Category Archives: Companies

Black Tomato to Start New Adventure Office in New York

Companies, , , , ,

black tomatoAdventure vacation company Black Tomato is adding an office in New York after setting up shop in 2005 in its original location in London. Tom Marchant, one of three founders of the travel company, will be moving to the US to oversee the expansion.

Marchant, and his co-founders Matt Smith and James Merrett began Black Tomato to bring a bit of adventure and excitement to the vacation marketplace. The move to New York is part of a business plan to enlarge its client base plus forge deals with other companies to gain the status of a lifestyle brand.

Last year Black Tomato organized 2,965 dream vacations earning $16 million in revenue for their trouble. The 60-person employee base arranges such custom-made adventures as trips to Iceland’s tectonic plates, volcanoes in Costa Rica and the outback of Kenya. The growing appeal of such adventures seems to be on the rise; Black Tomato’s 2013 earnings were up by 30 percent over 2012.

Part of the secret of the firm’s success was actually setting a limit on the number of destination choices the company offered its clients, reducing the number of countries they sent customers to 40 last year, compared to 89 countries the year before.

“What we did at the start of last year, which I think had a big impact, was slim down the amount of product we were offering,” Marchant explained. “Sometimes when you offer people the world – literally, in this case – it can actually be hard to determine where they want to go.”

Marchant says he will make an exception if a client has a desperate desire to visit a country that is not on his list.

About five years ago Marchant started to see more clients from the USA. Now Americans comprise about 40 percent of his clients. Black Tomato has not marketed to a US audience; he says most of his US customers were referred to him by word of mouth.

“The opportunity to be the first to do things or to really get off the beaten track resonated with a lot of people over here both on the east coast and the west coast,” says Marchant.

Marchant is betting that now is the time to leverage his company’s growing popularity and pursue his business more aggressively in the US.

Recognizing Harris Freier

Companies, , , , ,

harris-freierAn associate at Genova Burns Giantomasi Webster’s Employment Law & Litigation practice group, Harris Freier was recently inducted in the 2014 Lead New Jersey (LNJ) Class. LNJ is an amalgamation of professional individuals that seek to achieve “a greater good” for the industry and communities.

Managing Partner at Genova Burns Giantomasi Webster, Brian W. Kronick spoke of the firm’s pride in Harris’s recent appointment as well as what he has achieved at the firm.  He said that having a representative from the firm in LNJ is exciting.  In addition, Kronick pointed out that Genova Burns has the same dedication to enhancing the quality of life and work in the state.  He said that he is “confident that Harris will excel at this mission as a member of the 2014 Class in the same way he excels every day in providing the highest standards of excellence to our clients.”

Currently, as a member of the Employment Law and Appellate Practice Groups at Genova Burns, Freier specializes in employment law cases with a focus on age, disability, gender, race and religious discrimination in state and federal courts. Included in the experience he brings to the firm was his handling of two labor arbitrations for NYC, labor related matters on plant closing and relocations as well as various employee grievances.  In his position he works alongside individuals such as Elnardo Webster (Partner), Rebecca Moll Freed (Counsel) and Douglas E. Solomon (Partner).

Get It On Sunday to Your Mailbox

Companies, ,

amazonprimeAmazon Prime customers, those special patrons who pay a yearly fee to get free, two-day delivery, will now be able to include in the two-day count Sundays, beginning in the Los Angeles and New York City regions.

Amazon is working together with the US Postal Service to roll out this new service, with an eye to expansion into the Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix areas during the coming year.

“If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can order a backpack for your child on Friday and be packing it for them Sunday night,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide operations and customer service. “We’re excited that now every day is an Amazon delivery day and we know our Prime members, who voraciously shop on Amazon, will love the additional convenience they will experience as part of this new service.”

Amazon Prime customers need not do anything additional to get delivery on Sunday. When they add their purchases to their cart the Sunday delivery day option will pop open at checkout as soon as its available in the region they are shopping from.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon: Genius Businessman and Innovator

Companies, ,

Jeff BezosJeff Bezos is the CEO at Amazon, one of the most amazing companies to have emerged in the universe of on-line retailing. There is no question that he is a business genius, innovating and guiding his company to ever more successful approaches to customer service and sales.

Here are a few valuable quotes from Bezos showing just small bit of his acumen, giving us mere mortals some insight into how his mind works.

•    Do not rest on your laurels, as Bezos said, “A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny does not last.”

•    What is the driving force behind innovation? Bezos knows: “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

•    On the importance of responding to customers and their needs: “If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.”

•    Afraid of criticism? That can harm your business: “If you never want to be criticized, for goodness’ sake don’t do anything new.”

Among Bezos’ other accomplishments, aside from his success at Amazon, is the purchase of the Washington Post for $250 million in early 2013; and the funding of the building of a 10,000-year clock inside a mountain in the Sierra Diablo Mountain Range in the West Texas desert.

Franz Replacing Humer at Roche Next Year

Companies, , ,
New Chairman of Roche, Christoph Franz
New Chairman of Roche, Christoph Franz

Pharmaceutical giant and the world’s largest producer of anti-cancer drugs, Roche Holding AG, is hiring the chief executive officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Christoph Franz. He will be taking the place of Chairman Franz Humer beginning next year.

The nomination of Franz will be presented to the shareholders at the annual shareholder meeting to be held on March 4, 2014. Franz’s contract with Lufthansa will end on May 31.
The outgoing chairman, Humer, has led Roche for over ten years, is given the credit for leading Roche’s unique strategy of coupling its diagnostics and drugs groups together to create boutique medications which can be targeted to individual patients.

Humer is 67, and was CEO when Roche purchased a 30 percent stake in the US biotech company Genentech Inc in 1999. Ten years later Humer helped to oversee the complete takeover of the company as chairman. The buyout allowed Roche to acquire its best-selling oncology drugs Rituxan and Herceptin. Herceptin is the company’s flagship “personalized” tumor treatment. It is an anti-breast cancer medication which is teamed up with a diagnostic test which reveals which women it is most likely to help.

Christoph Franz is 53 and has been the CEO of Lufthansa since 2011. Before that he was the CEO of Swiss International Airlines.