Ideas, no matter how stupid, are what move us forward.   Change leads to failure or success.  The work itself, the labor, it isn’t nearly as important as the idea which created the work.  Ideas can come from anywhere.  You DO NOT HAVE TO HOLD AN MBA for your ideas to be real and important.  As it has been for millions of years, necessity is the mother of invention.  So, how can we bust through the beaurocracy and start being efficient in our organizations again?   Well, it’s going to take some work.   We need to have engineers, instead of H.R. generalists and beaurocrats, design our organizations.  They need to go back to being merit based.  EVERY person in a corporation should be compensated based on their contribution to margin.   And , YES, we need to measure businesses on their margin; not their revenue; not their EBIDTA.   How much PROFIT did this company generate?

So, in conclusion to my short little rant this morning:  Logic, reason, and success are what give credibility to your ideas, and not a diploma or certificate hanging on a wall.  In fact, in most cases, that piece of paper is in recognition of you being a worker; not a leader.  In most cases, it means you are a skilled technician, not a mover and shaker.   We need movers and shakers, and we need to begin rewarding them.  And, in today’s situation, those dissonant thinkers who want to change status-quo are going to be highly unpopular.   But, it is up to the true leaders in the organization to seek them out, listen to them, appropriately vet their ideas, recommendations and suggestions (APPROPRIATE), and move on things.   You aren’t going to make your business whole by practicing the same CRAP you did yesterday.  You are going to have to change.  You will need those capable of seeing the problem differently in order to get there.  Find them.

A lot has been going on.   We have a new president and he has been very busy.  The new year has brought with it a premonition of “bad things to come”.  What should we be doing?

We should be getting more efficient.  We, as business owners, operators, leaders and managers should be looking to eliminate waste in a systematic way.  We should take the foreboding as an opportunity to step back, get our “ducks in a row” and plan for increased opportunity.

I see a lot of companies doing layoffs.  They are doing blanket RIFs, allowing middle level managers to make the decision on who stays and who goes.  It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face.  How should they decide who stays and goes?  What have they done to understand the inefficiencies in their organizations?  In a word, nothing (in most cases).  Now, they are continuing into the blind with fewer resources, and, potentially, the wrong ones.  Companies that survive this, well, they are probably already looking at their business for efficiency on a daily basis.

Most of these companies responded to a major “top-line” event by adding staff and resources without having a plan for scaling their business.  As such, they don’t have clear visibility into business operations.   They need the ability to understand current operations intimately in order to begin to forecast for the future.

Even though we hear companies talking about Lean, they are too far in the weeds to really be lean.  How do the executives of the company make decisions regarding supply-chain, inventory holding, distribution, pricing discounts?   Well, they make them reactively in most companies.  When inventory becomes high, they post a sale, which then skews forecasting for the next year, based on deliveries from the current.  This becomes a vicious cycle.  This is only one simple example of the issues with not having a proper “management operating system”.   Business leaders need a daily dashboard of the efficacy of every portion of their business.  That includes such things as marketing and advertising ROI, production efficiency, distribution efficiency, etc…  With such an understanding of current operations, the ability to forecast and plan comes to the forefront.   Then, business’ could be making strategic decisions on how to shift, or retire, their resources.

So, what should we be doing?  Executives should be looking now to bring in resources who can get them back on track to efficiency and profitability.  We have the most amazing workforce in the world, the men with the ideas to put it to work, and the capital to fund and operate.   Let’s put our resources back to work by finding true efficiencies in operation to increase margin and maintain superiority in our industries.  You, Mr. CEO/President/GM should be looking for help from outside your organization (hire consultants) to analyze your business with a plan for increasing efficiencies instead of  bulk laying off a workforce.   Make sure you aren’t compounding the mistakes which got you “here” in the first place.

P.S.  mavSolve inc is available for engagements to build better visibility into your current and future business. 

This morning I read this:

Obama spokesman defends economic stimulus plan

1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama is going to continue to work with Republicans to craft a stimulus package supported on both sides of the aisle.

Gibbs said Obama understands “it’s going to take longer than a few days to change the ways Washington works.”

Appearing Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show, Gibbs said he worries about “the people who work for Boeing or Home Depot or Starbucks, who are going to be losing their jobs.”

When asked whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had failed the president by crafting a bill that Republicans refused to back, Gibbs replied: “If people stop looking through the partisan lens and through the economic lens, they’ll see it was put together with Democrats and Republicans and economists who supported us.”

I read three additional articles with roughly the same rhetoric.   It seems that preaching is enough to make it true.  There are overtones of childish school-boy shaming in the tone of the press, let alone the tone of the quotes.  This particular quote disgusts me!

“If people stop looking through the partisan lens and through the economic lens, they’ll see it was put together with Democrats and Republicans and economists who supported us.”

To just whom, exactly, is Gibbs speaking?  Me?  If I stop looking through the partisan lens?  Or the jokers in congress who don’t even understand the banking system, let alone the economics of stimulus spending?  Who are these economists that put together the bill?  The same economists hired by the government to justify or create the current situation?

Since when does putting out a fire with fire work?  Since when should we just roll over to the bullying tone of name calling and belittling?

I’m calling bullshit!  You want to be responsible (government), and you believe in it?  Don’t print any more money!  Take up a collection tray in the legislature and the now EXORBITANTLY sized executive cabinet and finance the gig yourself.   IF it works, we’ll pay you back.

Put your money where your mouth is, Obama!

Folks:  politics is not a sport; us against them isn’t enough (although democracy as a philosophy would have us believe so); and OBAMA ain’t no Kobe Bryant.  I apologize for my roughness here, but, honestly, I look out on facebook and I’m amazed at the perspective people have.   They are setting themselves and (poor ol’) Obama up for failure.  Nothing is going to change!  The government will continue to usurp the powers we give them.  The FED will continue to “loan” money to the already overdrawn government.  The president’s job still isn’t to write law.   And, just because “your” guy won doesn’t give you the right to walk around gloating and celebrating.

Another blip I recently read held that the American public isn’t looking for a “king”.   Well, no.. not exactly.  They are actually looking for a savior, as evidenced by the unrealistic belief in Obama’s ability to miraculously “change” our situation.  As a result of this savior-worship, they are also looking for a martyr.  I say this because:  he can’t possibly deliver on half of what he’s promised; no one can.   He isn’t going to fix the environment.  He isn’t going to generate 3+ million “jobs”, and if he “creates” any, it will be through the pilfering of real jobs (people doing meaningful work) in favor of “busy work” government programs called jobs.

Politics and ideologies are not sporting events, the Oscars or a high-school contest for Prom King.  But, we have certainly treated them as such for the last thirty years.  We are no longer dealing with principles or ideology, but the corrupted mores of an overly taxed and decadent populace (notice I used populace and not society) who have been indoctrinated, rather than educated.  We are moving along the path of other great republics, and rapidly, and we have just elected our Julius Ceasar.  We loved Julius Ceasar for what he could deliver; and then we hated him when he did, right?

… not that I have an opinion….

-j

So, once again the government has taken it upon themselves to redistribute wealth. See, in the economic bailout package, when the banks were given money by the FED in order to stay afloat, the exchange was to move many of these “underwater” loans onto the FED’s balance sheet. This allows the FED to shield the fact that the corresponding value (asset value) of the homes within the portfolio are seriously deflated. So, the banks are now agreeing to renegotiate loans for which they have already been made “flush”. ??? How does this make sense? Well, let’s go back to basics and ask the questions: At whose expense? To whom goes the benefit?

1. At whose expense? The expense continues to be heaped upon the taxpayer, whether in the form of future inflation (your dollar will buy less in terms of goods other than housing), or in the form of future taxation, Joe taxpayer is accruing the debt and cost of every move they make; including their (congress’) deliberations.
2. To whom goes the benefit? They want you to think it is the “homeowner”. Not so.  The banking industry as a whole, and especially the FED are the benefactors, and the winning factor is the continual payment of interest at an inflated rate on an asset which never really existed.

The homeowner gets to renegotiate an already bad situation to aid in his ability to do one thing: continue paying interest. The renegotiation of the terms of the loan will never fix the real, underlying issue, which is: This home was NEVER worth what you paid for it. The asset has been over-inflated through hype and circumstance, and the overly free flow of money into the Mortgage markets. All of the hype and circumstance created around the situation for a single purpose, to expand the money supply so that banks can charge more interest and make more income.

But, how long can it go on? The real value of the assets is falling much faster than they can control. Housing prices are down so significantly that we don’t even talk about it anymore. Why aren’t they falling even faster? I think it is because the banks can’t evict tenants and put the houses on the market fast enough. And with the government giving them money to continue operations, why should they? What is the incentive to go and make money, or recover money, when someone is handing it to you and asking you to continue the problem?

We need to start thinking about this problem much more critically. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to be a skeptic. Just ask the two simple questions above and follow the results.

Can we survive this?  The media is talking about a 3.1 Trillion dollar deficit (eventually).  And, the best part, is they are claiming that Obama is “…inheriting…” the problem.   They aren’t seeing that the problem is indemic to a money based on debt and fiat money.   Oops, economist creeping out again… let me explain (briefly).

The “gold standard” was a real thing.   It stated that their could only be as much “money” in the system as there was “wealth”.  While these two weren’t always in sync, having that boundary put limits on what was possible, in terms of debt.   So, at any given time, people would still bet on future wealth by granting loans.  Also, banks would participate in this.  The real restraint was on the back-side.  There was always a “settling-up” which would occur, and any time “money” exceeded “wealth”, it would create inflation; your dollars would be worth less.

The Federal Reserve (FED) abolished this in order to have free will to create as much money and debt as they desired.  They have, in effect, bought the USA on mortgage.  So, what should we do about it?  We need to abolish the FED as soon as possible and return to a limited and metered monetary system.  At the same time, we will be setting banks free to operate as banks, and not an extension of the FED.

This is a really huge request.   How would we go about tackling such a task?  Would it require force?  Who is to be the arbiter of money?   You could find some of the answers in one of my favorite books: “The Creature From Jekyll Island” by G. Edward Griffen.   I highly suggest reading it at your earliest convenience.

Meanwhile, it isn’t Obama’s fault, but he wanted the job, so let’s hold him accountable. 

What are your resolutions?  Did you set resolutions in terms of objective and measurable goals?  We all have a tendency to make resolutions like:  “I’m going to lose weight in 2009″ or “I’m going to sell more product in 2009″.   I am guilty of this as well.  Instead, this year I’ve set very explicit goals for myself.  I’ve committed to losing 20 lbs, saving $10k etc…

So, on a tangential subject, how can you get your employees to help?   Well, first thing, they have to know about your goals.   You can’t expect to treat them like marionettes and not have them act like puppets.  So, sit your folks down and have a chat with them.  Tell them your goals, and why you have the goals.  Ask them to participate.  Set up a reward for the entire team if your company meets its goals, and moreover, reward them individually for outstanding performance.

We won’t reach all of our goals, but if we don’t set them up as measurable, we can’t possibly reach them.  I have found that the more clearly we can explain, justify and evangelize our goals, the more likely they are to be adopted by our teams, and the more likely they are to come to fruition.

Cheers from mavSolve…

First, I thought, well… I’m going to sync my blackberry with my mac (Address Book) application one last time.  Then, I will check the box on my Blackberry to sync with Google, and I should get merged results, right?  Well, merged is right.  I got double the contacts.  Nothing was easily recognizable.  OK… so, no big deal.  On to the second plan.

So, I back up the Address Book and then I do a sync: Blackberry to Address Book.   Oh cool, now I can just clean these up in (Easy to use) Address Book, sync back to the Blackberry, and the Blackberry will sync up to gmail Contacts.  I’m going to be in Fat City here pretty soon.  OK.. Clean them up… delete/merge/validate the duplicates…. but wait…. Huh?  Howcome the company names are now in the first and last name fields.  Wait, Google contacts doesn’t have first and last name fields… Oh well, that I can live with.  Push on through, because you are about to hit the jackpot; find the grail.  You are going to have OTA (Over the Air) synchronization of your contacts.   You are asking:  “Jim, did it work?”  Let me just begin to describe the quagmire this created.  For some contacts, I now had three records.   For others, none.  Of course, during the clean up process, I had updated some email addresses (quite a lot of them) and phone numbers.  Now, I had a back-up, but it would only really give me state as of two days ago.   I had modified lots of records.  So, go back to the archive, or try to push through.   Only about 300 real contacts (even though I now had over 500 in my address books), so I should be able to make it right.  I decide to push on.

How did that go?   Well, not so swell (ly).   I spent hours and hours pouring over the records.  I used AtoG (a free/share ware application) To export my Address Book Contacts to gmail.  I used the gmail export tool to export contacts (With newly added and fresh “?” around names… I really liked those).   I used text Wrangler to inspect the text files before importing them.   I went back and forth about 15 times.  Meanwhile, my Blackberry was toast.  I now had orphaned address records which I could not delete, nor merge with any other records.  Missing Sync for the Blackberry, while a great tool, was no help at all.

Finally, I cleaned my Blackberry. (There is a little known button you can push which “wipes the handheld”).   Now, if I used regular Blackberry email, I’d probably never feel comfortable doing that, but since I use the gmail client, no problem.  I don’t actually store anything on my Blackberry.  So, WIPE THE HANDHELD, we did.   Clean slate there.  Now … what about my contacts?  OF COURSE I went back to the backup and started over.   I was able to completely delete all of my contacts in gmail.   (This is also a recent addition, as you used to only be able to do 20 at a time.)   So, restore contacts from Address Book backup, then figure out what changed.  So, I finally exported from gmail Contacts to vCard (Address Book) format, and did an import, only I chose to keep all duplicates.  I then went through and deleted and merged (manually) until I felt comfortable that I had recovered and repaired everything essential.   Next, I used AtoG again to export my Address Book to gmail, and Missing Sync to Sync my Blackberry.  Whew… 17 hours later…. back in business.

So, where am I now?   Well, right back where I started.  I use Address Book as my contact manager.  I find it lacking in a lot of ways, but feel it is still the best alternative.  I was so excited to see Google taking some time to make the contact manager a viable application.   But, it still isnt’ ready for prime time.  I’m not sure why contact management is so much more complex than calendar synchronization, but, it appears that it is.  So, for now… back to the old ways.

PostScript: 1/6/09

It is with great pleasure that I tell you: I’m currently using google contacts and my blackberry and syncing OTA (over the air).   I no longer plug my berry into anything, and my calendar and contacts are both synchronized with my google calendar.  (on my own domain, no less).   I did have to give up a couple of things, however.

1. I had to give up the idea of having someone’s picture pop up on my berry when they called.  The picture sync doesn’t work well OTA just yet.
2. I had to completely abandon the apple address book.   While it is an elegant tool in many ways, the three way sync is just not realistic.  Google’s contact interface leaves something to be desired, but it is adequate for my needs now, and I’m sure it will get better with time.

A friend called today and told me that he had used some of the ideas in one of my posts to help him with a speech he gave at his corporate board meeting.   This same friend is the one who told me, not that long ago, to get off my ass and go do something I loved.  So, I guess we are even now.

So, in graciousness, or perhaps a better way to say it is: with grace, touching the world is what we all want.  I’m not sure that is completely clear, but I’m not sure I know another way to say it either.  His call today meant the world to me.  When my clients thank me for helping them, it means as much, if not more, than the money they hand me. When my family is gracious for my efforts…it’s all it takes to make me want to continue carrying the (metaphorical) groceries.

So, thanks, again…