Business Flip!Flip Business Flip

Wright Medical Group published a new code of business conduct.

The code, outlined in a document filed with the Securities and Exchangemission, covers all employees and anyone doing work for the Arlington, Tenn.-based medical device maker.

The code gives a new description of prohibited activities with health care professionals, covers prohibited off-label promotion of thepany’s products and enhances thepany’s policies on confidential patient information, among other things.

The document includes an “ethics quick test,” which includes questions like: “If you do it, will you feel bad?” and suggestions like “If you know that it’s wrong or suspect that it might be wrong, don’t do it!”

In May, federal prosecutors said thepany “knowingly and willfully” breached its $7.9 million deferred prosecution agreement with the government to settle allegations it paid kickbacks to surgeons to use its products.

Thepany can settle the case without admission of wrongdoing if it meets government guidelines.

MRI Interventions CEO Kim Jenkins explains his one of hispany’s latest devices, which allows surgeons to use MRI scanning technology during a brain operation.

Their business isn’t rocket science. It’s brain surgery.

MRI Interventions Inc.’s ClearPoint system allows neurosurgeons to see a patient’s brain in real time during procedures. The system hit the U.S. market last summer and received government approval for sale in Europe this spring.

Thepany is based in Memphis but has research centers in California, Arizona and Maryland. It also has a small sales force across the U.S. that has tended to a what has so far been a limited launch of the ClearPoint system. But the sales force and the product launch effort will expand this fall, saidpany CEO Kimble Jenkins.

“We got to market before anyone else and we want to maintain that lead,” Jenkins said. “Thepetition is starting to show up in the corners but we feel good about our lead and our patent position.”

Thepany now touts 50 patents and has applications pending on 112 more.

Read full post…

NEW YORK – US STOCKS fell slightly as markets opened on Tuesday amid concern over Europe’s deepening debt crisis, which threatened to engulf Italy and Spain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 5.64 points (0.05 per cent) to 12,500.12 in the first five minutes of trading.

The broader S&P 500 shed 2.03 points (0.15 per cent) to stand at 1,317.46, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 9.94 points (0.35 per cent) to 2,792.68.

Earlier on Tuesday, stock markets fell sharply in London, Paris and Frankfurt amid worries that the eurozone’s debt crisis was spreading to Italy and Spain and endangering the continent’s banks. — AFP

Millions of British Gas customers are to face higher utility bills after the company said it is putting up the price of both gas and electricity.

Gas prices will rise by an average of 18% and electricity bills by an average of 16%.

The increases, which will come into effect from August 18, will see the average dual fuel energy bill rise by £190 a year.

The announcement was made at 10am today – as Prime Minister David Cameron was in the middle of announcing plans to deal with the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

British Gas said it had raised its prices in response to a 30% hike in wholesale prices since last winter.

It is the second of the “big six” companies to put up prices after Scottish Power announced a 19% hike in gas prices and 10% hike in electricity last month.

Read full post…

Times are good for internet entrepreneurs. VC money is flowing again, supporting a startup boom the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the late 1990s.

Large companies aren’t shy about acquiring technology and talent, and for the most promising companies, the public markets are once again open for business.

Although much of the startup investment activity and buzz is focused on startups in Silicon Valley and New York, Europe isn’t without startup action of its own.

In an effort to facilitate the kind of seed-stage investment activity seen across the pond in the United States, 22 VC firms that provide early funding to startups have come together to agree on two standard financing documents for seed investments.

According to SeedSummit, which led the initiative, “The documents are meant to serve a common goal for the community: making seed funding easier to access, better to understand, and fair for all parties. We are looking forward to them being used, adapted, and spread.“

On paper, this sounds nice, but is this really good for entrepreneurs?

The short answer is ‘no‘.

Read full post…

(Page one of this article explained how to identify and focus on your target market and use that information to evaluate your current marketing strategies. Go to page one of the Small Business Marketing Makeover or continue reading about how to choose and implement effective marketing strategies for your small business.)

Now here’s an example list of my marketing efforts to date for my fictional lingerie business:

• Yellow page ad
• Several different newspaper ads
• Several radio ads
• An on-site radio promotion (Sweetheart day for Valentine’s Day)

Going over the list and asking myself, how likely Julie is to have seen my marketing messages, I have to say not very. She doesn’t read print newspapers, remember? As for the radio promotions, she might listen to the radio in the car when shes driving around, but she’s more likely listening to preprogrammed music. In fact, these marketing efforts are probably a complete waste of time as far as Julie is concerned and Julie is the one I’m trying to market to!

Your turn.

Read full post…