There’s a fine line between business and gambling. In both, you’re taking an amount of money and by doing something with it hoping to make it into a larger amount of money.

Real gamblers will tell you it’s not all chance, there’s an element of skill in whatever it is they’re doing. Real business people will tell you what they’re doing is not all skill, there’s an element of luck.

What Andy Ellis is doing at Lucid, is helping business people lessen their risk by using research to increase their knowledge of the market. With over 1,000 clients in 92 countries they describe it as “the power of human answers on a massive scale.”

Johnny Culpepper is the New Orleans Director of another international company, Accruent.  With over 10,000 customers in 150 countries, Accruent is the world’s leading manager of physical assets – from factories to hospitals and stores.

Photos over lunch at Commander’s Palace by Jill Lafleur.