You may remember in the late 1990’s a company called BASF had a massive TV marketing campaign, based on what they didn’t make. They had a number of commercials that said things like, “At BASF we don’t make the cooler, we make it cooler.” And “At BASF we don’t make the jeans, we make them…

A lot of people around here in Acadiana compare the recent downturn in the oil business to the downturn in the 1980’s. The general consensus seems to be that although this downturn is having a longer-term effect within the oil business itself, it’s having a lesser effect on the overall Acadian economy. The reason everybody…

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like meat, you might want to keep this show on in the background and not listen too closely. If you’re the kind of person who believes there are certain jobs that women just shouldn’t do – for example, that there’s nothing sexy about a lady pig farmer…

In Acadiana we love music. Not only do we listen to it, but many of us play it. There are probably more musicians per capita here than anywhere in the country. Music, for many families, is a way of both celebrating and passing on our culture. It is, as the late Eddie LeJeune, said, “In the…

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…