Christmas - the Guiding Light(s)

No, I am not referring to a Christmas carol or song. And no, not a Christmas movie either. 

Christmas is a time for family, love, forgiveness, and most importantly, to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  

It is also a time for dozens of Christmas movies that all have the same plot, just different locations and names. However, that is for another post.

This post is about the joy of family, fun and beauty in creating, and most importantly, the guiding light or in this case lights. Fun as in playing games.  Creating as in, ummm, unique Christmas cookies. More on this later. 

In most of the families you have the one person who is the guiding light on Christmas. This person takes charge, organizes tree and other decorating, cooking, shopping, gift ideas, fun, and most importantly, maintains traditions.  I am fortunate (or not) to have two in my life. One is my wife, the other one is my sister.  

Both have Christmas in their hearts year round and are seldom afraid to show it (or impose it).  As my sister informed me, we would be cooking Christmas eve dinner. She really does not like people in her kitchen, but as she told my mom years ago, I was okay because I took instruction well.  Hey, sometimes you have to play the supporting role. Honestly, those of you who know me, wouldn't you hesitate with your fork if I told you I prepared dinner?

I digress.  

Tradition as in the family Christmas trees. Pictures follow. These are unique to our family. Why, because of the special ornaments.  In our family, my parents gave my sister and me a new special ornament to hang on the tree every Christmas.  In fact, in my parents's home, we needed two trees after a couple of decades of this tradition.  Some of the ornaments were home made. Others reflect the personality of the individual to whom the ornament is given.  After we decorate our tree, I know it is ours and could not go into anyone else's home. My sister and wife continue this fun tradition. 

Creating as in these bags my niece made for my kids.  These bags held the ornaments she made for them in class.  Her ornaments were certainly beautiful, but I really like the bags. 

Fun as in playing a game, like Monopoly.  The kids are playing as we prepare the Christmas Eve dinner. My sister and I played a round with them. My advice, show no mercy to anyone, especially family. 

After years of Christmas celebrations, I came to this conclusion. The celebration of Christmas is about combining old and cherished traditions while creating new ones.  We do this with new people, like a spouse or child.  What is an example of a new one?  Ask my son about the stuffing we eat on Christmas and he can likely recite the recipe. 

The guiding lights (my sister and wife) are the keepers and they build on traditions handed down from current and past family members.  My wife and sister are the ones who remember, remind, reinforce, revise, and rework these traditions. It is likely a strong and vibrant passion they both have.  My family is fortunate.  I am very grateful that I have not one, but two bright and shining lights. 

As for my comments about the cookies, you decide. If they do not scare you, then you too have the spirit of Christmas. 

Inside Story on an Economic Development Project and Incentive Negotiation

Numerous articles have been written about economic development projects, the process and incentive negotiations. Among the latest is the Elon Musk and Tesla $5 billion capital investment and 6,500 jobs announcement to be located in Nevada. Fortune magazine and Peter Elkind did an outstanding job describing the timeline and interviewing key players.  I realize that this is somewhat dated, but it still worth a few words. 

This article is fascinating for several reasons. The first one is the sophistication of the Tesla team. The second one is several states at various times told the Tesla team we cannot honor your request. The third is the level of detail in the article. Fourth is the intense competition from seven states. Finally, the article gives a very good understanding of what this type of economic development is.

And what is economic development in this article? It is a zero sum game, you either win or lose. You do not get a trophy for second place. Economic development in part is about improving citizens lives and providing opportunities to do so. One of the best ways? A good job with a cutting edge company and/or in a leading industry. Economic development in this area is about competition or how do I ensure my community continues to make the cut. After all, it is about elimination, not about inclusion. Economic development is about analysis. The Tesla team kept asking or increasing the incentive demands. As some point, each state or area said no, our best deal is on the table. Economic development is about justification. The Tesla team would not have considered any area that did not make business sense. Incentives are icing and cannot make a bad deal good. Finally, economic development is not always about the biggest incentive package winning. At least not this this case.

It is worth noting that Elon Musk, COB and CEO of Tesla, in 2007 negotiated a lucrative deal with New Mexico staff to build an auto assembly factory. Tesla then promptly abandoned New Mexico when California offered a richer incentive package. The Tesla team later said the New Mexico site would not work. Frankly, I find that hard to believe. Generally, by the time a sophisticated company team gets to serious incentive negotiating, the business case for the project in a specific location has been satisfied. In fact, I think the project was likely unworkable, not the New Mexico site. As you read the Fortune article, you will see the facility was built in California, experienced numerous production challenges and almost went into bankruptcy.

As you read the article, note the high level of sophistication of the Tesla team. They started out with an Excel spreadsheet covering 90 issues like labor availability, environmental issues, infrastructure needs, etc.

Additional Links:

Fortune Magazine article

http://fortune.com/inside-elon-musks-billion-dollar-gigafactory/

Tesla Project Description

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.teslamotors.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fblog_attachments%2Fgigafactory.pdf&ei=illxVM3gC83IsASdo4DADg&usg=AFQjCNHI8MIEVnbApnotW_YmhQ6f7RF9Ag

Nevada Project, Incentive and Proposed Legislation Summary.

http://diversifynevada.com/documents/Teslas_Gigafactory_Incentive_Summary_PDF.pdf

Economic Impact Analysis

http://diversifynevada.com/documents/Full_Tesla_Summary_Report_Analysis_Letters.pdf

Budgeting Takes Extensive Preparation

In a previous post I wrote about the County Revenue Committee, an ad hoc group that seeks counsel from numerous sources as the budget and revenue projections are drafted.

Several people I know think government spending is on automatic pilot.  Department heads ask and they receive.  Spending grows with no thought of the taxpayer.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

On November 21st the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) held the FY 2107 Fiscal Year Retreat. This is when the BOCS meets to review the previous FY budget and discuss the next FY budget and options. It was a detailed agenda.  Budget staff works tirelessly on preparing for the retreat.

Prior to the FY retreat, department heads were asked to prepare documentation on their requests and rank order these recommendations.  At a department head meeting all the requests were consolidated, discussed, reviewed, and prioritized. These are then given to the budget staff for incorporation into the materials for the FY retreat.

I know this sounds boring and tedious, but it is a worthwhile exercise.  The following link will take you to the Powerpoints prepared for the retreat.  Note the last one titled "Preparing for the FY2017 Budget:  Five-Year Plan, Must-Do Items, and Unmet Needs." Link to this presentation:  http://www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/budget/Documents/04--Must-Dos%20and%20Unmet%20Needs--FINAL_MAC.pdf

Link to the FY2017 Fiscal Year Retreat

http://www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/budget/Pages/FY2017-Budget-Library.aspx

Dedicated Employees

Last month I had the privilege of attending one of several briefings arranged by staff of the Prince William County Finance Department. These are commonly known as the Revenue Committee presentations.

The Revenue Committee is ad hoc.  It is an interdepartmental group of County employees. I have been fortunate to be a member once. At the end, the members meet and discuss what we have seen and how it could impact County finances.  I know several people will read this and question why.  From my perspective, I see County employees taking steps and efforts to increase their knowledge base to benefit the residents.

Every year finance staff invites regional and state economists, association experts, local developers, and others to share with us their take on the past year and how the next year is shaping up.  Invitees cover local, regional and national economy, taxation, commercial and residential development, automotive sales, home sales, etc.

The first one featured presentations from the chief economist for the VA Department of Taxation and the regional research vice president for the Federal Reserve Board based in Richmond.  Between 35-40 County staff attended this one. They are engaged and ask intelligent questions.  

As a taxpayer I appreciate County staff taking such measures to get the best picture of revenues and possible challenges.  As any manager will tell you, a budget is an excellent indicator of the priorities of an organization.  The County staff takes budgeting very seriously and the Revenue Committee is just on example. 

Serious People Grappling with a Serious Issue

On Saturday morning I attended a planning retreat sponsored by the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC).  The goals of the retreat were to review service and funding challenges. 

First, some background. PRTC provides commuter bus service.  PRTC is a multi-jurisdictional agency representing Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties and the Cities of Manassas, Manassas Park and Fredericksburg. 

I will not bore you with details of the objectives, but rather discuss the process and the participants.  

Approximately 45 people attended the retreat.  Attendees included local elected officials, state elected officials, PRTC board members and alternates, PRTC staff, and several other people from various stakeholder organizations.  In addition, five speakers from the pubic and private sectors were invited to offer local and regional observations.  

One key component is the PRTC staff retained a team of professional facilitators.  As one of the five speakers, I appreciated that the facilitators drafted my PowerPoint and requested a pre-discussion to gain my perspective.  Based on our discussion, the PowerPoint in another section was revised.  In fact, I believe I saw the 4th draft of the PowerPoint used during the retreat.  The background materials sent out a week before were very helpful. The agenda was clear, complete with time allocations per session.  The list of attendees was broken down so you could tell who was who and with which organization. You could tell considerable time and resources were expended for this retreat.  

It is what happen after the five speakers presented that truly impressed me.  The elected officials were engaged. Other participants offered suggestions and questions.  The facilitator and the PRTC chair kept the group on track and equally important, on time.  My sense was these people were serious about the problems and serious about the potential solutions.  

Often times I hear constant and uniformed complaints from people who do not vote or rarely participate in the government process. They complain about the service, the cost, the delivery, the resource allocation, etc.  You probably experienced it too.  

On this day, 45 people gave up their Saturday morning to learn, exchange ideas, discuss, and hopefully resolve several complex challenges.  As a group, they listened, they took notes, they asked, they commented, they offered ideas.  And at the end, agreed to do this again. 

This is how government improves.  Good people (elected officials, private sector and stakeholders) seeking viable solutions.  Consider it the "blocking and tackling" of good government. It is often unseen and seldom noted. But it makes a difference on so many levels. 

Dependence on Electronics

Unlike most people, I do not take my cell phone with me everywhere I go. I do not access it except for news and a couple of social media sites.  In fact, I turn off the 4G when I am at work.

My Kindle is a different story.  A Kindle is an electronic reading device. 

On the other hand, I usually take my Kindle with me when I think I might have time to read.  So I take it to work almost every day, and when I go places and think I might have some free time. For example, when I take the Metro into DC, I usually take my Kindle and read.  Or when I take the VRE train I take my Kindle.  It allows me to take a break.  

However, on Friday I opened my Kindle and got a disturbing message.  It was something like "battery is critically low".  So I plugged it in for over 18 hours and no change. I could not get access to my books or business magazines.  It really concerned me.  

In addition, I went on line and found several excellent suggestions.  One was doing a hard reset.  I found out I had not held the switch long enough. I also called the Kindle help number. She was very helpful and offered the same advice. 

In the end, the hard reset worked.  However, it was a trying time.  My Kindle is my lifeline to business publications and my books.  I realized how dependent I am on that device.  

Cell phones (if you pay for it) and most other devices have alternatives or backups. For example, if you are trying to access other websites and your laptop is not working, you can try another one.  Redundancy is a very positive aspect of technology today.  Of course you must do backups of your hard drive (frankly I am surprised how few people actually do this).

My Kindle does not offer an easy way to access content from another device.  Yes, I can buy one, but I will have a wait of several days for it to arrive.  Unlike a new phone, which you can generally buy a new one on the same day the old one is lost or stops working.  

Reading is a passion for me personally and professionally. Not having it readily available was a shock and made me feel uncomfortable.  It would be like the only library in a city where I lived burned down.  No access to books, magazines and journals for me or anyone else.  

Unfortunately, I do not know the answer. My Kindle is at least 8 years old. I love it. Unlike most tablets, it is not back-lit so the battery lasts for days or even weeks if you do not turn on the 3G service. I like the brand and the selection of books, magazines and journals. In addition, I can underline key points or quotes, and clip articles.

Of course I will persevere when or if it happens again. Now I realize this is a minor concern to most people. In many respects, they are right.  However, I ask you to go without something you have that gives you pleasure.  It can be a real challenge. 

The Importance of Mentorship

Forbes magazine did an excellent series of stories on mentor ship.  It is one of the most comprehensive sets I have encountered.  It is titled "Secrets of the Trade: Mentors, Protégés and Guides for Growth." And a very valuable secret it is too.

You will find pieces on the types of mentors, examples from several disciplines (boxing, college coaching, business and NASA), career advice and even how to find a mentor. 

For the economic development profession, this is a very important point. I was very fortunate to have a mentor who was patient, understanding, and enjoyed teaching. Equally important, he is a leader is the profession.  He was also my first boss, Wayne Sterling.

Wayne used to say economic development is the second highest calling, right behind helping one find God.  I think he is right. Helping someone find job is so important in ways I cannot describe, but definitely know. 

From a practical stand point, my mentor helped me understand the politics of projects, the way key stakeholders look at a project or initiative, how to frame discussion and decision memos, a succinct document is far more preferable, and read about business and industry (they are your customers). In addition, he taught me that empirical data is superior to almost anything else and that the client's perception really does matter.  Finally, and most important, economic developers must justify decisions by others (after all, it is their money).  

Economic development is not a typical profession. If you look at an overwhelming number of college and university catalogs, you will not see courses taught in economic development.  We do have week long courses and even EDI.  When you take your first job and it is in economic development, you will find literature, but the practical nuts and bolts are missing. Mentor ship can bridge this gap. 

Mentor ship is designed to help new employees navigate uncharted waters.  A mentor will help you with short cuts, time savers and be a sounding board for your challenges.  Experience counts.  Good mentors share it. Mine certainly did. 

We talk a lot about mentors and continued education, but as a nation and as a profession, I see it lacking.  Mentoring takes time and energy, but well worth it.  It needs to be structured.  Perhaps a challenge is people do not know how to be a mentor.  On the other side of the coin, perhaps the mentoree needs to understand the value of his/her mentors' time.  I think of unsuccessful intern programs as I write this sentence. 

However, I suspect an additional challenge in the economic development profession is the lack of a critical mass.  Usually, the number of economic development professionals in a city or county is limited. An exception is the location of the state economic development program.  

So, is it necessary for a mentor to be in the same profession? No, but a complimentary one is certainly desired.  As a profession, we need to develop mentors and mentoring.  

In conclusion, I am a better economic developer and a better person because of my mentor. My hope is all economic developers have the same experience. 

Link to the series:

http://www.forbes.com/secrets-of-the-trade/

Great Resource for Entrepreneurs in Certain Industries

The business and economic development oriented literature is ripe with articles about entrepreneurship.  So many pieces look at the entrepreneur and his success.  Lots of pictures and little discussion on the help received.  Very few focus on the assistance available, utilized, needed or how to access critical resources.

In economic development, I generally see organizations publish books with the title of  "Guide to Establishing a Business in..." or "Resources Available to an Entrepreneur in...".  These publications focus on legal, tax, registration and requirements to start a business in a specific city or county. All resources have a local or regional focus.  They do not look at help beyond a predetermined territory.  For most businesses that would likely suffice. However, for certain entrepreneurs, this type of publication may not go far enough. 

Last week Bloomberg BusinessWeek published an article about Maker's Row.  Maker's Row was founded by Matthew Burnett and Tanya Menendez.  It is an article worth reading. The link is at the end of the post. Their objective:

"Maker’s Row is the home of Made in America for the 21st century. We enable brands to find manufacturers to create products here in the United States. Our mission started off with manufacturing in America. We wanted to: make the manufacturing process simple to understand and easy to access."

So what did they do? They created a full service platform to help entrepreneurs in certain industries.  They started with a database that contains over 7,000 factories.  Most of the listings are either apparel/accessories or furniture/home decor firms.  In depth factory profiles are comprehensive. The database allows a person to either search for a company to help create a product or for a factory owner seeking new customers.  For certain services, the website requires a fee or subscription.

The site offers podcasts for start-ups. An entrepreneur can also find assistance in design, prototyping, and mass production.  For any new business venture in these industries, this is a real resource.  Rural firms can seek potential partners not located in the immediate area.  

Basically, they created a virtual manufacturing platform and entrepreneurial assistance program utilizing U.S. factories.  It is the kind of service I trust many professional economic developers would like to have developed. It is the next step to the guide or resource noted in the second paragraph of this post.

If this could be duplicated for other industries, it could be an additional resource for entrepreneurs and economic development professionals.  Examples would be metalworking, finance, etc. 

To me, this is an exciting concept.  I always wanted to create something like this, but I did not have the expertise.  It is the type of service that clearly demonstrates an understanding of the challenges facing an entrepreneur and a business model that helps solve critical barriers to success.  It also offers the benefit of matching a new venture with the best partner no matter where either is located. 

Sometimes I think economic developers face a difficult choice. We want and encourage our local firms to partner with local start-up ventures.  However, for any one firm and especially for an entrepreneur, we also want to help them find the best fit in terms of services offered and cost, even if it is located outside our service territory.  After all, what drives their success is slightly different than one of an established business.  

On the Maker's Row website, be sure to read the "Why We Are Creating Maker's Row" page. It is one the reasons I think people start businesses.  They could not identify or easily find a service or product that they needed to make the venture a success.  Maker's Row is an entrepreneurial business helping other new ventures succeed.  

Link to the article:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-29/maker-s-row-a-guide-to-made-in-america

Link to Maker's Row:  http://makersrow.com/

Majestic

One of my favorite shows is CBS Sunday Morning.  The segments are longer and classier.  I always learn something.  

For example, this is a segment on the renowned portrait painter John Singer Sargent.  I learned he was much more than a portrait artist. He was multi talented in oils and water colors. He preferred to paint his friends in a less rigid setting.  Unlike his portraits, which were perfect, he could paint them as they were. It occurred to me as I was writing this, his portraits are like professional photographs today. If you look as his portraits, he appeared to touch them up too. 

Link to segment:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-singer-sargents-portraits-of-artists-and-friends/

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and small business. The hottest trend. If you take a look, you see colleges and universities offering classes on entrepreneurship, just to name a few.  Note the growth of starting a business and entrepreneurship in bookstores.

This is my one of my favorite examples of entrepreneurship.  I enjoy good books.  My preferences are biographies, current events and political history. In the past I had trouble finding books I would read about but not at the library. This is an example (see end of post).  Unless you lived in Vermont for any length of time or are interested in Congress, you likely have no idea who he is. Do not be concerned, I do.

Jeff Bezos and I share a common love, at least I think we do.  We are both readers.  And I love my Amazon Kindle.  That is another post.

When you have a unique interest, sometimes you think you are alone. I would go to used book stores seeking my unique genre. Most of the time, my searches were fruitless. Several books I am interested in are out of print, a real challenge.  Oh occasionally I would get lucky. Like when I found Gary Hart's books at the Tattered Cover in Denver. Yes, it makes sense. Sen. Hart represented Colorado for two terms.  If you are in Denver, this bookstore is worth a stop.  Link to store.  http://www.tatteredcover.com/

Back to Mr. Bezos and me. Most people forget this. Amazon started as a way to connect book lovers with independent book stores. Or to put it another way, it was an online book store. Now, I can search for books I have always wanted to read and get them shipped to me quickly and likely at a greatly reduced price. And I can find out of print books.

So why is Mr. Bezos an entrepreneur? He saw a need, he figured out how to fill it, created numerous new markets, and changed the way some people did business. His model was disrupting.

This is where Mr. Bezos proved to be a real entrepreneur. He did not stop with the online book store, he branched out.  Over the past 21 years, Mr. Bezos grew Amazon into many logical markets.  Consider this, if you said Amazon 20 years ago, most people would think about a jungle. If you said it today, most people would think "great shopping alternative."

Yes, Mr. Bezos is a true entrepreneur.  However, I will always be grateful to Mr. Bezos for connecting me to the world of independent book stores.  I continue reading books in my unique genre and continue enjoying out of print books.

Virginia Board of Workforce Development Strategic Plan

In my business you read or are sent strategic plans by organizations. Of course you may also participate in formulating a strategic plan.  A strategic plan offers a path to a goal that a majority of the participants hopefully endorse. It offers staff a guideline for work related activities.

In its simplest form, a strategic plan identifies an issue/issues with supporting analysis and empirical data, provides objectives, offers concrete goals, includes a timeline, and concrete measurements.  Sounds easy?  It is not.

This is one of the better ones.  Notice the structure. Objectives are clearly stated, strategies link to the objectives, measurements are clear and easily understood.

Link to the strategic plan.

http://www.elevatevirginia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/VBWD-Strategic-Plan_final.pdf

Employees and Employers

This article really disturbed me. It is about employee engagement.  The article is based on an extensive and detailed study conducted by Deloitte. The title of the study is "Global Human Capital Trends 2015".  According to the article author and Deloitte study, we are in a new world of work.The workplace has shifted in favor of employees, at the expense of the employer.

The biggest challenge for employers is employee engagement. Think about that.  For any business to be competitive and an enjoyable place to work, it needs employees to be engaged and invested. Employees have more flexibility and freedom and consequently can choose not to be invested. Is it that employers do not know how to foster engagement?  Is it that employees have decided my energy is better spent outside my career or place of work?  No winners here.

A link to the article:

http://www.staffingtalk.com/employee-engagement-and-retention-a-high-priority-problem-for-employers

A link to the Deloitte study:

http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/introduction-human-capital-trends.html

Keurig is the Downfall of Corporate America and While Building Productivity

Okay, it is not the downfall of corporate America.  However it does build productivity. 

The Keurig represents a decline of a different kind.  First, a word or two about the Keurig.

It is a remarkable machine when you think about it.  You can make any type of coffee you want (provided the flavor exists) in a matter of minutes.  No waiting around. In our office kitchen I count four different flavors of coffee and one tea.  The brand in our office is Green Mountain.  Now if you go to the Keurig website, I count 233 K-Cup flavors of coffee, tea, hot cocoa, etc. And 43 different brands.  (You get the idea).  Talk about choice! 

The Keurig is rapidly replacing the standard coffee machines in offices.   One of the best aspects of working in an office with colleagues is the morning coffee routine.  That is when a full pot of coffee (12 cups) is brewing and several people are standing around waiting to pour a cup.  Usually, you would talk to your colleagues about something of interest, like the weather, sports, weekend activities, etc.  Now, co-workers  make a cup and leave.  No more standing around and engaging in idle chitchat. Back to the desk.  Productivity increases (bet you thought I forgot about this one).  But camaraderie decreases because you know less about your colleagues.  In some respects, the morning coffee is the glue of an office and the relationships among individuals.

But no more.  We celebrate individual choice; hence we satisfy our craving or want. But we lose one more fiber of collective gathering for no reason other than a shared love of coffee or tea.

A second issue with the Keurig is now I do not get a sense of how people take their coffee or tea. You can tell a lot about how people take their coffee. Do they add a sweetener and milk? If so, do they add it one spoonful at a time and then taste it?  Do they add the sweetener and/or cream before or after they pour the coffee?  Some people are stirrers.  Do they have a particular sweetener and cream they use or prefer?  Are they trying to change (like cut back on the sweetener or cream)?  If so, is it because they read or heard something?  Worth a question if a person changes his habits.  Frankly, I think it is an interesting dynamic to watch.  Alas, I am transparent, since I drink my coffee black, I have never had those issues.

Side note: anyone who knows me understands why I drink my coffee black. My mother refused to let my sister and I put anything in coffee when we asked. Her immortal words “You must learn to drink it black.”  So I have ever since.

The final issue with the Keurig is the sheer waste.  I know many a staunch environmentalist who thinks nothing about the number of K-Cups added to the landfill daily.  Whereas a pot of coffee is simply coffee grounds (from Mother Nature) and a recyclable coffee can or plastic container.  Minimal waste.

So what is the answer? No more Keurig, back to the coffee pots. The coffee pots are old and should be new again. 

Hiring the Long Term Unemployed – A Possible Solution

Over the weekend, I ran across an old Bloomberg Business Week article about long term unemployed.  It got me thinking.  In economic development, one common goal is to create job opportunities for citizens.  A somewhat new challenge is the long term unemployed.  So much has been written about this and studies conducted, I suspect no one doubts the challenge. 

Bloomberg Business Week posted an article titled “Think the Long Term Unemployed Have Lost Their Edge?   Wrong”.  The author, Harold Sirkin, disagrees that long term unemployed (6+ months) skills deteriorate quickly and hence no longer technologically able to work.  The author contends that technology does indeed advance, but not that rapidly.  You can decide if he is right or not.

However, this is the most interesting point of the article is the training example. As you will read, the Chicago model, Skills for Chicagoland’s Future, is one economic development professionals should review and perhaps propose to local Workforce Investment Boards, community colleges and other institutions. It will not work in all cases, but should be in the arsenal of an existing business program.

The article offers a case study. The company highlighted is Seaton.  Seaton is an outsourcing and recruiting company. The Seaton company executive team wanted to hire 250 people.  As part of the program, Seaton HR department staff laid out the skills needed for the open jobs.  The Skills for Chicagoland’s Future took those skill sets and trained potential employees. The average new worker was unemployed for 18 months.

However, I prefer the United Airlines case study, also highlighted on the Skills for Chicagoland’s Future website.  This appears to me to be the classic case of doing a great job for your client and getting asked again to take on a more complex assignment. If you read the case study (link below) note the last paragraph. 

It might appear that the Skills for Chicagoland’s Future is like other training programs. However, this one is slightly different. From reading the annual report, it appears to me to be funded by government agencies, non-profit organizations, foundations and the private sector. In addition, a key goal is to help long term unemployed find jobs.

One more point to consider, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) was recently reauthorized.  The professional economic developers should look at the language of the reauthorized law (Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act) and see if the new WIOA helps or hurts an initiative like this.  If it has a negative impact, then what revisions could we suggest be included in future legislative amendments.

Link to the article:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-11/think-the-long-term-unemployed-have-lost-their-edge-wrong#r=nav-r-blog

Link to the Seaton case study:

http://www.skillsforchicagolandsfuture.com/employers/case-studies/seatoncorp/

Link to Unites Airlines case study:

http://www.skillsforchicagolandsfuture.com/employers/case-studies/united/

The Customer is (Usually) Right or Not all are Worth Engaging

I really enjoyed an AP news story, but not for the problems the owners of Amy’s Baking Co. experienced.  Rather, this story crystallizes the ever increasing power of social media and the rising demand for customer service.  It offers all of us an excellent learning experience.

The article highlighted a business owner (Amy’s Baking Co.) struggling with constant negative social media posts.  You may recall the name from the series “Kitchen Nightmares.” The reaction by the owners to these critiques was highly combative.  The owners basically called the people posting negative comments stupid, etc. As my mentor used to tell me, do not argue with a company that buys ink by the barrel. He was referring to a newspaper.  We also hear for every bad experience, the person wronged will tell 10 people.  Today, a person wronged will tell thousands of people.  In short, is it unwise to provoke a person highly skilled in the application of social media.

The owners’ reaction was so harsh and so negative it inspired several articles on what not to do on social media.  This one from Forbes is one of the best.  It is by Ms. Kelly Clay.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/05/14/lessons-from-amys-baking-company-six-things-you-should-never-do-on-social-media/

Years ago when I lived in Columbia, SC, I drove by a new car dealership. Across the street was a car apparently purchased from the dealership.  A large painted yellow sign claimed that the dealership sold him a “lemon” and you do not want to buy a car from the dealership because it might be a lemon too.  I think we do not take these activities seriously, because it is one man making a claim. Now, take that same man and put him on Twitter and Facebook. Others will read it and they may add a gripe they have. If the message is written in an intelligent manner, it may lead to more critical comments.  For a business, that is a real danger, especially if you throw lighting fuel on the flames.

This brings me to the second part – customer service.  Experience tells us to admit to a problem, show a solution and offer something of value to the dissatisfied customer.  Telling a customer that they are stupid or just plain insulting them will never get you very far (recall the previous paragraph).  As a business owner, you may disagree with a customer, but remember, social media is about words used to generate emotional responses.  How do you show humor or irony in 140 characters?  It is very difficult. Equally important, it is easier and probably the right approach for a business to admit the customer may have a point or politely correct a misconception. And, be sure to read the Forbes article, the link is in the article.