Dark Days Indeed

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. J.R.R. Tolkien

Many of us who grew up (or at least grew older) in the tech industry tend to be bemused by the raw panic that is prevalent these days with the economic “crisis”. Borrowing capital is tough whether it’s for business or personal. Geez, they actually make you qualify in order to borrow money.

A good friend of mine who makes his living in the home finance business likes to say that things have only reverted back to how they used to be before banks lost the ability to say “NO”. I grew up in a time when not only did you actually have to show some ability to repay borrowed money but also produce some collateral that would back the loan if something happened. Wow, what a concept.

How’d we get here?

Things started to get fuzzy during the 80’s with Uncle Ronnie’s trickle-down economics (voodoo economics critics called it) and the economy kicked into high gear. Property values skyrocketed, the ability to borrow money based upon the future not the present was in vogue and the stock market started to be played by some brave souls who were not Wall Street experts.

My mother worked for a farm credit institution back then. She was relating to me the other day that the housing market crisis today is an exact replica of the farm credit crisis in the 80’s. Farmers were getting loans too big to buy equipment they wanted rather than needed on inflated land values that couldn’t stand up over time and it was being forced by Congress.. She watched this current situation unfold with one hand over her eyes going “Lordy, I know how this movie ends”.

Then the 90’s came and Wild Bill took a good (albeit dangerous) thing and opened it up to everyone. Not only were loans based upon nebulous futures but you no longer had to show proof of ability. In fact, large institutions were threatened with lawsuits if loans weren’t made to low income, non-qualified individuals. Plus now the stock market was opened up to Joe Plumber. By the way, Ronald Regan once said “never confuse the stock market with the economy”.

Unfortunately W became obsessed with war and let the bad decisions ride on. The new millennium has been a roller coaster ride for the ages. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows and we still have over a year left in the first decade.

So what’s an entrepreneur to do? Well, it’s somewhat of a gut check time. Do you believe that our capital system will win out over the potential of a government run economy?

My good friends at Pragmatic Marketing (http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/) are doing a follow up to their successful book “Tuned In” by writing an e-book “Winning in a Down Economy”. You can check it out on their blog http://www.tunedinblog.com/. They're talking to a lot of people and will have interesting, pertinent and timely information that'll be worth paying attention to.

This is either the best time in years to jump in and invest in something you believe in or it’s the best time in years to lay low, hold on to whatever you can and see what 2011 looks like.

As for me? I’m taking a chunk of my retirement money and opening a business.

Remembering Bonnie

Bonnie Strouse - July 15, 1952 - September 6, 2008

On Saturday September 6th I lost a large piece of my life. My wife, my friend, my partner, my one true love lost her four year battle with cancer. In the end the disease and the never-ending treatments left her physically unable to fight off the infections that were constantly attacking her. I've had people ask me if she was "ready to go". Hell no! She was absolutely not ready, but just didn't have anything to fight with anymore.

Bonnie was a remarkable person who along with being a wife that made a slug like me realize he'd hit the ultimate jackpot was also a wonderful mother, an incredible cook, a fiercely loyal friend and an accomplished business person. Saddest is how our little granddaughters will never get to know their Nana because this was a person who was custom made to be a dynamite grandmother. Most remarkable was how absolutely oblivious she was to all of those things. She was blissfully clueless as to how special she was. Yet another reason to love her dearly.

Since this blog is about business let me concentrate on those traits. On a spring day in 1999 Bonnie announced to me that we should buy an old, run down, deserted gas station in the middle of the town we lived near. When I asked why she stated "for my business". That started the odyssey that took the town's eye sore and turned it into an award-winning renovation project of great acclaim. She also - with no prior experience - opened her dream business La Bella Vita that became the gem of downtown Brighton Michigan.

Bonnie had an Associates degree in Accounting from Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh. Me with my Bachelors and MBA would of course be the business compass for her, right? Well, let me tell you something. She had more business acumen on her worst day than most of us have on our best. And the reasons are very straight-forward. She had vision, passion and the unique ability to see things that others can't (or won't). Others saw an abandoned gas station and she saw a beautiful building. Others bought merchandise that other stores were selling successfully and she saw the next hot thing (i.e., she was carrying Webkinz two years before they became hot). Other stores made returning merchandise too difficult, she made it too easy. Where some would buy lesser merchandise and sell it at a premium she would only buy quality and sell it fair. When she finally had to give her store up because she couldn't physically run it anymore every single item sold after only 6 weeks. We've actually seen display units advertised on Craigslist locally as having "come from La Bella Vita".

Here's your lesson. Education is nice. Experience is nice too. As for me I'll bet on the person with vision, passion and that magic touch every single time.

I'm told that the hole in my soul will lessen over time. Right now that's difficult for me to believe. I do know this, the world is a lot less bright, a lot less interesting and a hell of a lot less tasty without her.

Yet another meeting I wish I could have attended

“As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it” Dick Cavett

I received a letter from American Express today concerning a change in their program. This particular Amex card pays me cash back at the end of each year based upon the amount of purchases made. The letter informed me (after thanking me for my continued business) that “…the increasing cost of gas is impacting consumers and businesses alike. Given this we are making a change to your card”. It goes ahead to spell out that gasoline purchases on the card will change from 5% to 3%. And that the “steep cost of gas has made it necessary”.

Interesting. Now along with being punished at the pump I’m also being punished by my credit card company.

Yet another meeting I would have loved to have been able to sit in on just to hear the so-called logic that went into the decision. Naturally we all know in this case the logic is one purely of Amex profits vs. customer satisfaction. The truth is I didn’t know how much cash back I got on gasoline purchases. Actually, didn’t actually know how much I got on any purchases.

Had I been in the meeting I would not have argued against changing the percentage. Actually I probably would have argued to reduce it to 2%. I only would have argued to not go to the trouble of writing the elaborate and lame excuse of why they were changing the cash back percentage, just send the notice of change and get on with it. “Dear valued customer, or current resident, American Express is changing the percentage of cash back from 5% to 3%. Thank you and have a lovely day.” The Amex exec who drove this must have come from the airline industry who have made what I call “excuse policies” an art form.

By the way, other meetings I would have loved to have sat in include both presidential candidates when they chose their running mates. Mr. Obama creates a dynamic message of change that resonates well enough to knock the powerful Clinton train off the tracks. Then he chooses a 36 year Washington inside old boy as his running mate. Mr. McCain creates a dynamic message of experience that resonates well enough to close to within a whisker in the national opinion polls, then chooses someone with less experience than almost any other possible choice.

This is not derogatory toward either Veep candidate, but neither makes sense given the powerful message that had been created.

It is so incredibly difficult to create a message that resonates that is just kills my soul to see someone succeed in creating one just to then throw it away with a head-scratching decision that makes people say “Huh?”.

This “meeting I would have liked to have been in” may become a multi-part blog, there’s too much material to ignore. Watch this space.

Changes in Latitude....

I wrote last year about my good friend Paul Johnson and his quest to sail the five Great Lakes. He's now on his last portion of the last lake. Lake Superior. Mother Superior. Lake Gichigami. I continue to both envy and live vicariously through his adventures.

Here's the link to his blog http://travelwithalbion.blogspot.com/

Read, enjoy and be inspired. This, friends, is what the pay off to hard work, dedication to your profession and it's ultimate reward should look like.

How Dumb Are These Guys????

“Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.” Unknown

I have been inundated recently with stories and personal experiences of airline stupidity. I’m finding it somewhat unsettling that an industry that is so low on the profitability and popularity pole continues to make decisions that almost defy imagination.

Recent headlines:

JetBlue now charging for pillows on flights

Delta raising baggage fees

UAL says pilots abuse sick leave to disrupt flights

Lufthansa cuts 10% of flights due to strike

Which of course leads to the inevitable:

British Airways post 88 pct fall in Q1 pretax profits

I’ve had three calls in the last two days from friends whose opening dialog was about a horrible flight experience.

Thankfully I fly very seldom anymore but the two times I have flown in the past couple of months have been horrible. The attendants are surly, the flights are packed, and there’s no longer even an attempt to pretend to take off or land on time.

The funniest – in a sad way – thing that happened was when Northwest Airlines credited by frequent flyer account by 1000 miles because of the 6-hour delay coming back from Montreal. That was nice. The funny part is that they didn’t credit my account for the flights themselves. It was because the ticket was issued under by first name where my Worldperks account is listed under my middle name. Now, if it wasn’t for the fact that I have nearly 2 million miles on NWA and have often flown under tickets using my first name it wouldn’t be much of a debate point. But, given the years and mileage flown it’s safe to say they know me. When I wrote to complain I got a response that began with this: Please note that due to increased security in airports….” Yes, let’s hide behind National Security for our lack of customer service. Let’s hide behind our employees demanding we honor the contract we signed with them for our lack of business service. Let’s create tariffs and surcharges to hide behind our inability to run a profitable business.

The last time I looked commercial airlines had a primary business – moving people. Sure they’ve added package and postal sub-businesses, but moving bodies is somewhere in their mission statement. Today, they want to abuse their one primary customer and ignore their primary mission.

Does this make any sense? We just want to get from place to place with as few delays and irritations as possible.

I’m convinced this is a market absolutely ripe for the taking. The only carrier with a shroud of common sense continues to be Southwest Airlines who continues to do what they do best. Get you there and get you back. The 19 stops can be problematic but for short hauls they’re the best.
What is your company’s core business? Who is your primary customer? Are you making decisions on a daily basis around these? And if you’re not, why?

By the way, if you're going to write a complaint letter to an airline here's the gold standard one to imulate: http://www.stupidvideos.com/pictures/Best_Airline_Complaint_Ever/#43179

Kobayashi Maru

"I'm not a magician, I'm just an old country doctor." Leonard McCoy

I wrote a coule of weeks ago a blog titled “Things you can learn from the sports page” where I made the statement that in business you should probably take the decisions made by professional sports owners and do the opposite.

This led a buddy to write me asking, then, how would I handle a Bret Favre situation in the business world. A well-loved but totally self-centered star performer who left on his own terms, you’ve replaced him with someone that you believe has talent but certainly can’t immediately fill the shoes and now the departed star wants to come back as if nothing happened or be blessed to go to a competitor.

My answer: Kobayashi Maru, the “No Win Scenario”.

The only way the Packers make out on this deal is if they trade Favre, get some value for him and then he suffers a career-ending injury during training camp with the new team. Or, they bring him back and he takes them to the Super Bowl. With one of these the Packers brass look like geniuses. Almost any other scenario is bad for them.

No win scenarios happen in business all the time. It can be with key employees, with customers, with competitors, with market conditions, with partners and on particularly bad days all of them at the same time.

A case in point: I was talking with a guy the other day whose company had committed to a specific Business Intelligence provider (and their strategy) two years ago. Now, however, one of their most important business partners had acquired a BI company competitive to the one being used, and to no great surprise, had convinced the owners that a change in BI direction was critical to the relationship. This guy was given 2 months to make the change and report to the board a successful transition. Kobayashi Maru.

I was once given the assignment relocate an entire development team from California to Michigan with no interruption in release schedules and no unhappy customers. Given how many of these Silicon Valley folks were jumping to relocate to Michigan...in January...Kobayashi Muru.

To beat the No Win Scenario you have to be strong of will, decisive of actions, flexible of thinking, and damned lucky. I was lucky, I had an incredible team of people who essentially brute-forced the transition to happen successfully.

Or take the Kirk way and cheat…..

Do you have a room for me and my monkey?

“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town” George Carlin

My son recently told me about a book it was suggested he read by his company called “The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey”.

“The One Minute Manager” was required reading back when I was at about the same stage of my career as he is now. I liked it because it was short and the relevant points were easy to follow. I hated it because it was my first exposure to lunatic managers who couldn’t speak or hold a meeting without referencing the damned book. See my blog from February on the subject A Book I'll Read.

So, I get TOMM but what would monkeys have to do with it? Thus I was compelled to read it.

Now, let me digress. I love monkeys. I love monkeys in jokes (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RIY_MQ5x4G4), I love monkeys on television http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot_Link,_Secret_Chimp) and I especially love monkeys in advertising http://www.trunkmonkeyad.com/). So it only made sense that monkeys would work in How To books.

Not so fast, my friend. These weren’t monkeys like chimps, these were monkeys like Reefer Madness. When you got a room with this monkey you were still by yourself. The essence – so you won’t have to take an hour to read the book yourself - is delegating a task to someone is “giving them the monkey” to take care of as opposed to you taking the money from them and having yet another monkey on your back. There’s a lot of good, sound management stuff like clearly assigning the monkey and following up on the monkey but there’s things like “insuring” the monkey that I’m not so sure about.

Like all How To books this one is based on nice, sound, common sense principles that only have the flaw that all these books have which is that people in the corporate environment never follow nice, sound, common sense principles. However, it is apparent that like it's predicessor it's going to be waved around with great zeal and discussed incessently in meetings.

I guess I’ll now have to rename my fictional book The Seven Flat One Minute Long Tailed Monkeys Who Stole My Cheese.

Things you can learn from the sports page

“We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong”. Bill Vaughan

I love reading the sports pages – well, to be accurate the sports web pages. Reading about the trauma and drama of players, teams, coaches, fans and owners offers a great microcosm into life in general and business specifically. When you watch these ultra wealthy pro franchise owners, who became wealthy by being successful business people, make some of the most lame-brain decisions and do things they would NEVER do with their companies its great entertainment in a head scratching way.

What I’ve been watching recently involves the ongoing saga of my alma mater Indiana University. I’ve written some past blogs on some of it and it appears to be about to come to a sad close and maybe, just maybe, they can get back on the road to not being embarrassing again.

The final chapter in this mess involves the resignation of Rick Greenspan the Athletic Director. Under Greenspan the University hired and subsequently fired a known rules violator in Kelvin Sampson. Because he repeated his bad behavior IU is being penalized. Because no one monitored Sampson’s behavior Greenspan has been forced to resign. The big debate is did the former IU President force Greenspan to hire Sampson. Rumor suggests this to be the case. That President, however, is gone and not talking. So was Greenspan the fall guy?

Many moons ago I got my first promotion to “Vice President”. The title came with a relo to a new region with lots of problems. The new General Manager recruited me to come in and “fix things”. What I learned was that his idea of fixing was essentially getting rid of the entire existing management team. This became my duty. Greg Strouse, Ax Man. He ID’d them, I whacked them. I thought some of them were pretty decent employees and certainly had a ton of experience. But, I was told to whack, so I whacked. Once all the cleansing was done and new people hired the performance of the place went even deeper into the hole. Too many new people and morale was terrible. I was unceremoniously fired. After all, everyone hated me and blamed me for the problems.

Now my story has a happy ending that I’ll tell you someday but here’s what I learned.

If you are an executive level performer with a large budget, lots of employees and the responsibility of running a successful operation it is your duty to assess the entire landscape and if need be go to battle with your boss on the proper path. You may lose. Actually, you’ll probably lose. But personal accountability and professional honor should win out.

Read the sports pages, see how it’s usually done these days in the world of sports…and do the opposite.

I love spam

“There are people I know who won't hurt me. I call them corpses.” Randy K. Milholland

No, not that kind of Spam (more on that at the end)

I just received an email telling me I was the Grand Prize Winner and had won a new “Peugoet” car. Now, two things: first its spelled P-E-U-G-E-O-T and second even if it was true I would suppose 2nd prize would be two cars. Frankly, Peugeots have all the bad French qualities (small, slow, noisy and smoky) without any of their redeeming qualities (i.e., they don’t come with a lady from Bois de Boulogne Park carrying a case of Bordeaux).

Spam is today what snake oil salesmen were in 1800’s, part fact, part fiction, part entertainment, part annoyance, and totally for the naïve.

I feel bad for the naïve. Often times they are more desperate than dumb, more out of step than out of mind. And some of these offers just seem SO…DAMNED…GOOD. You want to believe. I want to believe. We all want to believe. But alas, the old adage “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is” usually wins out.

So, once you get over your outrage and annoyance of spam you can see it for what it is….pure entertainment. I mean, come on, you absolutely have to find great entertainment in the offers: ED remedies, free computers, discount drugs, discount girls, the list is endless. My absolute favorite is the letter asking you to act as a financial conduit for their foreign company. That for simply funneling these foreign funds into the U.S. for them you’ll receive a large sum of money. And all you have to do is email them your bank account information. Now really, what could be more harmless than that?

One of the biggest problems of spam, of course, is the occasional legitimate email of some importance that gets trapped in the myriad filters used to combat these pests. Deals get lost, opportunities get missed and relationships get postponed, much like lost mail but at cyber speed.

If you rely on email – as we all do – for your business communications you must fight the battle when a client or prospect doesn’t respond to an email as to whether they’re purposely not responding, have poor communication protocol or never received the message. If your email signature is getting trapped in a spam filter then sending more emails won’t solve the problem.

So, pick up the phone. If they’re purposely ignoring your email they’ll ignore your call THEN you’ll have something to fret about.

By the way, click here for the famous Monty Python skit about Spam. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

Service vs. Product

“At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote.” Emo Phillips

My wife and I got into an interesting discussion this evening. The theme, Service vs. Product, came about because of the restaurant where we had dinner. This restaurant is her absolute favorite. Me, on the other hand, could never go there again and be very happy. So, naturally we go there a lot. And by a lot I mean on average twice a week.

Here’s the debate point. The food is quite good. Good standard fare, good specials that change monthly, interesting special events. What’s not to like? Well for me it’s this; the prices are premium and the service is spotty. The wait staff can be mediocre and they tend to be inflexible. There’s also this, after 5 years and thousands of dollars spent the owner still acts as if he’s never seen me before. Now, I’m truly not vain enough to expect a “Well, hello Mr. Strouse, I have your favorite table waiting” every time I walk in but a simple “Hi, it’s good to see you again” would be really nice.

In contrast there’s a restaurant I go to maybe a half dozen times a year. Yet when I walk in whichever of the two owners who happen to be working will see me act as if I’m the proverbial long, lost cousin. Now, they don’t know my name from Adam, but they at least recognize me.

So, what’s more important, Product or Service?

The answer is of course both. If you have both great product and great service you’ve unlocked the keys to the kingdom, and doing everything to provide this should be your obsession every waking minute.

But, if you can’t yet pull off having a great product, you’d damn sure better have great service. Because if having both is nirvana then having neither makes you a Detroit car company, a major airline carrier, a cable company, or the NBA.

Here’s my question. If you’ve achieved the hard part of creating a great product why oh why, outside of stupidity or greed, wouldn’t you surround it with good service?

A little time away

Sorry, I needed to take some time away to attend to some things. Game on.

Paid to be dumb

"Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.” Murphy’s Laws on Technology

So, the big news currently revolves around the merger of Northwest and Delta. They are two old, big, recognized air carriers who have been bleeding money for decades. So now they’re going to take their corporate stupidity and join them together. Any 5th grader should be able to figure out the outcome of this one.

I remember when I was working in Chicago but still living in Michigan. I called Northwest and inquired into pre-buying multiple tickets for a set price. At the time (pre-911) tickets between Detroit and Chicago went for about $100 bought in advance and $250 bought the day of departure. I offered to buy 50 (essentially a years worth) for a preset price somewhere in between the two prices. All I really wanted was to not have to pay the change fee ($100) when I had to change my flight days. The response? “We don’t have a program like that”. OK, so I worked my way up the chain with the same response. So here’s someone TRYING to give them money and they “don’t have a program for that”.

Doomed!

So now I’m listening to all these “experts” talk about how bad this merger will be. Bad for, pick one: the economy, the employees, the passengers, global warming, ED, whatever.

I'm listening to industry experts, economic experts, transportation experts and, of course, politicians blather on and on about how BAD this merger will be for ______. It’s amazing to me how so many allegedly intelligent people can sound so dumb. One of two things, either many of these experts are really dumb or they’re being paid to be dumb. That is, someone with a special interest is paying them to pitch a viewpoint. I’d like to think it’s the latter, because if there really are that many people roaming around being paid mega bucks to be an “expert” or being paid mega bucks to be in office (yeah, I really believe most public servants make a lot of money to think a certain way) who really are as dumb as they sound then we really are all doomed. “Doomed, as doomed as doomed can be”.

I don’t know much, but let me tell you what I do know. Any space, once void, will be filled. I’ve watched this phenomenon happen over and over again in the technology world. Two giant companies will merge, the “experts” will predict doom for the customers and low and behold some new startup will come along and offer a better solution, with better service for a better price.

Happens every time. Will happen again this time.

Just shoot me

There's something intrinsically therapeutic about choosing to spend your time in a wide, open park- like setting that non-golfers can never truly understand. Charles Rosin

I try to keep this site as neutral as possible when it comes to race, religion, sexual preference or gender. However, the first part of this one will speak primarily to men. Others will have to derive their own analogy to fit.

I love to play golf but when it comes to watching golf I limit it mainly to The Masters, The British Open, and any tournament played on a course I’ve been privileged enough to have played. Otherwise I use golf like baseball, for napping.

While watching The Masters my dear wife decided to become interested in competitive, televised golf….for an hour. “Who’s ahead?”, “Where’s Tiger?”, “Why is -2 better than +2?”, “Why is that guy spending so much time looking at his ball?”, “This is stupid!”.

*sigh*

I know, I know. What a great opportunity to interest your wife in one of your hobbies, to spend some time together explaining something you understand to someone who doesn’t, yada yada. The great thing about watching golf is you don’t have to actually watch it, you can sort of hang around doing other things (like writing this blog). So when someone asks you a detailed question about something they just observed on the TV there’s a good chance your answer is “Uh, what?” Then they try to explain what they saw, but without being able to interpret it correctly and then, the whole conversation becomes a stressed, tense, marital experience. So much for a relaxing weekend afternoon.

That was Saturday. Today, on Masters Sunday, I’m going to put this damned PC away, we’re going to cook food together, have our kids over for dinner, and I’m going to watch The Masters with my wife instead of in spite of her.

You see, resistance to concentrating time and attention at home will directly correspond to the same trait at work with colleagues. Both are wrong and both are risky.

Rolodex Man

“Actions lie louder than words.” Carolyn Wells

I was helping a friend and ex-colleague by being a professional reference for a potential new employer. At least I hope I was helping.

Anyway, he finished First Runner Up to a person who “had a better Rolodex” in the area of M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions). Interesting this person who scored the job came from a company that had just filed for Chapter 7. That is, they went bankrupt. Seems to me a person with a great M&A rolodex could have brokered a deal to sell the company and prevent the doors from closing. I’m sure there’s more to the story, but it makes you go “Hmmmm”.

Having a rolodex is a funny term, especially since most people under the age of 50 have probably never used, hell, seen one. But the meaning is clear. It’s someone who knows and has the ability to contact large numbers of people who can help move business.

For me it’s also become a giant flashing yellow light. It has been my experience that anyone who touts their rolodex is immediately suspect. This is because I have been disappointed and frustrated multiple times by these alleged rainmakers.

In my “You can’t fix stupid” blog from January 11th I refer to a situation I was in that couldn’t be fixed. My big flashing light that I saw, understood, but continued to try to fix, was when given two choices for a head of sales the owner took the name-dropping, rolodex-waving, flashy young dude whose reference list included a relative and a girl friend over the understated, highly professional, middle-aged person whose reference list included a collection of C-level people who bought millions of dollars from him over the years but without any recognized names.

I, of all people, value a great network but only when it includes real people not just names and numbers.

Hiring people is the most critically important yet most neglected part of running a business. Good ones make you rich and successful and bad ones make you poor and bitter. Yet we choose people with less intensity than we pick fruit at a market.

I recently read a Fortune Magazine article about Target Corporation and how the CEO personally interviews the people in the top 600 positions of the company. Any way you do the math that is a large chuck of time. But maybe there’s reasons they’re one of the most successful companies around.

Beware Specialists

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. H.L. Mencken

It seems I’ve spent my entire career being sold specialists. Every investor, advisor, analyst, friend and enemy has spent an inordinate amount of effort to council me on using and introducing me to some kind of specialist. Sales specialists, Marketing specialists, Fund Raising specialists, Operations specialists, Office décor specialists, and so on. Unfortunately most of them share a couple of common elements. One, they’re usually tied somehow to the person recommending them, either through blood, greed or bondage; and/or two, they’re unemployed.

Now, you have to be careful about arbitrarily blowing off the recommendation of an investor/board member/ally but at the same time you have to protect your budget and your time. My experience is these “specialists” can be very time consuming and expensive. They can disrupt the office and stall momentum. Worst of all they either perform the “pigeon ritual” or jockey for a full-time position you don’t need.

Here’s what you need to do when presented with an unrequested specialist. What “problem” is the specialists suppose to fix? Is the problem real? If it’s real is it a serious problem or a nuisance? If it’s a real problem with serious ramifications and you do not have the talent on staff to address it then it may be a good idea. It’s also a good way to “test drive” an individual who you feel might be a good fit.

But, if it’s pretty apparent that someone on the outside of the daily operation is just trying to find a payday for one of their cousins it’s time to carefully but directly deflect this distraction.

Searching for Luke Harangody

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. Thomas Edison

Tis NCAA March Madness and since my once-beloved Hoosiers will most likely be One-N-Done come the weekend I thought I’d spend time writing a semi-relevant blog rather than wasting my time on the Indiana message boards.

Luke Harangody plays basketball for Notre Dame. He’s 6’8” and weights 250 lbs. He was named the Big East Conference Player of the Year. He’s a sophomore!

Luke grew up in Indiana. His brother played football for and graduated from Indiana University. Luke was not recruited by then-IU basketball coach Mike Davis. There are lots of theories on why the young man wasn’t recruited by IU but the most substantiated reason is he didn’t necessarily show himself to be a “big time player” while in high school. He didn’t show “up side”, an overused word to describe an athlete’s potential.

Mike Brey, Notre Dame’s basketball coach, obviously did see “up side”. Not only saw it but developed it. Mike Brey was recently named the Big East Conference Coach of the Year. For the second time. In two years.

Indiana University is now searching for their 3rd coach in the past three years. Hopefully they’re looking for one with “up side”.

Every time Luke Harangody shows how much “up side” he has the Indiana faithful fill up their message boards with the same banter. “How could we not even recruit such a talent?”. I’m sure Mike Brey doesn’t read the IU message boards, but if he did he’d probably smile.

There’s a great story about when Luke arrived on the Notre Dame campus and got into some pick up games with the upperclassmen. He called his father and said, “Dad, these guys are so much better than me. I’ll never be anything more than a backup here.” He then went out and worked harder than anyone else. He then became the Big East POY, as a sophomore.

So? How often do you miss the Luke Harangody’s when recruiting people for your business? Maybe they don’t have “the resume” or “the rolodex” or “the experience”. All they have is smarts, dedication and work ethic. All they need is a chance and someone to develop them.

Just like Notre Dame can’t be good with all their players being Luke Harangody, a business can’t be good with all one type of worker. But having a few Luke’s around sure can be rewarding.

Tragic, just tragic

“Only after disaster can we be resurrected” Chuck Palahniuk

I have a friend who is a quote machine. One of my favorites is “a tragedy is horrible, but to be tragic is pitiful”.

So, this is one of those absolutely, totally out of bounds, I’ll rot in hell, and never, ever “work in dis bidness again” subjects. So, get out your long ropes and get ready to hang me high.

I’m reading my umpteenth article about how New Orleans is struggling to get people to come back and visit their city. In these articles the blame is usually passed around to the government, the media, big business and God.

Now understand, I’ve been to NOLA many, many times. It’s one of my absolute favorite places in the world. Not just the country, the world. Like most everyone else I hurt for The Big Easy after Katrina. I donated money and chipped in any way I could. But over time it started to become like a South Park episode. It went from being a tragedy to becoming tragic.

Tragedies happen around the world constantly. We’re insulated from most of them, mainly because CNN and FOX choose to enlighten us about Britney Spears instead. But the fact is disasters happen, people suffer and then the survivors dig out and start over. It’s been that way for time eternal.

However, for some reason New Orleans is different. After all the public and private time and money they’re still “a tragedy”. Sorry N.O. you’ve become tragic. You live in a hurricane zone below sea level. Deal with it or get out. Here’s an offer. Come up to Michigan and live in cold, cloudy, crappy winter while it drags on till June when the only thing you have to look forward to a pseudo- summer in the worst economy in the country. (But they’re also surrounded by 20% of the World’s fresh water, something I suspect will soon become a large global bargaining chip.)

Here, kids, is the XOD lesson: Don’t ever let a tragedy become tragic. Business tragedies like human tragedies happen all the time. They can be caused by conditions over which you have no control. When they happen, deal with the aftermath quickly and professionally. But before the tragedy happens, look around. Are you in a hurricane zone living under sea level?

Nice guys finish....

“Patience to an extreme is cowardice” George Jackson

In a conversation once upon a time with a colleague when discussing (gossiping) about another colleague and discussing the other colleague’s professional merits (shortcomings) I said, “but he’s a nice guy” and my colleague said “we’re all nice guys, it has nothing to do with it”.

Damn! Aced again!

We all want to be thought of as “nice guys”. We want people to like us and say nice things about us and invite us to functions and introduce us to their friends, and…you get the picture.

The fact is we often confuse like with respect. We think if people like us they’ll automatically respect us. And, that’s partially true. If people like you then they want to trust you and thus they tend to give you more rope than people they don’t like (or trust). A longer rope may mean that when the horse is whipped out from under you your feet may hit the ground…or not. Now, I’ve never been hanged but I would think a short rope would give you a better chance at survival whereas a long rope (if not long enough to get your feet to the ground) would create a SNAP that could take your head off.

Regardless, the trouble is, sometimes being nice comes part and parcel with being patient. And patience, as we’ve all been taught, is a virtue. Well yeah, but…..

….there are situations where you need to take hold of things and just make them happen regardless of whether you pinch a few toes and fingers along the way. Maybe it’s in everyone’s best interest for the rope to be short.

Fact is, your high-caliber colleagues, your subordinates and your bosses are rooting for you to do just that. It may involve an under-performing employee, a dishonorable vendor, a profit-eating customer, an out of control investor or a time and resource sucking prospect.

Some problems fix themselves, or so I’ve been told. Fact is, like being hanged, I’ve never actually experienced it.

Lyin', Cheatin', Stealin'

“Are you gonna believe me or your lyin’ eyes?” JR Ewing

I’m distressed. As a life-long Indiana basketball fan I’m clinically depressed about what’s going on with the program and their coach Kelvin Sampson. In a nutshell Sampson came to IU under a cloud because at his previous school (Oklahoma) he had violated a NCAA recruiting rule on how many phone calls are permissible when recruiting high school kids. It wasn’t severe and it’s certainly not the dirtiest thing a coach can do but he did it and was on probation with the NCAA because of it.

He assured everyone that it was an honest mistake and that we would be clean beyond reproach. Well, now it’s come to light that he violated the rules of the probation he’s been under and “may” have lied about it during the school's internal investigation.

Now, I like Kelvin Sampson as a coach. His kids play hard, he attracts good talent and wins games. However, like most IU fans, I was spoiled by all the years that Bob Knight ran a successful and extremely clean program. I remember Knight making Steve Alford sit out a game for appearing in a calendar a campus sorority had made to raise money. A grey area in the rules but one he didn't even flinch at doing something about.

So now there are two potential issues. One, that Sampson re-committed the same crime and two that he publicly lied to his boss about it.

So, what do you do when you have a talented employee who is generally well-liked and successfully runs his department in major KSF’s (key success factors) of business generation (wins/losses), revenue (sold out games and national tv exposure) and great staffing (recruiting). But, the guys a little slimy and lies to you about things.

In my blog of October 8th last year I talked about the 10 simple rules of being a successful employee. http://executiveondemand.blogspot.com/2007/10/ten-simple-rules.html. One was “Never (ever, ever)….(ever, ever, ever) lie, cheat or steal. It will create a stigma that can never be overcome.”

So Mr. or Ms. Big Boss (or in this case IU Athletic Director Rick Greenspan) what are you going to do with your talented but issue-riden employee?

A book I'll read

“Frankly, I’m suspicious of anyone who has a strong opinion on a complicated issue.” Scott Adams,

The Seven Flat One Minute Long Tailed Black Swans Who Stole My Cheese – By Scott Adams (who hasn’t written this book but should)

I love “How to be better” books, especially when they involve business. They prop open doors, press damp papers back into shape, and most of all look cool lying around your house or office. OK, I’ve even read a few of them. My problem with actually reading them is I always somewhere in Chapter 3 find myself saying to myself “Well Duh”.

Each one is filled with total common sense.

The only thing worse than the common sense syndrome is the moron co-worker or (much worse) Boss who latches onto the “Well Duh” Book du jour with the ferocity of a dog with a new chew toy.

You’ve been there. They buy everyone they know copies of it, quote chapter and verse from it in meetings, add a quote from it in their email signature. This does, however, bring up another use for the book… to bash the new disciple senseless in mid-quote!

You see, the problem isn’t the enlightened, common sense, “gee I knew that” material of the books. It's certainly not the authors who have spent countless hours writing the book. Look, we all can use refreshers and a little "Well Duh" never hurt anyone.

The problem is that PEOPLE DON’T ACTUALLY DO THE COMMON SENSE STUFF THAT MAKES YOU GO “WELL DUH”!!!!! They talk about it, preach to others about it, get tattoos about it and generally bore everyone else senseless about it but they don’t wake up in the morning and actually practice these common sense principles.

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m into quotes. Well there’s one that goes “When everything is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done”. So, if you read one of these “Duh” books and it moves you then PLEASE, just go out and do.

I QUIT!!!!

"All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things." Robert Montgomery Knight


I got a call from a friend the other day telling me how much he enjoyed my blog. I was flattered. He then proceeded to launch into the 973 ways I could improve it and if I dedicated more of my attention (and his suggestions) to the site that it could "become viral" and "become my profession" and "wouldn't that be cool".

Thus, following the lead of the person I've most admired over the years, The General. I QUIT....

Let me explain. Bob Knight and I showed up on the Indiana campus the same year and were both met with about the same amount of acclaim. He was a young coach from Army whose greatest claim to fame was playing college ball alongside John Havlicek at Ohio State. My credentials were...uh...less.

Over the next many years I came to enjoy RMK for many reasons: the undefeated 1976 season, the National Championships, the candy-striped warm ups. But most of all because here was a guy who got to do what he wanted for a living, get paid great money for it and....best of all....do it on his terms. Yeah, yeah, don't bore me with the trangressions. I've heard them all and actually know them better than you do.

So this week, in the middle of the season, Coach Knight "retired". On his terms. Now, I've not talked to Bob about his decision but I'll bet that somewhere in his decision process is the element "it had become A JOB". And the minute it became A JOB he was out.

Well, same thing. The minute this blog thing becomes A JOB...I'm out.

See ya' Coach. College basketball just became a lot less interesting.

Celebrate victories

“The next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing” Nick “the Greek” Dandolos

In a startup there is always too much to do, too little resources to do it with and way too little time to get it done. The money is running out – quickly - and everyone’s nerves along with it. Then something good happens – a promising sales call, a technology break through, whatever. And then what happens; A brief sigh of momentary relief and then on to all the other pressing issues.

Now, celebrating every minute thing that ever happens is not the answer. After all, it is a startup and money is running out and there isn’t enough time to get things done so you don’t want to be running off to the pub at every turn. Or….maybe you do. I’ll need to consider this more.

But anyway, balance here is the key. Do celebrate the important happenings. It’ll refresh and refocus everyone – including you.