When we talk about somebody being in business, our underlying assumption is that they’re in business to make a profit. For themselves. That assumption does not always hold true. Admittedly, exceptions are rare. And that’s what makes them all the more remarkable. It would hard to find a more remarkable exception than Kim James Boudreaux. Kim is…

On his album Purple Rain, Prince famously opens his dance party with the lines, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to get through this thing called Life.” Prince’s point is that we’re all on our individual journey to find happiness, but we’re also all in this together. Most of us quietly go about our lives,…

In the past, one of the indications of being good in business – and a successful and respectable person in general – was job stability. You graduated from high school or college, you got a job and you stuck at it for 40 years. If you did well, you’d work your way up through the ranks…

Here in Southwest Louisiana we are buffeted by elements and forces largely beyond our control. We don’t have the luxury of debating whether climate change is man-made or a natural phenomenon. Whomever is causing it – man or nature – we have to live with the reality that changing weather is bringing one hundred and…

It’s not totally unheard of for a husband and wife to start up a business together. There are small businesses that are labor intensive and require long hours that a couple can split, and keep whatever profit they can make in the family. Traditionally, businesses like family farms come to mind. Or convenience stores. Gas stations….

Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel Prize winning economist. He is the inventor of what is called the micro-economy. He came up with the idea of making micro-loans to people in 3rd world countries so they could start a small business. Yunus’s latest thoughts on the capitalist economy include the opinion that one of our biggest…

In the tech industry there’s always a “next big thing” on the horizon that’s going to change everything. It happens so often there’s a name for this syndrome. It’s called “disruption.” The next big disruption that everyone’s talking about is driverless cars. While we don’t know when a driverless car is actually going to pull…

Here in Acadiana, one of the things we value is tradition. By that we mean not just Cajun and Creole culture, but the old fashioned ways of doing things. We don’t mind if business takes a little longer to conduct and includes a long lunch – and longer conversations about our families and football than…

Over the last couple of years we’ve had to deal with the fallout from big changes in the oil business. We have been far less battered by equally cataclysmic changes in the film business. If you haven’t been keeping up, here’s the thumbnail sketch. In 2003 the Louisiana legislature decided to attract film production to the…

According to the United States Geological Survey, 71% of the Earth’s surface is water. And 96% of that – in other words, almost all of it – is ocean. Seeing most of the planet is ocean, you might wonder why it’s called “Earth” at all. In theory, it should really be called “Water.” And seeing there are…