Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 18, 2012 · 9:49 am

This Is My 1,000th Post!

I posted my first bit of drivel on May 22, 2008.  It was all of 218 words and by way of introduction I said:

My name is Keith, and I’m a guy who works with companies on using media to grow their businesses. It could be that nasty old traditional stuff like radio and TV or it could be that newfangled stuff like social media. Either way, bubba. Since it’s not about the channel.

Hopefully the writing has improved a little but what I like is that the basic mission hasn’t:

You would be surprised how many folks I’ve met over the years do something because it’s cool…rather than because it ties in nicely to their business goals, strategies, and tactics.  So that’s what we’ll look at in this blog, with a particular emphasis on the emerging media business as well as sports. I’ll probably throw in a few food tips as well since we can’t be all work and no play.

Which is pretty much where we still are although I guess there’s the odd tip I’ve learned over the last 35 years about managing thrown in as well.  The technology has changed a lot in four years but business hasn’t.  We’ve committed to Friday as our food day and I probably don’t write as much about sports now as I used to.  We still generally avoid politics other than to use them to illustrate a broader point (although I’m thinking about using one day a week to focus on facts without advocacy as we hit election time – thoughts?).

Here’s the most important thing I can say to you after 999 other attempts:  thank you.  Thank you for reading, for sharing posts with others, and for taking the time to comment, both here on the screed and back to me via email (I realize some of you don’t want your thoughts quite so public – fine with me!).  Hopefully you’ll do more of each of them in the future.  I’m always surprised and grateful when someone I’m just meeting or with whom I’m reconnecting says “I like your blog.”  I can see readership numbers but it’s always better for me to meet just one actual reader.

If you had asked me a few years back if I’d still be posting every work day four years down the road, I’d have said that I don’t have that many words or cogent thoughts in me.  Turns out I was wrong.  Thank you all very much!

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July 17, 2012 · 9:26 am

The 4’7″ Door

We’ve done a bit of work around Rancho Deluxe over the years, including turning an attic into a master bedroom suite many years ago.

Grand View Ship Hotel "castle" bluep...

(Photo credit: brianbutko)

We hired a local architect to design it and due to our budget constraints he asked if we’d mind letting a young associate turn his designs into the actual plans. He assured us that the kid was certified and knew what he was doing.

Fast forward to the construction. One afternoon as the framing took shape, our contractor asked us why we wanted a door that was less than 5 feet high. Not being sure which door he meant, he pointed to an area and said “that one.” It was the main door in and out of the room. He made adjustments to the plans and we’ve lived in the space ever since.

I raise this today because you might every well be in a similar situation.  Think about how many times you hire a contractor  – coders, accountants, lawyers, consulting project managers, etc. – to build what others have designed.  Or ask yourself how often you give an employee instructions on what you what them to do.  The bad ones do just that – they execute the instructions they’re given.  You get exactly what the plans called for, even if the plans were screwed up.  The good ones think as they go – they ask why you want a short door.  You get a product free of errors and that’s a slight improvement on what might have been planned originally.

The great ones figure out what you ‘re trying to accomplish and tell you how to get there faster, more cheaply, and with a better result than might be in the plans.  Not only do they see the short door but they think about the door in the context of the traffic flow through the house and the room and point out options you might not have considered.  Those are the contractors (and employees) you need to hire, since the best laid plans might just have doors that don’t suit you needs.

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July 16, 2012 · 9:55 am

Why Is Wrong In Life OK In Business?

I had something else planned for today’s screed but after getting through the newspapers over the weekend I changed my mind. I don’t know if it’s struck you as it has me but I’m really surprised how many business stories are about willful acts of corruption and greed. One could, in fact, make the argument that much of the economic crisis in which nearly every country finds itself has at its root exactly that cause. Is there anyone left who thinks the housing bubble and mortgage crisis was an accident?

Let me give you a few examples, just from yesterday’s newspaper:

Goldman Sachs and the $580 Million Black Hole – a story of how Goldman may have negligently mismanaged a company’s sale and sold it to con men:

With Goldman Sachs on the job, the corporate takeover of Dragon Systems in an all-stock deal went terribly wrong. Goldman collected millions of dollars in fees — and the Bakers lost everything when Lernout & Hauspie was revealed to be a spectacular fraud.

Then there is the LIBOR case:

Authorities around the globe are examining whether financial firms manipulated interest rates before and after the financial crisis to improve their profits and deflect scrutiny about their health.

Big pharma?

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a settlement with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. The company had, among a host of criminal actions, helped publish falsified data in a medical journal, failed to report the dangers of a drug and used “favors” like trips to Jamaica to persuade doctors to use its medications for unapproved — and unproven — purposes on children.

Think it’s only financial business that’s affected?

The head of Germany’s football league has called on Sepp Blatter to resign over the FIFA bribery scandal.  Reinhard Rauball told Germany’s Welt Online that Blatter should step down as soon as possible so that FIFA can make a fresh start.

Maybe I’m just an old hippie from a distant time, but this stuff is just wrong.  Simple, right?  You could explain right and wrong to a child fairly easily.  So why does that go out the window when there’s “business” involved?  What’s really scary to me is that no one has gone to jail for any of this stuff – companies have paid fines but no individual has been held accountable (and we all know it’s not just one person).

I’m willing to bet that no matter on which side of the political spectrum you fall we can agree that stealing, bribery, bid rigging, and selling drugs you know aren’t safe isn’t right.  What we can do about it is to call it what it is – bad, maybe criminal behavior – and not stand for it.  Don’t do business with people who permit individuals to behave this way.  I almost wrote companies” there but corporations are legal entities, not people.  It won’t get better until somebody is held accountable in a very public way and jailed.   We as a society and community of business people must demonstrate that competing hard and winning are OK, but not at any cost.  After all, every sport has a rulebook and certain actions will get you penalized or kicked out of the game.  Why not business?

Are you as frustrated as I am?

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