Postcards

Power Point: Be the boss of your career

"The lesson of today is that you're working for yourself."

--Janice Bryant Howroyd,  founder and CEO of staffing company Act 1 Personnel Services, in The New York Times. Howroyd's advice is yet another take on the the advice that in these uncertain times, it's smart to stay flexible and adapt. As the employment landscape transforms and companies try to keep pace, workers have to do the same. This can mean refreshing MORE

A visit to Wal-Mart's home

by Patricia Sellers

"Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage."

That was said, simply enough, by Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton. And though today it's widely known that Wal-Mart is the world's most efficient retailer, a little-known fact is that for 25 years--long before Wal-Mart became America's largest retailer--it ranked No. 1 in its industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.

Efficiency runs in the water here MORE

Power Point: Find out what you are good at

"Ultimately if you can put a wall up, if you can paint, if you can work with other people and, most important, if you find out what you are good at, that's the key."

-- British chef Jamie Oliver, in the New York Times Magazine, challenging the myth that a traditional education is the only way to be successful.  Today Oliver's hyperactivity is his trademark but as a child he was MORE

How Warren Buffett manages his managers

Warren Buffett calls the CEOs who run his companies "All-Stars."

The world's most renowned investor picks his managers practically as well as his stocks. But branding the bosses of businesses owned by Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) "All-Stars" may also be a clever people-management ploy on his part--to inject so much confidence in his people that they feel they must be the best...and duly pressured, they are.

At the recent Fortune Most MORE

Power Point: Triathlete with heart transplant races the Ironman

"It would put an exclamation point on my recovery."

-- Kyle Garlett, the first triathlete to compete in the Ironman World Championship with someone else's heart. Tomorrow is a special day: Garlett will be among 1,800 triathletes attempting to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles (a marathon) in Kona, Hawaii. It's also three years to the day when Garlett, 38, received his heart transplant. Garlett's own heart MORE

Morgan Stanley's ex-president starts a hedge fund

by Patricia Sellers

Maybe it's a sign of recovery in the financial services industry: Wall Street's two most renowned women dropouts have settled on what to do next. Yesterday on Postcards, you read Sallie Krawcheck's bizarre tale of her bumpy road on the way to Bank of America (BAC). Today, news broke that former Morgan Stanley (MS) co-president Zoe Cruz is starting a hedge fund.

Cruz, who spent her entire career at MORE

Power Point: Pepsi's innovation challenge

"The age of thrift is here. You have to do innovation at both ends--premium innovation and innovation for the value consumer."

-- PepsiCo (PEP) chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi in a recent Q&A with Pattie Sellers. No. 1 on Fortune's 2009 Most Powerful Women in Business list (for the fourth year in a row) Nooyi today delivered another quarter of solid earnings. PepsiCo beat analyst expectations with net income of  $1.72 MORE

Sallie Krawcheck: the big job she didn't take

by Patricia Sellers

Sallie Krawcheck

A hot job offer dangles before you. How do you know if it's right? Sometimes you feel it in your gut. And sometimes you get a big, bloody warning sign. Like Sallie Krawcheck did before she opted to join Bank of America (BAC).

Krawcheck, the former Citigroup (C) star who joined BofA in August to head its Global Wealth and Investment Management unit, told a story last MORE

Power Point: Grab mindshare while you can

"You're seeing less of Ford and G.M. and more of Oscar Mayer and Kellogg."

-- George Belch, chairman of the marketing department at San Diego State University, in the New York Times. While financial services companies like Citigroup (C) and automakers like Ford (F) and General Motors (GM) are cutting ad budgets, companies like Kellogg (K) and Kraft (KFT), maker of Oscar Mayer products, are stepping into the advertising MORE

How to hire in uncertain times

by Jessica Shambora

Who's hiring? Hardly anybody, yet. But as you dream about recovery, you'd better be thinking about how to upgrade your talent. You'll be hiring again someday. Really.

We talked about hiring at the recent Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, where this year's theme was "Betting on the Future." A session called "Building a Standout Start-up" was led by two CEOs who are in major hiring mode. We thought we'd MORE