Here are a few juicy tidbits of information that you may have missed during your busy and hectic week. I'm pointing you to articles about John Deere shedding "unsophisticated" dealers, customer satisfaction ratings, telecommuting and your career, the curse of the CEO superstar, and ways to have fun at work.

From the Wall Street Journal: Why Deere Is Weeding Out Dealers Even as Farms Boom
"For more than a century, Deere & Co. has relied on dealers to sell its iconic John Deere tractors and other farm equipment. Deere dealers like to brag that they "bleed green," the company's trademark color. But even as the farm boom helps Deere harvest record profits, dozens of North American dealerships are getting sent out to pasture, including some that have passed through families for generations. Chief Executive Robert Lane says times have changed. In an age when tractors use satellites to track the location of every seed, he says, dealers must match the sophistication and size of agribusiness customers. "For years we talked about Deere as a family," says Mr. Lane, a former banker. "The fact is, we are not a family. What we are is a high-performance team....If someone is not pulling their weight, you're not on the high-performance team anymore."

From the San Jose Mercury News: Apple, Google satisfaction ratings slip
"American consumers still like Apple and Google, but not as much as they did last year, a new report indicates. Both companies rank near the top of their respective industries in the latest update of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, which will be released today. But both companies' rating in the index slipped over the past year. That decline could have long-term repercussions for both companies, said Claes Fornell, a business professor at the University of Michigan who heads up the index. Companies who see their customer satisfaction rating change often see their profits change in the same direction, Fornell said."

From Psychology Today: Can Telecommuting Hurt Your Career?
"Social interaction isn't just good for productivity; face time in the office can be important for your career. A January 2007 survey of 1,300 executives found that 61 percent believed telecommuters were less likely to advance—even though three-fourths said virtual workers were just as productive as their in-office colleagues."

From the Sloan Management Review: The Superstar CEO Curse
"The researchers’ March 2007 working paper, Superstar CEOs, concludes that award winners’ companies underperformed the broader market, both in terms of stock returns and returns on assets, over the one-, two- and three-year periods following the award. But the CEOs themselves did just fine: Award winners tended to receive higher compensation, mostly equity based, than other CEOs."

From Inc.: The Play List
"Twenty-five ways to keep things loose at work."

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