July 3, 2013

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

Thomas Jefferson

***

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.”

Albert Camus

Is Your Company Crushing Social Media?  Meet Four that Are!

Many companies know about social media but have yet to exploit it. As one article asks “Why should you worry about social networking in your business? Because a corporate marketing message that comes from people you know is much more likely for you to buy into. And, you are much more likely to spread that message to your social network if the message came from a trusted friend.”  Here are four well-known companies who are “crushing” it when it comes to social media. What could you learn from them?

Six Habits of Successful Private Companies.

So much of the popular management literature is based on the history of big public companies (if for no other reason than the history is available by virtue of being public). But what about the success of private companies both large and small? A writer and his team at Forbes took a look the question and asked “What makes private companies great? My colleagues and I, in an unscientific analysis, extrapolated six habits found at the biggest private firms as well at some smaller, successful ones.”  This two page article from Forbes may give you some great insights.

Five Monster Management Lessons from Pixar

Steve Jobs did such a fantastic job of resurrecting Apple in the past decade that we may forget that he was the driving force behind another great company with great Products: Pixar. Pixar rode to fame on the strength of breath-taking animation and great stories (Toy Story, Cars, A Bug’s Life) put together by great teams. Pixar has a new blockbuster, Monster U, whose success is due in no small part to two long time Pixar employees who produced and directed this film.  “ Here, they reveal what they learned about managing creative teams, decision making, and finding the soul of a story on their ascent through the Emeryville company’s fabled ranks.”

Econ Recon:  Back to Normal…. Black Swans and Dragon Kings: Predicting the Next Financial Crisis

Economist Brian Wesbury looks at the gyrations in the bond and equity market attributed to the Fed’s threat to throttle back on Quantitative Easing *QE” and says “The bottom-line is that fears over the Fed are misplaced and an over-reaction…. The same holds true for the economy. The US economy has grown just fine with much higher real yields than exist today. The bottom-line is that fears over the Fed are misplaced and an over-reaction. “ Learn more about in his most recent one page analysis  “Back to Normal.”

Black Swans and Dragon Kings: A few years ago, a remarkable book, The Black Swan,  posited the existence of events that are rare, consequential and most importantly, unpredictable. The best we can do is be ready for the unexpected.

But in a recent TED Talk, Didier Sornette and his Financial Crisis Observatory think they’ve figured out how to identify a set of early warning signs for unstable, growing systems in an attempt to forecast when “bubbles” may burst; a phenomenon he calls Dragon Kings. If you like forecasting and thinking about the economy, this 17 minute video will be of interest.

Please join me in celebrating the birth of our country, and when you see someone in uniform, please take a moment to thank a fabulous young volunteer who is keeping us free with his or her service to our country.