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Your Boss* Could Know What You're Doing...

And share it with everyone.

( Oooopps. Yes, they are laughing at you. )

From Adrants.

It's friday.

What's with big companies and stealth/deceitful marketing campaigns?

Target's the latest example of a corporation being bamboozled by their ad agency, willingly of course.

It looks like Target's ad agency convinced them to create a group called rounders. Ok. Cool.

And they'd score points for promoting Target or finding new products or ways to promote new products. Ok. Cool. We thank our customers with flowers and starbucks cards when they send us a referral. It's not a formal program. And I guarantee no one's ethics are compromised by the promised of a bouquet of flowers.

But then...at least one of the members of Rounders received a note encouraging them to keep it a secret that they'r part of this group of Target marketers. try not to let on in Facebook group that you are a Rounder. So keep it like a secret. ( I guess the ubiquitous ads from Target beside all of their purchases could have been a clue. Doncha love it when marketers try to speak in real language with real people. Would you encourage your children to um, lie for you? Great question, Kaye. )

And then it got worse.

Sad. This level of ethics is something you learned in gradeschool or didn't.

Links:

Kaye Sweetser: Off Target.

Josh Hallett: The Double Standard: Does Target Get a Media Pass?

Michael Rubin at Marketing Profs: Get Mad! Target and Drillteam's Ethics Lapse Much Worse than a Faux Pas.

Facebook says they Retreat on Beacon

Facebook retreats on online tracking. That's today's headline in NY Times.

Honestly, they haven't. They've retreated into a holding pattern, consolidated their gains and await. They're just letting the firestorm die out, let people get comfortable, come to love the presence of Mark Zuckerberg and his management team in all aspects of their lives.

Kinda like the oil companies. They raise the price of oil until we squeal or croak as frogs in boiling water. Then they lower it to the previous croak point. Zuckerberg and his team of insightful managers are doing the same. The ability to track members' activities remain. They're just letting members...process their emotions as they realize Big Marc is watching...waiting...

You wonder where the tilt started in Facebook management's thinking. They assumed that because people share some of their personal lives, some more than others, that they, Facebook, can share ALL of their personal activities...24 x 7. And without asking the members to confirm their self-serving assumption, they created a program called BEACON which broadcast members' activities, all of them, all the time. And they assumed it would just be the dandiest of programs.

What's that saying about the word assume?

They act stunned that members weren't all that wild about this unwanted, unapproved, invasion of their lives... Honestly, guys. Get out of your offices/heads. Talk to people.

I wish I could have been at the meeting where the logic, the business model, to spy on your members with a flashlight or beacon and then broadcast what's no one's business to all their friends without the members' permission.

Hey. You know. We can make a LOT more money if track everything our members do. And, and, and we let advertisers advertise beside every activity the members do. And, and, we say we give them an opt out option, but we hide so they can't really find it or use it. Yeah-yeah. That's the ticket...We'll just wear down the little members. People LOVE us! We're the fastest growing social community in the freakin' world!!!

The article writes: Facebook is taking a far more transparent and personal approach...Huh. Really? Is that how you spin invasive, spying, a transgression, betrayal and selling your customers' private lives to the next highest bidder?

If FB is THAT transparent, then let their management team lead by example. Broadcast their activites, all of their activities with their beacon light and do it on Times Square. That's transparent. That's personal.

Some ad agencies are getting in the mix, sensing a source of potential income is fading from their agencies.

“Isn’t this community getting a little hypocritical?” said Chad Stoller, director of emerging platforms at Organic, a digital advertising agency. “Now, all of a sudden, they don’t want to share something?”

Chad, isn't your insight a little self-serving?

You are correct. They don't want to share some things...They never said they did want to share every thing. They shared what they wanted to share, when they wanted to share it, how they wanted to share it, with whom they wanted to share it.

This may be tough for agencies to get their head around, these are decisions that aren't yours to make for the consumer.

Back to the top. Yes, Facebook retreated from this invasion of their members' personal lives. But it's temporary.

“Whenever we innovate and create great new experiences and new features, if they are not well understood at the outset, one thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a vice president at Facebook. “After a while, they fall in love with them.”

Oh yeah. Beacon's still there. Facebook's just waiting....for when we fall in love with Big Marc being with us every step of our lives.

EMail. The original social networking ap?

Bill Nusssey, CEO of SilverPop an email services provider agrees with Matt Keiser, Datran Media Co-Founder when he says so.

Maybe.

I tend to think the brain is the original.

Pecha-Kucha

It's not a verb; it's not an animal.

It's a presentation innovation: 20 PPT slides @ 20 seconds each.

I like it.

Matt Homann has the details.

Idea: Next time you're in a boring power-point presentation with ooodles of buzzwords, yell out pecha-kucha! It's more refreshing than yelling Buzzword Bingo or the more possibly accurate but definitely more startling...Bull---- Bingo!

(And yes, this applies to any presentation I may make that would use ooodles of buzzwords and boring PPT slides.)

Matt also offers to let him know if you're in his neighborhood and wanna pecha-kucha. Matt's a very cool, eligible batchelor. He can offer that.  I'm not sure my wife would want me pecha-kuching with anyone but her.

...'reality' is the enemy of innovation

Great post on this idea, and more at Thought for the day - reality from Johnnie Moore's Weblog.

Reality. What a concept. Don't let it get in the way of change.

Pick Your Top Business Books of the Year

The 2007 800-CEO-Read Business Book Awards poll is now open for voting by readers and authors. It's a great list of books published in English in 2007.

There were several that reached my semi-final list. But the one book on the list that added so much to my day, really broadened how I looked at our company and how we operated and how we could operate better was Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Business that Learn, Lead and Last.

The author's Gary Harpst. Gary's one of those rare business thought leader who's also kind and thoughtful. I had the good fortune to work with him to create a 6-part podcast interview where I discovered these qualities and understood why his book offered so much to me and our company.

Here's the feed for the podcast.

But that's me. There are many great and wonderful books to ponder, if not for voting purposes then certainly for buying purposes for  yourself or others on your holiday list. Get  to it, chop-chop, vote and buy through 800-CEO-Read.

Radiohead: Talkin' Directly to their Customers

Radiohead has the most recent success from talkin' directly to their customers. They released their most recent album, In Rainbows, for free. No record labels, no AR men, no promo costs. They made it available to their fans for whatever their fans thought it was worth.

I'm not a music mogul. But...from The Seminal it's reported Radiohead sold 1.2  million copies of their newest album...in one week. And that's more than were sold for their last 3 albums combined. And this was done in...one week. And on average they were paid $8.00.

And, here's the kicker, the money went directly to them. Almost $10 million.

Talkin' directly to their customers. Making more money, making more people happy.

That's what it's all about, right?

Link from Kareem Mayan.

3 Reasons Why A Company Shouldn't Blog

From Hospital Impact comes a post asking the question Should Hospitals Blog?

Here's 3 reasons to answer no:

Don't blog if your organization:

* Doesn't trust their employees

* Doesn't want to hear bad news

* Wants absolute control over their message and reputation (this isn't happening anymore anyways)

* (the kicker) Doesn't have someone who's really wired to do it.

These rules apply to any company, any organization.

It starts with the first point. If you don't trust your employees...If you're a company that starts its day not trusting your employees...you've already lost control of your message. You just didn't get the memo with the bad news.

Personal Branding Telesummit: Debbie Weil's Presentation

We recently were honored to be a corporate sponsor of the Personal Branding Summit, a 12-hour telesummit with some of the top names in personal branding and marketing. You can subscribe to the podcast feed with the link in the graphic on the right.

Here's my notes, completely arbitrary in selection, from Debbie Weil's presentation: How to Write a Great Business Blog. Here's the MP3 file for you to listen, also.

Should everyone have a blog?

No. if you’re not a good writer, then use a camera or podcasts. Not everyone needs to be a blogger. If you don’t have the passion, don’t do it. There are other things to do.

What’s the difference between a personal and business blog? 

The similarity is the passion behind the blog. The differences are the topics and your audience. It has to be more than your mother. [Great line!] It’s the difference between conscious branding and chatting in public.

You have to have an informal conversational style. There's a little bit of subterfuge here. You have to walk the line and talk about important stuff and do it in a way that's informal. That's the hallmark of a blogging style.

What are the rules of business blogging? 

Blogging’s a creative endeavor so it’s hard to give exact rules. You want to reveal something of yourself. [Examples: Debbie’s daughter ran in the Boston Marathon and she posted a photo and people loved it. Pete Blackshaw wrote about his father’s illness and passing. I found that very touching and inspiring. I liked Pete and now I very much respect him.]

I usually throw out politics. Our personal lives may not coincide with the political views of our audience. Politics and religion are combustible topics.

To what extent do you use controversy to bring readers?

You have to say something worth listening to. But if you get into too controversial topics, things can get away from you. It’s the Howard Stern, shock-jock, approach.

What’s the difference between an enewsletter and a blog?

A good enewsletter is put together like an editorial product. A blog is a nugget. Nugget, nugget. It’s much easier to write and produce. Blogging is a LOT easier than publishing an enewsletter.

What about using video?

It’s incredibly easy to embed video in your blog. Upload your digital video to your desktop, then to YouTube. Then use their embed code to add it to your blog. It’s fun. [Here’s a recent example of Debbie’s use of video. ]

What’s the ROI?

Or the ROB, Return-on-Blog. Personal Branding requires you to be exceptional at something that matters. Blogging allows you to show you have enough of something to say on one particular topic. You’re an expert. Blogging is a way to tell them a LOT more than on a static website.

You want to control your brand identity. You want to see your blog come up high in search results when they type your name into Google. And they will. Is that a business result? You betcha. That’s the number one ROB.

What are some tips?

1) Think like a journalist when you’re writing your post, especially when you’re creating a title. A title of interview with the top dog is not the same as Exclusive Interview with Bill Gates!

2) Provide a synopsis in the first paragraph of your post’s full content.

3) Package what your write to make it easy for bloggers to link to you. A list of tips is the kind of post other bloggers will link to.

4) Always link. Links are the currency of the blogosphere. Without them it looks like you’re not part of the other conversations. Links make each entry a little resource worth reading and coming back to. Don’t worry about giving readers an easy way to leave. Everyone knows how to use the back-button. They will if you have good content.

5) Allow comments. Blogs aren’t blogs without comments. You can moderate comments. That gives you a chance to review the comments before they’re published. [Check with your blog software on how to moderate comments.]

6) Blog on a regular schedule. Once a week for a year is better than an erratic schedule. Think little tiny bites, short, a few paragraphs.

Parting Words?

Just do it. Just try it.

Debbie ended the conversation with a special offer: Buy her book, The Corporate Blogging Book. Then send her the receipt and your email and she’ll send you her one-hour audio presentation on how to write a corporate blog: a $47 value.

Thanks, Debbie. As usual, it was great.

Disclaimer: We’re friends. We’ve sponsored her newsletter in the past. She’s used our services. Regardless, Debbie’s an expert. You ought to listen to her.

Home foreclosures will eliminate 500,000 jobs next year

An article in USAToday, Foreclosures to have 'profound' impact, warns.

Mounting home foreclosures will have "profound" effects on the economy next year, reducing job growth, bleeding billions of dollars in tax revenues and hitting consumer spending — but shouldn't push the country into a recession, according to a report Tuesday.

Financial analysis firm Global Insight, in an study for the National Conference of Mayors, predicted at least 1.4 million homes will enter foreclosure next year. That will worsen the already sharp housing downturn, with ripple effects on hiring and spending.

Overall, businesses will create 524,000 fewer jobs next year. Tax receipts will fall by $6.6 billion in ten select states, the report predicts. Nearly 130 cities around the country will face sluggish growth, as economic activity expansion is reduced by more than a third in 65 metro areas alone...

In other findings the report predicts that job growth will average 75,000 per month during the next six months. That's more than 100,000 fewer new jobs per month than the 2006 average.

Yes. In other findings...small businesses will suffer the most. Why? Small businesses are a job creating machine. And if jobs aren't being created...small businesses are suffering.

The Power of Facebook

Teresa Valdez Klein will host a webinar today and tomorrow at 10:00 AM PST/Noon Central on The Power of Facebook. 

I think it'll be good. I'm joining tomorrow's.

I'm still figuring out Facebook:

It's a cool and HUGE social media site. That's good.

It's also shown signs of, what, monetizing my friendships and network for the benefit of all parties but my friends and network. That's not good.

Teresa's presentation I'm sure will be one more, very good, step in understanding this thing called Facebook.  Visit her site to register. It's free. (Like Facebook, sorta.)

Interview with Mohammad Yunus

Guy Kawasaki links to an Interview of Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank. Yunus won the Nobel peace Prize for his work with micro-loans to jumpstart entrepreneurship and achieve financial self-sufficiency in 3rd world nations starting with Bangladesh.

Funny.

It's Friday. It's also our nation's number one day of personal consumption: the day after Thanksgiving. So, thanks for stopping by when you could be swarmed by the mobs in a shopping mall.

Adgabber has a hysterical boardroom parody of comment flame wars. It has real-world language. If you're not comfortable with that, don't.

(Honestly, I swear I've been in meetings where much the same was said...and everyone pretended it was important. By coincidence, those companies aren't around anymore.)

Link from Adrants.

B2B, B2C? How 'bout P2P?

Dick Vitale talks about P-T-P'ers. Prime-time-Players.

Well, as a marketer, I'm a P-2-P'er. Person-to-person. I market to people. Person-to-person.

What are you? Who do you market to? 

Oh, you're a B2B'er. So, what you're saying is you're marketing to a machine at the other end...Found your audience, did you?

Oh, but you're a B2C'er...huh. Ok. So, the only aspect of that person you're interested in is their ability to consume. Huh. I'm sure they recognize that.

Matt Blumberg, OnlyOnce, stirred these thoughts with his post People are People, Part II.

CEO Blog List

The New PR has a good list of CEO bloggers.

It doesn't list me. No one's perfect. I've requested this blog be added.

(I'm not blogging on Thanksgiving. I wrote this Monday, the 19th and scheduled it to be published today. Hopefully, I'm in a near coma from turkey consumption. I say near as there are football AND basketball games to watch and Mike and Jamie and Moose are here. Time's precious. )

Ad-Free Facebook

It...could...be...possible with a couple of ads for Firefox users.

Geeks Attack Facebook Ads, from Adrants.

Cool.

Business: It IS Personal

I'm with Nick Reddin at IABizOnline with his post It's not personal, it's business.

Taking it personally means your employees are driven to perform, to succeed, and to get results. And if they don’t get what they are shooting for they are going to retool, reschedule, and rethink everything within their power. It’s not personal, its business. How many times have you heard somebody say that line? Maybe it was in a movie and maybe it was in real life. Typically, it is said with the air of self-forgiveness for a wrong that they committed on a co-worker, competitor or vendor.  The unfortunate part of that logic is that it seemingly makes it “Ok” to behave poorly or even unethically. By saying that phrase it seemingly justifies any action that you want to take that propels the business forward.

It's always personal. For those companies that grow, that thrive, that have a sustainable business model...it's always personal. For those companies that have passionate employees and passionate customers...it's always personal.

Email Success: It's the Sender that's Important

[T]he only thing that materially effected open rates was the sender: the name of the company or person in the "from" line. - Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop an email marketing strategy firm.

They did a recent study of their clients' open rates. The one item that showed a statistically significant impact on open rates was the sender.

So, why do we all get so much spam? My rhetorical question isn't meant to dispute the above. I completely endorse it.

It's meant to highight the futility of emailing people you don't know. It's the same as yelling at strangers as the walk down the street. I got what you want. Whatever it is. Got it, right here. Hey, hey, hey.

Your product or service  is better than that, right? If not, there's your problem. It's not solved by yelling at more strangers.

Saluting the 37 Million Road Warriors this Weekend

To those who travel this weekend, we salute you for your bravery and determination in starting and finishing your journey.

From USAToday....

An estimated 38.7 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home  this Thanksgiving...

People will take about 27 million flights during the 12 days surrounding Thanksgiving, a 4% increase over last year, the Air Transport Association estimates. With 90% of all seats filled, the airline trade group is warning passengers they are likely to experience crowded airports and flight delays as the travel period heads for the peak.

From NY Times, Travelers' Odds Decline on Airline Baggage.

Ok. In all fairness to this issue of airline bags, missing or found, delivered on time or not...I was talking with our accountant. And being the kind person she is, the positive person she is, she reminded me that it's not amazing 1% or so of passenger's bags are lost but that 99% are delivered to the right flight, on time, and arrive at the destination with the passenger.

I know when my bag doesn't arrive with my flight, that ratio for my world is 100%...LOST.

But, still, when you think about what must endure to reach your plane, it's not much different than what passengers must endure...And, a rough equivalency exists between passenger arrivals and baggage arrivals.

Carry-on is the solution. Pack lightly. Tradeoff the convenience of carrying everything you could ever imagine vs the convenience of skipping baggage claim/no-claim. Granted this doesn't apply with small children.

To those who travel this weekend, we salute you. Safe travels.

Who Else Can You Make a Winner?

Jennifer Rice asks Who else can win?

Besides you, your company, who else wins with your business model?

Your employees? If not, you're in for a short ride and it'll be as unpleasant as it is short.

Your customers? Ditto. But the ride will be a bit longer, maybe.

Your community?

Your family? Oh yeah. We went there.

D'ya ever hear of the frog and boiling water. A frog can adjust to living in water with increasing temperatures until it's too late.

Lots of companies, the collective soul of their individuals,  busy themselves playing the role of frogs in boiling water. Then it's too late and you see them blaming those they ignored for the failure they created.

Jennifer lists some inspiring examples from global brands.

But you don't have to wait to be big enough to tackle a global cause. You can start with your staff, your cubicle-mate, your neighbor, your friend, your community, your local stores...your local food-bank. Too many opportunities are out there to better too many people lives. Some of them might be right across the aisle or the street from you. Just pick one. Just do it.

78%

Michelle Miller, at WonderBranding blog (wonderFULL blog), reminds us that:

More than three quarters of consumers surveyed (78 percent) still put their highest level of trust in what they hear from other consumers, according to a recent global Nielsen Internet survey.

So, if 78% of consumers put their highest level of trust in other consumers, why exactly do so many companies put their highest level of marketing budgets into...everything BUT building trust with those same consumers and their own employees (who btw are consumers, too)?

[D0] be a good neighbor

I always remember the phrase Don't Be  a Good Neighbor...from Frank Booth, played by Dennis Hopper, in the movie Blue Velvet.

You can see how that advice applied globally has created a bit of mess for us locally and globally.

A post at ImprovWisdom reminded me of the impact of this simple rule and its impact globally and locally, and what the impact could be if a rehabilitated Frank could say [DO] Be  a Good Neighbor. Her inspiratio was the book, Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben and

...neighborliness may well be the long term answer to global warming.

...the unexamined cultural dictum of “more=better” is putting all of us on the fast track to misery. Unbridled consumption is leading us deeper and deeper into alienation and to what he terms “hyper-individualism.”

We have lost touch with each other. And, it is only in community, being in touch with each other--with our local environments that can provide a return to health and sanity, and in effect 'the good old days'.

I don't know about ever finding the fictional 'good-old days. But, this idea that we start focusing more on people and less on things, connecting with our local community (family, friends, neighbors...) has a real appeal for me. And if it solves global warming, too, well hey, then that's a nice bonus, too.

I'll have to add Deep Economy to my next round of reading list. I'm about 5 books away from starting it.

Pro-Bloggers

Pro-Bloggers, a non-profit organization of skilled bloggers supporting and promoting professional blogging and consulting on the web.

Check them out.

Officers

President: Paul Chaney - Radiant Marketing
Vice President: Anita Campbell - Small Business Trends
Secretary: Tris Hussey - Larix Consulting
Treasurer: Toby Bloomberg - Diva Marketing 

Board Members

Yvonne DiVita - Lip-Sticking
Amy Gahran - Contentious
Dana VanDen Heuvel - Internet Marketing and Sales Technology
Steve Rubel - Micro Persuasion
Jeremy Wright - Ensight

Disclaimer: I'm listed as a founding member.

Their description is a little understated. Their skills are more than skilled. Any of these officers, board members and founding members can show a company how to unleash the power of blogging for their business. They've all done, done it any number of times, done it for themselves AND their clients. they'll show you by their actions and by their consulting.

How cool is this?

The difference between big and small companies

In small companies it's all about the personal relationships....

I was talking with a friend. He works at a big brand. He's earned a great position there. Somehow, surviving in this big brand he's been able to maintain his kindness and heart.

I was talking about company, where our focus is, what our challenges are. That led him to reminisce about when he led a small company, successfully, successfully enough to be lured to join a big brand. He smiled, thinking back to his small company and said You know, in small companies it's all about the personal relationships.

I thought...yes it is. They're critical. It's a perpetual all-hands effort. There's nowhere to hide. Every person's voice is heard.

And that's why small businesses grow and add jobs. And that's why big businesses stagnate and don't.

Personal Branding Summit - 1st Hour

We recently were honored to be a corporate sponsor of the Personal Branding Summit, a 12-hour telesummit with some of the top names in personal branding and marketing. You can subscribe to the podcast feed with the link in the graphic on the right.

Here's my notes, completely aribtrary in selection, from the first call:

LINE 1
10am ET/3pm UK : Evangelizing Evangelists to Build a Business and Build Your Brand a panel facilitated by Guy Kawasaki with Krishna De, John Jantsch, Andy Sernovitz, Tim Demello

I've organized them by speaker:

John Jantsch: Great selling is evangelism. In my mind there is no difference. Effective selling is evangelism. They're so passion about their product or service it's infectious. Where people get in trouble is where people try to BE something...

Just doing it again and again and again....People say  I guess he is serious about it. There's a fine line between being obnoxious and sticking with it. Are people using the word you want them to use? Are you getting referrals?

I don't think you have a strong brand unless you're pissing people off.

John's favorite Personal Brand: Peter Drucker.

Guy Kawasaki:  Guy's Golden Touch Rule is evangelizing good stuff. It's not what I touch turns to gold, but what I touch is gold.

The ultimate schmoozer is the guy who goes to a party and tries to find out what he can do for the other person.

Andy Sernovitz: Evangelizing isn't about you. It's not you telling people about stuff. It's a fundamentally selfless act. If you don't have a brand, you have to sell yourself twice.

Personal Brand favorite: Harvey McKay

Krishna De. Do we believe in what we're doing? Do we have pride in what we're doing? Are we passionate about what we're doing? It comes from the heart, it's not forced.

Personal brand Favorite: Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair.

Here's the MP3 recording.

Employer Provided Insurance? There's fewer and fewer

It's not really news: Employer-provided insurance continues to decline. Here's a stat that jumped out from the USAToday article, Employer-Provided Insurance Continues to Decline:

•From 2001 to 2005, the number of uninsured U.S. workers rose by 3.4 million. Almost 19 million workers — 17% of all employees — were uninsured in 2005, according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Annual Ritual: Dealing with Health Insurance Premium Increases

It doesn't matter if your policy is for an individual or part of a group plan. Annual rate increases are expected to average 8.7% in 2008. At that rate, in less than 6 years, your health insurance will double. Can your household budget afford that? And on top of gas prices likely doubling?

Link: Confessions of A Frequent Healthcare Reenrollee from IABizOnline.

Outsourcing our wallet's contents

High oil prices have transferred approximately $124 billion from US oil consumers to foreign (oil) producers from 2003 to 2008.

According to a new report by the Congress Joint Economic Comittee and reported in USAToday.

What would  $124 billion in retail spending do for our economy?

Here's some thoughts from Thomas Friedman in his column: coulda, woulda, shoulda.

...CANDIDATE [A]: “My .... opponent, true to form, wants to raise your taxes. Yes, now he wants to raise your taxes at the gasoline pump by $1 a gallon. Another tax-and-spend liberal who wants to get into your pocket.”

... CANDIDATE [B]: “Yes, my opponent is right. I do favor a gasoline tax phased in over 12 months. But let’s get one thing straight: My opponent and I are both for a tax. I just prefer that my taxes go to the U.S. Treasury, and he’s ready to see his go to the Russian, Venezuelan, Saudi and Iranian treasuries. His tax finances people who hate us. Mine would offset some of our payroll taxes, pay down our deficit, strengthen our dollar, stimulate energy efficiency and shore up Social Security. It’s called win-win-win-win-win for America. My opponent’s strategy is sit back, let the market work and watch America lose-lose-lose-lose-lose.” 

If you can’t win that debate, you don’t belong in politics.

I'm not a big fan of Thomas Friedman. But after going over his column, I can't find any reason not to disagree. Granted, I'd hate to see unleaded gas priced at $4.13 a gallon. But...

Think about it,” says Phil Verleger, an energy economist. “We could have replaced the current payroll tax with a gasoline tax. Middle-class consumers would have seen increased take-home pay of between six and nine percent, even though they would have had to pay more at the pump. A stronger foundation for future economic growth would have been laid by keeping more oil revenue home, and we might not now be facing a recession.

Granted, a tax like this would be regressive. But would it be as regressive as the current tax cuts? I don't think so. Would it address social needs? Maybe. Our budget deficit that's occurred in the last 7 years could use an extra $100 billion in revenues to help lower it. And a little pain keeps everyone focused on finding a solution...today. And a steady pinch at the pump would help keep us focused as a nation.

NOTE: I changed the names of the imaginary debaters, in his text,  from Republican Candidate and Democratic Candidate to Candidate A and Candidate B, respectively. The whole partisan debate is so-o-o-o...unproductive any more. We need discussions on finding solutions, not ideologies, for the country. if you feel the need to unload any partisan rants here...you've made a mistake. You can use your own column for those thoughts.  If you can add constructive solutions, ideas, alternatives here...fine. You're welcomed. 

Hunger's Source? It's not a lack of food...

Mark Winne is the former director of Connecticut's Hartford Food System and the author of the forthcoming "Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty."

His column, When Handouts Keep Coming, The Food Line Never Ends, is a timely reminder that:

We know hunger's cause -- poverty. We know its solution -- end poverty. Let this Thanksgiving remind us of that task.

His post is in the Washington Post. Registration is required. But his column makes it worth it.

Personal Branding Summit Podcast

We helped sponsor the Personal Branding Summit on November 8.

Here's the podcast feed where you can find all the recordings for each presentation from the 2 conference lines which hosted a different speaker(s) each hour for 12 hours.

Moore on Less is More

I talked a bit about less is more in the post on [Do] Be A Good Neighbor. Fundamentally it's a post about 'less is more'. Less consumption = more community. Less time spent buying is more time spent...on important things.

Johnnie Moore writes Less is more. Less talking is more silence...Less talking is more hearing...I felt able to slow my racing thoughts down and get a better sense of connection to others. In the silence, I could hear their breathing and mine, again building a sense of a deeper, more primal connection.

Try that at your next meeting. Of course you won't. But maybe that's the problem.

Honestly, I find it difficult to not talk in our meetings. But the more I'm able to be silent, the more communication and connection occurs. Big whoop. Let's sing kum-by-yah. No. What that means is we have more involvement and passion and solutions and creativity and connection and happiness and energy. And that communicates to each other and our customers.

Ok. I'll shut up. You talk.

Privacy Can No Longer Mean Anonymity

Today's Friday. And the following story made me laugh, laugh darkly, but still laugh.

Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information. - SeattlePI

Why...why, yes. Of course. What were we thinking?  Those institutions whose vested interests center near exclusively around money and power and how we as their consumer provide it to them...why of course they'd be the ones best suited to safeguard our private communications and financial information.

...Give Happiness a Chance

Interesting column from earlier in the week. It's titled All they are saying is give happiness a chance. It's by Eduardo Porto. Here's how he starts:

The framers of the Constitution evidently believed that happiness could be achieved, putting its pursuit up there alongside the unalienable rights to life and liberty. Though governments since then have seen life and liberty as deserving of vigorous protection, for all the public policies aimed at increasing economic growth, people have been left to sort out their happiness.

This is an unfortunate omission. Despite all the wealth we have accumulated — increased life expectancy, central heating, plasma TVs and venti-white-chocolate-mocha Frappuccinos — true happiness has lagged our prosperity. As Bobby Kennedy said in a speech at the University of Kansas in March 1968, the nation’s gross national product measures everything “except that which makes life worthwhile.”

He's got a point. If more affordable stuff made us happy...by God, we should be delirious right now. If tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% were the path to true prosperity...we, as a nation, should be giddy with the extra financial giddy-up in our pockets, regardless if this came directly or from the imagined trickle-down...

But we're not. And there lies the rub or the imbalance from the confused priorities.

We'll figure it out, eventually. We always do, at least as a species.

We all seek balance, individually and collectively. The pendulum will swing back the other way. As far as it's been pulled to this side...it's going to come sweeping back through to the other side.

Tech Policies: Obama's and Edwards'...and Hill's, too.

David Weinberger links to Obama's tech policy statement.  And he mentions Edwards', too. Here's the link to Edwards' innovation policies. (Warning: Edwards' site is sl-o-o-o-o-o-ow-w-w-w-w to-o-o-o-o-o-o-o lo-o-o-o-o-a-a-a-a-d-d-d-d-d....After 3-4 minutes, it still hasn't loaded. OH well, the Iowa Caucuses aren't until January. Plenty of time to fix that technology issue, John... )

And here's Hill's Nine-Point Tech Plan.

Added Note: These are the ones I came across. If you want to add a link to your favorite candidate's policies, feel free too. Save the partisan diatribes for other sites.

What is a Customer Relationship

Tom Peters' blog answers it like this:

A relationship is an ongoing conversation with a customers, in which the customer never thinks of you without thinking of the two of you.

Works for me.

I could add something about ...inviting others to the conversation. Maybe, And it's a conversation you want to share with others. I don't know. It's kind of a rough draft form.

Do Not Follow Lists

Do Not Follow lists are the web's version of the FCC mandated Do Not Call List.  It allows individuals to forbid websites to follow them around the web. (Digression: That whole personal privacy thing is getting so confusing to people. Where does it say that because I visit your store, braick and mortar or online, that a company has the right to follow me around after I leave? That's called stalking in personal relationships; it's illegal. But in business, it's called tracking software or ....cookies. How sweet. What a spin. )

Some think this would hamper small businesses more than large businesses. SmartBiz does anyway.

Puh-leeze.

Small businesses can't afford the budgets to hire the big agencies to violate their customers' privacy and stalk them around the internet. They also know that's not the way to grow your business.

Small businesses have the added advantage of still being in touch with their customers, able to offer an innovative, personalized solution. They're usually staffed with more engaged and motivated staff. And they still remain true to their mission, their original passion, of their business.

Small businesses...we don't need to stalk our customers on the internet.

Ad Networks. At some point...

Ad Networks are the New Dot-Coms...got me thinking. 

At some point, to drive our economy, someone has to buy something. Someone has to have the means to buy something. The shrillness and the intensity of ad firms pushing their wares is a reflection that perhaps, their clients have nothing to sell, or nothing worthy of buying much less inspiring passion in their customers, or even their employees.

The two dynamics, a decline in inspiring products and a decline in consumer means, is happening on a grand scale. And this economy's sign of the imminent bubble-burst is...the rise of ad networks. Clearly, if products were being made that inspired and excited the customer to share the story with their friends and neighbors,  the announcement of yet another way to advertise, ie, interrupt our day with an unwanted message or another ad network (LOTS of people interrupted with LOTS of unwanted messages...) would be greeted with a resounding Bronx cheer in the boardrooms of clients where ad agencies offered this brilliant suggestion.

But it's not.

And there lies the rub. It's the reason why more companies need more advertising with more advertising networks and more shouting, shouting constantly, at consumers to keep buying, keep buying...like the Kevin Bacon character in Animal House yelling All's well, all's well as the herd of citizens overruns him for safety...Here's it's the ad agencies standing in the sidewalk saying all's well, all's well...keep buying, keep buying...

But they can't. We can't. (Quite frankly, we won't)

Consumers can no longer assume more debt to keep driving this economy. Spending has exceeded income for, as their household equity continues to drop, while their debt remains or even continues to grow... while consumer spending has exceeded consumer income for several years now...consumers will become either numb or angry at the insistence to Keep buying, keep buying...especially as the quality of offerings begins to decline in order to be affordable for consumers struggling to pay for household debt with declining household equity, rising gas prices, rising food prices, rising health insurance...

Brace yourself, consumers. An ad network is coming your way. You'll work longer hours to come home to fewer minutes uninterrupted by advertising telling you to keep buying, keep buying...all's well, all's well.

Link: The worst economy of our lifetime, pt. II

Link: Bernanke Predicts Slower Growth

Sit still and drink your milk...!

Darkly funny story this week comes from Pennsylvania.

Consumers won't know what they're missing.

As of Jan. 1, Pennsylvania is banning labels on milk and dairy products that say it comes from cows that haven’t been treated with artificial bovine growth hormone, which is sometimes known as rBGH or rBST. State officials say the labels are confusing and impossible to verify.

“It confuses them,”says [Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania’s agriculture secretary]. “It seems to imply there is a safe, nonsafe dimension.”

What I hear Dennis saying is:

Sit still and drink your milk. Whatever's in it, or not in it, safe or nonsafe. We can neither confirm nor deny any of it anyway...and we're not sure if the issue here is our ability or our willingness. But, either way, stop bothering us...Sit still and drink your milk. Otherwise, you'll get [me] confused.

How many companies tell their customers, and their employees, to do just that?

Falling dollar is good for some small businesses

From Renuka Rayasam, FSB magazine, Catching the falling dollar:

The greenback's decline - in the third quarter it depreciated 3% against seven major currencies, hit an all-time low against the euro, and reached parity with the Canadian dollar for the first time in more than 30 years - represents a boon to many U.S. businesses facing tough competition.

Ok.  I don't know if this is enough to constitute a silver-lining...but it's a silver-thread, maybe.

How much work is too much?

Lifehacker has an interesting post on this topic. When and where does the productivity begin to suffer as you work longer hours, sleep fewer hours and allow time to process all the data you're given in a single day?

Their post ends with this:

...keep in mind that extra hours many not actually be getting you that much more work done-

I don't run my life by statistics I find.  But I do know from my own experience that fewer decisions executed better are far more productive than many bad decisions executed poorly. Seems obvious. But you'd never know it from so many companies who measure hours worked, not decisions made. 

There's a self-reinforcing aspect that rises with long hours needed from bad decisions made. It's the rush from your adrenals in the constant fire-alarm work environment. It's addictive. Think coffee, except all day, every day, and you never need a bathroom break. And you're important because you're dealing with important decisions....and the deadlines...and you're a hero/martyr 'cause you're working long hours....Then you realize...slowly...the fires you're putting out are the fires you're starting with bad policies and short-sighted decisions reached by people...just plain tired and overworked.

I digress. Everyone has their own threshold where the balance between work and rest, work and family, work and recreation, is best. Find it. Be happy. Be productive. Don't start fires. Your family will love you. So will your staff and your customers.

Link from SmartBiz

Iowa Ranks 41st for Entrepreneur-Friendly Environment

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranks all 50 states each year for their entrepreneurial-friendly business policies and regulations. They call it the Small Business Survival Index. Their 2007 Small Business Survival Index was released November 1.

Iowa ranked 41st.

And if that weren't bad enough...we're ranked 48th for highest tax costs for businesses.

Businesses in Iowa pay nearly the most taxes to create nearly the most difficult business environment.

Tax businesses the highest; use their/our tax dollars to make it even harder to grow  our businesses....Sweet.

Talk about not getting much for your tax dollar...Or maybe we get too much for our tax dollars.

Here's a case where less is more...less regulations, less taxes, less unproductive policies...would mean more jobs, more high-paying jobs, more companies seeking to do business here...better communities, better schools, better quality of life...it would be a vicious circle. It alread is...but, on the downside.

I'm wondering if the SBE could create a combined listing...You multiply the impact of the Small Business Survival Rankings times the State Tax Scores rankings. Call it the Small Business Death Index or The Population Drain Index. Those are negative. How about Who's Got a Future Index? Those at the top, do. Those at the bottom, don't. 

Link from Iowa Association for Business and Industry.

PS. In all fairness to my home state, SBE ranks Iowa  4th for our Health Care Policy Score. That's something. It's a start, anyway.

Unleaded Gas: $3.20 a Gallon

And not a peep, not a complaint, no national days of protest...Nope. The water's just fine.  Croak.

Hats off to the marketing departments at the oil companies. They've done a fine job of managing the conversation, managing the customers' expectations.  They push us till we croak a bit like a frog in boiling water, and then they back off a bit, back to the previous croaking point.

Then we get used to that.

We do that by readjusting our budgets and our eyes. We need to get our eyes accustomed to seeing those numbers up at the gas stations.

And once they see us stop squinting all bug-eyed at the signs, why, that's when they ease the prices on up a bit. They keep raising 'em 'til they hears us croak.

You see, in this business model, you can't bring the water to a full boil. Otherwise, you kill the frog.  Frog dies, so does your company. Oil companies are smart, see. They know this.

Plus, the health insurance industry and the credit card industry, they all need to squeak a little croak out of us as their kept-frogs. Now the mortgage industry's trying to push their way into this frog boil. 

It's gettin' crowded in this kitchen. You know what they say 'bout too many cooks...Too many cooks kill the frogs.

Gotta go easy on us frogs.

The lack of health care is stifling productivity, innovation and job creation

Interesting. From Robyn Blumner at The Salt Lake Tribune, Universal Health care would be a boon to the free market.

Economists and business leaders talk about a phenomenon called ''job lock,'' when a person stays in a job primarily due to its attendant health benefits...

Whatever the reason, this tethering of an employee to his job reduces job mobility by about 25 percent, says Brigitte Madrian, professor of public policy and corporate management at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
    ''The economic cost of job lock is that individuals do not move to jobs where they could be more productive,'' Madrian says. ''Job change is part of the engine of economic growth.'' ..

And then there is the entrepreneurial energy that would be unleashed if people felt free to leave their big company jobs in order to invest in their own ideas. A recent study conducted by Philip DeCicca, an assistant professor of economics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, suggests that there is pent-up entrepreneurialism in the U.S. that is being held back by the prohibitive cost and unavailability of individual health coverage.

Innovation, entrepreneurship, well-managed talent is what drives job growth, corporate growth and economic growth. It also makes people happy. Our economy will grow, your company will grow, if you can allow people to be their most productive.

Incentivizing for policy rescissions

Lawsuit claims Health Net gave bonuses for policy rescissions

Health Net Inc., one of the state's largest health insurers, tied rewards and savings to its employees' ability to cancel policies based on misrepresentations in members' applications...

Well, yeah. You'd want to do that. You don't want fraudulent applications being approved which exposes your company to the risk of undue expenses. It's like a corporate credit appplication. You review the health of the applicant's credit before letting them make payments for a service they may use in the future.

But the key word is...before. Before you approve their purchase and accept their payments...you revie the health of their credit.

This lawsuit says...the policy review, for individual policies, came only when an individual submitted a claim. Until then, both parties were happy. The member was happy with the security of being insured. And the insurer was happy taking the member's premiums, aka money.   The insurer felt the insured was healthy enough to pay them. Yep. No question there.

And this illusion of contractual happiness continued month after month. That is until the insured asks the insurer to fulfill their end of the contract. And suddenly, the integrity of the consumer and their application comes into the forefront.

And insurers wonder why consumers don't trust them.

I'm sure there are more details to come out in this case. But why does this ring so true?

Based on my moest experience with health insurance claims, I sense the insurer's question of  Where's the breakeven is clearly understood to be  Where's the breakdown for the consumer? How much resistance to a claim can the insurer afford before the consumer can no longer afford to pursue it?  And this comes from my wif'e's  minor claims for a few hundred dollars. Imagine if it was a significant claim!?!

Our Health Care System: So many excuses, so many uninsured

Here's one favorite passage from Paul Krugman's recent column, Health Care Excuses:

Excuse No. 3: 2007 is better than 1950.

This is an argument that baffles me, but you hear it all the time. When you point out that America spends far more on health care than other countries, but gets worse results, the apologists reply: “Sure, we spend a lot of money on health care, but medical care is a lot better than it was in 1950, so it’s money well spent.” Huh?

It’s as if you went to a store to buy a DVD player, and the salesman told you not to worry about the fact that his prices are twice those of his competitors — after all, the machines on offer at his store are a lot better than they were five years ago. It is, in other words, an argument that makes no sense at all, yet respectable economists make it with a straight face.

Paul cuts to the chase, as usual, in this post asking why we have the most expensive health care system in the world with lower life expectancy than those in the UK, Germany and France, among 20 other nations with higher life expectancies than ours*. And our infant survival rate is less than half that of the A group of nations including Japan, Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Czech Republic**. We're in the E group, almost at the bottom. See the connection? Most expensive, less-than-best.

* UN World Populations Prospect from Wikipedia

** Medical News Today, MSNBC U.S.'s Gets Poor Grades for Newborn's Survival.