections that followed. Ronald Reagan defeated the one-term Jimmy Carter in the wake of the Iranian hostage-taking of American diplomats in 1979. While the Korean War was still in progress Eisenhower was elected when he promised to end it. George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq gave him Obama the opportunity to get elected by war-weary Americans. He did call North Korea’s bluff and is not likely to order the U.S. into a war with any nation short of a direct attack on the homeland. 

That does not, however, diminish the threats to peace in the Middle East or anywhere else that might occur. Indeed, the weakness he has shown will only encourage rogue regimes to increase their aggressive behavior.

Those who have any knowledge of history will recall that the Empire of Japan had already been at war in Asia for several years prior to World War II and Nazi Germany had already invaded several European nations and had been threatening England for several years prior to Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Only then did the United States mobilize to defeat both.

Those were dangerous times and these times are no less dangerous.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

Cortisol: What Happens In A Dog’s Body When It Goes Awry?

by Jennifer Coates, DVM

Cortisol is an extremely important hormone from the glucocorticoid family of steroid hormones. 

It is primarily produced by a dog’s adrenal glands. In health, cortisol plays an extremely important role in the ability of dog’s to cope with stress by stimulating the production of glucose and the breakdown of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates to provide fuel for the body. Cortisol also suppresses the immune system.

These physiological changes help animals deal with both physical and psychological stress, giving priority to body processes that are needed in the moment and putting others on the back shelf until times are better.

Under normal circumstances, this system works beautifully. Stress arrives (as it always will), cortisol helps the dog deal with it thereby reducing the stress, and everything returns to normal.

Problems can develop either when cortisol levels remain too high for too long or when the body cannot secrete enough cortisol to deal with normal life events.

Too Much Cortisol

Dogs can develop abnormally high levels of cortisol in their bodies for several reasons:

• unrelenting stress
• a tumor in the pituitary gland that over-stimulates the adrenal glands to produce cortisol
• a hormone-secreting tumor within an adrenal gland
• the use of corticosteroid drugs like prednisone that have similar effects to cortisol

Long term excessive cortisol production or supplementation has a profound, negative impact on the body. 

Immunosuppression can lead to infection. The effects the hormone has on glucose metabolism can play a role in the development of diabetes mellitus. By breaking down proteins, cortisol can lead to muscle wasting, weakness, and thin, inelastic skin.

Cortisol also encourages the kidneys to excrete water producing the classic symptoms of increase thirst and urination. Dogs under the influence of high levels of cortisol have a ravenous appetite and increase gastric acid secretion (probably to deal with the intake of such large amounts of food) but this also raises their risk for gastrointestinal ulcers.

Too Little Cortisol

As bad as too much cortisol sounds, too little can be even worse. Abnormally low levels of circulating cortisol can develop because of

• an abnormal immune response that destroys adrenal tissue. Cortisol and/or mineralocorticoid hormones that are essential for fluid and electrolyte balance may be affected.
• the sudden withdrawal of high doses of corticosteroid drugs that suppress normal adrenal function

Low levels of cortisol prevent many body systems from working as they should. Glucose, electrolyte, and water regulation is impaired, which leads to weakness, tremors, dehydration, and increased thirst. The gastrointestinal tract is particularly affected producing symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, poor appetite, and weight loss.

Without the ability to increase cortisol production (often combined with an equivalent drop in mineralocorticoids) during times of stress, dogs become physiologically unable to deal with even the most common of situations. 

Exercise, kenneling, trips to the veterinary clinic… anything that increases a dog’s stress level can result in a life threatening crisis characterized by an extremely slow and irregular heart rate, low blood sugar levels, altered sodium and potassium levels, low blood pressure, collapse, and sometimes death.

Like many things in life, cortisol is part of a goldilocks scenario. The levels in a dog’s body need to be not too low, not too high, but just right to promote health.

***

Jennifer Coates, DVM graduated with honors from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1999.  In the years since, she has practiced veterinary medicine in Virginia, Wyoming, and Colorado.  She is the author of several books about veterinary medicine and animal care, including the Dictionary of Veterinary Terms: Vet-speak Deciphered for the Non-veterinarian. 

Dr. Coates has recently joined the PetMD team and she is now writing for the Fully Vetted column; great blog, do check it out.

Jennifer also writes short stories that focus on the strength and importance of the human-animal bond and freelance articles relating to a variety of animal care and veterinary topics.  Dr. Coates lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband, daughter, and pets.


Articles by Dr. Coates:
Kidney Disease – Say What? 
What Happens In The Dog's Body When The Kidneys Fail To Function Properly? 
Heat Stroke: What Happens In The Dog's Body?  
The Perplexities of Pancreatitis
The Other Side Of The Coin: The Cost Of Defensive Medicine
To Neuter Or Not To Neuter… That Is The Question
Don’t Forget the Physical Therapy
Common Misdiagnoses (Part 1)
Common Misdiagnoses (Part 2)
Picking the Right Dog to Breed
When Is It An Emergency?
Dog Allergies: Common, Commonly Misdiagnosed, or Both? 
Why Does The Spleen Get No Respect?
Protect Your Dog From Snake Bites 
More Creepy Crawlies
Why I Dislike Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Salmonella – A Significant Problem, Or Not? 
What’s In the Vomit? 

Obama Fatigue

 

By Alan Caruba

I could barely keep myself from falling asleep during President Obama’s Tuesday press conference. Rush Limbaugh led off his program describing it as “boring” and the answers to questions as “boilerplate.” I cannot recall a press conference that yielded less “news”.

In her weekly Wall Street Journal column Peggy Noonan wrote of “Obama fatigue” while ruminating on the opening of the George W. Bush library.

She noted that Bush’s popularity in the polls—in “a 50-50 nation”—was equal to President Obama’s; now at 47%. I’m betting we shall see Obama’s numbers continue to fall in the months and years ahead. Noonan put her finger on the cause. We are all weary and wary of Obama. And he is not even half-way into the first year of his second term.

Usually by a second term, a President has mastered the skills the job requires, but Obama not only arrived with the thinnest resume of any previous President, but he demonstrated his indifference to working with Congress and his contempt of the Supreme Court, referring to the latter as “unelected” when even school children knows they are appointees.

He left Congress to be manipulated by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. By the 2010 midterm elections, he had lost control of the House. By the start of his second term, even members of his own party in the Senate were refusing to cooperate.

In the first term Obama seemed to be everywhere including late night shows like David Letterman’s and daytime shows like “The View.” The mainstream media’s infatuation with him ensured that he was on magazine covers and, as President, he receiving front page headline news coverage. Less coverage, indeed, biased coverage, was given the turnout of an estimated million or more citizens to protest against the passage of Obamacare.

It has been Obamacare, his “signature” legislation that has greatly contributed to the disaffection that now follows the President wherever he goes. Many states refused to set up the exchanges required while others passed resolutions against its implementation. People began to discover that their premiums increased dramatically and, for some, their jobs either disappeared or were downgraded to part-time. Obamacare continues to contribute to the high rate of unemployed Americans nationwide.

The opening of the Bush library was a reminder of the thousand times Obama blamed Bush for all the ills he “inherited” upon taking office, but all Presidents encounter this problem and none spent their entire first term blaming their predecessor. It was a mark of Obama’s immaturity.

All Presidents encounter some kind of scandal in the course of their administration, but Obama seems to have had more of his fair share. “Fast and Furious” was covered up with an executive order and outright stonewalling. It involved a government-sponsored gun-running scheme to Mexican drug cartels with the intention of “tracking” the weapons. This is as hair-brained as it gets, but some of those weapons ended up killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent and many Mexican victims. Any other President would have been severely wounded, but the mainstream media managed to ignore it sufficiently until it went away.

This same process ensued following the September 12, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed a U.S. ambassador and three security personnel. So far, everyone in the Obama administration who was involved in the failure to initially provide sufficient protection and then, while the attack ensued for several hours, failed to come to their aid, has been given a pass by the media with the notable exception of Fox News.

I sometimes think that too many Americans are afflicted with Attention Deficit Disorder because scandals and repeated lies do not seem to be remembered for more than a week or so. In a society afflicted by a suffering economy, the immediate needs of one’s personal life overtake and blur concerns for the constant revelations regarding a succession of failure policies.

The calls for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would not cost the taxpayers a dime while at the same time generating tens of thousands of jobs, go unheeded despite repeated studies that confirm it not only wouldn’t pose an environmental hazard, it would contribute to the nation’s energy independence.

At the same time, Obama’s self-proclaimed war on coal is causing coal-fired plants providing electricity to shut down. At the same time, in Europe, “clean energy” projects—primarily wind power—are seeing their government subsidies end while new coal-fired plants are authorized and built.

The “new normal” in America is a $17 trillion national debt that exceeds our current gross domestic product earnings of just over $15 trillion. Under Obama, the government has run up a huge debt that has led to its credit rating being reduced for the first time in the nation’s history.

These and other factors contribute to the “Obama fatigue” to which Peggy Noonan alluded. Even the lavish lifestyle of the Obama’s no longer is sufficient to evoke anything other than a mild rebuke.

This is likely to change, however, as voters begin to focus on the 2014 midterm elections because the Rasmussen polls are telling us that the economy is their primarily concern. Fully 80% of likely voters surveyed last week said the economy will strongly influence how they vote. Just 17% of adult consumers rated the economy as good.

We well may see more Democrat incumbents decide not to run in 2014, opening the door for Republican candidates. A Republican-controlled Congress, such as occurred during Clinton’s first term in 1994 may be the result.

Obama will try to blame Republicans for the failure of his gun control and immigration initiatives and many pundits are saying this is part of his 2014 strategy. It won’t work. His effort to frighten and burden Americans with sequestration has already failed, further weakening his credibility.

In general Americans have seen and experienced enough of Barack Obama to conclude that they no longer want to hear or see that much of him in the months and years ahead.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

Eric Siegel: Predictive Analytics - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Founder of Predictive Analytics World and Text Analytics World, and author of the groundbreaking and endlessly fascinating book Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, Eric Siegel, describes the principles of predictive analytics and how they are used to predict the behavior and actions of individuals. Eric Siegel provides ideas on how a combination of big data and machine learning creates the basis for these predictions. While Eric Siegel recognizes that not all predictions are accurate all of the time, he points out how much value they do provide over mere guesses. Eric offers his insights into how data and predictive analytics must be governed by ethical practices and assurances of privacy. Eric also demonstrates how predictive analytics are related to crowdsourcing and other data ensembles. Eric presents his thoughts on modeling and how those models can be improved. Learn as well how numbers can be used for persuasion, including their applications to politics and marketing.

Eric Siegel is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, May 2, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Founder of Predictive Analytics World and Text Analytics World, and author of the groundbreaking and endlessly fascinating book Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, Eric Siegel, describes the principles of predictive analytics and how they are used to predict the behavior and actions of individuals. You will learn:

* What predictive analytics means and why it is important

* How predictive analytics makes its predictions through data

* How computers learn to make better predictions as more data is addded

* How predictive analytics is used by businesses to provide better service



Eric Siegel, Ph.D., (photo left) founder of Predictive Analytics World and Text Analytics World, and Executive Editor of the Predictive Analytics Times, makes the how and why of predictive analytics understandable and captivating.

In addition to being the author of Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, Eric is a former Columbia University professor who used to sing educational songs to his students, and a renown speaker, educator and leader in the field.

My book review of Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die by Eric Siegel.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Founder of Predictive Analytics World and Text Analytics World, and author of the groundbreaking and endlessly fascinating book Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, Eric Siegel, as he describes the principles of predictive analytics and how they are used to predict the behavior and actions of individuals. Eric Siegel provides ideas on how a combination of big data and machine learning creates the basis for these predictions. While Eric Siegel recognizes that not all predictions are accurate all of the time, he points out how much value they do provide over mere guesses. Eric offers his insights into how data and predictive analytics must be governed by ethical practices and assurances of privacy. Eric also demonstrates how predictive analytics are related to crowdsourcing and other data ensembles. Eric presents his thoughts on modeling and how those models can be improved. Learn as well how numbers can be used for persuasion, including their applications to politics and marketing on Blog Business Success Radio.