According to David McCollough’s book, Truman, near the end of President Harry Truman’s second term in office, he entered a room and saw his wife, Bess, burning pages and pages of their personal correspondence. As a history buff and a soon to be ex-President already concerned about his legacy, Harry was mortified. “Bess, think of the history!” he exclaimed. 

Ten years ago, you were tech savvy if you had an e-mail address. Then you needed a web site. Today, you need a blog. Or do you? This month’s feature article takes a look at the practical business uses for a blog. While they can generate buzz for a product or service, you should be prepared for the commitment to keep your blog engaging for your customers.

Last month, we asked for your advice on how to enforce a non-disclosure agreement when you feel a client or vendor may have violated it. This month, we need your help with a work/life balance question. What do you do when happy hour is part of your job description? We need your best advice.

Please let me know which articles are relevant to you—and your business. Take our 1-minute reader survey and you could win a pair of 8x22 DigiCam Binoculars. We invite your feedback.

We have developed a breakthrough product and are ready to sell it to a few select customers. We want to aggressively sell the product, but we don’t want its full capabilities to get out there just yet. We’re worried other companies will build copycat products and undercut us. With a product this good, the lawyers get involved. They want us to have customers sign a non-disclosure agreement.

What I want to know is, how effective is the use of non-disclosure agreements when sharing confidential data or capabilities with customers or prospective customers? Is there a practical way to identify violations or otherwise enforce such an agreement?

—Ronald, CIO