Running a small business doesn’t have to mean making a small difference, and big change doesn’t have to happen overnight.  As Pam Powell noted on this blog several weeks ago, organizations wishing to introduce CSR programs can begin with simple and realistic yet meaningful goals to get things rolling.  But how can you tell that you’re on the right track? Remember that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is less a …

I was thrilled to represent Comma at Mez Contemporary Mexican Restaurant in Cary, N.C., on June 2 as the Institute for Sustainable Development celebrated seven businesses and one individual who are finding amazing ways to bridge the gap between triple bottom line theory and real-world accomplishment. A big shout-out to the 2013 Green Plus Award winners: Four Seasons Produce, a full-line produce wholesale company in Ephrata, Pa., is the Sust…

You’ll never win an argument with this guy. His name is Reacher Gilt and he is the larger than life CEO of a communications company in Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal (Harper Collins, 2004). Talking is his specialty. (Well, talking and cheating.) Listen closely as he reassures his board a few days before the company implodes: “Spurred by the competition, we are investing several hundred thousand dollars in a challenging, releva…

I read an interesting report which suggested that more companies would embrace CSR if we simply removed the S and called it Corporate Responsibility. And, really, that’s what we’re talking about, isn’t it? Our responsibility to ourselves, our customers, our community. But there’s this roaring debate about whether CSR is good for business. Certainly it’s good PR, but is it good for the bottom line? This year’s …

Whether you make widgets or raise awareness about mental health, communications should be at the core of your organization’s business plan. Effective communications are the bridge between you and the people you want to reach. They are so important that our name, Comma, is shorthand for “Communication matters.” As a writer, I know that clear, concise writing is at the heart of communications that work. Good writing, however, is…

Look around a coffee shop, your office, even your home. You’ll see people accessing the web from a variety of devices. As the access continues to move beyond the home computer, mobile browsing could soon outpace desktop. With these new devices, websites must work for more platforms without sacrificing functionality or appearance. One way to do that is to create a separate mobile website for each type of device. The better way is to create one si…

Oh, how we laughed. We were sitting around a kitchen table, catching up with friends from college. We hadn’t seen them in 10 years. She’s a pediatrician, he’s an attorney. When we asked their 6 year old son if he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up he made a face and said, “That’s a girl’s job.” Our laughter was smug: When we grew up, the only doctors were men. Our generation was different. We were di…

Comma works from a core belief that companies can be viable, profitable organizations while maximizing the good that they do for their communities. And in this day and age, doing good often means thinking about the environmental impact that we make every day. For this reason, Comma recently introduced sustainability consulting services. We're hoping that we can help businesses minimize their environmental impact by advising them on sustainable p…

As a com­pany, Comma has three phil­an­thropic inter­ests: edu­ca­tion, entre­pre­neur­ship and women’s heart health. Here’s why we are pas­sion­ate about heart health. On September 30, 2009, I received a call that Natalie, my old­est daugh­ter (pictured below with her sister Kaytee), had fainted in the bath­room at school. When I arrived at the school, a crowd of law enforce­ment and school per­son­nel told me her 17 year-​​old heart had stoppe…

This is an excit­ing time for Comma! In 2012, we moved into office space in down­town Historic Hillsborough and closed out our busiest year ever. All this activ­ity included prepar­ing the launch of our cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­ity and sus­tain­abil­ity con­sult­ing services. Comma exists to bring our cus­tomers cre­ative, prac­ti­cal strate­gies and tools for ma…