This is a real life story, so bear with me while I give some background information.

We have a "free ad" section at our web site where people can place an ad for their business. Ads are submitted weekly and published on web. Now, to place an ad, someone has to visit our web site and fill out a form, containing their email address and copy of ad. We try to make it as easy as possible, but bottom line is many people are not serious, and don't have a clue as to how to run a business on web let alone promote it.

When ads are received, we send an automatic response to person who submitted it. Perhaps one out of ten has an incorrect email address and response is returned as undeliverable. What a waste of time.

How do they think that someone could respond to their ad if their email address is incorrect? Not only that, but bad addresses are automatically purged from our file so their ad never even gets posted.

Going through our archives, I found some real gems - what do you think about these offers?

"Join our MLM and earn beg income". This is either a typo or they are promising very little in way of earnings. This person obviously didn't proof their copy before submitting ad.

Another ad promised huge earnings, but gave no contact information. Not a web site URL or an email address to be found. Guess they figure it is so powerful an offer, we will "beat a path to their door" - another waste of time.

"Make Money! Turn $10 into $40,000 CASH like I did" - but wait - this guy is using a free email account. If he's making all that money, wouldn't you think he could afford one for ten bucks a month - maybe he is saving all those $10 bills so he can earn $40,000 CASH with each one.

"You can make 500% Profit without investing any money" - need I say more!

By: Robert F. Abbott

I've just watched, again, an episode in Back to Floor television series, which aired on BBC (United Kingdom) and PBS (United States). Once more, communication turned out to be a key issue, as it often does in business stories.

If you're not familiar with series, it features real-life CEOs who leave their comfortable offices (well sort of comfortable, these days) and go work on front lines of their organizations for a week. Cameras follow CEOs and record their interactions with staff, and their responses to those interactions.

In this episode, managing director of London's Heathrow Airport took plunge and worked in customer service for five days. That meant facing customers and dealing with their problems, including problems created by airport.

Once more, we saw a CEO suffer slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, so to speak. This CEO was rebuked by employees on front lines, as well as customers. Employees tried to convey to him difficulties they experience because no one at head office listens to them.

And, that's a fairly constant refrain in all episodes, as one CEO after another finds out he or she doesn't know much about what happens when organization comes face-to-face with real customers and their needs.

As most of us know, this is no anomaly. In many organizations, employees feel management doesn't know what's going on in real world, and perhaps what's worse, feel that management doesn't care.