In today’s fast-paced frenetic world, the term “new” is losing its luster. Everything is “new.” Every “new” product is higher in Omega fatty acids, easier to use, more feature-rich, or is bigger than the previous model.

The humorous television advertisements that show a customer’s smartphone as obsolete the moment after she purchases it is not far from reality.

Of course “new” is not new in the world of business and marketing. For decades, businesses have been peddling their products and services as “new” in an effort to lure customers. And for decades, market research has supported this notion.

Yet, I may be bucking the trend here, but I’m willing to step out on a limb to say that “old” has never been better positioned to make a comeback.

Sure, when it comes to products, customers will likely want to shell out the most dinero for the newest versions. However, when it comes to business, there may be opportunities to embrace some of the “old” ways of doing things that could lead to greater sales, higher margins, and happier shareholders.

Take talent for example. Routinely, companies bring in new, fresh talent and work them hard over the first few years. This is the classic management consulting firm model. Newbies are cheaper, more apt to work longer hours, malleable, and come with less personal baggage like child care or parental care. What’s not to like?

There’s a time and place for new talent in any company. However, I would argue that the best deal and greatest value these days may be with the older and more mature cohort. Cheaper is not always better. And with personal baggage comes experience and valuable perspective. And malleable sycophants are definitely not the recipe in my book for improving your company’s productivity.

Companies should not simply look at employees as units of labor, but as a valuable resource that should be mined and nurtured. A team made up of at least several more mature team members is likely the team that will not repeat past mistakes.

And most importantly, a team member that is willing to speak up and challenge the status quo in a constructive way – based on years of experience – is better positioned to add value to the bottom line, not take from it.

So look around you and embrace the old. Not every time, but when it is wise to do so. This newfound wisdom may be just the ticket for your company to compete in the new global marketplace.

Oh joy, with Christmas 2011 only 11 days away, we’ll soon be starting the gift card mania all over again.

Try going to any store these days without being inundated by gift cards from scores of retailers. The supermarket. The drugstore. The office supply store. Even the 7-Eleven down the street has umpteen variety of gift cards. I guess that’s why we call them convenience stores. But is there such a thing as too much convenience?

Standing in the checkout line of any of these stores, you can find yourself an arms-length away from any number of brightly colored gift cards from places like Barnes and Noble, Applebee’s, Best Buy, and Bass Pro Shops. Hey, don’t snicker. Bass fisher men and women need a little love during the holidays too.

What happened to the good old days when you had to actually go to an individual store to purchase that store’s gift card, or God forbid, purchase a gift itself? And try giving someone a $50 American Express Gift Certificate these days, redeemable like a traveler’s check. They came in matching gold-colored envelopes and made a great Christmas or graduation gift. Nowadays, you might as well try giving someone a rotary dial phone.

I must admit that I too find it hard to resist buying a gift card or two each year for that special someone — or not so special. It’s easy, and requires little thought or planning. Isn’t that the American way?

Let’s try something bold and new this holiday season. Physically go to a store and actually buy a real gift for that friend or loved one. And pay extra to get it wrapped by a human being.

In fact, make it a point this year to demonstrate a little inconvenience. Go out of your way. And do the same with your customers and clients. You’ll enjoy the results and the good cheer it will bring.

Better yet, I suggest that you carry the Thanksgiving spirit with you throughout the remainder of the year and into 2012. No company or organization ever succeeds alone. It is always a group effort.

By demonstrating a little humility and thankfulness, you’ll greatly increase the chances that your company will be around next Thanksgiving and many Thanksgivings to come.

Nothing says November like the feel of wearing a wool sweater from L.L. Bean.

I’ve been a fan of L.L. Bean’s no-frills, long-lasting clothing products for over 30 years. They are comfortable, affordable, and always get the job done.

If I had a dollar for every “Blucher Moc” moccasin shoe that L.L. Bean has sold over the years, I would, well, have a lot of dollars. The shoe is timeless and iconic, and the product description today was the same 30 years ago: “The handsewn upper conforms to your foot for a fit that only gets better with time. Traditional rubber sole has channel grooves to provide traction on wet surfaces.” Current retail price: $69 a pair.

If it ain’t broke, keep selling it. Or something like that.

L.L. Bean owes its success not only to great products, but to great customer service. Year after year, L.L. Bean ranks among America’s top 10 companies for customer service according to the National Retail Federation, based on written surveys of over 9,000 shoppers.

The company was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean in Freeport, Maine — a place that knows something about the importance of keeping warm and dry. Today, L.L. Bean’s flagship store and campus is still in Freeport on the original site where Bean opened his retail business.

Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the 200,000-square-foot flagship store draws nearly three million visitors each year.

Next year marks L.L. Bean’s 100th anniversary. Few companies on the planet survive long enough to celebrate this milestone, much less one that is still at the top of its game. The company’s annual sales now top $1.5 billion.

L.L. Bean wrote the book on succeeding as a mail-order business, and decades later was able to successfully pivot to capitalize on the e-commerce revolution. Like its famed Blucher Moc, L.L. Bean has been able to effectively adapt and conform “for a fit that only gets better with time.”

Yet, L.L. Bean’s current President, Chris McCormick, knows that the company’s success will continue to rely on its commitment to putting the customer first: “It goes back to L.L.’s Golden Rule of treating customers like human beings.”

That’s using the old bean from which we all can learn.

Compared to previous years, winners this year included big company names such as IBM, Novartis, Intel, and Abbott Labs. Start-up companies have traditionally dominated the stage for the innovation awards, but not this year.

A team of Wall Street Journal editors and reporters chose this year’s winners from among 605 applications from companies, organizations, and individuals in 31 countries. A total of 35 winners and runners-up were chosen in 16 categories.

Novartis won in the Health-Care IT category for a project that tracks medical supplies in Africa. IBM took home a bronze award for its supercomputer system, Watson, which defeated two grand champions this year on Jeopardy!

It’s refreshing to see award-winning innovation coming out of large, mature companies. It shows that old dogs can learn new tricks that can serve to excite employees, customers, and shareholders.

Whether your company is large or small, you should look for ways this coming year to unleash an innovative spirit among your employees focused on a critical objective, such as a new or improved product or service.

You’ll find that the journey to get there will pay dividends for your company even if you don’t bring home the gold, silver or bronze.

One of my favorite places to walk in New York City is down the one block stretch of 28th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in what remains of Manhattan’s “Flower District.” The otherwise non-descript city block is transformed into a cornucopia of color and greenery during the day, when New York’s flower wholesalers put out their finest and freshest flowers along the narrow sidewalks.

In the nine years that I’ve had an apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, I’ve watched the century-old Flower District shrink to what’s now less than a block. In its heyday during the first half of the 20th century, it was literally a “district” taking up several city blocks, where every major New York flower wholesaler sold their horticultural wares to merchants from all over the city. As recently as 1990, there were 50 flower wholesalers in New York’s Flower District, and today there are less than 15, according to New York Magazine.

I walked down 28th Street just this morning, stopping several times to stick my nose into a freshly cut bouquet of spring flowers or to reach out and touch an elephant ear leaf as I walked past. I wondered how many more years the flowers and their shop owners would be there given the continued encroachment of new luxury high rises and chain hotels in the area.

Change is inevitable. Clearly, we’ve all watched many urban, suburban, and rural communities change dramatically over the past several decades. Some for the better, and admittedly, some for the worse.

In most cases we only have ourselves to blame. On one hand, many of us long for the idyllic Norman Rockwell-style images of the past when quaint shops and family-owned businesses lined a neighborhood street. Yet, we also like the convenience of our gourmet coffee shops on every corner and the low costs of the huge discount retail big box stores.

And, we increasingly like the shopping convenience of simply pointing and clicking from the comfort of our homes or apartments. When you purchase online, does it really matter if the item is coming from a shop on the other side of town or from a warehouse on the other side of the country? No, not really, as long as you get the best price and you get it delivered to your front door in two or three days time.

I admit it. I’ve gradually become one of these convenience shoppers. So I guess that I, and hundreds of thousands like me, have contributed in some way to the near extinction of New York’s Flower District, and similar localized shops and business districts across the U.S.

We Americans are a smart and resourceful people. I’d like to think that there is a way for both the convenient and the idyllic to co-exist. At least I can dream, can’t I?

In the meantime I will try to do my part. Excuse me while I go down the street and purchase a few freshly cut flowers from the local vendor.

Under Hastings’s leadership, it seems that Netflix is doing everything right these days. For starters, its stock is up 200 percent in 2010, fueled by its new push for customers to stream more movies over the web vs. its traditional DVD movie-by-mail. According to Fortune, it costs Netflix five cents a movie to stream over the web, compared to $1 a movie to send through the mail (including labor).

It doesn’t take a Wharton MBA to figure out the enormous upside for any business that can save 95 cents on the dollar.

In fact, this shift in its distribution model is what makes Netflix and Hastings so impressive. Basically the company disrupted its own business model. First, it drove the former rental movie king Blockbuster into bankruptcy – literally — with its blistering growth in recent years with its movie-by-mail business featuring no due dates or late fees. Today, Netflix is increasingly calling the shots with movie studios, who are trying to figure out whether to partner or compete (or both) with Netflix and their 16 million subscribers.

Contributing to its success has been Netflix’s decision to license its streaming software to scores of device companies. Walk into a Best Buy today, and you’ll find the Netflix logo on numerous brands of flat screens, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, iPads, and smartphones – over 200 electronic devices and counting.

I must admit that I am a Netflix enthusiast, although I still get my movies from them the old-fashioned way – through the mail in their trusty red envelopes. Although I’ve not yet upgraded my television or DVD player to be able to stream movies over the web from Netflix, I do stream them on my computer from time to time.

In its latest move, Netflix announced its $7.99 a month all-you-can-eat streaming download option. That sounds pretty appetizing to me, but not to the cable industry, which has seen a drop of subscribers for the last two quarters thanks to more video content now available via the Internet.

What’s that you smell? It’s the popcorn I just put in the microwave. It’s “movie night” at my house.

It’s not every day that a movie is made about a typeface. Well, technically it was a documentary by Gary Hustwit that debuted in 2007 at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. It later aired on PBS in January 2009 as part of the Emmy-award-winning Independent Lens series, which is the version I saw.

The film, Helvetica, subsequently toured film festivals, special events, and art house cinemas worldwide, playing in over 300 cities in 40 countries.

From April 2007 to March 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City displayed an exhibit called “50 Years of Helvetica,” which celebrated the many uses of the font.

Why all the hoopla over a typeface? Well, in short, no other font can begin to approach Helvetica’s long-lived impact on the design, advertising, print and communication worlds. To this day, Helvetica continues to shine based on its simple, functional, contemporary, and timeless qualities.

Helvetica was developed by Max Miedinger with Edüard Hoffmann in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland. Miedinger, a former employee and freelance designer, was commissioned by Haas to draw an updated sans-serif typeface to add to the firm’s line. Miedinger’s new font was called Neue Haas Grotesk, but its name was later changed to Helvetica in 1960, which is derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland.

Helvetica’s popularity was fed by its Swiss design roots and by advertising agencies selling this new design style to their clients. Almost overnight, Helvetica began to appear in corporate logos, signage for transportation systems, fine art prints, and a myriad of other uses worldwide. Five decades later, the use of the Helvetica typeface in our daily lives is as ubiquitous as the air that we breathe.

What does your company’s logo and typeface say about your organization? Are you giving enough attention to how your company approaches the design, look, and feel of your products and/or services?

The best product or service in the world is of no benefit if it is not seen as appealing to the customer.

Take a page from our omnipresent friend, Mr. Helvetica, and make sure you are doing everything you can to appeal to your customers. If so, your company too will find itself still looking good at the ripe old age of 53.

Quantum is the window manufacturer of choice for many of the top residential and commercial architects in the country. Its windows and doors can be found in discriminating building projects from New York to Hawaii, Washington DC, California, and the Pacific Northwest. Windows are made of choice hardwoods, including mahogany, teak, Douglas fir, and oak. Although I will not disclose some of Quantum’s residential clients, suffice it to say that many of them are household names.

Real sash weights are used to raise and lower the double- and triple-hung windows, utilizing the same technology that has opened American windows for generations. Meanwhile, cutting-edge technologies in large wall-sized sliding glass doors are able to lift and gently glide 800-pound windows with only two fingers of effort. These windows were able to shut out the loud hum of Interstate 5, which is a stone’s throw away from Quantum’s showroom.

Quantum was founded in 1984 by several homebuilders, who were dissatisfied with the lack of high-quality all-wood windows for new home and renovation projects. So they started making the windows themselves, and soon began selling their custom windows and doors throughout the region. Today, on any given weekday, you’ll find about 65 employees working throughout Quantum’s sprawling production facility in Everett, about 30 miles north of Seattle.

Quantum’s co-founder, Paul Vexler, is a trained artist, sculptor, and carpenter. These skills have certainly contributed to the company’s success in handcrafting fine window and door products to fit an existing structure or a brand new one – from the traditional to the ultra contemporary.

While clearly more expensive than machine-made, mass-produced windows, Quantum’s products are not as expensive as you might think. For example, their windows and exterior doors on a new home project might represent 12-15 percent of the overall cost of the home.

Don’t get me wrong. Plastic, aluminum-clad, and machine-produced window products are an important part of today’s housing market. Yet, like anything else, there is something to be said about the inherent imperfection of human artistry, which can add character, style, and uniqueness to a product or project.

Seek to embrace artistry and character in your own company’s work. Celebrate those employees who might find creative ways to improve your products or services.

Most important, do not let the sound of the thundering herd (a.k.a. your competitors) drown out what your customers may be asking for – something a bit more custom-made that could lift their spirits, and your stock price.

Now for the seats: they were so narrow my shoulder constantly brushed the shoulder of the person sitting next to me. Meanwhile my knees touched the seat in front of me, as I counted the pores on the head of the bald man sitting seven inches from my nose. Does any of this sound familiar?

You may be thinking that this is yet one more person’s rant against the already down-and-out airlines industry. It is not. I know the airlines’ margins are paper-thin and they are simply trying to make ends meet, like many other businesses, so I don’t fault them for that.

However, I do have one point of contention that has no bearing whatsoever on the economics of the airline industry. As the door to our plane shut on that recent flight, the one flight attendant launched into his spiel and “invited” us “to sit back and enjoy the flight” and said we should feel free to raise our headrests for “three inches of additional comfort.”

This is where the airlines, as well as many other businesses, need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new way of talking to customers — and employees. Particularly when conditions are already challenging, you shouldn’t exacerbate the situation by using ill-conceived, out of touch, or outdated language.

You need to better understand your customers and your employees, and talk to them in a realistic and straightforward manner. In doing so, you will at least be respected for your candor. Otherwise you risk insulting the very ones you are relying on for business or support.

Telling a plane full of passengers crammed into a small metal cylinder to enjoy the three additional inches of comfort by raising one’s headrest, is equivalent to telling your employees during these tough economic times to enjoy the free access to the restrooms down the hall.

Words matter. Treat customers and employees with respect and talk to them as you would another professional that you regard as an equal – or better yet, a superior. I predict you’ll enjoy the results and the comfort that higher performance will bring to your company.

Now please lower your headrests and put up your tray tables. And thank you for flying the friendly blogosphere.