A few football seasons ago, after years of losing, the Saints suddenly started to become a winning team. People back then would explain the change of fortune with a knowing look and two words – “Drew Brees.” In Acadiana, people have recently started exchanging that same knowing look when they talk about the impressive number…

There’s a great deal of uncertainty in the oil business these days. When times are tough and margins are slim, oil producers find ways to trim costs wherever they can. But, no matter how big or small your company is, there are only so many people you can lay off. There are only so many wells…

If you’re a certain age and in business, you might have had a business mid-life crisis. It’s not about getting a tattoo and a Harley Davidson, it’s about being confronted with a massive change in the way business is done, and deciding what to do about it. If you started out before the internet, before…

This is a show about Acadiana business and, as you are probably well aware if you travel around Acadiana, there are no shortage of fascinating businesses to talk about in this part of the world. From oil and gas companies to jewelers and from accordion builders to app builders. From all these choices, we have…

Thomas Edison was the 19th Century’s Steve Jobs. He invented the motion picture camera, the record player, and the lightbulb. Incidentally, Edison was known as “The Wizard of Menlo Park” which is the same part of Northern California where Steve Jobs lived and worked too. Edison explained his genius as being “one tenth inspiration and…

Acadiana is different from pretty much every other place in the world. It’s even different from the rest of Louisiana. It’s hard to know exactly where on the I-10 the difference begins, but you know it when you see it. Because it doesn’t just feel different – which it does. And it’s not just because…

If you’ve ever bought a house, you quickly come to realize that buying something for hundreds of thousands of dollars is not quite the same as buying groceries or a bicycle.  If, like an increasing number of people these days, you decide to leave the safety of a steady paycheck and go into business on…

When you travel around Acadiana it’s amazing how many talented people live in this part of the world. You can stop in at almost any small town and find a handful of people living there who are doing something sensational. Take for example, Eunice. After being born and raised in Eunice, Michelle La Fleur McFayden…

When you own a business you generally believe that nobody knows more about your business than you. But there are times in the lives of many businesses that growth or success complicates things. At these points specialist consultants outside of your company can have greater insight than you about what you need to do to achieve…

Here in Acadiana we take the term “Southern Hospitality” seriously. We’re proud of how we welcome people into our homes, and into our businesses. And for some of us, hospitality is our business. On this edition of Out to Lunch, Peter Ricchiuto introduces two people at very different ends of the hospitality industry: Herb Schilling and…