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.