Category: corporation

business, corporation, philanthropy, yoga

Beautiful: Compass Yoga Begins a Corporate Yoga and Meditation Program To Further Our Mission

Christa Avampato

Compass Yoga is working hard to get more yoga to more people in more places. We now teach well over 200 people per week in a dozen classes with a team of a dozen tremendously talented teachers. We’ve been applying for grant funding so that we can expand our reach online and off.

In addition to philanthropic funds, we have also started to reach out to companies to establish corporate yoga programs that will generate a new revenue stream to support our work in the community.

Why companies should partner with Compass:
It is daunting for a company to construct, manage, and assess a yoga program. I have worked for the Walt Disney Company, The Home Depot, Toys R Us, and American Express as a product developer. I know first-hand that corporate employess are increasingly being asked to do more with less, and that is particularly true for human resource professionals inside these companies.

Enter Compass Yoga, a New York City-based nonprofit that focuses on improving the health of all people by teaching therapeutic yoga and meditation classes. For two years, we have partnered with the New York Public Library to bring over a dozen weekly classes to communities in Manhattan. Our incredibly talented and dedicated group of teachers provides open level classes that are suitable for all levels from beginner to advanced.

What companies get by partnering with Compass:
– Receive open-level yoga and meditation classes, pre- and post-natal, and therapeutics for those who have health challenges.

– Support a nonprofit that is helping underserved communities where your employees live and work. Currently we teach open level classes, senior chair yoga classes, and we are putting together the city’s first free pre- and post-natal evening yoga program through the New York Public Library.

– Benefit from the highest levels of professionalism and customer service in the yoga industry as well as regular qualitative and quantitative assessments of the program to help us craft a customized program that perfectly suits your company.

Why companies need corporate yoga:
On Tuesday, March 19th, Arianna Huffington co-hosted Squawk Box. Her guest that day was Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna. To increase both the quality of life for its employees and its bottom line, Aetna has invested in a corporate yoga program for all of its 30,000 employees to help them decreased stress levels and health care costs while increasing creativity, productivity, and performance.

The research
A quick snapshot of the costs of chronic stress are astonishing and explains why Mr. Bertolini has placed wellness at the forefront of his human resources strategy:

– The World Health Organization puts the cost of stress to American businesses is as high as $300 billion per year.

– The CDC estimates that 75% of all health care spending goes toward preventable chronic illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure. High blood pressure alone costs $130 billion per year to treat. 

– The American Academy of Family Physicians found that 2/3 of doctor visits are for preventable stress-related conditions.

Additionally, Michael Porter, Elizabeth Teisberg, and Scott Wallace recently published research findings in HBS Working Knowledge, that showed that U.S employers spend 200 – 300% more for the indirect costs of health care — in the form of absenteeism, sick days, and lower productivity — than they do on actual health care payments. Their main recommendation to employers is to “mount an aggressive approach to wellness, prevention, screening and active management of chronic conditions.”

If your company would like to find out more, we’d love to hear from you! Contact us. 

business, corporation, creativity, dreams, economy, grateful, gratitude, thankful

Leap: A Big Thank You to the Gutsy Female Entrepreneurs of Rent the Runway, Corporate Idiocy, and a Mitt Romney Joke Told in Poor Taste

Christa Avampato
Jennifer Hyman of Rent the Runway

Corporate executive who say stupid things are making it easy for us to set sail on our own venture adventures. While I am angered by their behavior, I’m thankful for our ability to turn the situation around and invest in our own business ideas. When things are falling apart (corporate culture), pieces are often falling into place (new start-ups.)

However, my latest example of corporate idiocy is worth a detailed explanation for the lesson it teaches us about where and with whom to spend out time. This is a story that has to be told. Just when I thought I had seen and heard it all when it comes to the idiotic behavior of some (though certainly not all) corporate executives, another one comes along and delivers another shocking display of poor behavior. Women of the world, brace yourselves for this one.

I recently had the opportunity to hear Jennifer Hyman, Co-Founder of Rent the Runway, on a panel of entrepreneurs. Rent the Runway rents the latest women’s special occasion fashions for a fraction of the purchase price. A passionate, intelligent, and creative woman, Jennifer explained that her company is about more than fashion. It’s about empowering women to create extraordinary lives while looking and feeling their best. She explained that the mission of Rent the Runway was so compelling that she and her co-founder were the first female entrepreneurs funded by Bain Capital.

The corporate executive moderating the panel saw this incredible accomplishment as an opportunity to put his ignorance on display for all to see. His response to Jennifer’s story? “Was that Bain pre- or post-Romney?”

And the entire audience (made up largely of the corporate executive’s employees) went silent. No one knew what to say, where to look, nor how to feel. Everyone’s face just dropped. Was he trying to funny? Was he using humor to veil his own insecurities about female entrepreneurs? After spending 30 minutes prior to the panel discussing the value of a growth mind-set to large corporations, why would he insult a guest he invited to speak on the topic? Did he feel threatened by her confidence and ingenuity? (Incidentally, Jennifer was the only female on the panel and the only one to receive this kind of comment from the moderator.)

Jennifer handled the situation with grace, the way I believe she must handle every business situation she faces. Still, my anger was up, way up, until I realized the tremendous gift that this corporate executive delivered to everyone in the audience. Why would anyone continue to work hard for him every day? Why would anyone pledge their loyalty to someone whose ignorance causes him to behave so poorly?

You could see everyone’s wheels turning with the idea, “I need to get out of here and follow the lead of the entrepreneurs on the panel.” And all I could think in response was, “Yes. Yes you do. Give your own business ideas a fair shot at success. Leap!”

This executive is already getting the result he deserves – a complete loss of loyalty from his team; he just doesn’t know it yet. But he will. It won’t be the first time a suit, stuck in his ways, totally misjudged the future of our economy and I have a feeling it won’t be the last. Investors, place your bets. I know which way I’m going. Do you?

business, career, corporation, job, time

Leap: Corporate Recruiting, We Have a Problem

Christa Avampato
http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/corporate-slang-flashcards

There’s an executive recruiter who’s been calling me for a few months. Every time we talk and we like each other less and less. She asks a lot of questions, never listens to my very honest answers, and then is annoyed that I’m not interested in the jobs she’s trying to staff (which are in direct contradiction to all of the answers I’ve given to her never-ending list of questions.)

I don’t understand why she keeps calling me, on my office phone number no less. And then on Thursday afternoon, I finally realized that I needed to explain to her exactly why she’s having trouble getting people like me (and everyone I know) to take these postings seriously: they don’t pass the BS test.

She was totally annoyed by my advice. I found a more professional way to explain the BS test but the general sentiment is the same – don’t give me some high-brow job description filled with jargon. Tell me what’s amazing about the company and the team and why I want to be part of it. Don’t try to dazzle me with buzz words like “high-level strategy”, “high-visibility”, “senior-level exposure”. Tell me what a day in my life could be like there and what I’m going to learn. And please don’t tell me what my skills can do for a company. I already know that. Instead, relate to what I care so deeply and passionately about – developing products and services that make people’s lives better.

Corporate HR and executive recruiters need to really push their clients, meaning the hiring leaders. Really push them to accurately represent the jobs they’re looking to fill and exactly what those job descriptions are in plain English. Then they need to tap into their other customer base, the people they’re trying to recruit, and listen, really listen, to exactly what it is those candidates want to do and why. Any other path is just an extraordinary waste of time – for recruiters, for companies, and would-be team members.

business, career, corporation, nonprofit, philanthropy

My Year of Hopefulness – Lend a Hand with What You’ve Got

Christa Avampato

Corporate America is an unpleasant place to be lately. People are scared. They don’t trust anyone. They’re worried about their futures. And it’s understandable.

Today, I began a group pro-bono project for a nonprofit that my company supports on a very large scale through our philanthropy department. I am thrilled that I can combine my business skills and my experience in nonprofit for this project. And I can meet some new people from my company from completely different business units.

What’s most interesting is that the pro-bono project is about helping the national headquarters of the nonprofit more effectively communicate and develop marketing plans with the regional offices. It’s the same issue that every large company struggles with – how do you break through the silos? How do you share best practices? How do you effectively collaborate, learn, and share across geographies and cultures?

While this nonprofit is thrilled to have us work on this project, my co-workers are all grateful for the opportunity to take what we learn on this project and apply it to our own company. Our company needs to up the morale of the staff and provide networking opportunities; the nonprofit needs assistance that they can’t afford to pay consultants for. We’re all lending what we’ve got to help one another. It’s a win all the way around. Can you imagine how many more of these amazing opportunities are out there, just waiting to be discovered, to creatively collaborate in ways that make a difference in the world?

corporation, legal, technology

My Year of Hopefulness – LegalZoom

Christa Avampato

I’ve been doing some research on starting a company as I seriously begin to explore the world of entrepreneurship. What I’m finding is that it’s easier than ever to get your own business up and running. The paperwork, legalities, and payment systems used to be such a hassle that it would deter many interested in getting their own business going. Services like PayPal have made the payment conundrum a near non-issue. But those pesky legal issues persisted, until now.


Today, I saw a television ad for a company called LegalZoom. It is an internet-based company that claims to make filing legal paperwork such as LLC, 501(3)(c), trademarks, patents, copyright, etc. easy as filling out a simple questionnaire. I was skeptical but curious because the prices quoted on the commercial were so affordable. 

Well-organized and straight-forward, LegalZoom has everything a new entrepreneur needs to get going and keep going from a legal perspective. (They also have personal legal services as well such as will and trust set-up.) They also have an education center on-line and there are customer service reps on-hand as well, real live people you can call without worrying about billable hours. If I was a lawyer, I’d be worried. 

There will always be attorneys for complicated legal issues that require personal attention from an expert. If we’re just talking about moving paper, mostly of the boiler plate variety, the days of $500 an hour attorneys may be over.   
career, corporation, hope, integrity, job, work

My Year of Hopefulness – Don’t Be Less

Christa Avampato

Just when I thought life at work couldn’t get much worse for my friend, John. Goodness….I couldn’t make this up. I don’t think the best fiction writer on the planet could make up the following story. My thanks to John for allowing me to share his experience with this blog’s readers:


On Thursday morning, John woke up at an ungodly hour to catch a flight for an all-day business meeting. He arrived back to the airport later that evening with his boss and found that their flight was delayed 3 hours. His boss thought she’d take the time to provide him with some feedback on his performance. Here’s the abbreviated laundry list that she expounded upon for 1.5 hours:

Too motivated
Communicates too well too often (Her quote to him, “Jesus, I’m not your texting buddy.” My advice to her – then stop replying for one thing, and don’t complain when you’re in the dark on details, which is true just about every day.)
Has too good a relationship with senior management (a.k.a., “I feel threatened that people like you so be less likable)
Too ambitious
Takes too much responsibility and ownership for work
Too collaborative with people outside of department

Ouch – I don’t even know where to begin on how pathetic and foolish this feedback is. Essentially John is supposed to be less of a person than he is because it makes others uncomfortable to be in the presence of someone who is talented and hardworking. This is gross – I’m so furious by these comments that I can barely speak. 

Being a pro, or numb from exhaustion, John took the entire conversation in stride and stood his ground, politely. His only response: “This is so odd. No other company that I have ever worked for, or even heard of,  tells its people to be less collaborative and less motivated.” And that’s it. He let it lie. Didn’t agree, didn’t really say much of anything. He was too shocked and confused. 

Here is my advice to John and anyone else in this situation: you are NOT to compromise your integrity. Ever. For any reason. You are not to be less of a person to make others feel better about themselves. Their laziness and lack of motivation is their problem, not yours, so don’t take it on, politics and “business as usual” be damned. Your job is to shine as brightly as you can and add value to the people and the environment around you. That is your only obligation, ever. Smile, hold your head up and be proud of yourself. And write down all the things you are and are not. Keep the list handy and refer to it often. 

If President Obama has taught us anything it is that the time for change has come. Throw off the yolk of being what to do when by people who want you feel less empowered so they can feel more powerful. The feudal system died out centuries ago and there is no chance of resurrection. This is the time of the individual, and don’t let anyone tell you differently. 
business, corporation, ideas, innovation, leader, leadership

The Idea Guy

Christa Avampato

Some stories would be really funny if they weren’t so true. My friend, John, has successfully gotten his hefty graphic design projects out the door for the holiday season. He was right on-time and under-budget. We had coffee yesterday now that he’s successfully dug himself out from that pile of work. He was re-counting some of the sad and hilarious moments of the season and one of them really caught my attention. Well, actually one of the characters really caught my attention – his boss, Tom.


John largely does graphic design work for print. However, many of their clients are looking to them for web design work as well, specifically for social media. John doesn’t know much about this field so he had to dig in, learn the details, and then reconfigure his skills to get the job done. They had some big budget and time constraint decisions to make on some of his projects. He assembled the details in a clear presentation and then gave the decision options that were possible with the constraints they were under. After a 15-minute presentation, Tom cut in with some SWAG (Super Wild A*s Guess) ideas. Apparently, his company is fond of this SWAG idea to develop things like budgets, business cases, colorful PowerPoint presentations with smiley faces on them, etc. Poor John….

Professionally and tactfully, John explained why they really needed to choose from the options that he had presented. Tom stands up, and raising both of his hands to point at himself, says, “Tom, you’re not getting it. I’m the idea guy.” And gesturing to the rest of the team in the room says, “You guys need to make the ideas happen. I don’t care about the details.” Ouch. One of the team members actually rolled his eyes and plunked his forehead on the table. I feel another comedy sketch coming to me. And this would be a funny story, if it weren’t true. All we could was laugh as John was telling me this story. Otherwise, we’d have to cry. 

I love ideas; I can’t stand “idea people”. I’m not talking about people with ideas, innovators, product developers, etc. I’m talking about people who are full of hot air – lots of ideas with nothing to back them up. They have no ability to execute or even think about how it could be executed. And as a result, nothing gets done, the “make it happen” people leave, and innovation stalls. It’s a sad state of affairs. 

I have a simple piece of advice for companies that have people who refer to themselves as “idea people”. Get rid of them! Seriously. We all have ideas. All of us. The companies and people who win are also the ones who are movers and shakers, meaning they have ideas and they actually do something with them rather than just verbalizing them for their “minions” to do. These “idea people” are dangerous because they degrade others, as happened to my friend, John, and his team. By proclaiming themselves Lord of Ideas, they make everyone else feel small. If companies are going to get through these rocky times, teammates need to band together with a will to win. “Idea people” destroy the team dynamic, and that team dynamic is an asset that companies cannot afford to lose.  
business, career, corporation, job, youth

Is this the end of hierarchy?

Christa Avampato

With the current economy, the only case for hierarchy might be in the military. Have you ever wondered what a Senior Vice President General Manager Grand Pooba Chief of Everyone does? Me too. Who is making up titles this long and complicated? Companies too large to get out of their own way. 


The more I talk to my friends about their jobs, the more I hear the exact same frustrations continuously. “Not able to get anyone “of power” to listen to my ideas.” “Tired of feeling like I don’t count because I’m not a high enough rank.” “Why do 18 people need to approve every small decision we make?” “Why is everything SO SLOW here?”


There are many reasons for this commonality in their frustrations. It could be because many of my friends are on that cusp of being young though with enough years of experience under their belt to make bigger decisions than their titles “allow”. It could be that my friends are much smarter and more worldly than their bosses. It could that they’re all having a bad day – at the same time. 

The real reason I think they’re getting irritated is because the rules of the corporate game have changed and no one told their bosses, or their company CEOs for that matter. Seth Godin talks about industries as ecosystems, meaning they are dynamic. The rules change all the time, meaning corporate cultures need to change all the time. Adjustment, constant adjustment, is the name of the game. What worked for companies 10, 15, 20 years ago won’t work today. This is a brand new world. And it requires an intense curiosity and desire for growth that will keep today’s established companies relevant; without curiosity and growth they will be obsolete in the blink of an eye.

So what can big corporations do? Are they doomed? No – they just need to flatten out, especially at the top. A friend of mine recently attended a corporate training session and the trainer said that whenever they encounter a senior leader they need to look at their feet and let that leader run the whole conversation. I almost got sick. Who wants to work for an organization that not only doesn’t value youth, but does its best to make its young people feel insignificant? If corporations want to hang on to young people, they better learn to how to utilize their energy and ideas, quickly. Flatten out and give everyone at every level a chance to participate!

And for my friends who are frustrated with corporate rigidity? A few suggestions: think about branching out to try a new venture, maybe not for pay, but for peace of mind – for hope of what may pan out down the line. Offer your services to a start-up, or try something new like a language class that could have professional value in the future. It’s also powerful to gather the experience you can from where you are for however long you’re there. We all always have something to learn from whatever situation we’re in. Make sure to capture those learnings and take them with you when it’s time to give yourself a fresh start.      
career, corporation, economy, job

We’re going the wrong way! Who’s driving?

Christa Avampato

My friend, Jamie, was was telling me about a his sister’s job in retail. It’s an industry I’m passionate about and may return to someday. It’s the heart and soul of the 70% of our GDP created by consumer spending. They’re hurting, like so many industries, and in times of trouble companies need the most able navigator at the helm. The trouble, at least with Jamie’s sister’s company, is that everyone is playing a game of Pass-the-buck instead of Survivor. The answers to questions like “Who is our core customer?”, “How are they hurting right now?”, and “With our competencies how can we ease that hurt for them?” are critically important for companies that wish to come out the other side of this latest economic slide, or any economic slide for that matter. 


Jamie drew a metaphor that is so clear in my mind and it perfectly captured the situation with his sister. It’s as if everyone is in the back of the bus, facing the wrong way, and asking where we’re going. No one, no one is actually willing to grab the steering wheel and drive. That driver’s seat is a very dangerous place to be for sure, though sitting in the back, eyes covered, knowing no driver is up there steering is far worse. It’s a choice of the lesser of two evils, with advantages and disadvantages for each action. 

Let’s look at hat’s actually happening for Jamie’s sister – no one’s driving. A crash is practically unavoidable. A runaway car with no driver can only stay on the road for so long. The people in the back may feel that they have a better chance of survival if they hang out and wait for someone else to step up. That’s possible. Though the greater likelihood is that the whole operation goes down while everyone is wringing their hands. And the lead up to the crash is painful and anxiety-inducing. 

An alternative is that someone does take the helm, and the crash happens anyway. It would be a near certainty that the blame and guilt will fall to the driver, and that driver couldn’t hope to survive. But what if that driver can pull it off? At this point, it’s hard to imagine any industry coming out of this recession unscathed. With the right leadership, the wounds could be bumps and bruises instead of lost limbs and massive internal bleeding.

It’s a gamble – there are clear choices that need to be made now by every company. What’s not clear is the best way forward that causes the least number of casualties. Strong leadership that focuses on stakeholder needs now is best able to find a way up, over, or through. At this point, we have to ask ourselves a key question about that bus situation: If we had no intention or desire to drive, or at least take a shift at the wheel, then why did we get on the bus in the first place? It’s foolish and downright dangerous to leave an entire journey up to everyone else. 
career, corporation, education, job, magazine, Obama, Penn, work

A victory for generalists

Christa Avampato

Change at a fast pace can be disconcerting. 2 years ago, I was in the middle of my second (and last) year of graduate school. I knew I’d be doing an off-grounds job search, and my only criteria for my next employer was that I be treated with respect and be in New York City. Beyond that, the options were endless. I was grateful for a (seemingly) strong economy that allowed me to take my time to find the right match.


I was exploring a myriad of options, networking with alum in all stages of their careers and in different industries. I was explaining to one of my career counselors that I really enjoyed having a job where I wore a number of different hats. He looked at me quizzically. He is one of those people who really prefers to file people into neat little boxes. Needless-to-say, I cannot be confined to a neat little box of any kind when it comes to my career. (Mind you, this career counselor convinced the majority of my classmates to become investment bankers and management consultants and we see how that story’s gone in the last few months…) After I explained my varied work experience to him and employment possibilities I was considering he said to me, “Well, Christa, eventually we all have to decide what we want to be when we grow up. We can’t stay generalists forever.” Little did he, or I, know that being a generalist is just about the best thing I could be in the job market that would exist 2 years later. 

I walked away feeling a little badly about myself and my life. Maybe I was aimless; maybe I was like one of those little kids raiding her mother’s closet and wearing grown-up clothes that are 5 sizes too big. I was masquerading as a grown-up, with no intention of actually ever growing up. I am happy with my own special brand of optimistic realism. Fittingly, I went to work for a toy company right after graduation whose motto is, “I don’t want a grow up. I’m a ….” You get the idea. I found my place in the world being exactly who I am.

Surprisingly to that career counselor of mine, though no to me, being a generalist is what is savings me (furiously knocking on wood) right now in this economy. My broad-based experience is allowing me to play many different roles on one stage – I can do whatever task needs to be done at the time it needs to be done. And that’s true of many people I work with. It also happens to be true of President-elect Obama – his broad-based experience allowed him to speak genuinely to people from many different walks of life. His honesty, humility, and ability to emotionally connect with so many people and bring them together played a large part in his victory. It also helps that he’s brilliant, confident, and capable. He is a generalist at heart. 

This week, my Penn alumni magazine ran an article by President Amy Guttman entitled “A Pitch for the Uncharted Path” that described her speech at this year’s convocation. Like me, she meandered across a whole host of disciplines as an undergraduate, stopping to inspect anything and everything that interested her. And now she is Penn’s President, a job that could only be filled by a infinitely-curious generalist. She encouraged the newly matriculated class to be open to the possibilities that will be set before them in the coming four years. Being a person who has wanted to be everything from a champion dog breeder to an astronaut, I whole-heartedly agree. 

Our world is complex, and to get into the thick of it and make a positive impact, we have to appreciate every shred of that complexity. The best way to gain that appreciation is to live our lives in many different directions, on many different planes. Yes, this is a time that “a genius wants to live.” And it wouldn’t hurt if that genius also moonlighted as a generalist.