A New Thanksgiving Tradition

As Tevye sings in Fiddler on the Roof, tradition is very important to him and his people.  And as he says, they have a tradition for everything.  How to eat, how to sleep...You get the idea. Now my family does not have centuries old traditions. In fact, if we do something once during the holiday, and it goes well, a new tradition.  This is the story of a likely new tradition.

This year my family traveled to Albany, NY to spend Thanksgiving with my sister, her family and my father.  My family is all about Thanksgiving traditions. It is the same ritual from when we wake up to when we go to bed.  The same food, the same appetizers, the Macy's parade, the dog show, and the same football games. But not this year.

We read about the Troy Turkey Trot held on Thanksgiving Day.  Now this is one of the oldest Thanksgiving runs in the U.S.  You have the choice of a 5K, 10K, 10 mile, or walk. This was the 70th running and a total of 7,195 participants from 34 states and 2 Canadian provinces.

Running runs in my family (this was not intentional). My father was a track star in high school and college. My son lettered in track in high school and he runs today. My daughter runs for fun almost every day. My sister ran a marathon. And my niece runs track in school.

So in one day, four of my family decided to enter the trot.  My sister, her daughter, my son, and my daughter.  My kids had their running shoes, but not warm running clothes.  My wife went to Target to buy warm running clothes.  We got to the trot early so the family could enter.

My family ran the 5K. The website indicates 4,609 other people ran in this one.  The gun went off and all four of my family members were a grain of sand in an ocean of people.

My job - cheer my family on! At least when I could find my family among the 4,605 other runners. Yes, we looked and looked and looked.  In all honesty, the only family members I saw crossing the finish line were my niece and my son.  I completely missed my sister and daughter.

How did they do?  That is insignificant in the whole scheme of Thanksgiving and traditions.  We now have a new tradition that I will enjoy as a spectator and cheer leader.

My running family.

Getting their game on.  At least that is what I think it is.

2018 is right around the corner.

Stability, a Subway, and the U.S.

If you read articles from several publications and listened to certain presidential candidates in 2016, you might conclude the U.S. is corrupted to its core.  You heard it. Examples like the wealthy control everything. Big business is in cozy partnership with government.  You are wrong. Sometimes it helps to offer some perspective. 

As for the subway, you will find a reference to that at the end of the post. 

Back to stability.  Last week I was reading Bloomberg BusinessWeek and one of the featured articles is on Operation Car Wash. It is an investigation starting out in 2014 as a money laundering operation. It has since grown to a massive corruption investigation with over 100 search warrants issued and arrests of leading public and private leaders. The following article does an excellent job noting the origin of this scandal and where it it apparently headed. Link:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-25/brazil-s-car-wash-scandal-reveals-a-country-soaked-in-corruption

I bring this up because the U.S. does not experience corruption to any degree like this.  Yes, we have investigations, trials, sentencing, etc.  But never to this scale.  Why? I suspect that by and large, the U.S. is a country of laws, not of men.  What does that get you?  Keep reading.

When I started in economic development I had a conversation with an executive associated with the Tandy Corp. Tandy (now known as Radio Shack) was headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. This was the late 1980s.  At the time Tandy was in the process of moving manufacturing operations from the Far East back to Fort Worth. I asked the executive why, after all, business costs were far less expensive in the Far East.  His answer was stability.  The U.S. offered stability and that was worth the premium a U.S. manufacturing operation may cost.  

Stability.  We cannot always see it. We may not realize it. But when you lose it, you definitely experience it.

On personal note, when I started my career at the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, I parked in the Tandy lot and took the only private subway in the U.S. to work.  If you got to a lot early enough, you got a coveted spot under the overpass. That meant your car was shaded.  In writing this, I ran across this piece on the Tandy Subway. It ceased operations in 2002. But for me, it was a real thrill.  Link to story:

http://www.jtbell.net/transit/FtWorth/

Disruptive Technology and Competition

So often we hear about disruptive technology.  Generally, it has a harsh impact to established businesses.  An example is Uber Technologies, Inc.  Uber and Lyft transformed the way people travel for short distances.  In major metropolitan areas Uber is seriously undercutting taxis.  In rural areas it is the defacto taxi service.  Lyft is coming on strong. 

The following article is from Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The author looks at the impact of Uber on Washington DC.  Instead of complaining or trying to stop Uber, government officials chose a different strategy. They are determining how to adapt similar technology and evaluating how it can improve overall service.  Note the active role taken by the local government officials.  One unanswered question is can a government sponsored program continually compete and improve on technology when compared to the private sector.  This will be worth watching in the short and long term. 

Link to article:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-17/square-will-replace-meters-in-washington-taxis

Instilling a Corporate Culture

I am always amazed when I read stories about corporate culture and how successful some company executives are in instilling these values in all facilities.  And the results of when they do not.  How often have you heard "culture eats strategy for breakfast"?  It is very true. According to Globoforce Blog, six mergers were destroyed by the inability to combine company cultures. You know a couple of the more recent ones.  Examples are AOL/Time Warner and HP/Compaq.

Frankly, I think it is a very difficult challenge. How do you transfer a culture from one or two stores to dozens or even hundreds?  Publix is an example of one that did it right.  This appeared in Fortune magazine.

http://fortune.com/publix-best-companies/

Shock

I read a lot of business publications.  Most of the time I am not surprised by what I read. This one shocked me. Seldom have I read an article that at the end of almost every paragraph, I shook my head in disbelief.

This appeared in Fortune magazine under the title of “Hoaxwagon:  How the massive diesel fraud incinerated VW’s reputation – and will hobble the company for years to come.”  I know it is old, but I just reread it.

The hoax and lies were so ingrained and went on for so long.  It is hard to believe how it all unraveled. And now, we watch Volkswagen recover and reset.  This will be worth several detailed stories.

http://fortune.com/inside-volkswagen-emissions-scandal/