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Watch the 90 second clip. Students: this is not a substitute for class attendance. But it is good to know what the professor thinks...
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Your Business Blogger was visiting mom over Thanksgiving. I told her about the good work by the good guys at the Business & Media Institute.
I explained to her about the bias that the media injects into business reporting: talking down the economy, business men are evil monsters and Republicans don't care about the little guy (customers).
"For example," I begin, reverting to consultant/professor mode, "the economy is on fire--"
"What?" mom interjects.
"The economy..." I stop. It is a smart son that does not lecture his mother. "Mom, do you think we are in a recession?"
"Yes!" she cries. "People are unemployed, inflation has everything so expensive and people are losing their homes!"
Oh no. CNN got to her.
Read my article over at Business & Media Institute, CNN's 'Recession Watch' Continues, with New Definition of Recession: Morning show focuses on negative Christmas shopping predictions as indicator of economic health, despite strong job growth. And read how CNN got it wrong.
The Alert Reader will note that Black Friday sales are up 8 percent over same day last year. That is explosive growth -- ignored or minimized by the main stream media.
The main stream media will do anything to talk down the economy to try to get Hillary elected.
According to the White House Fact Sheet for October, statistics that CNN ...should have considered:Real GDP grew at a strong 3.9 percent in the third quarter of 2007
October 2007 marked the 50th consecutive month of job growth.
The economy has six years of uninterrupted growth.
Real after-tax per capita personal income has risen by 12.7 percent, an average of $3,800 over the last seven years.
Mom did not believe the numbers. She believes what she sees on TV. Too much CNN. Not enough FOX.
Your Business Blogger has a piece up at the Business & Media Institute. Be sure to read for the surprising (to liberals) ending.
CNN's 'Your $$$$$' Scours the Nation for Recession Hints
Co-hosts prod guests about the R-word, select states with bad news.
By Jack Yoest Business & Media Institute 11/7/2007 10:37:09 AMThe national economy continues its strong performance, but “Your $$$$$” co-hosts Ali Velshi and Christine Romans were looking hard for bad news.
In October, 166,000 jobs were added, twice the expected growth rate. General growth as measured by the gross domestic product was estimated at a robust 3.9 percent for the most recent quarter.
That meant CNN didn’t find a national recession and had to look for trouble on the state level.
“There are some states...where people are feeling all the elements of a recession already,” Velshi said. Earlier in October, Velshi told viewers “the bottom line is to most Americans, a recession is what it feels like to you.”
Velshi gets lost in the economic forest. Read the entire article and learn what the rational economic family does when living in high cost states.
Charmaine will be giving a presentation on The Politics of Parental Leave: Is Paid Parental Leave an Effective Means of Promoting Gender Equity in the Workplace? at the New America Foundation.
Start: 11/15/2007 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm
at New America Foundation
1630 Connecticut Ave, NW 7th Floor
Washington, 20009
New America Foundation
From the New America Foundation web site,
U.S. political candidates are beginning to produce work and family policy positions in response to what most Americans feel - that work and family balance is a major issue facing American families. Women in particular struggle with such balance and with achieving equality in the workplace. Several bills have been introduced in Congress to mandate paid parental leave to help women achieve better balance and more equality. But is this approach best for women as a whole?Dr. Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council served as the Project Director of the Family, Gender and Tenure research project at the University of Virginia. The research is the only study of its kind to examine the effectiveness of paid parental leave in the United States.
The University of Virginia
Dr. Yoest's experience as a researcher, policy advocate and mother of five give her an important perspective on this current debate. Join the New America Foundation's Workforce and Family Program for a provocative discussion on paid parental leave.
Be sure to visit and let us know what you think.
Thank you (foot)notes:
Charmaine did her dissertation on the Family Medical Leave Act, titled: Empowering Shakespeare's Sister: Parental Leave and the Level Playing Field.
More on the New America Foundation at the jump.
Your Business Blogger has a piece up at the Business & Media Institute. BMI, as alert readers noticed, was mentioned and cited by Rush Limbaugh today -- on particulary good article.
It wasn't mine.
Rush was talking about Dan Gainor, my editor at the Business & Media Institute: Advancing the Culture of Free Enterprise in America. Rush Limbaugh discusses BMI’s special report Fire & Ice.
See more on Dan here. And be sure to watch him each Thursday afternoon on the new Fox Business Network
By Jack Yoest Business & Media InstituteCNN’s “Your $$$$$” is ready for a spike in gas prices. It just hasn’t happened despite predictions.
On October 20, the show’s guest Peter Beutel, president of energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover, predicted a 20-cent increase in the price of a gallon a gas. How soon? In the next week.
It didn’t happen.
Read the article here and let me know what you think.
Your Business Blogger has an article up at the Business & Media Institute.
CNN Presents the Fear-Based Economy:
Time's Karen Tumulty questions Reagan's economic record.,
“You know, Ron Reagan’s fiscal record was not so great…” claimed Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for Time magazine. Tumulty was a guest on CNN’s ‘Your $$$$$’ October 13, providing political analysis on the economic policy proposals of the presidential candidates.The segment was titled “Fear Factor.” Christine Romans, began with the observation that there is a political party that believes, “government needs to expand its reach to protect citizens from catastrophe.” No, Romans assured us, “We are not talking about terrorism, we are talking about the economy.”
Read the entire article and let me know what you think. Did president Ronald Reagan have a poor fiscal record? And did he really win the cold war?
Or is this simply a liberal bias from the main stream media?
Watch Charmaine on CNN,
Charmaine Yoest, Vice President for Communications at Family Research Council, appeared on CNN Headline News October 16, 2007 to discuss a proposal at a middle school to dispense contraceptives to its students.
Watch the clip here. Please forgive the click thru the FRC site.
If you will be in New York City on October 18th, let's visit. Your Business Blogger will be a panelist for the iNetwork2Networth event organized by the iConcept Media Group.
Inc. Magazine is a sponsor
Current sponsors include: Inc. Magazine, The New York Observer, and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.
And be sure to come to The Washington Briefing.
Your Business Blogger has an article this week at the Business & Media Institute,
CNN Doesn't Mention Pro-Union Guest Was Union VP
Author's former job explains her adoration of unions, but she is unopposed on 'Your $$$$$.'
The AFL-CIO reports that only 12 percent of the work force belonged to unions last year and the hosts of “Your $$$$$” are not happy.
Hosts Ali Velshi and Christine Romans told viewers why labor unions are good -- and business was not -- on the September 2, pre-Labor Day broadcast. To help, they brought in Beth Shulman, author of “Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Failed 30 Million Americans and Their Families.” Shulman was introduced as a “labor consultant” rather than the more accurate former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union...
Read the article and let me know what you think.
Thank you (foot)notes:
The Business & Media Institute (BMI) is a division of Brent Bozell's Media Research Center. BMI is headed and edited by Dan Gainor. More at the jump.
Your Business Blogger has an article at the Business & Media Institute, CNN on Sub-Prime Mortgage Problems: Where is Personal Responsibility? 'Your $$$$$' has a new name, but keeps up the anti-business theme.
CNN’s “Your $$$$$” is the hip, fast-moving replacement for “In the Money.” But don’t bother to Google “Your $$$$$.”It’s not easily searchable. You get millions of results, but none obviously about the program.
That’s a basic starting point for any business with an online presence. It’s an early indicator there are other basics in Business 101 that CNN are missing.
Read the rest of the story and let me know what you think.
Thank you (foot)notes:
The Business & Media Institute is a division of Brent Bozell's Media Research Center.
The biggest complaint of the blogosphere is that the writing has no accountability, no third party oversight.
Except the carnivals. And the best business carnival in the business is The Carnival of the Capitalists.
Submissions, as the Alert Reader will know, are self-selected by the author, and edited and vetted by the carnival host. Not every article submission is accepted.
My friend Anita Campbell leads this week's carnival with about the best collection of podcasts todate. This is an essential resource for anyone considering podcasting or who might want to be a guest on radio and podcasts -- and who needs a list of the better podcasts. Anita Campbell presents 100 Small Business Audio Podcasts posted at Small Business Trends Radio | Small Business Information. Anita demonstrates here what is best about the blogosphere. (Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger has written for Anita Campbell.)
Wayne Hurlbert tells us in Management techniques: Delegating responsibility,
As a company grows, the number of responsibilities grow right along with it. Not only do the number of departments expand, but their size and scope increases as well. Taken together, managing all departments and staff within the organization becomes too much for any one person. No one possesses the time or skills required for each and every job in the business. Delegation of responsibility is essential. It is here that problems can arise that can hurt the company's performance.
Douglas Galbi at purple motes has a thoughtful piece television serves couch potatoes
Don't rush the lawyers if you have been wronged. Read this counter-intuitive, yet practical article by Carmen Van Kerckhove at Race in the Workplace with What to Do If You're Experiencing Racial Discrimination At Work,
Think twice before reporting racial discrimination to your company's human resources department. Why? Because it's not always the most effective strategy.Read on for a step-by-step guide on what to do if you believe your supervisor is discriminating against you because of your race...
See Jason Koeppe’s Strategic Internet Marketing Blog and A Step By Step Guide For Choosing the Right Keywords - StrategicSiteMarketing.com,
Effective keyword research is underrated. Really. And not just in its benefit and importance as it relates to SEO and online search marketing. Thoroughly understanding what keyword phrases your target audience is using to find you (your product or services) is literally invaluable. This knowledge is one of the best weapons you have in your business building arsenal and this weapon can be used both online and off. We’ll come back to that thought a bit later. For now, let’s dive right into how to effectively choose the best keywords for search marketing...
Nickel does the numbers in How to Make Money in the Stock Market (Revisited). The numbers are compelling. No charge.
Here are some youthful capitalists who are starting really early with their business plans: 5 Of The Youngest Entrepreneurs On Their Path To Success And Riches on thedigeratilife by the Silicon Valley Blogger.
Steven Silvers who can manage image better most anyone has Vick story prompts greyhound racing industry to defend itself earlier than usual. posted at Scatterbox by Steven Silvers,
The American Greyhound Track Operators Association rushes to spin some distance between the controversies surrounding its own industry and the nation’s new interest in illegal dog fighting.
David Kam presents The Importance of Logo posted at MarketingDeviant.com.
Gustav S submits 10 Reasons why only 4% of the population achieve their goals posted at success-is-in-you.com.
Ian Welsh has a Biblical reference Reaping What You Sow: Hedge Fund and Housing Bubble Edition posted at The Agonist,
What's happening to the housing and financial markets right now is the entirely foreseeable consequence of past deliberate policy decisions by the Fed and the Bush administration. The reason a bail-out is finally occurring is because the people who matter are getting hurt.
Kurt Brouwer has Subprime and Stocks? What Happened? posted at Fundmastery Blog,
Financial markets around the globe have been weak and jittery in recent weeks. The following discussion is meant to give you some background on the subprime lending mess and how it spread throughout the financial markets.
Dax Desai writes What does the potential Fed rate cut mean? posted at Dax Desai, where he explains the effect of the potential Fed interest rate cut on investments.
Pawel Brodzinski presents 15 Ways to Be a Good Boss posted at Software Project Management,
Want to be a leader who will be followed by the team? Want to have employees working willingly on your success? Want to be a good boss?
Some website owners assume that Google keyword search rankings directly affect sales. So a #1 position will be better than a #2 or #3 position. What counts is the bottom-line result and many other factors come into play in determining that.
Politicians are trying too hard to pressure the Federal Reserve. If they aren't stopped now, we'll have a much harder time stopping them in a few years when they try to use an inflation tax to balance the budget.
Peter has Decide For the Success of Your Home Based Business posted at Make Money Online.
Read the Millionaire Mommy Next Door with How to Treat Affluenza: Spend Less and Live a Happier Life posted at Millionaire Mommy Next Door,
The number of "very happy" people peaked in 1957, and has remained fairly stable or declined ever since. Even though we consume twice as much as we did in the 1950s, people were just as happy when they had less. 86% of Americans who voluntarily cut back their consumption feel happier as a result.
wilson ng presents The Challenge of Providing Choice posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife,
Some people want a variety of choice, while some people want quality pre-selected information. Whether you are selling products or ideas, how many alternatives do you provide? Here is a short article on how the number of offerings affect decision-making.
Chief Family Officer presents Great Debate over at AFM: To Sell or Not To Sell? posted at Chief Family Officer.
FMF submits What I'd Do with a High-Paying, Unrewarding Job posted at Free Money Finance and read how he's handled bad job situations
Alvaro Fernandez outlines The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains posted at Brain Fitness Blog with some tips to keep our brains sharp.
Good news for health insurance costs: Insureblog's Henry Stern reports that prices are moderating, and explains why.
Leon Gettler has original reporting with an Interview with AXS-One chairman and CEO Bill Lyons posted at Sox First,
An interview with AXS-One chairman and CEO Bill Lyons on why companies struggle with their electronic documents and how email is the new legal Chernobyl.
Nina presents Gay Affluence: fact, fiction, or somewhere in between? posted at Queercents,
Gay affluence is a myth and perhaps the most misunderstood fact about gays and lesbians. We are not wealthier. Or are we?
Rob May writes What Dasani Bottled Water Taught Me About Better Blogging posted at Businesspundit, A case study of Dasani provides insight into why blogging requires more than just quality posts.
Matthew Paulson presents Long Term Care Insurance: When It Makes Sense, When It Doesn’t. posted at FinanceIsPersonal.com.
Where are interest rates headed? James Hamilton of Econbrowser concludes that the Fed has abandoned its 5.25% target for the fed funds rate, and, when it goes back to targeting, will pick a lower value, in Whee!
Charles H. Green presents It's a Dog Eat Dog World, Isn't It? posted at Trust Matters,
In an emerging business world that throws everyone together in constantly permutating ways, that old competitive nature we prized decades ago is becoming a bit of a millstone.
Babak presents Bond Market Screaming For Rate Cut - Fed Listening? posted at Trader's Narrative.
Marlon J. Broussard presents The True value of Money in Our Age | MoneyBlog posted at MoneyBlog,
The point is not to just point out the fact that a dollar is only worth 4 cents (about the exact cost of printing, regardless of the denomination), but to shed light on some things you need to be mindful of...
How would you like to live in crushing, abject poverty? Does the idea of living and sleeping on the streets of a major American city sound appealing to you? Would you like to grow old and penniless, spending your final days on this Earth barely getting by on the meager checks sent to you by some large government bureaucracy? Well, my friend, do I have the program for you.
The customer, in fact, is not always right, but good customer service is treating her as though she is. Making the customer feel appreciated, even when they are not pleased, is the goal.
Next week's carnival will be celebrated on September 3, 2007 at the Geek Practitioners Blog.
Newt has a plan to find each illegal immigrant. It just might work.
Notice: This is not a presidential endorsement of Gingrich by the Yoest's or the Family Research Council.
Full Disclosure: Charmaine has been published by The American Enterprise Institute, What Do Parents Want?
When a person of note is covered by the media in Your Nation's Capital, three questions are asked by the victim:
1) Is there a picture?
2) Is it above the fold?
3) Is the story running on the weekend?
Lurita Alexis Doan If the newspaper publishes a picture of the person above the fold, then the media outlet is creating the "legs" that the story will take. The media outlet is helping to make the story, the story. And bleeding will follow. Because...
If it bleeds, it leads.
Lurita Alexis Doan, the top executive of the General Services Administration came to DC to make a difference after making a buck. In her old position running a for-profit technology company, she was most familiar with selling to the government and creating wealth and generating jobs.
She knows how to create wealth with efficient and effective management. But there was one skill set her new job in Government required that few for-profit businesses cover in management training:
Multiple points of accountability.
It was not enough for Doan to lead the billion dollar agency, manage her staff, boss and peers, and customers. She also had to manage the press, the public perception, and now, as we have all read, she must deal with the initiative-killing-congress in the person of Henry Waxman.
Representative Waxman is accusing Lurita Doan of a laundry list of offenses, but the most interesting is violating the Hatch Act.
Alert Reader Tom Commented,
Please accurately present facts, in particular the provisions of the Hatch Act. You clearly omit the prohibitions relevant to Ms. Doan's violation: that no employee may engage in political activity while on duty or in a government office. The Hatch Act prohibits far more than the 3 actions you list...
Lurita Doan's Hatch Act "violation" is no worse than driving down Constitution Avenue with a Bush bumper sticker.
Your Business Blogger knows a bit about the line that separates public service as a govenment appointee receiving a government paycheck, and electioneering.
Lurita Doan has been coloring well within the lines of The Hatch Act. At least much better than Your Business Blogger.
Because, unlike Lurita Doan, I inadvertently fudged the line. At least according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.
A number of years ago I sent out an invitation to friends to attend a fund raiser, from my spacious government office. Your Business Blogger,
Used a government computerFund raised for a particular candidate
In an election
I goofed. As RTD's Tyler Whitley quickly wrote. But it was not above the fold, there was no picture, and the article was mid-week, but, thankfully, small. I was a dummy and got off light.
Doan is innocent and being condemned under The Hatch Act.
The Hatch Act of 1939 is arcane; difficult to understand and frightfully easy to misinterpret. Think IRS regulations.
But, there was no attempt on her part of using the agency or anything else to compel employees to do any partisan activities.
She made a statement that 6 people apparently heard and 30 people did not.
It was not her meeting, it was set up by her White House liaison and she was not aware of its contents beforehand. She readily admits she should have asked more questions. Of course, these are political appointees and they are allowed leeway in meetings at government buildings. She should have understood the nature the meeting before attending or making any statements. She has since taken steps to make sure all meetings are vetted through counsel and through her ethics staff.
No, Doan is not in violation. This is simply a witch hunt on the part of Democrats to get to the White House. And Democrats imply that only the GOP is being political. Lurita Doan has been caught in the middle of participating in this meeting and possibly making the statement on helping candidates -- remember: Doan does business, not politics. But, she certainly has not advocated or pushed the GSA employees to do anything in an election.
An election that is still a year and half away.
The issue is more than any confusion over The Hatch Act. The Democrat attack machine sees Lurita Alexis Doan as a two-fer:
1) A George Bush appointee, and
2) A business person.
The liberal media and liberal Democrats don't care for either.
Dan Gainor
Director Business and Media Institute I had lunch the other day with Dan Gainor, pictured at left, below the fold, who is the The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow and Director of the Business and Media Institute -- a part of Brent Bozell's Media Research Center. I ask him about the liberal bias -- the media bias against businessmen. "Nearly every businessman is shown by Hollywood to be a crook, or worse," says Gainor. Portraited as monsters. Or hypocrites, like, say, a church-going thief. As he writes in Bad Company: For the American Businessman, Primetime is Crimetime,
One enduring American cultural image is the man in the gray flannel suit. A businessman, with briefcase in tow and tie crisply knotted, who left the family for an honest day's work and eventually returned home worn and weary. But TV long ago abandoned that icon and replaced it with the stereotype of corporate evil.
And Democrats believing this script -- and all that flickers for truth in Hollywood -- hate Bush, hate capitalism, hate businessmen.
Lurita Alexis Doan knows how to make money in the Free Market and is on the Bush management team. Making Doan the (immediate) target.
Capitalism bested communism. But Capitalism and Business will have a bigger challenge with liberal Democrats like Henry Waxman in Congress.
Thank you (foot)notes:
See Christopher J. Dorobek's take at the jump.
See Lurita Alexis Doan: Good Management Meets Bad Politics
And How To Cut The Federal Budget at a Government Agency by Lurita Alexis Doan
Did Doan understand The Manager’s Mission? Bob Novak indicates that Doan clearly does not enjoy the support of her management molecule: Boss, Peers, Staff, Customers. See Hatch Act Hatchet Job.
Testimonial Two-Step has more on DC tactics.
Also see NewsBusters for exposing and combating liberal media bias.
Starting a(nother) company?
Your Business Blogger has assembled a few from scratch and was putting together Management Training of DC, LLC.
But I really dreaded all the lawyer and government bureaucracy hassles. Again.
So I bought LegalZoom. Goodness, they are good.
Alert Readers know that Charmaine and I have very simple tastes: We simply require the best of anything.
LegalZoom was a pleasant surprise. Fast, Easy, Cheap, with Follow-up.
Go buy them. You will be pleased.
Incorporation, LLC, DBA, Copyright, Trademark, Divorce, Wills, Living Trust, Power of Attorney, Prenuptials, Immigration Services, Name Change, Patents.
I got the LLC.
Go try their site and service and let me know what you think.
Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger has a financial interest in LegalZoom's success. And I didn't have to talk with a lawyer.
Looking for a job? Vist College Students Advisor for a tutorial: Good News About Jumpstarting Your Job Search brought to you by the Carnival of the Job Search ~ 5th edition.
Carnival of the Capitalists is hosted this week by Gyaan Sutra. Must read for business leaders is Sunk costs: Know when to pull the plug, by Wayne Hurlbert;
When faced with a sunk cost situation, learn to identify it as an ongoing drain of company resources. If there is no possible remedy, cut the plan adrift, and start over with a new idea.
Your successful and creative company must understand sunk costs, and know when to pull the plug. Admit your mistakes, and move on to a different plan entirely. Your business success depends on it.
See Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office? Although I would like to see a bit more on negotiation skills for Women. At Carnival of Careers in Middle Age #2.
And drive on over to Ask Patty (about cars). Car Carnival. Cool. Read The Seven Biggest Driving Mistakes By Kristin Bailey Murphy
Evil HR Lady has answers for human resource management,
Mistakes can lead to success...
Really.
"Why am I evil? Well, I'm not, but that's the perception of all of us in HR. Need to fire someone? Come to HR. Need to explain to someone why, even after working their rear end off all year, that their annual increase is 2.7%? Come to HR. Need to come up with new mountains of paperwork? Come to HR. So, come join me on the Evil Side. Oh, and send me your HR questions."
See her edits and editorials at Carnival of Human Resources #5, and be sure to read Delegation as a Leadership Style, From Susan M. Heathfield, and her Tips for Effective Delegation. With good advice. If every manager delegated properly and treated his desk like a pyramid, Your Business Blogger would have fewer clients.
Or maybe all managers should be sociopaths.
See The Carnival of Australia and learn what ANZAC Day is. Aussies are allies.
And bookmark The Integrative Stream, who is hosting the Carnival of the Capitalists. (I will 'roll 'em, as soon as the Panzer Commander unlocks by blogroll...) William Crawford has,
been a software developer, a manager, a Chief Technology Officer and an author of books about enterprise computing. In 2006-2007, I spent a year working on Healthcare Information Technology policy issues at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in the Office of Policy at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the largest healthcare payor in the world.Right now I’m focused on industry liaision activities for the Harvard Medical School Center for Biomedical Informatiocs, and am an MBA candidate at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. I’m also an SM candidate in the MIT Biomedical Enterprise Program, which focuses on bringing together management and scientific professionals to create innovative biomedical businesses. You can never have too many graduate degrees.
And while at the Carnival visit Wayne Hurlbert, who reminds us in Preventing mistakes: Creativity to the rescue
"All business owners and managers make mistakes. In fact, if no mistakes are made, nothing is being done in the business at all. Literally.Fear that one's mistakes leads to immediate dismissal simply locks down the company. No one will suggest any new ideas, and will revert to covering the backs and keeping their heads down. Entrepreneurs should welcome innovation and fresh, creative ideas. Forward thinkers and innovators should be rewarded and encouraged to seek new solutions to the organization's problems. Mistakes will be made. The key is to keep the errors small, and to learn from the experience."
Wayne gets it right, as usual. Benefit from his wisdom, which is interesting, since he makes few mistakes. Read him.
I usually recognize a mistake... the second time I make it.
The Honorable
Lurita Alexis Doan
Chief Executive
General Services Administration Why is Congressman Waxman so unhappy with Lurita Alexis Doan, head of GSA?
Is it contracts, campaignings, competence?
Your Business Blogger recently sat down with Lurita Doan. She was really quite at home with the intense blood sport that passes for politics. (She's from Louisiana.) (And works academia.) We discussed her management style and her goals in government.
Doan came to Your Nation's Capital to save money in the giant GSA. And to make a difference in the business of government. Rob Bluey reminds us in TownHall.com that,
"The agency oversees nearly $66 billion in federal spending -- more than a quarter of the government’s procurement dollars. It has 12,300 employees who are spread out in offices around the country.So what do GSA employees do with all that money? The GSA is the world's largest landlord with more than 8,300 government-owned or leased buildings. It is responsible for a fleet of 170,000 vehicles, making it the world's largest purchaser of new cars. The computer infrastructure it oversees is valued at more than $100 million. The agency is the world's largest credit card service, and believe it or not, the world's largest conservator of art."
Jimmie Stewart as
Jefferson Smith in Frank Capra's
1939 film classic
Mr. Smith Goes to WashingtonLurita Doan came to Washington, DC to serve out of passion for her country. But unlike Jimmie Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mrs. Doan came with a plan.
Lurita Doan placed herself in the Waxman cross-hairs by breaking rice bowls in the bowels of government.
So Chairman Waxman takes a day off from surrendering to the jihadists in Iraq to hold hearings. He gets a three-fer:
1) Ignore the War on Islamofascists
2) Berate a cost cutting manager, and
3) Smear Karl Rove
Ignore, Berate, Smear. Not a bad day for Democrats.
Following is Doan's memo on How to Cut the Federal Budget at a Government Agency.
Your Business Blogger could have used such a guideline during my tour of duty in government and my feeble attempts to rein in costs to save tax payer dollars (the goal of most Republicans).
The government, the country needs more Lurita Doans. And fewer Henry Waxmans.
HOW TO CUT THE FEDERAL BUDGET AT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY
BASIC GROUND RULES
1. Make a decision not to cut salaries or benefits (PC&B) if a t all possible. The agency should make the commitment to value the skill sets and labor of its employees as its most valuable resource. This kind of cut should be considered only as a last measure, after all other options are exhausted and that commitment and understanding must be shared with the Agency’s employees, so that they know their personal lives are not at risk. This allows employees to focus on the true goal which is to cut the budget thereby improving efficiency and value to the American taxpayer.
2. Budget cuts should be employee driven in order to release the entrepreneurial energies of the employees who will find better ways to do the same things.
3. Each office within the Agency is accountable for achieving the desired cuts. At GSA, we proposed a 9% cut, but targeted non-performing programs.
4. Additional targets were : unnecessary travel, overseas travel except as it directly related to job performance, promotions above GS-15, hiring of GS-15 or higher, volume travel to conferences—often times limiting the number of attendees at conferences, consolidated purchasing[strategic sourcing]/
5. Each office and each employee at GSA was told that there were “no sacred cows.”
6. Each office was given a timeline / timeframe in which to provide the CFO the targeted cuts.
7. The Budget Process at GSA was collaborative, but by no means consensus driven.
8. I asked that we base the budget cuts on non-performing programs...
Your Business Blogger once partnered with a former McKinsey Consultant, a brilliant mind with a Ph.D. in Math from Columbia. I once wondered aloud why McKinsey, indeed all big business seemed to be confused conservatives.
If you are in business, doing business, creating wealth -- you must be a Calvin Coolidge conservative GOP'er. Right?
"Silly knave," says my elder, better business partner. "Businesses always start out conservative -- but turn liberal as they get bigger." Then he launches into correlations and matrixes and standard deviations, proof theorems for the evolution from small government business conservative to big government business liberal elite.
Someone should write a book, I thought. And warn us.
Someone has.
Tim Carey has written the Big Ripoff.
Tim Carney
Tim's thesis is that Big Business actually embraces and welcomes Big Government regulation to install barriers to entry to hinder smaller competitors.
Big Government has become the enabler of, and provided of a competitive advantage for Big Business.
Liberal elites in business are more interested in protecting a current position than in encouraging innovation, especially if the new ideas come from outside the company. (Goodness, Big Business doesn't care for innovation inside their companies.)
And like true progressives these days, the author, the topic, the debate is blasting at the Conservative Political Action Conference. CPAC 2007 in Your Nation's Capital.
CPAC 2007
Big Ripoff
by Tim Carney
Published by Wiley
Tim was a panelist at CPAC debating America's Business Elites -- Do They Really Believe in Free Enterprise.
After Tim's compelling presentation, it is clear that Big Business Elites are not good for business.
The plaque reads
For your part in the successful
delivery of the first
North Slope crude
to the Benicia Refinery...
token sample 4 August 1977 "Exxon, the sign of the double cross," quipped one leftist wag. The oil energy giant is often maligned by anarchists, non-capitalists and environmentalists. No matter what a Fortune 500 does, it will be maligned by socialists.
And now the tree-spikers/tree huggers are even madder. Or are celebrating. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference.
Two items:
1) Exxon recently stopped its discretionary funding of a left-leaning think-tank. And,
2) Acknowledged that the temperature has risen.
Steven Mufson at the Washington Post quotes Ken Cohen, spokesman for Exxon,
"There is increasing evidence that the earth's climate has warmed on average about 0.6 degrees centigrade in the last century," Cohen said in a recent e-mail. He said "the risks to society and ecosystems could prove to be significant, so despite the areas of uncertainty that do exist, it is prudent to develop and implement strategies that address the risks."
Risk. Part of any strategic plan is risk analysis and how to best mitigate any downside. If there are external environmental factors that would affect the profitability of the company, Ken Cohen would like to know about it first: to keep from losing money and to make money. If danger is coming, the company has to know. Exxon is not a hobby or a charity.
Well, maybe part of Exxon is.
Ken Cohen also runs Exxon Mobil's Charitable Foundation. An organization that gives, gives money away.
What kind of corporate monster is this? The Alert Reader will not know from the Main Stream Media.
There recently has been questionable reporting and media miscues on Exxon which seem to be common-sport for the mainstream outlets. Exxon, like any well loved (red-state) American institution, suffers from corporate ad hominem attacks. I've seen better reporting on blogs, such as Right Angle, Heritage, or The Club for Growth and The Corner at NRO.
Do people really hate Exxon as The Washington Post implies? And if the oil giant is really, really disliked as the MSM and lefty blogs suggest, is there is a measure where we can guage the guilt?
So I ask Ken Cohen on a recent conference call, "How many people own Exxon stock?"
He didn't know.
And it might not be knowable. Cohen says that the Exxon stock is "widely held" and is a popular energy stock held by "every major stock fund" in America. Cohen says that there are about two and one half million individuals who own a single share or more. And half of the Exxon stock is owned by institutions, such as a mutual fund. Where a single investor might own only a piece of stock.
What Cohen does not know, but we can only guest, is that millions and millions and millions of Americans have invested in the success of ExxonMobil by buying the stock. I am one of them.
Exxon is a winner not only in the stock market but also in the market place -- at the gas pump. The world has a number of competitive substitutes to fuel up our giant SUV's -- BP, Shell, Chevron Mobil and we all like Exxon.
Exxon Mobil The American public buys what Exxon is selling. We buy the stock; we buy the gas.
Exxon Mobil in 2005 had sales of over $370 billion. But oil is not how all this money is made. The talent to turn oil to gold comes from the deep well of Exxon Mobil personnel ingenuity. It is not the natural resource, but the human resource of a talented head-count. The company has some 14,000 scientist and engineers world-wide. These smart people make Exxon Mobil the largest energy supplier in the world. And will keep their company on the cutting edge of energy development if the earth warms or cools in the future.
It's not big oil; it's big ideas.
Peter Drucker called himself a social ecologist. He believed that the best companies in the near future would be "Post Capitalist." I believe Exxon is part of this future.
1) Exxon reinvested nearly 210 Billion Dollars over the last 15 years back into its business. This nearly matches its earnings. Employees like this. More at the footnotes.
2) Exxon has paid a dividend on its stock for 100 years. It throws off so much cash that it purchases its own outstanding stock. Investors like this.
3) Exxon keeps prices relatively low. Consumers like this.
4) Exxon scientists have written 40 papers for peer review journals. The academy likes this.
5) Exxon has donated $100 million to climate change programs. Stanford University likes this.
Ronald Reagan once said that the real value of (show) business was knowing the difference between critics and box office. Global warming critics will continue to have no effect on the Exxon box office of capitalism.
Thank you (foot)notes:
The conference call was arranged by Rob Bluey of The Heritage Foundation.
Full Disclosure: The family of Your Business Blogger has a financial interest in the continued success of Exxon. My father retired from the Navy, was by bored teaching school and went back down to the sea in ships and worked on the Exxon boats.
This is an unpaid blog post.
Exxon's reinvestment of earnings back into its businesses -- self-funding intrapreneurs, is uniquely American and universally, globally misunderstood as compared to other international company strategies. It is the common belief that the Chinese, say, have long horizons and invest for the long-century long-term. Waiting patiently for profits. This, of course, is a lie. I was rudely awakened to the brutal, short term, take-it-all-now mentality of working with Chinese managers on the mainland. They would quietly tell me that they wanted the money today, because the government might take it tomorrow. Uncertainty grabs the quick buck, and hides it away in profit taking. The American Exxon Mobil looks to the next century, not the Chinese counterpart.
One of the reasons the liberals hate Exxon is because of the oil giant's political donations. Just as conservatives do not like Starbucks for theirs. I can't live without gasoline. But I can live with out coffee...
Waitaminute...let me think about this...
The plaque above was presented to Your Business Blogger's dad.
What is, perhaps, Ken Cohen's real worry? Numerous state-by-state laws on weather warming. There is no telling what Tacoma Park, Maryland would do. Cohen says, "One thing heavy industry cannot live with is a patchwork quilt of regulations."
See the lefty Lawyers, Guns and Money. Robert Farley was not at the same conference call. I am not sure he is even on the same planet.
Bring it on quotes The Guardian article, as if that were real journalism. The Guardian hates America. Liberals the world-over loath America.
Your Business Blogger knew Exxon before the marriage to Mobil; any Mobil omission is not a slight.
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Dad & The Dude
prepared for war
September 11, 2001
photo credit:
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. Just after 9am on 9.11, I was doing what all business owners were doing: selling something. I was on the phone with a client. Making a pitch to attend a series of seminars, with CNN on in the background. I was a bit distracted by the live feed of a burning building.
While making 'the ask,' it was clear that my customer was not aware that we had just been attacked. I wanted to say something, like, Turn on your TV and stare at real pain. It just didn't look real. I continued instead with the conversation. Your Business Blogger is not normally so focused. In denial, perhaps. Disasters are not normally good for business.
There was work to be done. My next class was on September 19.
And I didn't want the customer on the other end of the phone distracted until the sale was closed. Then we could go to war.
The deal done, I noticed my boy, The Dude, was concerned that the attacks would continue down to us in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We got to get ready!" he shouts and scampers around digging up my old uniform, boots, saber and his grandfather's bayonet. (Old soldiers never die, they just file away. Apologies to MacArthur.)
The Dude spent the rest of the morning marching outside our front door. Looking out for terrorists. It must have worked.
Charlottesville was not attacked.
But we were affected. Everyone was. But I wasn't sure that the bank was going to delay getting their money over a pesky act of war. I still had to earn a living.
How would the war affect business? Not the macro, but mine? I had a seminar and clients coming into town in little over a week and the world was on fire. Would anyone show up? Would anyone care?
We North Americans do business like we do war. We win. Donald Trump becomes Victor Davis Hanson. At 8 am on 19 September 2001, 86 professionals showed up and got down to business. A packed room.
The free lunch helped.
Even my business partner, Faisal Alam, came down from New York City to join us. He is Muslim.
The country was mourning, but on the move.
I started with a minute of silence in remembrance of those lost in the World Trade Towers.
Then we all got back to work. Each making the world a better place. Even with a war on.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Basil's Blog has open trackbacks.
California Conservative has Open Post 9.11.
Your Business Blogger
in a central China
university amphitheater When Your Business Blogger was consulting in China, I visited a large university (redundant: there are no small Chinese universities) and had a conversation with a post-grad working on international contract law. His English was better than my Chinese.
In every Chinese town there is an "English Corner," just as every major American city has a "Chinatown." These corners in China are where the locals gather to practice speaking English.
The inverse parallel is, of course, that the Chinese speak English in both China and America, and the Americans speak English in both China and America.
Anyway, I asked the student what he wanted to do with his advanced degree. Without prompting, he says, "I want to work for Wal*Mart. It is big and powerful."
"Powerful?" I ask.
"Yes, more powerful than some countries."
And Wal*Mart is getting powerful in China. To make the move to world-wide acceptance, Wal*Mart is assuming the triple-threat position: Unions, Communism, Homosexuality.
Alert Readers will recall that Your Business Blogger is was an enthusiastic cheerleader for the Bentonville World Dominator. The Penta-Posse et. al. consumed $4,328.37 in consumable goods in the 12 trailing months at Sam's Club.
The embrace of Unions and Communism are in China, of course. As a compromise to get sales. The embrace of Homosexuality is here in the U S of A as a compromise... to get more sales?
A source close to Wal*Mart who preferred to be off-the-record, emailed Your Business Blogger:
...the [homosexual] chamber that Wal-Mart has joined is simply that -- a chamber of commerce -- and organization of businesses. And, as I said, Wal-Mart is a member of dozens of them. Wal-Mart isn't trying to make a political statement by joining. And it's certainly not ascribing to any particular agenda.
But Wal*Mart/Sam's does fit a particular agenda because of the particular demographic. Wal*Mart shoppers have lots of kids, and those parents of lots of kids are conservatives: Liberals don't breed. Which gives us the Roe Effect. Allan Carlson, President of the Howard Center wrote in The Weekly Standard that,
IN THE INTERNAL POLITICS OF the Republican coalition, some members are consistently more equal than others. In particular, where the interests of the proverbial "Sam's Club Republicans" collide with the interests of the great banks, the Sam's Club set might as well pile into the family car and go home.
Go home, stay home. Indeed. Dr. Carlson reminds us that,
...when push comes to shove, social conservatives remain second class citizens under the Republican tent. During the 2004 Republican convention, they were virtually confined to the party's attic, kept off the main stage, treated like slightly lunatic children. Republican lobbyist Michael Scanlon's infamous candid comment--"The wackos get their information [from] the Christian right [and] Christian radio"--suggests a common opinion among the dominant "K Street" Republicans toward their coalition allies.
Conservatives are maligned from the right and the left.
Tony Perkins, the President of Family Research Council, says:
In an apparent concession to the heat from the radical left, Wal-Mart has entered into a new partnership with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).... Recently, they described efforts to defend traditional marriage as an attempt to "write discrimination into the Constitution..."
The NGLCC also advocated attaching a pro-homosexual "hate crimes" amendment to legislation intended to protect children from violent sex offenders. Their advocacy delayed the legislation for several months.
What demographic is Wal*Mart pursuing? What new market segment? Do the boys in Bentonville really think boy-toys from the Tenderloin will truck to Sam's for the two-gallon jar of pickles?
"Dee Breazeale, vice president of divisional merchandise for SAM'S CLUB Jewelry will serve on the organization's [National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce] Corporate Advisory Council," reports 247gay.com.
As if. As if any homosexual would buy jewelry from Sam's.
Goodness, even I wouldn't buy the jewelry from SAM'S.
Oh no, I do have something in common with gay men!
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Communications at The Family Research Council and is the wife of Your Business Blogger. And I have a mail box on "K Street" in Washington, DC.
A Lady's Ruminations has more: Sickening news.
The Bleechers has the Christmas story.
Starling Hunter, Ph.D. has all the news on Wal*Mart.
So here's the typical mom in America today: baby on knee, small business down the street, with rifle in Pakistan.
This week's column in Small Business Trends has highlights -- and I'm not talking hair -- of a typical mom. Yes, women have always been producers -- breeding babies and businesses since Eden, but this is something each generation has to discover for itself. See Women's Future in the Small Business Labor Force.
Helen, second from left
with rifle "consulting" in Pakistan
"How do you it all?" Accomplished women with kids constantly get this question.
Helen Philbrook, married and mother of three, from Raleigh, NC, has the answer.
Your Business Blogger recently sat down with Helen and her husband David to learn the secret.
She's a former Vice President of an environmental testing firm, and perhaps the world's first female "Smoke Stack Sniffer." She's run a number of start-ups.
But Helen says she's now "followed her passion to gardening." Her company Tiger Lily's is an award-winning firm that gives her what she needs most:
Flexibility.
She was well-prepared. Helen has an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Science, studied Garden Design in London, and completed a series of international consulting assignments. In a male-dominated business. Where she learned:
Negotiation.
The greatest challenge women face in business is learning to negotiate.
But she also negotiates with her clients. Hard. She establishes upfront contracts with the explicit understanding that her family will come first.
Helen, Vice President
She is an advocate of "sequencing" for women -- marriage, children, work. Helen says a woman can always have an "ambitious career." After the kids are in school. She knows she will anger feminists.
She has advice to young women starting out. Where the fear is that they will get behind the power curve. "Not so."
Helen says, "Your career is still waiting for you."
After your children.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Helen is my sister.
No Speed Bumps has Women in Engineering.
Alas, a blog has Homeward Bound.
Basil's Blog has Breakfast.
Nicola Horlick
Nicola Horlick is a Brit who is a mother of five (plus another daughter who died of leukemia a few years ago).
She is also a top money manager at Bramdean Asset Management in London who has just opened a new division of her company, specifically targeting female customers -- "Bramdiva."
Here's the interesting claim: Nicola says women are better money managers.
This article in the International Herald Tribune cites several studies and experts on this question, and concludes that men have a testosterone-driven approach to money management that leads them to take risks that don't pay off in the long term.
Women, alternatively, are steadier and don't "churn" accounts to generate fees or for the appearance of action.
Super-successful male money managers, like Warren Buffett, succeed because they employ the "feminine" approach.
I believe Buffett would appreciate that assessment.
Cross post from Reasoned Audacity.
By Neelakantan hosting from India. He has,
A blog on business in India, with a global outlook. Business, Economics, Marketing, Offshoring, Management and Globalization analyzed from a streetside perspective. Also occassional humour and philosophy and anything else that interests me. Because nothing is permanent...only interim.
Nothing is permanent? Not even that insta-launch from Glenn Reynolds today? Goodness.
In any event, I'd wager on rising blog rankings from our bud from Bangalore.
And while at Interim Thoughts be sure to read Gongol's take on gas rebates. Good Stuff.