I’ve Been Everywhere - by Johnny Cash

This is not about Mr. Cash, but it is a great theme song for this post.  I ran across an article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek on people who move to a place instead of a job.  The title of the article is "Moving to a Place Instead of a Job."  

Back in my college day, I had friends from all over the U. S. who attended various universities and did not want to move from the university town. That is what I thought when I first read title.  I was wrong.  

The article focuses on people (mainly renters) who chose to live in a city first, then start applying for jobs.  This concept is somewhat foreign to me. I cannot conceive of living in a place before I had a job.  

However, it appeals to many individuals.  Frankly, I cannot do the article justice. And I was surprised at the cities of choice, until I read the article. And that is what I encourage you to do. 

Link to the article:  https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-18/cities-need-workers-to-move-for-the-location-not-the-job

Link to Mr. Cash's song:  https://youtu.be/ov4epAJRPMw

Family Owned Businesses

MSN recently did a story on the largest family businesses in the world.  It is an impressive list.  I must say, I was disappointed when I started clicking through the slide show and saw how few are US based.  Spoiler alert: you will see several toward the end.

Family owned businesses generate considerable nostalgia.  We take pride in shopping at family owned businesses. In economic development, it never fails to point out the leading family owned businesses in the area. 

Why is this?  Because it is the classic American success story.  A family sees a void or has a passion and starts a business as the result.  It may grow, establish new locations and/or products. The kids are involved and will likely take over some day. Sometimes internal family battles get played out in the media and that can be riveting reading.  It may even be the subject of a mini-series or feature film.   It certainly has an almost romantic feeling to it.

Enough about that. 

The family owned businesses in this story run across the world.  They may be in the first, second, or third generation of family ownership.  Consider some of the challenges.  For example, any non-family member will likely never take the helm.  So to hire the best, you may also lose them to a firm who can offer the top seat.  Your children know what is expected and will likely be indoctrinated accordingly and likely at a young age.  Transitioning leadership to the next generation maybe tumultuous.  Current leadership maybe arrogant and refuse to listen to outside advisors (after all I built it, how can I be wrong).

When I read about these companies and the accompanying write-up, I was mightily impressed. After all, we can pick our friends, but not our family.  From my perspective, these companies instilled a company sense of values throughout the entire organization and that carried through to future generations.  The leaders of these firms navigated extremely challenging times and events.  They adjusted their business and business model when necessary and I suspect never sat on their laurels.  Rather, they spent considerable time thinking about how to maintain leadership in their respective fields and listened to outside counsel.

All of the above applies to any business. But I think family owned businesses have inherent advantages and unique challenges. The companies in this piece have successfully navigated these challenges, so far.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/finance-companies/the-worlds-biggest-companies-that-are-still-family-owned/ss-AAw3Wn3

When Too Much Can Be Too Little

First, we must accept that men (and especially me) are not the best at multi-tasking.  An experience last week really drove this point home.  

I was in the office working on an expansion project.  In a period of approximately 10 minutes, I had (all within the 10 minutes) my business phone ringing, my cell phone text vibration going off, my twitter account notifying me about a direct message (and my email account also notifying me), a LinkedIn red button on the tab, and a Facebook message notification (that one was personal).  Each one of these is the preferred messaging vehicle a client or family/friend prefers to use.  So count them, five separate notifications.  I suspect I got an email too.  

Since they are all valued clients/customers or friend (Facebook), I respond with their preferred messaging vehicle.  But at what point is too many communicating options actually diluting my ability to adequately answer.  And when do the notifications become a distraction.  That is why I do not take phones into business meetings.  And why my family will tell me to put my phone down when we are trying to have a discussion. And yes, I know, I do not need to immediately answer each one or in all honesty, any of them. 

Consider this, approximately 10 years ago, you had two or three options.  An email account, a business phone, and a cell (if you were deemed important enough to be issued one).  You seldom got a call on your cell, because that was considered an emergency. 

I do not bring this up to show that I am immensely popular, I am not. Nor that I am in great demand because of my intellectual ability, I am not.  Rather, it is a shock when you get so many communications in such a short span of time. This is the first time it happen to me and I was somewhat surprised and for a moment, overwhelmed.  

In fact, it made me think.  I have five instruments for communication - personal cell, home phone, business phone, business cell, and business computer.  I do not include my personal computer. 
If you take the different vehicles for of all of them, I have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Salesforce, personal email, personal phone texting, personal cell call, home phone call, business email, business phone texting, business phone call, business cell call,. I count 13.  

If I were popular, I cannot quite imagine how I could manage all of these.  So how many do you have? 

As I reflect on this this post, it occurs to me that this may not necessarily be bad.  My family communicates with different mediums. My clients have clear preferences in what they choose.  I am comfortable in using all of them. In fact, each one has strengths and weaknesses.   As my mentor would say, always consider the alternative - that no one communicates with you. 

And On the 8th Day God Created the Cell Phone

Yes, I know he did not.  However, he should have.  I simply say that to underscore the importance of the cell phone in a relationship during the holiday season. 

Now what this observation is not about.  It is not about tracking or texting photos or sending love notes. It is not about annoying rings. It is not about people talking too loudly.  It is a simple observation about the value of a cell phone in a relationship during a stressful time of the year.  

First, you must accept that the holiday season can be stressful in numerous ways. If not, go back to the rerun of Law and Order you are watching.  If you agree, please continue. 

Over the Christmas holidays, I noticed a unique phenomenon at grocery stores. This is the peak season for this phenomenon.  So many men have faced this dilemma and it always starts with a simple request:

"Honey can you run to the store and pick up ... ?"

Second, some history.  Those of us that lived the pre-cell days know that this is problematic. Pre-cell days I would go the grocery store.  If I got the wrong item (which was often), I would get irritated and have to go back. I suspect some variance of this is repeated in every city of every state in the US.  No man wants to make repeated trips to the store, we have sports to watch. 

A couple of examples are in order for those who doubt me.

"Honey, can you run to the store and pick up whipping cream?" 

So I head out the door. Does she mean pre-whipped?  Or a liquid form? If a liquid from, pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized (whatever the difference is)?  Yes, I would buy one and proudly take it home.  It was wrong.  Now I had to go back and get the right one.  I stopped trying to get my money back or exchange it. I take it you recall the long, long, long line of men (never women) trying to exchange a product or get a refund. 

Another example and my favorite.  "Honey can you run to the store and pick up some chocolate for the pie I am making?"  

Have you ever really looked at the chocolate aisle in a grocery store? And what are our options?  We have several types of powder. We have several types chips (including white chocolate). We have several sizes of chips. We have several brands of chips and cooking chocolate, (Nestle, Ghirardelli, Hershey, Baker's, Guittard, Callebaut, and Valrhona, etc.).  We have several varieties of chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Semisweet and Bittersweet Chocolate, Dutch-Process Cocoa, Milk Chocolate, and White Chocolate. See, it is confusing. 

So what do I see today when we are shopping for holiday food.  Every man is on his cell. More than likely calling his wife with a question like "I see so many types of chocolate, which one did you need?" Some men have learned (I am one) to take a pic and text it to my wife. 

The result?  Far less holiday stress. Far less miles traveled. Far less items returned.  More enjoyment during the holiday season. More time with the family (hmmm, need to mull that one).

Third, a kudo to my wife.  If it is store she frequents, she can tell me the aisle, location, and shelf for many products.  Confession, I still have to call her.  And I still take photos and text it to her. Ever looked at the spice aisle? 

I am so grateful for the cell phone.  You reduce the stress during the holiday season. Now to solve the challenges of decorating, travel, gifting, etc.  

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