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.