Get The Sickness!

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

2010-12-27T09:02:00.001-08:00

As a new year approaches, it is important to keep things in perspective. While all the new stories seem to report on about Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and other digital media it is easy to forget that digital media will hit a total of $25.8 billion in 2010 which is still less than 20% of the $168.5 billion projected in total ad spending.

In my corporate life I was a big user of TV which is still the big dog anyway you look at it. Many of my current clients are big users of digital media but that's only because we are looking to target niches audiences or we can't afford to stake out that much of the market. TV may not be sexy or hot and it share of the market may be threatened by new media, but Red Lobster recently reported soft sales as a result of pulling back from TV and shifting spending to digital media. Be careful in developing a media and marketing plan that entails large shifts from the past mix. Balancing your marketing and media is a challenge even for the most experienced and requires some quantitative and strategic analysis.

Working with a limited budget requires sacrifice. Some of my clients have products that are largely sold on the internet with limited retail brick and mortar distribution. Consequently, the majority of our funds are spent on digital media. What we sacrifice is much exposure to the 40% of US homes that lack high speed internet access. We never had them so we're not giving up much other than opportunity to increase our revenues. Small companies often have challenges of increasing production so sacrificing part of their market potential only results in a slower penetration and sales increase.

Beware of pundits and advisors exclaiming traditional media is dead. Online media may have surpassed print in 2010 but print media is still generating $22.8 billion in ad spending. That's likely to be less in the future but customers for many products can still be acquired with print media. Print may not be right for all brands or target audiences but it is likely to have a role in many marketing plans. I recently met with a company that has a cloud solution for a wireless product with about 5000 potential customers total in the target audience. Direct mail and trade print are likely to be part of their marketing mix.

A successful competitor is one who adapts to changing conditions to keep growing a business. Following trends and over reacting to media coverage is likely to make you resemble Chicken Little.

Uncompetitive Nations

2010-12-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

The news is ripe with dozens of countries that are running huge deficits which basically includes just about every country banks will lend money to. I've been reading some statistics about this recently. One says that the US collects $20,000 in taxes per household and spends $30,000. Politicians get elected by creating public sector employment so it is difficult to see how this is going to be solved without a huge amount of pain. The banks in Ireland were recently bailed out and the cost of the bail out was $33,000 for every man, woman and child in the nation of 4.5 million people. Clearly a Darwinian survival of the fittest will weed out some of the less competitive nations over the next few decades. You say it can't happen? 103 of the 195 nations on Earth didn't exist in their current form 50 years ago.

Over a dozen countries emerged after the dissolution of the USSR. A good analogy was that the USSR was like a conglomerate that filed bankruptcy and all the divisions got sold off into separate companies. Going back to the Ireland situation, can a country of 4.5 million people afford many layers of government? Doesn't appear to be a competitive economy of scale working for them. Watch for whole layers of overhead to disappear in countries in the European Union and some of these nations will look more like states.

Quote of the Day from Panera

2010-11-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

"Being a better competitor became actually easier when everybody pulled back."

An interesting article on the merits of staying true to your long term strategy while ignoring some of the short term noise that makes corporations lose their way. Read the article on Businessweek on line.

Support an Inventor this holiday

2010-11-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

Having invented the Surf-Grip (www.Surf-Grip.com) as well as having a number of inventors as clients, I found that invention is the key driver behind an innovation economy. As much as politicians have spoken about creating jobs this recent election season, what really drives the economy is creating new inventions. It looks like the Kinect is going to be a big driver this holiday season and while it may get all the PR, its the thousands of other inventions that have provided America its competitive advantage in the global economy. As recognition of the role that inventors play in driving the economy, I'm promoting that everyone support an inventor this holiday season and by a gift of good old American know how. If you would like to buy someone a Surf-Grip, I'll really appreciate it. If you want to get me a gift, check out Stackmates (www.buystackmates.com). They are a clever space saving storage item and if you buy me a set, you can get a 2nd set for yourself for $7.95. If I get multiple sets, I'll re-gift them to my friends and my kids.

Do your part for American innovation and support an inventor this holiday.

Sick of Politics As Usual? Write In Mike Sick for Congress - 50th District

2010-10-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

This election season appears to be even more inane than in the past. Here in California we see hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to advertise what a lousy candidate the opponent is. You have to look long and hard to find out what the candidates are actually for as politicians are notorious for not saying anything so specific that a voter may actually disagree with them. With unemployment being reported at levels around 10%, every candidate is “for jobs”. Ask what the plan is and they don’t really have too much to say.

The way I see it, the candidates are playing politics as usual and just appear to be rearranging the desk chairs rather than advancing real solutions. Every election we hear about the changes the politicians will seeking but what we get are tinkering and tweaking that seem to create employment for lawyers and tax accountants but significant progress rarely seems to occur.

As a sign of my disgust, I have decided to mount a write in campaign for myself. Please join me by writing in Mike Sick for the 50^th District of Congress if you live in North County San Diego. In the incumbent Brian Bilbray’s recent mailers, about 98% of the space was spent tearing down challenger Francine Busby.

You’re welcome to write my name in for governor anywhere else if you want to make a statement calling for government to make real changes and for politicians to offer solutions.

Here are some of my views that can offer real solutions. You may not agree with all of them but I’m sure that you don’t agree with 100% of the views of a particular party so let’s encourage a discussion of dramatic changes that will address problems rather than the symptoms.

1) Individual Freedom – I am proud to live in a country that was founded on the vision of protecting the rights of citizens to “Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”. Let’s quit trying to legislate our personal beliefs to everyone else. Our laws should protect the citizens from infringement of the rights by others.

2) Unemployment – Up to 99 weeks have been available for folks who have become unemployed. Some could say that there are people taking advantage of those benefits. We should require days of community service from people receiving unemployment - beach clean ups, volunteer organizations, community service. Think of the resource that could be unleashed. We should also encourage hiring corporations to plan volunteer days in which they could invite unemployed persons to volunteer side by side with them which leverages the impact of the project and creates relationships with potential employers.

3) Mentoring and coaching for at risk youth - keep them from getting pregnant and out of jail. Could the unemployed be trained and tasked to provide leadership to younger people? There aren’t enough jobs for the unemployed to be spending 5 days a week applying for them. There’s a lot of waiting time in most job searches. Let’s use some of that time more productively.

4) Jobs for Veterans: Create job prerequisites that give employment preference to veterans for jobs with the post office, police, fire, Border Patrol, DMV and other public sector jobs. Public sector jobs should be a privilege to folks who have served the country – not patronage spoils to be divided up.

5) Disaster Preparedness – News reports from Katrina and Haiti reinforce the inadequacy of government in dealing with massive disasters. I would feel a whole lot better for my family and neighbors if we could work towards achieving emergency preparedness for 30% regional self sufficiency of energy, water and food from local sources. In San Diego, most of our food, energy and water come from outside of the country. Government can be the catalyst to accelerating development of solar, wind, biomass, local farms, water recycling etc.

6) Police Protection: Increase gas taxes with additional funds earmarked for police. By creating new sources of funding for police coverage, a greater share of property taxes can be dedicated to education and fire departments as property taxes will provide a more reliable source of revenue than fluctuating federal and state support. The highway fund should also be reserved for transportation and security – no raiding for the general fund.

7) Pension Reform: Create a pension program that balances the public burden of pension obligations with incentives for older citizens to work part time longer and defer collecting social security or other public pension obligations. This could come in the form of exempting retirement age individuals and their employers from social security contributions in return for deferring the start of social security and other payments for reduced work week "semi retirement" schedules. Pension equity should also be developed with more harmonization between the public and private sectors.

8) Wellness program – Our health care system to dysfunctional and repealing the Obama Care plan won’t really solve the health care problem but rather reduce health care to citizens who can’t afford health insurance. As a nation, we’re also creating future health care costs by a society that is becoming increasing more obese and less fit. Let’s create stakeholder groups that are vested in promoting wellness and reducing burdens on the health care expenses - health clubs, personal trainers and other can be paid with a preventive health assessment voucher that would get citizens eating right and exercising so that obesity and other future health costs can be mitigated.

9) Prohibition of Marijuana: Prohibition of alcohol was a complete disaster. We should learn from history and legalize and grow marijuana on military bases to generate a source of revenue for wounded warrior care and military pensions - take the profit away from the drug lords and reduce costs of border protection of prisons.

10) Congress should embrace technology and enable transparent voting from their districts limiting the time they spend in Washington.

11) Immigration: Create a Mexican guest worker program that enables daily border crossing for authorized workers who can be bused back to Mexico each night to be with their families who can receive health care and education in Mexico. Spending billions on a border fence seemed like a silly idea from the get go.

12) Jobs and Retirement: Create an age adjusted tax exemption on dividends so that a retiree may receive $20,000 in dividend income that they corporation has already paid taxes on to encourage retirement income that is focused on creating private sector employment rather than public sector tax transfers.

13) 2% plan. All public sector wages would increase 2% per year. Social security would increase 2% per year. Eliminate the annual dance and cost of negotiations. We might have to freeze increases for a year or two to get spending in line.

I trust just about everyone will find something in the preceding that they will disagree with but the point is that government must focus more on solutions and less on political advantage. If you are sick of politics as usual, write in Mike Sick for Congress, 50^th District.

The Battery Tax

2010-09-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my mailman on a recent Saturday when I picked up two pieces of junk mail from my mailbox. I asked how long Saturday deliveries would be continued by the Post Office as it is really a service that has outlived its usefulness. He claimed that the Post Office is losing millions on Saturday delivery and that the union is fighting the elimination to save jobs.

In the US, we take the Post Office for granted although the Post Office is a huge part of our competitive advantage economically as a nation. It's not likely that UPS or Fedex will be competing for daily envelope delivery anytime soon and the scale of the Post Office enables a huge amount of business to be transacted at a very low cost.

On the other hand, the rise of electronic commerce is causing a reduction in volume quicker than the Post Office can reduce its workforce without a massive headcount reduction. In the last decade, the Post Office has already reduced its workforce by 200,000. Saturday delivery would result in another 40,000 reduction. The last thing the economy needs now is another 40,000 people losing their jobs.

Let's look for some creative solutions. What additional tasks could the Post Office take on? If you are wondering what the title of this post has to do with the preceding, the answer is about to come clear. Why don't we have the Post Office pick up all our used batteries and make sure they don't end up in the dump where they will eventually end up in our water supply? Adding a battery tax on the purchase of batteries would fund their collection and who better to be able to pick up from every home in the country.

Surf-Grip Update

2010-07-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a nice bit of news coverage last week with a profile story on Small Business AOL. It actually was a featured story on their home page for a day or so and we tracked a flurry of visits to our web page and orders as a result. We're still in the launch mode and i try to get out 1-2 times a week to demonstrate the Surf-Grip at the beach and talk to people who invariably ask me "what is it and where do you get them". In another 2-3 years, we're bound to be an overnight success!

Why What Happens in Greece Matters to Your Business

2010-06-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

How to Operate in a Deflationary Future: It is widely believed that the massive deficits being run by the United States government will result in inflation. Inflation that would cause tax revenues to increase and allow national debt to be paid off with inflated dollars is something that politicians dream of at night. If one studies the economic history of Japan over the last few decades, you will see that a significant issue for many businesses in the United States is deflation. The risk of deflation is almost greater over the next few years and could cause even more failures for the unprepared.

“The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century” became an international bestseller when it was published in 2005. The book discusses the factors which increased global competition and how to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Many businesses service customers in a narrow geography and mistakenly believe that they are not impacted by what goes on half way around the world. If a business or its customers are affected by inflation, energy prices or interest costs, the globally economy is having a larger impact than might be obvious.

Looking at some key drivers of inflation may be instructive and while you are reading this, think of how much inflationary pressure the fact will exert or not exert over the next few years:

Employment: It’s not likely labor rates in the US will be increasing anytime soon with the current and projected level of unemployment. Government workers have been laid off in half the states. Twenty-two states have instituted unpaid furloughs. It appears that consumer demand even from public sector employees may be soft. How often do you hear about unemployed workers being hired at lower wages than they previously enjoyed? The celebration of getting a new job is likely to be muted.

Oil: We’ve seen some softening of oil prices in the late spring driven by the weakening of the Euro. Europeans are already paying over $7 per gallon and if the Euro weakens further it is likely to reduce demand in Europe which will have a beneficial impact on US imports. We could see political risks and holiday gouging but the outlook for the next few years is likely to be deflationary for energy costs.

Social Security COLA: For the first time, Social Security benefits did not increase due to COLA (Cost of Living Adjustments) leaving that population with no additional income to stimulate the economy.

Interest Rates: With the Euro down about 12% compared to a year ago, the US Treasury will benefit from a continued flight to safety and capital preservation. My adjustable mortgage has been less than 3% for the last year and a half and it is not unusual to see mortgages advertised in the 3-4% range. Businesses will benefit from improved margins as a result of lower interest costs.

Taxes: Likely to take a bigger bite out of the consumers’ wallet. The public sector is between a rock and a hard spot - the more governments take out of the economy in the form of taxes, the less money there is to spend on goods and services in the private sector. Without stimulus spending (which has largely be funded by borrowing) the economy will likely lose some of the feeble momentum it already has. Between December 2007 and April of this year, disposable personal income would have been DOWN just over $900 billion without the stimulus money. Increased property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes and gas taxes will only further reduce the amount of spendable income available to buy products that companies need to hire employees to make. Will government spending in the 2nd half of 2010 and next year rival the levels of the 2009 stimulus? Probably not.

Real Estate: Anyone think that home values are going to be the piggy bank they were a few years ago? How about the commercial real estate market? With the amount of for lease signs, landlords aren’t likely to have pricing pressure anytime soon.

Factory Utilization: You don’t hear a lot about companies raising prices because the demand outstrips their capacity to produce. With a lower Euro, it will become more difficult to compete with European made products.

Over my 25 years in the chain restaurant business with brands like Jack In The Box, Burger King, Arby's, Pizza Hut and others, it was almost standard to increase prices by 2-3% per year. That would offset increases in minimum wage, supply increases and other costs. Everyone would feel good about that even if transactions were flat or slightly down. It's not likely that many brands will have much pricing power in the immediate future so increase sales to existing and new customers will be of critical importance.

25 of 27 European countries are running deficits in excess of 3% of GDP. Ireland has a deficit of 14.3%. Portugal is at almost 10%. Greece is almost 14%. Greek debt for 5-year bonds is now 15%. There is no way for them to grow their way out of the problem if interest rates are at 15%, up almost fourfold in less than a year. Rates are rising for other European peripheral countries as well. Europe is likely to buy fewer goods and services and will attempt to utilize a weaker Euro to export its way out of its problems. So what happens in Greece, really does affect businesses in the US.

With consumers saving more, limiting spending, deal seeking and trading down, many businesses are seeing reduced revenues even if customer counts are up. While some of your costs may be down, less volume may be spread over fixed costs making the need for growth imperative if not urgent. In an economy like this, businesses fail. The good news is that new competition may be less likely so there are opportunities to grow share in a declining market. With competition failing, the survivors can thrive by gaining share even in declining markets.

Despite, the preceding, I am highly optimistic about the future although operating in a deflationary environment is likely to be a much different paradigm. The challenge is to figure out not only how to survive but thrive. It’s survival of the fittest. How fit is your business?

Here are a couple of best practices to consider-

Costs: Keep a strong watch on your costs. Defer adding head count, invest in automation and productivity improving technology. Look at some cost categories that have gone down in recent years - VoIP, cell phone minutes, commercial real estate rent rollbacks and even wages at many companies. You need to reduce costs if you want to maintain margin in the face of pressure for price cuts or discounts.

Technology: Invest in technology and automation to minimize competitive disadvantage from lower wage rates around the world - labor is only one component of costs and if you can engineer it out of your product and processes, you improve the competitiveness of your business.

Customers: Do you have a customer base in which no single client accounts for more than 10 percent of total sales? If you find the majority of your customer base comprising of only one or two good customers, it is important to consider reinvesting your profits into additional capacity and/or marketing to acquire a broader customer base.

Growth: You need to have a realistic growth strategy. You can’t save yourself to prosperity and it is likely that you’ve already cut costs where you could over the past few years. It makes sense to have a written plan describing future growth and how that growth will be achieved based on industry dynamics, increased demand for the company’s products, new product lines, market plans, growth through acquisition, and expansion through augmenting territory, product lines, manufacturing capacity, etc.

Turning Over A New Leaf

2010-06-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

I went to a presentation today that talked about the future of Electric vehicles (cars!) and charging stations. Kudos to Nissan for stepping out of the status quo to launch a new product and seek to differentiate itself from most of the rest of the industry. With a whole infrastructure of home chargers and charging stations needed to be put into place, Nissan is blazing new ground and will likely benefit from first user advantage.

One metric of consumer interest is that they have over 70,000 fans on their Facebook page for the Nissan Leaf - a car that won't be introduced until December. They also have thousands of consumer that have already paid a $99 reservation deposit to get a Nissan Leaf when it is released. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs is one of those who has ordered one.

Now that's a competitive strategy that won't be easy to knock off!

Outlook for 2010- January Newsletter

2010-01-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

Outlook for 2010 - Expansion

As 2010 gears up, there are a number of thoughts that come to mind. The past year has been stimulating despite its roller coast ride in the news. As is often the case, things aren’t as bad as they are made out to be by the press and there are winners and losers in many industries. If you were in real estate or construction, much of the bad news came in 2007 or 2008. If you were on Main Street, you needed to figure out how to gain share in a down economy or how to create and exploit a competitive advantage. Companies like CostCo, Amazon, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, PetSmart and a few of my clients have been able to enjoy growth over the past year. The winners have done so by offering customers a compelling value proposition – not necessarily the lowest price. Combine that with aggressive marketing and by actively seeking to acquire new business from failing or shell shocked competitors, the path for continued success in 2010 has become increasingly clear. Wall Street and banks have figured out how to prosper by borrowing money at low rates from the Fed and buying Treasury Bills. Doesn’t take a lot of intelligence or acumen to see how that can be a low risk proposition but it also doesn’t appear to be sustainable long term. My recommendations are generally focused on differentiating your brand from the competition.

View the entire January Newsletter on the GetTheSickness website: Resources/Newsletter Archives

Please email me if you would like to be added to the email newsletter list.

Speaking Engagement: Strategies for Growing your Business in a New Economy

International Man of Marketing
Jaclyn Sick joins Sick Consulting Practice
How to Get More for your Money—The Benefits of Consultants vs. Employees

Dubai - a Mid East Ponzi Scheme?

2009-11-29T15:10:00.001-08:00

I recently spoke at a Marketing & Sales conference in Yemen. I flew Emirates Airline and had the opportunity to spend some time in Dubai. Emirates Airlines is truly one of the best flying experiences I have had in decades. Great service, great food, seat back entertainment. I was dreading the 15-16 hour flights but it turned out to be more bearable than I expected.

While I was sitting in the plane, I was thinking to myself that they were probably losing money and that the airlines was both good public relations for the UAE and a comfortable means to travel for the oil rich who didn't have their own private jets. When I arrived in the airport, it too was cavernous and far larger than I would have expected given the amount of people walking around. Again, a bit of over investment.

While I was touring around, I learned that Dubai Creek (seen behind me) was not really a creek in the sense that most of us know a body of water. It's not like Dubai has lots of rain and run off so it originally was not quite as expansive as it is today. Some smart thinking and foresight envisioned the Dubai that we see today and money was borrowed from Kuwait to turn the creek into a water feature with water taxies and waterfront development opportunity.

Dubai has been compared to Las Vegas (without the gambling) or Disneyland and it does offer an exciting alternative for vacationers from neighboring countries. The question I kept asking myself was if Dubai was actually sustainable. There is no reason for a city in a desert with summer time temperatures of 130 degrees to have any real competitive advantage over other cities which have longer histories although less spectacular real estate activity.

Over the past week, Dubai has been in the news due to their financial crises. Seems they have $100 Billion of debt for an economy with a $50 Billion GDP which is driven by construction and rising real estate values. Problem is, real estate values are not rising and it is hard to imagine how they can sustain long term viability with an economy which is driven by government expenditures. A noble experiment but how much can desert real estate really be worth over the long term? Will they really find enough industry to relocate there and enough people to buy residences to sustain the real estate development driven economy?

Do visit Dubai if you have a chance. If they can't pay the air conditioning bill, it's likely to become a ghost town in the desert.

How to Establish a Marketing Budget

2009-11-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

To the multitudes that are following my blog, please accept my apology for not posting more frequently. Being a small consulting firm, client priorities generally take priority and the good news is that I have been quite busy in recent months. I leave soon for an international trip and promise that I will make a post when I return and be more regular in the future.

A common question among business owners is how much should they be spending on marketing. The correct answer is…it depends. As many businesses are in the process of building plans and setting budgets for the coming year, this topic seems to come up more often. There are many factors that can be considered in establishing the right amount to spend on marketing and advertising. Here are a few items to consider:

Industry Norms. Most industries have a spending range that generally encompasses most of the companies in that industry. Understanding this range is an important first step. Previous experience, feedback from other firms in the industry or searches on the internet or trade publications are all good sources of this information.

According to a report in Ad Age, ad spending in the United States as a percent of GDP was 2.2%. That number is probably low for what most organizations spend as it is just advertising and marketing services (trade shows, research, consulting, design, production, staff, etc.) can often comprise 25-50% of the total spending.

Spending ratios are obviously influenced by the business model for the industry. High margin businesses like beverages and software can afford to spend a greater amount of their revenue on advertising than lower margin business like electronics or banking.

“Fixed” Program Some business will find that their business requires a “minimum” level of marketing expenditures to be competitive. For example, if a business finds that they need to attend a certain number of industry trade shows or advertise regularly in certain publications, they will find that their budget is driven by a “fixed” set of expenditures which will set the budget.

Competitive Position If Company “A” is in an industry in which the norm is 5%, consideration needs to be given to the size of the competitors the company is faced with. If the company does one million in revenue, fixing the budget at 5% would result in a $50,000 advertising budget. If all the companies in direct competition have five million in revenue and if they also spend 5%, they will have five times the budget as Company “A”. Some consideration should be given to increasing the spending percent, focusing the budget on a specific vertical customer segment and/or limiting the geographic reach of the marketing plan.

Growth Goals A company that has aggressive goals for increasing revenues should consider how much marketing budget would be generated by the higher revenue goal. Establishing the marketing budget as a ratio of the revenue goal is another approach. Reducing marketing spending is likely to reduce the acquisition of new customers or even jeopardize the company’s current market share. Growing quickly also requires increased working capital for inventory, staffing and accounts receivable so the prospect of increasing marketing spending can often times be challenging for high growth companies. Companies that have plans to growth rapidly generally need to spend a higher percent of sales to achieve that goal.

Marketing spending is often perplexing for business owners as the security of immediate results if often elusive. Prospects generally need to be exposed to a brand multiple times before they are likely to change providers or make a purchase. Nurturing tomorrow’s customers is a process that the savvy marketer has been investing in for months or years. Each business has a slightly different situation that needs to be considered in establishing a marketing budget. Reviewing the approaches discussed in this article is a good first step. Optimizing the marketing spending through benchmarking and tracking metrics specific to the company’s situation on an ongoing basis is a requirement for businesses to thrive and have above average results.

The New Normal

2009-07-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've gotten around to making a new post. My excuse is that I have been busy, which is good news.

I just read a piece that said that the average job search is taking 2.5 weeks per 10K of income (i.e. 100K salary = 25 week search). It seems to me that I heard that you should plan a month per 10K of income for your job search but either way, the point is that someone with a $100K salary can expect to spend 25-40 weeks in a job search mode. If the average job lasts for 3 years, it means that 17-28% of your time will be spent in transition.

This is probably not news for the close to 10% of Americans who are unemployed at this minute, but it raises an interesting question about the future of work in America. Having spent the last six years as a consultant, my reality is that I am always looking for work. In the initial years, I probably spent more than 28% of my time looking for clients and my goal is to reduce the percent of business development hours spent each month without reducing the amount of client projects I have in my pipeline.

As an employee, if I lose my job, i generally lose 100% of my income. As a consultant, I can give my self a 20% raise any time I can bill 20% more hours in a month. Which scenario appears more secure? The idea of a safe and secure job is increasingly becoming a myth in corporate America. We have seen many mighty corporate icons fall over the last year. How does that bode for the future? From my view, it is likely to evolve to a great share of the workforce pursuing free agent employment or entrepreneurial ventures. The American workforce is likely to become more creative, more inventive and more resilient over time which will improve our global competitiveness. The new normal is to be always seeking new opportunities.

A Week of Good News

2009-02-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

It should be no surprise that the economy is not very good. I also don't think it is as bad as one would conclude by watching the nightly news. If yours was one of the jobs lost recently, its probably much worse than the news is reporting. Its all a matter of perspective. Here's a novel idea. What if everyone didn't watch the news one week and used the time to do something constructive. Instead of sitting in front of the TV hearing about the rising cost of health care, how about going for a walk or going to work out. Wellness is far more affordable than health care. How about working on a project that will save you money like adding insulation to your home or weather stripping. Or recycling. Or a beach clean up. Or volunteering. Or doing a good deed for an elderly neighbor. You get the picture. Do something that will make you feel good. Turn off the news for a week. I'm sure the world will get along with out everyone watching the news for seven days. Try it.

The World has Changed - Or has it?

2008-12-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

The last couple of months have been interesting, that's for sure. With Obama being elected president, the decline of the stock market and the Euro dropping by about 20% to the dollar in about 60 days, it appears that everything is in turmoil. If you were planning on retiring in the next few years or you worked with a financial institution that found itself with a negative net worth, you will need to make some major adjustments.

On the other hand, we've seen some dramatic relief at the gas pump and it's hard to believe that has been totally driven by reduced demand. Obviously the decline of the Euro has had an impact on oil prices but it appears that as things have changed, we can count on the familiar themes of good old greed and over reaction.It was announced a few weeks back that retail sales in September were down 1.2%. The stock market dropped 6% that day. Are the publicly traded companies worth 30-40% less than they were just a few short months ago? Probably not. Will the big investment funds generate strong gains buying stocks at these prices? You can count on that.

Unemployment is 6.7% and GDP is down over 2007. From my view, the cup is more than half full. A challenging business landscape is a perfect opportunity to thin the herd of weak competitors. If one competitor in each industry fails and redistributes share to the remaining contenders, increased sales and profits are realistic for many businesses. It the remaining competitors increase their costs less than the failed entity, the entire industry becomes more efficient which is good for customers and shareholders.

For the most part, I work with Main Street clients and November has been a good month - one actually had their best month ever in November. What's the big secret? Get your staff focused on taking care of the things that customers value. Work smarter. Invest in systems and productivity improvements. Don’t cut back on your marketing. Improve new products. Get better every day.

Don't be distracted by what's happening with your 401K. That's like trying to win a tennis game by watching the score board. Keep focused on your value drivers. Make strategic changes where warranted but for most businesses, the world has not changed as much as the media would lead you to believe.

Bailout Math

2008-10-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

Political season must be silly season. The sheer magnitude of the bailout boggles my mind. That Wall Street got Congress to buy into the program is testament to the quality of our elected officials. I suspect that it will only be months before the finger pointing starts singling out the most outrageous abuses of taxpayer dollars. Saying that the bailout will come from tax collections is probably an overstatement as it will likely come from the sale of bonds which whose only chance of ever getting paid back is in inflated dollars.

The 700 billion figures out to $140,000 per home for 5 million homes. There are 125 MM homes in the US and many of them probably are not $140,000 underwater. My suggestion would be that the US government offer second mortgages that have zero current interest or payments so that banks could refi non performing mortgages at lower rates. If the house were sold at some future point, the second mortgage would be repaid back to the government. The big advantage of this is that it keeps people in their homes and it eliminates a huge portion of the non performing loans which restores the value of the securities that have declined in value wiping out the reserve capital of the financial institutions that are in trouble. I'm sure it can't be as simple as this. The better approach is to use about $600 billion for legal and transaction fees....

Introducing the Surf-Grip

2008-09-30T18:08:00.001-07:00

Differentiation is a key criteria that I preach to all my clients and when it came to launching my own product, it was important that I come up with a product that varied from all competing products. I recently launched a company with my daughter to market the Surf-Grip, a product I invented and developed which is an alternative to your bare hands or a body board when you go to the beach.

With the Surf-Grip, swimmers of all abilities will be able to improve their body surfing experience. The Surf-Grip is a pair of lightweight foam paddles with handles that beach goers can use to increase their buoyancy and improve their body surfing ability. With a MSRP targeted in the $20-25 range, the Surf-Grip will find a wide audience of beach goers and tourists who will find it more convenient and a better value than a body board.

We recently premiered it at the ASR (Action Sports Retailer) Show in San Diego and got great feedback from around the world. We're looking towards a consumer launch in South Florida and/or Mexico for Spring Break 2009. The Surf-Grip is so differentiated, we need to show people what it is and how it works. We'll have beach teams letting interested people try demo units. Keep posted for updates on this one and ask your local retailer for the Surf-Grip.

Check out the Surf-Grip on the web at www.Surf-Grip.com. The site is evolving and we'll looking to get some video up in the coming weeks.

Competition For Resources

2008-08-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has been to the gas pump lately seems the impact of competition for resources. Due to rising global demand for energy, it is likely that oil will continue to be priced as high as the market will bear for probably the rest of my life.

The idea of government providing rebates or taking a pause from filling the strategic oil reserve only shows that most of our political leadership is more focused on treating the symptoms rather than the problem. A thought came to me is that a true government that is focused on serving its customers (that's us tax payers and citizens) should be looking for more novel solutions. We're already hearing lots of talk about alternative energy and developing renewable sources. How about we get a government mandate to set a deadline of not competing with its citizens for resources. What I mean by that is let's have all government vehicles use alternative fuels, all major buildings develop solar generating capability and let's see the government use the minimum amount of water possible through reclamation, rainwater collection and other means.

The government already represents over 20% of the Gross Domestic Product of the US. If they represent 20% of the energy and water use, just reducing that a portion is likely to provide relief for its citizens.

Inc. Magazine on Competitive Strategy

2008-08-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

This blog is all about competitive strategy so I was interested in reading (belatedly) an article from the April 2008 issue of Inc. magazine about competitive strategy by columnist Joel Spolsky.

Joel makes an analogy about how a five minute speech made by an Army general taught him as much about business strategy as Michael Porter, the Harvard Business Review and a bunch of books by management consultants. The essence of the speech was "Fire and Motion" - you fire at the enemy and while they duck and avoid your shots, you move forward to another position.

I tend to agree with Joel that the competitive landscape is a fluid one. Today's advantage is tomorrow's me too proposition as many organizations are focused on knocking off innovators and trying to match their offerings. This is a fact of life and while it works for some (usually the largest competitors with huge ad budgets), a copy cat strategy is almost never a formula for success.

Buyer expectations have changed and I quote CSO Inisghts in a study that indicated that 83.7% of the firms they surveyed indicated that buyer expectations have increased over the past ten years partly due to the fact that prospective customers often review their options by comparing information posted on the Internet. For firms that don't have any points of difference or competitive advantages, it's easy to be overlooked.

I have been working with a company that has invested heavily in adding functionality and ease of use to SharePoint, Microsoft's web portal product. They have a number of enhancements and webparts that they have developed in the process of becoming a SharePoint expert. They had enough differences on their site(www.sharepoint360.com) , that they were called by NASA to help them with their SharePoint strategy.

Coming up with innovative new and different features is not only a good competitive strategy, its a great strategy for survival and prosperity.

The Euro vs. the Dollar

2008-06-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

The decline of the dollar versus the Euro was brought home to me painfully recently while I was in Europe for a combination of vacation and to attend the Interzoo show in Nuremberg Germany with my client who produces the Litter Robot (www.Litter-Robot.com). At over $1.50 to the dollar, the Euro was dramatically different than my last trip in which I enjoyed a .83 Euro. Economists are predicting that the dollar will achieve parity again with the Euro in the future. The Euro is strong for reasons of pride and to demonstrate that the European Union's courageous experience in currency harmonization was a viable idea. I agree that the European Union and a common currency is a huge benefit as traveling from Italy to the Czech Republic to Germany was very easy (except for those Czech crowns that I brought home with me...) In order to prove it would work, the European Central Bank has kept interest rates uncompetitively high which may be good for the currency, but it raises havoc with local inflation, local jobs and it makes European products and services uncompetitive. It also burdens both consumers and businesses with a higher interest expense.

As a consultant representing a US made product, we received a warm reception from potential customers in dozens of countries. Bringing back manufacturing to the United States is only helped by this. The high Euro has also been a deterrent to travel to Europe but it hasn't stopped the Europeans from making trips to the US for shopping which is a huge bargain as not only are costs lower in the US, but they get to avoid those 20%+ value added taxes(VAT). The other observations I made was that the VAT was hidden in the prices of goods and that the cost of gasoline was in the $8-9 US range due to the high taxes. The European governments don't practice alot of transparency in terms of their taxes on purchases because they don't want the citizens to be reminded how much of the purchase price of goods goes to the government.

Bottom line is that nations compete just like businesses and the European Union has a losing competitive strategy in my mind. In their zeal to maintain the Euro, they are gutting their competitiveness and with the demographics working against them, the strong Euro is likely to be short lived.

I just read that in 2000, Italy and France had over 22% of their population age 60 or more compared to 16% in the US. Due to low birth rates and limits on immigration, their 60+ populations will comprise 26.8% (France) and 33% (Italy) in the year 2020 compared to an increase to 22.8% in the US. The burden of their demographics on retirement and health care are going to have a dramatic impact in the European Union long before the impending doom of Social Security in the US. It will be interesting to see how they handle it. I'm guessing that a few European governments will go bankrupt and they will either leave the EU or abdicate a greater part of their sovereignty to the union. As always, the future will always be interesting....

Happy Mother's Day Mom

2008-05-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Looking through the cards in the rack for Mother's Day, many of the sentiments revolve around your Mom being the best. It may not seem logical that all Mom's can be the best, but motherhood may actually be an exception to conventional wisdom.

Bringing a child into the world is certainly one of the most significant acts of human effort. Captains of industry and sports superstars may have plenty of metrics of their success and achievement, but birth is a miracle that is hard to top. The fact that the majority of women are capable of achieving motherhood does not diminish the miracle.

Mothers sacrifice many things for their offspring and it is difficult to adequately thank them for their love, caring and devotion. Human children need a far longer period of care from a parent that other species which are often taking care of their own offspring before human children are barely out of diapers. If not for the years of time and devotion from mothers, few of us would be what we are today.

Looking at the cards stating "You're the best Mom in the world" is only just return for all the times that your mother believed in you even when you weren't as confident that you could walk, ride a bike unassisted, do your homework or the many other things that you were encouraged to do by your mother.

I may be biased about my Mom who has encouraged and inspired me for decades, but I think she is the BEST! At the young age of 76, my mother still inspires me. After giving birth to four sons in five years and then a daughter three years later, she was the mother of five before age 30. She then spent the following two decades being den mother, little league mom, chauffeur, cook, tutor and all the other roles mothers play. She followed us to school when she got a job at the local middle school where she became the unofficial mother to dozens if not hundreds of kids who passed through that school in the 20 plus years she worked there. She did all this while maintaining a marriage with my Dad (see picture)that is in its 56th year (I think he will also admit that he has benefited from some of her mothering skills...)

If that wasn't enough, as my siblings and myself moved onto college and started our careers, Mom decided to run for political office become a council person for the Town of Salina where she became a mother to thousands of residents, voters, seniors, highway department staff etc. Her efforts were obviously well received as the voters returned her to office for seven terms.

When Mom finally "retired" to Florida, she quickly became the president of her homeowners association and then when she moved to another association, she became president there as well. I am also proud to say that my mother has embraced technology as I am reminded when I can an email from her almost every day regarding some family development or a funny story.

My Mom is still going strong and is an inspiration to everyone around her as she just can't shake the role that she has performed so spectacularly for the last five and a half decades. She lives in a retirement community and has taken to mothering the elderly residents who may need some extra help and encouragement. When her 86 year old neighbor Ernie's wife passed away and had some health problems, he became her latest project with us getting regular updates as to how she was giving him the same care and devotion that she provide for each of the thousands of people who had passed through her life better for the experience. She has officially only been a mother to me and my four siblings, but there are many who have benefited from and appreciate her mothering.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Bring Back the Music

2008-05-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Having four kids between the ages of 17 and 24 gives me some interesting perspectives. In recent years, our music tastes have become more similar as they have borrowed my CD's and I have been introduced to some newer musical artists by my kids.

A few Christmases ago, this convergence was made very obvious to me when my son's wish list included artists like Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and the Doors. As I attend live concerts of the artists that emerged in the 70's, I find an increasing share of the audience wasn't even born when the artist was first hitting the charts. It appears that during the 80's and the 90's, many of the musical artists of that era failed to have a lasting impact on even their own generation. Kids during the 80's and the 90's had a great deal of competition for their time and attention with the internet, playstation and text messaging. In the early 70's, disco had not yet emerged and many states had a drinking age of 18 still which caused many young people to revolve their social life around going to clubs and listening to live music. While not always great quality, it enabled musicians to make a living playing in a band that performed in clubs.

I'm not predicting that club bands are going to have a resurgence but I am looking forward to another era of great music in the not too distant future. This next period of great new music will be inspired by an unlikely source, the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. These both have been huge successes and I'm predicting that enough young people will be motivated to create new music that we'll all benefit from another decade of prolific musical creativity.

Bring back the music!

The China Syndrome

2008-03-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

The downward journey of the dollar is slowly but surely changing the competitive playing field for the United States and the rest of the world.

I recently was at a trade show and many of the manufacturers were reporting that their Chinese suppliers were looking for 10-20% price increases. With the steady decline of the dollar, the price of energy and freight is also rising. I once heard that the rule of thumb was that your product needed to have a 25% labor content for outsourcing to China to make sense. With increased freight costs and Chinese labor rates, that number must surely be much higher. The net effect of that change is that manufacturing in the US will increasingly be a more viable prospect, particularly for larger, more freight sensitive items. Look for a movement back to America for manufacturing in the coming years.

The other trend that will accelerate the return of US manufacturing is the concern and safety of Chinese products which have had dozens of issues in the news recently from lead painted toys to toxic pet food. Trader Joe's recently announced they are banning some imports from China to satisfy customers concern about quality.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future. My money is on American ingenuity bringing back manufacturing to the US with production closer to markets (reducing freight burdens) and increased use of mechanization and robotics. It's a brave new world!

The Little Black Dress Party

2008-02-13T22:54:00.000-08:00

In my line of work, I have a great deal of respect for companies that work hard to define their brand, to differentiate their offerings and to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. That being said, I am particularly delighted to spotlight a promotion hatched by my own brother, Dennis. He runs Mohegan Manor (www.MoheganManor.com) which is a restaurant and banquest facility in the Syracuse NY suburb of Baldwinsille (which he has also renamed as "Historic Baldwinsville" in all his marketing.

Every woman has a Little Black Dress that she paid way too much for that sits in the back of her closet begging to be shown off...right?

That's how the copy for his promotional materials goes. Mental images start forming right away. I believe that this concept works very well with both genders and if his first event was any indication, the event scheduled for Thursday February 21st, is sure to be a smash hit. The Syracuse Newspaper liked the idea so much they featured it on the cover of their entertainment section a month in advance.

This idea is sure to be copied across the country. Imitation is surely a high form of flattery when competitors copy you. For me, I'm proud to have such a brilliant brother.

The Presidential Debate

2008-01-06T23:19:00.000-08:00

The Presidential Debate aired on Television last night and I'll admit that I've had a few changes of heart as a result. I had been a bit resentful that the presidential campaign was going on way too long already and elections aren't for ten more months. It occurred to me that this leadership selection process must be interesting and confusing to people around the world. There is little question about who will be the next leader in Cuba, Saudi Arabia of many other countries around the world ruled by monarchs or dictators. The US on the other hand has an extensive process that enables America to change leadership in bloodless regime changes. Not too many countries around the world can match the length or diversity of the United States Presidential Election follies.

Over the next ten months, I hope that the candidate will demonstrate to the world the viability of the American system. Its often messy but it shows that change can occur peacefully and without the need for blood in the streets.

Hillary exceeded my expectations although I still see her as a longshot. Edwards was making the most of his #2 showing in Iowa and trying to position Hillary as less of a contender. I did have a rather bizarre thought that Hillary might use the debate to make a pre-emptive announcement that she was going to run with Obama as his Vice President combining his new ideas with her experience. It would be a formidable competitive strategy to unite the party and spend the next ten months dividing and conquering the Republican candidates. I will admit that I was drink beer while watching the debates so I really wasn't surprised when Hillary didn't do that. If she did, it would be a classic case of changing the playing field.

The next ten months should be interesting.

The Last Kings

2007-12-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

The holiday story reminds me of the story of the three wise men coming to see the new born King. There's something unseemly about kings to the average person. Why should someone hold power over others only because of their bloodline? You only have to look as far as Cuba to see the fallacy of this approach as 76 year old Raul Castro who is taking power from his brother Fidel who has ruled Castro for over 40 years.

Americans find the idea of a King ruling over details of their daily life somewhat unappealing although people around the world have varying regards for their monarchs who sometimes are perceived as the lesser evil with the alternative being predatory politicians or police forces. The monarchs in the Middle East are probably responsible for much of the instability in the world and are responsible at least indirectly for the World Trade Center attacks and other terrorist activities around the world. From the perspective of the every day Saudi citizen, the US is largely responsible for supporting the Saudi monarchy, enabling Saudi royals to get a disproportionate amount of their national wealth and to perpetuate a tradition of royal privilege.

One approach to consider (although not likely to occur) is for all the monarchs to set into action a process of transferring power and assets to their people over a period of time. Not too many royals are Nobel Peace Prize winners or even well known outside of their countries within a generation or two. By setting up a mechanism for transferring 10% of the sovereign assets to stakeholders like schools, hospitals, fire stations, etc. each year in the form of stock shares, people around the world will realize greater self determination and stability. As more institutions derive their funding from dividends in enterprises that are design to serve the stake holders and not to be the piggy banks of monarchs, despots and tyrants, the world will become a safer place. No king is necessarily asked to abdicate, only distribute 10% of their remaining assets each year. The next generation of royals won't like the fact that they no longer have special privilege due to their bloodline, but then how much blood has been spilled over the centuries to maintain the power and influence of kings. (See my post from November 27, 2005 for previous comments on establishing stock ownership by community institutions of oil assets in Iraq.)

What we need today are the return of the Wise Men. If the best and the brightest from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, etc. were to get together to plan the peaceful transition of wealth from the monarchs, we might find a new sense of collaboration in the region. Few people remember the names of the previous Mideastern kings. If the current monarchs were to endow world class universities and institutions in their names, they might be remembered in history for not only being the last kings, but also the greatest.

My Hats Off the Jack

2007-12-22T13:36:00.000-08:00

I look back at the twelve years I spent working at Jack In The Box (JBX) with warmth and many fine memories. It was during my experience there that my thinking on competitive strategy galvanized as each week the relative competitive advantage of the Jack In The box brand was tested against the offerings of much larger competitors like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc.

Early on, Jack In The Box leadership realized that trying to compete directly against the McDonald's was an effort of futility. Differentiation and the development of competitive advantage became the watchword and during my time there, over 100 products were launched. During a recent visit to Jack In The Box (I do still go there from time to time) I tried their new Sirloin Steak Melt. It was a delightful taste that combined the Grilled Sourdough bread that was introduced in 1989 along with the Sirloin Steak which has come back periodically in various transformations since it was first introduced in the early 1990's. The memory of those flavors encouraged me to try their newest version which got me to spend $4.29 for a sandwich in an industry where the Jumbo Jack and all of the signature burgers at competitive restaurants battle over the $2 burger.

In the years that have followed, I'm happy to report that the team at Jack In The Box has continued to successfully pursue this strategy which gives me not only the opportunity to stop in for a tasty meal but also a financial reward. After the eColi issue in 1993, I felt that the market had oversold Jack In The Box stock and I purchased shares in my retirement account at the equivalent of about $3. Even with the recent decline in their share price to the mid twenties, this has turned out to be a tasty investment.

Shut Up Hugo

2007-12-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

The news recently reported on the latest idiocy from Venezuelan would be dictator Hugo Chavez. Despite stacking the deck for his recent constitutional reform package that would have scrapped term limits on his rule with popular items like reducing the workday to six hours and giving pensions to street vendors and housewives, the voters failed to vote his way. Essentially, Chavez tried to buy votes with some goodies for the poor and the working man but even that did not provide enough competitive advantage to offset the concerns that "President for Life" could result in a socialistic agenda that would likely erode personal property rights. Chavez's true colors were shown recently after he threatened to nationalize banks own by Spanish interests if Spain's king does not apologize for telling Chavez to "shut up."

Let's applaud the Venezuelan people for rejecting Hugo's recent threats against democracy. The USSR dissolved and the Berlin Wall fell as the people wanted the same freedoms enjoyed by Westerners. Let this be a lesson to Hugo and his like.

All Quiet on the Western Front

2007-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

A light rain this morning may help close the current chapter on the wildfires that have been the top story in the news this past week. I got a call from a friend in Norway and an email from my sister who was in Ireland this week checking to see if I was OK as the images of the fire were being broadcast around the world.

What was ironic, that despite me being in a mandatory evacuation zone (by 300 years), I personally was effected in some surprising ways. As a self employed consultant, if I don't work, I don't pull a salary, I tried to maintain my focus on doing what I needed to get done. My high school age daughter ended up getting the whole week off of school so I did have the opportunity to spend a bit more time with her than usual. In recorded and email updates from her school district, I was kept up to date with what her school closing schedule would be. In the last update, it was reported that 20 staff members and 340 student lost their homes which is truly tragic and speaks to the magnitude of the impact on those closet to to fire. I heard one neighborhood in nearby Rancho Bernardo lost over 200 homes.

I received a call from a friend in the southeast who indicated that she would stick with hurricanes as her disaster of choice. I found that ironic as even though a few miles away from me hundreds of people were losing their homes, I had very little concern about my personal safety. My home was in an area that was designated a mandatory evacuation zone which may likely be criticized in the future as a bit of an over reaction by public officials. I believe over 300,000 people lived in areas that we within the evacuation zones. A case can be made that well over 100,000 people were evacuated prematurely. I'm guessing the fire would have had to burn through about 5000 homes before my neighborhood would have been threatened. Comparing hurricanes to fires is not really a valid analogy as technology can do very little to effect a hurrican and massive evacuations are often required and certainly extremely disruptive. This recent fire is likely to stimulate tens of millions of venture capital to develop solutions for mitigating the impacts of fires and increasing the capabilities of protecting homes from wildfires. Cisterns, battery backup power, and small powerful water pumps are likely to be items that homeowners backing up to open space areas are required by their insurance companies to invest in if the want continued insurance. Let's look to entrepreneurs and the American spirit to make sure the next wild fire season is less impactful.

Competing for Customers

2007-10-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

Ultimately, a brand must sell something to a customer in order to be a viable entity. The result of this requirement is that brands and the people who manage them must convince a customer that their product or service is superior to the offerings of competitive brands. An enormous amount of information exists in books and online about competitive strategy which oftentimes is fairly generic and brand managers must interpret how to best apply this knowledge.

Information about customers and prospects is a critical element in closing the loop. Understanding who your customer and how they think enhances the ability of brands to "win" that customers heart, mind and wallet. In the course of my consulting, I have access to the Google Analytics for a number of my clients. By studying this data, you can learn a huge amount about your customers.

I have a client that manufactures the Litter-Robot (www.Litter-Robot.com), a $299 self cleaning cat litter box. The company does a significant amount of its sales direct to the consumer via the Internet and I spend a fair amount of time trying to figure out why visitors come to the website, how they use the information and how to turn more of them into customers. The following are some of my admittedly non scientific observations:

1) A huge amount of visitors are looking for self cleaning cat litter boxes on company time. I guess that it is no secret that much online shopping happens during work hours and for selfish reasons, I wouldn't want that to stop.

2) International visits often represent 10-25% of daily traffic. This amazes me how flat the world has become so quickly. How do these people in dozens of countries around the world learn about the Litter-Robot and other products I am involved with. Obviously, an increasing amount of information is coming from sources that are not originated ion the visitors home country.

3) Can customers be segmented by employers? The following compares how many visits for a company it took to generate 1 sale:

4 General Electric
10 Hewlett Packard
2 Hyundai Motor Company
6 NASA
1 Temple University
2 University of Connecticut

I don't know if you can draw any conclusions from the above numbers like university folks being well educated and ready to buy or Hyundai Motor visitor being more aggressive than visitors from GE or NASA. Could Hewlett Packard coming in at 10 visits per sale indicates a culture that moves cautiously or slowly. Heck, even the rocket scientists from NASA can make a decision quicker than the ink jet folks.

4) Can Google Analytics be a source of competitive information? Here's a couple of data points that I'm currently pondering.

Microsoft accounted for 39 visits and no sales. could it be that Microsoft is considering entering the self cleaning cat litter box business? Or is this a function they are considering for the next version of Vista?

Goldman Sachs viewed 20 page views and didn't make a purchase. Perhaps they are planning to make a billion dollar acquisition of Automated Pet Car Products, the company that manufactures the Litter-Robot.

5) Drilling down in page views and time spent on the site can also be revealing.

Someone from the Air Force Material Command viewed 17 pages in a 37 minute visit. You would expect someone who is involved in buying materials for planes to thoroughly evaluated all the information. On the other hand, someone from the Air Force Flight Test Center zoomed through 24 pages in 36 minutes. Must be a Top Gun used to speed compared to his counterpart in the Materials Command.

What does this all mean? The better you know your customers, the best you are likely to do to win their business. Google Analytics provides a rich source of data regarding buyer behavior it the wise competitor will tap into it for insight,

The Competition for Employees

2007-10-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

It's a whole new world we are operating in and demographics promise that the future will be very different as Boomers leave the work force and employers scramble to replace them with the following generation which is numerically smaller. Compounding the scarcity of educated competent employees are the changing attitudes about company loyalty and the increasing number of work alternatives. A recent survey of college students indicates an expectation to change jobs fairly frequently as they have grown up with parents and role models who have voluntarily or involuntarily changed jobs and companies with regularity. Employers are going to need to work harder at making companies more accommodating to their key employees.

Technology has enabled an increasingly large portion of the workforce to telecommute or work virtually. Job sharing and flex hours are also alternatives that are becoming more common. The increasing cost of gas and committing is also putting pressure on employees who live greater distances from their workplaces.

I recently had lunch with a VP of a Fortune 100 company who currently has over 25 direct reports and a travel schedule that has him away from home four days a week. This person is a high performing star who finds himself weighing the tradeoff's of a successful corporate job with the sacrifices he makes missing his pre teen children growing up. If this corporation and others like it don't make some changes to improve their workplace, they will find that their best and brightest will leave to pursue other opportunities that are open to them. Corporations that find that they are populated with employees who don't have more attractive options will find themselves in a poor competitive position.

Continued innovation in telecommuting, working virtually and creating environments that employees will find stimulating and productive on a sustainable basis are likely to be key success criteria of the most competitive companies. The "burn em and churn em" mentality never really worked. Continually replacing the more senior employees with younger, lower paid staff members is a losing proposition when you are competing with companies who understand how to leverage and retain their intellectual capital.

Balancing Global Competitive Pressures

2007-08-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

The price of gas recently sparked a thought about our interconnectedness around the world. Prior to the Fed's rate cut, the stock market was retreating in face of the ongoing sub prime mortgage debacle. Reduced interest rates, inflation and another decline in the dollar are likely to be the only thing that enables the housing market to stage a recovery without taking a bigger hit than the market has already seen. The Fed is concerned about inflation and the increase in gas prices (which average $1.85 in 2004 and $2.27 in 2005) has had a big impact on inflation and disposable income.

The world view of inflation is that the US pays back its debts in deflated dollars but the alternative is to have the US suffer a major housing meltdown as more sub prime mortgages run into trouble with higher interest rates. A decline in housing values reduces the amount of money Americans can pull from their equity to buy products from countries like China.

If China sells the US less products, they buy fewer raw materials. As oil is a key component in plastics and packaging, a decline in the US housing market hits the oil producers that sell to China. Increasing supply of crude oil to reduce the cost of gas, to relieve inflationary pressure, to encourage the Fed to further reduce rates - could be a good competitive strategy.

Think about that the next time you are at the gas pump.

Boomers and Employment

2007-06-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

The recent news about immigration legislation has reminded me of some demographic information I heard about the impact on the labor force that the retirement of Boomers will have. America has a relatively low unemployment rate today compared to previous decades and the demand for employees has been great enough for 12 million illegals to come to the US to find work. I don't expect that too many of those jobs will be in great demand by Boomers or other demographic segments but one must think what will happen to unemployment when an increasingly large number of boomers retire each year.

Here's a thought that employers could consider to help ease the transition, retain some of institutional knowledge and skills of their older workers and control some labor cost increases. What if employers offered Boomers extra weeks of vacation instead of pay increasees? Rather than give an employee a 4% raise in cold hard cash, how about giving them an extra two weeks of vacation? Older workers often have additional time commitments for family obligations, health care and elder care and this would address some of those time pressures. Eliminating the increase in wages among the older and higher paid workers may also have some appeal to employers. Learning how to use additional free time over a period of years rather than all at once may also have some benefit to the older worker.

Implementing policies like this for workers once they hit a certain age - say 58 or 60, may be a win win situation and a real competitive advantage for employers. The Boomers who were born in 1946 are turning 61 this year. Many of them will be transitioning from the workforce over the next 10-15 years. Something to consider.

PS Some restrictions on the additional vacation time could be established so employees aren't gone for months at a time. Taking two Fridays off a month would take 4-5 weeks of additional time off accumulation.

Futurist Service Available

2007-05-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Think how different your industry is from 5-10 years ago. Lots of changes? What's the likelihood that there will be as many or more changes in the next 5-10 years? One thing I can guarantee you is that just about every industry is going to face more competition in the future? How to survive and thrive in that environment? Perhaps you should take a look into the future and try to develop some alternative scenarios for industry changes and trends. Try to think out of the box and consider the impact of technological, cultural, social and other impacts on how your customers use the products and services of the collective industry. How can you be positioning yourself for success in the future? What products and services should you be considering today to have new competitive advantages in the future? Sound like a challenging exercise? This is what I do for clients - help them navigate in an uncertain future. Let me know if I can work with you and your team to develop a framework for getting ahead of the trend. Do you have the Sickness? Do you believe that you can get better?

The Robots are Coming!

2007-05-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Unfortuately, R2D2 and C3PO are still years away. I've been busy lately and if I could offload more of my work to robots, I would have more time to blog and do other things that I enjoy. Robots are quickly creeping into our society and many consumers are turning over some of the day to day drudgery that no one really likes to do to some increasingly sophisticated single function robots. The Roomba from iRobot Company (http://www.irobot.com) is probably the most well known as it is a widely marketed vacuum cleaner. They also have a floor washing and pool cleaning robots. The compnay did $186MM in 2006 do it looks like a few folks are doing a bit less vacumum cleaning.

There are also a couple of lawn mowing robots - Robomower and Lawnbott for people who don't like to mow the lawn - check them out at http://www.bamabots.com. One of my clients makes the Litter-Robot, a self cleaning cat litter box (www.Liter-Robot.com). We get great feedback from cat owners who are estatic that they don't have to scoop out their litter box anymore. Talk about a distasteful job. Now if I could just get an email bot to write all my emails....

Saturday Mail

2007-03-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

Snail mail is quickly becoming irrelevant given the reliance on email and wireless. While the US Postal Service is still relied on to deliver important stuff like junk mail and bills, its surprising that Saturday home delivery of mail persists. What's the logic or merit in home delivery on Saturday? It doesn't seem to me that it serves much purpose. Given the dire state of the Federal budget and the ever increasing cost of home delivery, we should eliminate Saturday home delivery of mail post haste. Special deliveries on Saturday can continue for important stuff but why do we keep throwing money away for a service that has outlived its usefulness? Politics is one sure reason but the list is fairly short after that.

The "Sick" theory of Relativity

2007-01-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

This is a very unscientific theory of relativity that might just work. My "Sick" theory is that if a teenager can study uninterrupted for one hour in close proximity to an older more experienced relative who is also working and generating brain wave activity, that teenager will be able to wirelessly connect to the brain waves of that relative and access some of that brain power. Now this could be total hogwash but if a teenager can study near a older role model who is doing knowledge work, the environment alone may be conducive to learning. I had this observation recently when my daughter was studying for finals in the next room from my home office. If she gets good grades, that may just serve to reinforce the "Sick" theory of relativity and perhaps I can take some small credit for her achievements. I don't actually have any theories about my other two daughters who got far better grades than I ever did...

The Mexican Militia

2006-12-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

The news reported recently that President Bush is planning on committing more troops to Iraq. Consider this in context with senior military officials testimony about the strains on a frequently deployed military force and a recent call for resuming the draft and it is clear that some out of the box thinking is required. What about providing some of the millions of Mexicans who are interested in working in the United States with the opportunity to enlist in special divisions of the military to serve the United States? These troops could be trained by Spanish speaking members of the United States military and support many functions in Iraq and other posts where additional troops are needed. They could be taught a variety of skills, they could learn English, they could make a better wage than otherwise might be available in Mexico or as an undocumented worker in the United States. After their period of service, the could be provided with documents that would allow them to work in the United States and/or initiate a path towards citizenship. Many Filipinos became citizens this way. It's an idea work considering.

Anisette

2006-11-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

My girlfriend Sarah made dinner for me the other night. In the salad she included some anise. Anise has a flavor that tastes like black licorice and it reminded me of my great uncle Acey. As he was my grandfathers older brother, when I got to know him, he was in his late 80's. As a young adult, I spent some time with him and by then he was pushing 100 years old and still had some good vitality. I took the opportunity to ask him what his secret to a long life was and he told me that he took a shot of annisette every day. He ultimately lived to be 101 and I now realize that I had not inquired enough about how he took his dose. Did he take a shot straight or did he dilute it in water or coffee? Did he only take one shot? Did he only take a shot of annisette and swear off all other alcohol. Goes to show that even a simple concept can have many competing alternatives.

In retrospect, I wish that I had inquired more about his approach to annisette. I did go to the liquor store and asked if they had any. The clerk never heard of it but he called the owner who found me a bottle that he had to dust off. I shared this sweet licorice liquor with Sarah and if it won't extend our health and vitality, at least we will have sweet smelling breath.

Supply & Demand for Oil

2006-11-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

It's pretty amazing how much the price of gasoline has fallen over the past few months. About 25% from the peak earlier this year. The news says that tight supplies caused by the aftermath of last years hurricanes, refinery shutdowns and increased demand caused the price spikes. If that is the case, it appears that just a little change in supply and demand can have rather dramatic impacts on the price of gas at the pump - if you consider .70-80 cents a gallon to be dramatic.

I don't think that demand has decreased that much - actually, the declining prices may stimulate some demand. The supplies haven't increased that dramatically as there weren't really any reports of major shortages when the prices went over three dollars in California.

Prop 87, the tax on California Oil producers goes to the polls tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how the electorate votes. $47 million has been spent on the pro side with Al gore and Bill Clinton featured in the ads and $66 million has been spent on the con side saying that it will just create a bureaucracy. How much reduction in demand will it take the new technologies being supported by the initiative to reduce the cost of gas at the pump by another couple of dimes?

It is interesting that all the opponents of the initiative are focusing on a "wasteful new bureaucracy". Far be it for me to be for bureaucracies but if push came to shove, I would rather create jobs for alternative energy bureaucrats in California than protect the jobs of workers in OPEC nations. I'm all for creating some competitive alternatives to fossil fuels. We've seen the impact of supply and demand fluctuations over recent months. Let's hear it for more supplies.

Dinosaur Burgers

2006-10-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

For over 40 years I have been a fan of the Whopper from Burger King and since I worked for Burger King in 1981-1982 I have some special insight into the brand.

Despite the product superiority of the Whopper over the Big Mac, I have found it instructive that it takes more than just product superiority to achieve a competitive advantage. While burgers are still a key product category in all the Burger brands (McDonald's, Wendy, Jack In The Box, Hardee's, Carls Jr., etc) other product categories have also become important as the burger chains don't just compete with each other, but they also compete with the Subway's, Taco Bells, Paneras and hundreds of other options for share.

Burger King has consistently demonstrated that they don't understand why they are not the "King" of the burger business. They run dirty, dingy, tired restaurants and their revolving door management history and turbulent relationships with their franchisees have taken a toll by making Burger King the least relevent and necessary brand in the burger segment which is likely to contract over the coming years. Burger King has already closed quite a few restaurants and is likely to close more in the coming years as the brand continues to tarnish.

It's recent IPO only reinforces the destiny of the brand. Of the $399 million raised by selling stock to the public, $367 million was used to pay a "special dividend" to the private equity owners. It will be interesting to see if there are any dividends paid to the public shareholders in the future. Don't plan your retirement on it. The stock price is also likely to falter at the insiders look to liquate whatever of their holdings that they can over time. It's not like they felt that the brand was worth investing a significant amount of the IPO proceeds into. They did use $7.1 million to pay a bonus to the CEO which is sure to increase the competitiveness of the brand.

Survival of the fittest is the catchword here and Burger King is the least fit of the burger brands with McDonald's, Wendy's and Jack In The Box experiencing strong share appreciation recently. Look for an increasing number of Burger King locations to become some other stronger more competitive brand. Look for short sellers to come in as the insiders start to dump their shares before their value goes the way of the dinosaurs.

This is brain surgery

2006-09-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

I have been in a number of marketing meetings over the years and the comment "this isn't brain surgery" has come up a number of times. As I was thinking of that recently, maybe I was wrong. One thing that I have found out in marketing it that people are pretty much going to do what they want to do so if you want them to do something, you need to figure out how they can find some benefit in it. One of the basic rules of salesmanship is to sell the benefits to the buyers. Tech marketers are particularly guilty of focusing on the list of features. The reality is that many features are the price of admission. Who would sell a television today without a wireless remote? At one time a wireless remote was an upgrade option. That day is long past and the market has moved on. Marketing is brain surgery - non invasive brain surgery. An effective marketer must communicate to a prospect in such a way that his brain is changed so that they prospect becomes a willing buyer. Short of achieving that is a no sale.

The Competitive Advantage of Networks

2006-08-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

If you watch any television at all, you know that next to the "Ask your Doctor" category of ads, the wireless industry chimes in as one of the biggest advertisers. Simple math tells you that the greatest value of free "in network" calling is likely to be gained by signing up with one of the larger wireless carriers. This feature creates a built in bias to the advantage of larger carriers so the smaller networks need to compete on other criteria - like Leap & Virgin with no contracts or unlimited text messaging or T-Mobile with lower contract rates. Today's blog entry is not really about wireless but rather about the power of networks. Recently a group of San Diego business folks (and maybe a few artists and scientists as well) met at Cozymel's Mexican Restaurant in San Diego's Golden Triangle to do some serious networking. Maybe it wasn't that serious as there were lots of laughs and margaritas, but it was a serious effort by the folks who attended to meet some new people and have a good time. Based on the feedback, both of those objectives were achieved. I billed the event as a "Sickness" event targeted to people who believed that they could get better - professionally and/or socially. We had a fine band of folks who took a step outside of their day to day routine to be proactive about achieving that goal.

Patriots Fly September 11th

2006-08-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

As I recently booked a trip to fly on September 11th, I got some interesting reactions from people. Would terrorists try to strike again on the five year anniversary of 9-11? Not likely, but if they are on my plane, I'm certainly not going to sit and do nothing and I suspect that my fellow passengers will also rise up to protect our personal freedoms. It occurred to me that we should celebrate the memory of the victims of 9-11 by traveling on that date. Remember them by exercising our right as a free people to travel when and where we desire. Wouldn't it be great if September 11th became one of the busiest travel days of the years as Americans took the opportunity to remember the victims of 9-11?

Iran's Competitive Strategy

2006-08-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Call me a cynic, but it appears that every time that the price of oil starts to decline, Iran manages to stir up some controversy that causes the markets to react. $10 per barrel times 4 million barrels a day provides $40 million per day in extra oil revenue for Iran alone. How many missiles and other arms can a couple of days of incremental oil revenue provide. Just the threat of an interruption in the oil supply can move the market. Just goes to show how many ways there are to compete in the marketplace.

Dueling tomatoes

2006-07-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

Competition is pervasive in American society and the government often takes action that distort the market place. Here's a little story about how a little company built a brand that enabled them to change the playing field. What makes this story interesting is that the brand has an unusual name - the UglyRipe tomato.

The Florida Tomato Committee (FTC), a group of competing growers sanctioned by federal law dating to the 1950’s, set all size and shape standards for tomatoes entering the US market from mid-October to mid-June. The competing growers claimed the UglyRipe was too misshapen and would damage the reputation of the Florida marketplace. I'm not sure how the UglyRipe tomato was acceptable in September but not acceptable in October, but growers convinced the FTC to limit sales during the northern winter season.

The UglyRipe tomato, developed over decades with over $3 million in research funding by Procacci Brothers Sales Corporation was previously forbidden for sale outside of the Florida winter growing region. However, during a three-year window when the FTC offered the UglyRipe a temporary exemption, sales skyrocketed as consumers across the country were afforded a fresh, tasty tomato during the winter. The growers moved to close the exemption, and for the last three years the tomato has been unavailable in the winter season. Can't stand the competition, get the government to limit your competitors.

Fortunately, people came to their senses and eliminated the restrictions on free trade. And this is within the US. Next winter, Americans will experience something they haven’t had for years - a delicious, homegrown style tomato in the middle of the cold months, thanks to a rule change offered by the Agriculture Marketing Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Competition in the health field

2006-07-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have been busy as of late working on some new clients. I have just started working with a client in the transportation business so I am learning yet another industry. While I was traveling recently, I saw Warren Buffett announcing his plan to contribute a huge portion of his wealth to the Gates Foundation. Bill and Melinda have done an incredible job of building an organization to give away their money and Warren sees that his money is in good hands and that they are focused on causes that he shares like education and health care.

It occurred to me that one way to address the spiraling health care costs in the US and around the world is to inject some more competition into the marketplace. I would hope that the Gates Foundation could direct some of that mass of money to providing scholarships to any person who has the academic ability and desire to become a nurse or doctor. A million more doctors without six figure loans could make a huge impact on world health. Bill and Warren have an ability to change the playing field in the health care market. Let's hope that they do.

We need new taxes

2006-05-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

The operative word is new taxes, not higher income taxes. The US government needs to be creative in how they are going to deal with the deficit. I believe that they should look for new sources of revenue. Here are a couple of ideas that may be supported by a surprisingly large portion of the population because they wouldn't be personally impacted. How about higher taxes on gambling (why should the sovereign Indian nations be getting all this windfall, prostitution (regulate and tax it), legalization of marijuana (huge tax potential coming right out of the pockets of the black market) and through the sale of citizenships. Let's start with selling citizenships to the 10 million illegals currently in the US. The government can finance the sale over five years and reduce the amount of money going to coyotes and immigration lawyers. Citizenships can be sold to people originating outside of the Americas for $40-50,000 each. Hey, if you want to be an American, you got to take some responsibility for the National Debt.

Immigration and the Border

2006-03-29T16:58:00.000-08:00

Watching the local congressional candidates on TV highlights the issues of living near the Mexican border. Here's a couple of reactions that I have taken away from the politicians ads. We spend $10 billion a year trying to control the border and there are 13 million illegal aliens living in the US.

Let's get real and let the marketplace regulate the order. Right now, smugglers can command $1500 per person for everyone they can get across the border. You get a van of 5-6 people across the border and you can imagine there is a high economic incentive to get illegals into the US. Like anything else the government prohibits, the laws create a huge black market that enriches lawbreakers.

Two things shape my view on immigration. We are a country that was built by immigrants, typically the most educated or industrious people are the most likely to leave their home and travel thousands of miles to make a new life in a different country. The second thing is that my social security check is going to be paid by younger workers and that the Boomer generation hasn't done a good enough job creating offspring to finance the future pensions and health care costs of the US. We need immigrants and we need young strong workers to keep our economy growing.

Let's get the politicians in the mode of selling citizenships. We can start with all the guest workers, illegal or otherwise and really ramp up a plan to generate some revenue. Add a million new citizens and that generates lots of demand for homes, cars, food, jobs, etc. The citizenship fee should be enough to pay deportation costs if one of the new citizens gets into trouble before their citizenship is vested - say 5-10 years.

I would be in favor of giving discounts to the Canadians and Mexicans as a good neighbor policy. It's cheaper to put them on a bus and send them back.

Now I just hope that none of those idiots in Congress pass laws that will increase the amounts that smugglers can charge to bring in illegals. But then, smugglers are probably making political contributions to pass more stringent laws...

How times have changed

2006-03-12T22:31:00.000-08:00

A couple of recent birthdays have dramatically illustrated how much things have changed since I was growing up in Syracuse, NY in the 50's and 60's. My son celebrated his 18th birthday in February and my daughter celebrated her 22nd birthday today. When they were asked where they wanted to eat for their birthdays, they both chose sushi. Can't remember having sushi growing up and maybe the difference is that my kids are being raised in California while my childhood was more like Leave it to Beaver. This is just another reminder that things are in a constant state of transition. If you expect things to stay the same, you will be disappointed. Keep an open mind. And be flexible. And if you are not familiar with sushi, check out Station Sushi in Solona Beach, California if you are in the neighborhood.

Personal Property Rights

2006-03-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't been posting too many blogs in 2006, as I have been busy with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I been traveling a bit and have picked up a few new clients who I have contributed to helping them achieve their goals.

I am proud to be an American and delighted that we have a set of values that are embodied in documents like the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. I do have concerns with our various government bodies trampling on personal property rights and politicians taking advantage of their positions. Our San Diego area representative, Randy Cunningham, was sentenced to 8 years and four months of jail for taking bribes. Incidents like that help reinforce my faith in the system, while imperfect; it is better than other governments around the world. I've been thinking about how corruption in China is going to cause their government to implode and be replaced with one that will largely be controlled by factory owners. That will be the subject for another blog.

Back here in the US, Randy Cunningham took bribes and essentially embezzled money from American taxpayers. While I have concerns about how the US government is spending our tax dollars and about the huge expenditure of dollars and lives in Iraq, I am proud that our nation has sent a message that we can't just sand by while the Sadaam's of the world trample on the personal property rights of their citizens. Excessive taxation, imprisonment, abductions, executions, fear on the streets and corruption are all violations of personal property rights. Free people should stand up for those around the world who are oppressed and I am proud that America has liberated Iraq.

People who live in countries ruled by monarchs, dictators or even countries with nationalized industries are all having personal property rights violated. Why should a person of "royal" blood have more rights than anyone else? I believe that the financial markets around the world should recognize that countries with monarchs or dictators are inherently unstable and that there should be a risk premium for doing business with them. If you lend money to a country ruled by a monarchy - you should charge 1-2% premium or you get downgraded by Standard & Poors and the like. If you loan money to a country ruled by a dictator - it's a 3% risk premium. If you borrow money to do business with companies domiciled in those countries, the same premiums should apply.

Institutions like the UN have been created to promote world peace. In reality, just about any country can join and it is hard to say if membership modifies the behavior of some of those membership nations. I am in favor of developing a new international organization call the UDS - Union of Democratic States. Membership would only be available to nations that could prove that they had free elections and that protected the personal property rights of their citizens. No unlawful imprisonment, no taking of their personal property and no tolerance for government corruption.

This is a subject that bears more discussion. Another day though as I got thinks to do. I'm having a life, and all things considered, a pretty good one!

Clear thinking in mountain air

2006-01-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

January is predictably a slow month for consulting. Clients tend to hunker down during the holidays and spend most of January figuring out where they want to go next. I took advantage of this situation by doing some skiing - 3 days in Mammoth and then a day trip to Big Bear with my kids.

There is something special about being in the mountain air. It is clear and the exertion of skiing pumps lots of blood through your brain. You also have 10 minute intervals sitting on a chairlift. And the view ain't bad either. I figure that I have spent about 90 days at Mammoth over the years, and probably another 90 days at assorted ski resorts over the 29 seasons that I have been skiing. I would hope that I could spend another 6-12 months in the mountains before I die.

For me, being in the mountains is a stimulating experience. For others, it may be the desert, the shore or the forests. What is clear is that the average person likely does not prefer to be in traffic, a windowless work space, dirty or rundown surroundings. Companies that figure out how to create more stimulating work places are likely to retain their employees and motivate them to be productive. There is likely a lesson here and an opportunity for companies to turn their staffs into competitive advantages. Look for more companies relocating to places where employees want to live.

Getting the Sickness - with a Margarita!

2006-01-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have a little personal philosophy that is somewhat of a motto for mylife. If you have the "Sickness", you get up everyday thinking that you can get better. About 35 people from my extended network met at Cozymel's in La Jolla for a Happy Hour Networking session with the intent of making some new connections to improve their business or careers with. Folks from my contact list, subscribers to the Spherion list, the PathFinders List and friends of friends all came and started out the New Year with a margarita and a few new friends and contacts. I have been encouraged to do these regularly and also to do one in the Carlsbad area for the North County folks. Sounds like I have some margaritas in my future...

Positioning your competition

2006-01-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

I watched the movie, Devil's Advocate last night with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. I picked up an interesting piece of trivia. The word Satan comes from a Hebrew word for adversary. Now I am sure lots of you think that your competitors are Satan. In a way, you are right!

Reflections on Work and Life and Girls Soccer

2005-12-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

I read recently a list of the 10 Best New Year's resolutions you can make. One of them resonated with me pretty well. "Resolve to take control of your destiny. Don't be so busy trying to make a living that you forget to make a life." This has been an ongoing effort as work and career can be very consuming. Being the father of four children also provides another perspective.

My last year in the corporate world had me away from home about 100 days per year. Since I have been consulting and now that I mostly work remotely, I have a certain amount of flexibility. My 21 year old daughter Deanna called yesterday to tell me that she was playing an "Alumni Game" with her High school Soccer Team. I had about two hours notice and was able to drop things and go (it did mean spending Saturday morning working on the Friday afternoon to do list).

It was great seeing her play soccer again. I have been to about 1000 soccer games in my life although it has been almost four years since she graduated high school where she last played soccer. Many of her high school team mates also came back for the Alumni game. One of her friends has played soccer at Yale the last four years. The Alumni, many who were not able to run as fast as they used to, actually won over the varsity girls who practiced daily as a team showing that age and experience sometimes provide that critical competitive advantage.

The images of Deanna on the soccer field will last much longer than the report that got done on a Saturday instead of a Friday as originally planned. I can't say that I totally control my destiny, but I am working at it.

Return of the Jackson Five

2005-12-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas gift giving is always interesting for me as I have four kids. As two of them are in high school and two of them are in college, they have limited resources and lots of needs - cell phones, mp3 players, snow boards, car tires (I'm serious about this one!) etc. I try to be focused on what I give them and more and more, I am appreciating the utility of cash. I always appreciated it but giving cash is something I have warmed up to.

One of the games that I play holiday time is to guess the contents of a wrapped package by shaking and squeezing them. I have actually gotten pretty good at this (sometimes even making a lucky guess as to the color of a shirt inside a wrapped box) and I have encouraged my kids to play along. Note that not everyone likes this game. My daughter, Mary was opening up a package and I encouraged her to guess. She said a CD as it was clearly a jewel case. I said, which one? After a quick pause, I said the Jackson Five. Everyone looked at me with puzzled looks until she removed the wrapping revealing five clipped images of Andrew Jackson on $20 bills.

She was delighted with the gift and who knows, perhaps this Jackson Five may come back into popularity among teenagers....

Get the Sickness

2005-12-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

OK, you may wonder what the significance of the name of my Blog is. If you haven't figured it out or know me personally, it is related to my last name - which is Sick. An unusual name I must admit, but you have to agree that it is somewhat memorable. That's a hallmark of a good brand and to some degree each of us is a brand.

What is the essence of the Sickness brand you may ask? Quite simple. Basically I am an optimist and I wake up each day believing that I can get better. I apply this philosophy to everything I do. To my kids, my health and the businesses of my clients. I had a call recently from a client who told me that his business in 2005 will end up about four times the size of his business two yeas earlier.

Plan to get the sickness in 2006!

Rush Hour Traffic

2005-12-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

Sitting in traffic at rush hour does strange things to the brain. It makes you think about the alternatives. Does anyone really like to spend 4-8 hours a week commuting to work? How much money is spent on fuel to commute? How about the impact of depreciating your car quicker because of the added mileage. And then think about how much time that it takes away from spending time with the family and doing the things that you really want to do.

In the future, I see an opportunity for real estate developers to create "executive suites" for the rank & file. What if they built office buildings close to where people live and you could go to work in a "local" office 2-4 days a week and only have to commute into a central location one or two days? This could work if these "suites" were fully configured with the latest in technology, with complete desktop videoconferencing and couriers that went from location to location through the day transferring mails, supplies, documents, etc. Many people spend a good part of their work day at their desks, doing emails, working on documents & files, talking on the phone. Why do they need to drive 30-60 minutes to copy someone in the next office on an email.

Look at the economics of this. We would use less imported oil and cars and we would use more technology. Workers go to an office everyday in their neighborhood and work near their neighbors - not necessarily people working for the same company. How many people would accept a paycut or at least accept slower income growth if they could save more than that in commuting costs? Think about job retention as well. Are you going to change jobs to an employer that makes you incur the time and expensive of commuting after you have been in a neighborhood office suite? You would need a big raise to justify it.

It will happen. The time is ripe.

Microsoft vs. Google

2005-12-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

This blog is about competitive strategy and here's a recent example of what could be and interesting approach to competing in the market place. From a recent experience I had, it looks like Microsoft is attacking Google. All of a sudden, Internet Explorer began malfunctioning and a message indicating a run time error popped up. Internet Explorer not working was a problem for browsing. I went into AOL and started searching for a solution. Voila, I found other users, actually quite a few, who solved this problem by deleting the Google Toolbar. An innocent software conflict or an insidious plot to denigrate Google? Brands are built brick by brick with everyday exposures which serve to reinforce the brand attributes. Does Microsoft have a skunk works whose mission is dirty tricks which diminish competitive brands?

50 is the new 30

2005-12-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

I read that somewhere and I can embrace that given the fact that I am 51. I do like to tell people that anything I could do at 30, I can do better at 50 with the exception of one thing. After a few nervous minutes or some blushing and giggling, I would tell them that the one thing is comb my hair. You see, I have a bit less of it today than I did when I was 30. On the other hand, someone may come up with a miracle spray that I can spray on one time and the hair is magically regenerated.

Here's a picture of me taken over Thanksgiving. With me is my sister Sandra on the left and a friend, Andrea on the right.

Lessons in Leadership

2005-12-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

NOT!. I read an article in the November 4th issue of the Wall Street Journal about how the Emir of Kuwait remains in power. First you put 96% of working Kuwati's on the government payroll. Then you establish a government which subsidizes just about every aspect of daily life. The article tells about a woman who retired from her three hour per day government job after 15 years and was able to collect a pension of 95%. That same government sent her a congratulatory check for $250,000 on her 10th wedding anniversary.

This scenario is not likely to play out in too many parts of the world but you can be assured that no real competitive advantages or innovations will be coming out of a society like this anytime soon.

IRAQ

2005-11-27T18:26:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite holidays. It gives you an opportunity to celebrate the holiday, give some thought to all the things that we have to be thankful for and still have a weekend!

Thanksgiving may be a somewhat American holiday but I think that the sentiments of being thankful for health, family and prosperity are shared by people around the world. Having a free society with personal freedoms and property rights are things that are valued although many countries have governments that often trample those individual liberties. Iraq has the opportunity to become a free country and I have a few ideas how that could be expedited. I think that the insurgents and probably many Iraqis think that the US has an eye on their oil industry. If they stop to do the math, we would need to get 100% of their oil revenue with no deductions for costs for the next ten years to offset the costs that we have already incurred. That's not likely to happen.

My solution takes the Iraqi oil industry and divides it up into 8-10 operating companies. The stocks in those companies would be distributed to schools, police stations, libraries, hospitals and other agencies. The dividends from those stocks would become an important part of the budgets for those organizations. If an Iraqi felt that his kids education or his parent's pension was being paid for by a pipeline or an oil drilling facility, he would be less tolerant of insurgents damaging those facilities. It would also be difficult for a dictator to nationalize the industry to fund army's and palace's and it certainly would send a clear message that the US is not trying to take their oil.

After five years, the organizations could sell the stocks in the various companies that they hold and buy into business units that have a better history of providing profits and dividends. This would help promote competitiveness and efficiency on the part of each of the operating companies. Promoting competition and the free market is always a good thing.

Mr. Paintball

2005-11-21T17:36:00.000-08:00

I played paintball this past weekend. It wasn't the first time but I always enjoy it. It is also a literal pain in the thighs as I don't do as much squatting and crouching as I tend to do when I am trying to avoid paintballs whizzing through the air. I play underwater hockey (that will be the subject of another posting sometime) with a friend named Javier. His son was having a 12 year old birthday and wanted to play paintball. Javier got a bunch of friends to join the three 12 year olds and everyone had a ball.

What makes this particularly interesting was that military experience or marksmanship were less important to winning than teamwork and collaboration. The lone wolf player invariably got picked off as he had no one to cover him. When everyone understood the strategy and worked together, the team had a competitive advantage that was hard to beat.

My friend Sarah was hesitant to play as she was the only woman in the group and she decided to play at the last minute. On a "Save the President" scenario, she flanked the other teams remaining two players and eliminated the terrorists winning the game for the "Secret Service" team.

There are lots of paintball facilities around the country but the one that I visited was Mr. Paintball outside of Escondido. Check out their site:

http://www.mrpaintballusa.com/home.shtml

Hotel California

2005-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

I went to see the Eagles last night. They have been a favorite group of mine for about 30 years. In 1976, they released the Hotel California album. In 1978, I moved to California for the first of three times. That's another story but it may appear that "you can check out but you can never leave" has somehow rung true for me. As I was on the way to the concert last night, it occurred to me that me moving to California may have been in some no small way due to the siren call of the Eagles Hotel California. Don't start dissecting the lyrics and pycho-analyzing me, but the Eagles "Brand" stands for a lifestyle that I have adopted. That's the power of a strong brand. Connecting with an individual in a way that it changes his behavior or attitudes. I'm now sure how I should feel now that I have realized that the last 27 years of my life have been influenced by a song lyric.

2005-11-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

The Sickness Tour

There's a lot of Sickness going around the country lately and I don't mean the avian flu. I mean the special brand of Sickness that entails a way of approaching life. I am a self appointed poster child of it but this post really is about my travels over the last two weeks to see the Sickness first hand. My oldest daughter Deanna is a senior at Point Loma Nazarene University and I traveled to Fresno to see her compete in the NAIA Regional Cross Country Championships. She PR'd and the team did well enough to be ale to compete in the Nationals in Louisville this week. An extraordinary performance by an extraordinary young lady.

From there, I headed to the coast to visit my 19 year old daughter Jaclyn who is a sophomore at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She is living in an apartment and is juggling three different work study jobs on campus. She is popular and attractive and seems to be on the right track for success in life.

Returning to San Diego, I went to a performance of Snoopy in which Mary, my 15 year old daughter was performing. A great job by her and a bunch of other really talented kids. On Sunday, I went to SnowJam with my 17 year old son who ended up buying a season pass to Bear Mountain. He works at Soup Plantation and is achieving goals he has set for buying a car and now a season pass so he can do a bunch or snow boarding this year. He knows what he want to do this year and it sounds like he will be having a great senior year of high school.

Being a Sick person all my life, I define the Sickness as a good thing. Stay tuned for more.

2005-11-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

new water vs. old water

I seem to recall that the body is 90% water. So how much of the aging water is driven by the fact that your water is getting old. If you keep putting new water in the body, will the body stay newer? Is there a market opportunity for someone to create a brand of water that would be positioned as an "anti aging" strategy? Get young water in your body and get the old water out. Now with 150 pounds of water in my body, its not likely that I'm going to replace it every day....

Ideas

2005-11-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

This blog is about ideas. I come up with them all the time. Being a Sick person, I sometimes have a unique perspective on things. It is a pleasant past time this coming up with ideas and speculating on the future. Sometime the conceptualization of the idea is much more pleasant than the execution of the idea. It would take me many lifetimes to implement even a fraction of the ideas that I have. I try to focus my energies on the ideas that I have and the opportunities that I may be best able to leverage.

Today I went to a seminar which talked about PodCasting. Interesting idea. Taking audio content off the web and downloading it to an iPod or another mp3 device. The real idea is freeing your self from needing to sit in front of your computer. I already had a wireless broadband router. Wouldn't it make sense that I could take my music files or audio files - books on tape, interviews, motivational speeches and put them on a playlist that my wireless router could broadcast to my stereo. I already have wireless speakers that I could plug in outside on the patio and really get away from the computer. This may require some hardware modifications, but the idea is that consumers want to be liberated from their computer desktop. I see that as a product idea looking for a manufacturer and a marketer.

I appreciate your thoughts and hope that I have inspired you to come up with some new ideas and together we'll make a better future.