Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
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motivational boost If I’m wooing you and can take you to a great restaurant, spending $1 SO or even $200, it makes me look important, I get a nice evening and I feel good about the firm I’m working for,” Wotruba says. “So there’s a certain intrinsic benefit to the person who gives the gift in generating status and self-image.
“I think that’s why a lot of firms tolerate it — how do you make your own people feel better and at the same time take a tax writeoff?”
Mary Lou Simmermacher, a spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard Co. in Palo Alto, adds that most gift exchanges for business reasons have to do with inexpensive advertising — pens, calendars or notebooks with the company’s logo printed on them, for example.
“The purpose of such a gift would be to further the business relationship,” she says. “But obviously, our employees need to take great care in accepting any kind of business gifts, such as meals or entertainment, and they need to be consistent with accepted business practices. Wotruba points out that such imprinted novelty gifts are also considered promotional items or public relations efforts.
“I might just send a notebook or pen or paperweight to all our customers or to all the people on a list I hoped would become customers,” he says, “so these gifts are not really considered gifts aimed at the recipient personally.”
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