We Are Afraid Of FEAR!

Our worst fears have been realized. Barrack Hussein Obama has been re-elected to a second term. The demise of our country is at hand. The sky is falling. Gotterdammerung. Armageddon. Revelation.                             We should all move to………………….. WHERE?

   REALLY?                                                       

Never in my life have I heard more idiotic drivel from the right wing press and out in the marketplace. Grown men and women saying things like, “ Our country can’t survive another four years of this!” This what? What exactly is THIS?

THIS – the inevitable collapse of an artificially enhanced and vastly overpriced real estate market.

THIS – changes in business driven by disruptive technologies that have radically altered consumer buying patterns.

THIS – a commercial lending environment that is less fluid in reaction to consolidation and failures caused by the real estate meltdown.

THIS – (probably the biggest THIS of all) a climate where business owners and managers put off making critical business decisions because “They don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“I don’t KNOW what’s going to happen.”  Let’s think about that sentence. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Of course you don’t. Nobody KNOWS what will happen in the future. We never did and we never will.

“I am afraid things will get worse.” When change is happening all around you, if you don’t adjust, most likely your circumstances won’t improve.

I am just going to say this OUT LOUD because somebody needs to: The biggest thing that has damaged our economy is FEAR!

We have allowed ourselves to be frightened into a state of near torpor by politics and the news media. “ Business is bad…nobody is doing anything.” I hear that about a hundred times a day. Think about that statement… If NOBODY is doing ANYTHING……..OF COURSE BUSINESS IS BAD! Business is about DOING THINGS!

Look around you…the businesses that are prospering are the ones that embrace change and the new technologies and marketplaces. The businesses that ARE doing well (and they are out there) are the ones that are fueled by a  brightly burning conviction that they have something better to offer in the marketplace. One of the great disservices done by the media is a failure to showcase businesses that are prospering. I don’t really blame the media for this. Like government , we get the news that we ask for. Stories about spectacular business failures are easier to write and get more attention. So how do you find those businesses that are growing and doing well? Look around you.

Who owns the channel?

I heard someone the other day ask…”The fiscal cliff…what is that? All I know about it is what people are saying on Facebook.” It would be easy to be dismissive about a comment like that and relegate that person to the ranks of the uninformed and ignorant but I know this to not be true. How many of my right wing conservative friends only know about the cliff from Rush Limbaugh or Todd Schnitt? What’s the difference between getting your info from Rush or Facebook? Rush has an obvious agenda and he makes a living by promoting that agenda. Facebook……not so much.

The fact is that people listen to things that are important to them. They listen in the places that they trust and to the people they trust. How do you get people to understand that something IS important? You tell them why in ways that are meaningful to them.

During the first Reagan campaign , the Democrats were pushing their philosophy for raising taxes on the wealthy or “soak the rich”. (This is not a new idea) Reagan explained why that was a bad idea very simply. He said, “Have you ever gotten a job from a poor person?” You don’t beat on the people who succeed because they are the ones who fuel the engine. If you beat them down and punish them, they quit  hiring people. If you beat on them enough they leave…ala Great Britain. Reagan was able to make a compelling case very simply…in a way that was meaningful to everybody. He did this in the place where the majority of people spent their time and got most of their information in the 80s , ON TELEVISION.

Today the channels have changed. Facebook is a place where lots of people spend their time and get information they trust. Twitter is where breaking news is released. The major television networks now report stories based on Tweets and blog posts!

During the recent campaign , I watched what both campaigns were doing in the social media arena. From the Republican side , it was lackluster at best with only sporadic messages . The Democrats had a much more comprehensive strategy. To paraphrase someone else , “Obama OWNED social media!”.

In 1980 , the average American watched about 6 hours of television per day. In 2012 that number is much smaller , around 4 with younger Americans watching even less.

If you are going to talk to me , you have to be where I am. If you don’t come to me , you obviously don’t care if I am listening.

Remember Romney’s 47 percent remark? Perhaps that really did sum up a philosophy. There is a saying in the business world , “I want to do business with someone who wants to do business with me. Someone who shows they really WANT my business.” Mitt Romney , the self proclaimed “businessman” may have forgotten a fundamental business principle.

“They Didn’t Win-We Lost.”

Dwight Eisenhower ~ “No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves.”

 

I was involved in a bid process a few years ago. It was my first big one. The similarities to a services bid and an election are many. In the end , we lost the bid. Why…..not because the customer was stupid? A lot of my colleagues felt that was the case…. NO we failed to make a compelling case. One of my colleagues felt that the customer was biased toward the incumbent….and he was right…..and we knew this going in. We failed to make a dramatically compelling case for dumping the incumbent and going with us. Sound familiar? Did we have the best product…absolutely…..did we FAIL to explain that to the customer in terms that were meaningful to him..ABSOLUTELY!

I went on to win several more bids in my career with that company. As a matter of fact, I never lost again. I learned a lot from doing all those bids but I learned a whole lot more from losing that first one….vastly more.

Is there a lesson to be learned from the election for Mitt Romney and the Republicans? Without a doubt there is but the bigger lesson is really for the whole country..the rest of us. The Romney campaign failed to make a compelling case and to explain that case in terms that were meaningful to the majority of the people. Regardless of the relative merits of the product itself, if you can’t explain to the customer why they need it and make a compelling case for them buying it in terms that are meaningful to them…you will lose! In a court of law who wins? The side that is right? NO…the winner is the one that makes the most compelling case.

Gene Chizik of Auburn is in danger of losing his job…not because he did something illegal or immoral but because he LOST. In sales , the ones who figure out how to win reap the spoils , the ones who don’t go to the back of the unemployment line. Which one would you hire? Gene Chizik or Nick Saban? Would you hire the salesman who consistently outperforms everyone else or the one who doesn’t? Me personally…I want the winner. If you can’t figure out how to win , chances are there will be some other things you won’t be able to figure out down the road.

The Law of Unintended Consequence

The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people—and especially of government—always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.~Rob Norton

Once upon a time there was a company that ran some call centers. They decided to connect them together and share resources. This would also allow them to close a satellite call center. The installation of the point  to point circuits to facilitate this would take about four months. The cutoff of two of the three existing voice circuits was scheduled in thirty days. The layoff of people in the satellite call center was done in two weeks. The calls from the satellite center were shifted to the other regional center, increasing call volume by fifty percent. In a two weeks , that center had only one voice circuit……to handle one hundred fifty percent more calls. Savings to the company…. four thousand dollars a month. Amount of lost business due to angry customers getting busy signals for two months….PRICELESS!

How did this happen? Simple , the person in charge of the changes had no responsibility for customer service and didn’t work for OR CONSULT WITH the person that did. Their objective was to get the cost savings on the books before the end of the quarter. This was what their bonus was tied to.

The moral of the story…incentivize the behaviors you want and they will happen. BUT……always remember the law of unintended consequences.

IPhone 5–what does it mean?

The much predicted , highly anticipated and over “punditized” September 12 media event by Apple is predicted to be the rollout event for the new IPhone 5. According to The Wall Street Journal’s article Click Here For Full Article 

“The new device is likely to be dubbed the iPhone 5, which will have a slightly larger screen.”

Other than the obvious publicity and the expected “bump” for Apple’s stock , why is this a big deal? Apple has always been a revolutionary leader in the smartphone industry, blazing trails and setting the bar for everyone else. Suddenly they appear to be playing catch up. The “slightly larger screen”  has to be a reaction to the bigger screens found on phones made by HTC and Samsung. The current trend towards larger screens and more tablet-like functionality in Android smartphones seems to have gotten Apple’s attention. The expected rollout of a smaller 7 inch version of the I Pad goes right along with this theory. This is the first time that we have seen Apple react this strongly to ANYTHING other manufacturers have done.

It’s hard to always be at the front of the pack and always be the innovator. Is being a reactionary instead of an innovator a symptom of being without the leadership of Steve Jobs? Clearly Apple may be suffering from the lack of Job’s crystal clear vision of the path they need to follow. So Apple, maybe you need to ask yourself , “What would Steve do?”

How did we get HERE?

When I was in college at Southwest Texas Sate, some friends of mine and I were on our way back from a” field trip” to Nueva Laredo , which is just across the Mexican border from Texas. We had all been researching the local customs very diligently and one of my friends was ‘napping’ in the back of his van while I was driving. Somehow we found ourselves somewhere in Houston which is slightly off course if you are headed to San Marcos, just south and west of Austin. Also with us was another fraternity brother who , while not “napping” was still “overwhelmed” by the cultural experience we had shared. When my “napping”friend awoke , he looked around and asked me , “How the HECK did we get HERE?”

This (heavily edited) anecdote from my early college career is very descriptive of how we have reached the current state of our country at the present time. On the wall in my office is a saying,” There are three kinds of people – those who make it happen , those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happened.” Clearly my “napping” friend was the one “wondering” what happened. My “overwhelmed” companion watched it happen and obviously , I was “making” it happen. How was I chosen to be the “maker” of things happening? Clearly , I was the obvious choice out of the three as I was not as “sleepy” or “overwhelmed” as my friends. While I somehow managed to get us out of Mexico and into Texas (I still wonder about that) , my vision for the path we needed to take was flawed. We probably should gave recruited a different driver…… or taken the bus. My “napping” friend , now “refreshed and alert” , took over the driving and got us back to school without further mishap.

My hope is that those who have been “overwhelmed” and watching for the last four years , have recovered and are now ready to embrace a new driver for our journey. Hopefully , those “napping” are awake now and most importantly , the current “makers” of things happening , will realize that just because you may have been the “best” of a bunch of bad choices , you really aren’t capable of getting us where we need to go. It’s time to let someone else drive.

SOMEBODY-SOMEWHERE……

James Gregory, the famous southern comedian (and a personal favorite of mine) has a bit he does about labeling on packaging. Along with the part where he talks about how some  laxative labels say “Works while you sleep” and him saying, “I don’t want that!” (Me neither!) , he mentions the part of the labeling that says “ Warning! This is a medicine and is to be taken for medicinal purposes only. This product is not food or candy.” Gregory’s explanation for that is they put that on there because “SOMEBODY- SOMEWHERE” ate it like candy and were not pleased with the results.That hapless person then sued the laxative company and thus was born that part of the labeling. This leads into a whole segment about crazy warnings on products that are there because “SOMEBODY-SOMEWHERE” did that.

Adopting that mind set…when I got ANOTHER email from the “lawyer” in Nigeria who is representing the estate of that long lost relative who has been living in Nigeria and recently passed away leaving me a ton of money. I thought, “why do they keep sending these?” The answer , ala James Gregory, is “SOMEBODY—SOMEWHERE” has fallen for that scam and sent them five thousand dollars via Western Union to cover the “costs” of getting all that money from the non-existent dead relative they never heard of.

My family has always been very active in rescuing animals , particularly dogs. My wife was approached one time , via email, by a “missionary” family on a mission trip to Kenya that was looking for a “home” for their Papillion that “couldn’t stay in Kenya with them”. All the “missionaries” wanted was twelve hundred dollars to cover the air freight for the dog…in advance via Western Union. Then all we had to do was pick up the dog  at the airport. When we offered to pay the airline directly…our pseudo missionaries immediately lost interest. Once again I thought “Why do they do this ?”…the answer…”SOMEBODY-SOMEWHERE…”!

Interestingly enough, an article on spam and phishing by Owen Linderholm entitled “Keep Organized Crime out of Your Network” on http://www.itsecurity.com/features/mafia-2-protect-yourself-it-security-060707/says that “yes, the Mafia is getting involved.” WHY? Back to James Gregory…SOMEBODY-SOMEWHERE!

Spam has become a BILLION (with a capital B) dollar per year industry and the reason why is very simple, SOMEBODY-SOMEWHERE falls for this stuff….everyday….three hundred sixty five days a year! As P.T. Barnum said , “There is a sucker born every minute.”

I am sure you are saying to yourself , “I would never do something that stupid!” Granted if you are reading this you are probably in the top ten percent of savvy technology users..so what has this got to do with you? Simple , although YOU would never be sucked in to a scam , who do you know that is less techno-savvy who might? The answer to that is probably more than one person. So how can you help? Obviously when our less savvy brethren call us and say “Hey I got this email from……..” We always advise them to delete it and warn about the dangers….that’s a given. As we all well know, most of the time, they call us AFTER they click on that suspicious link or open that bot laden attachment. So what do we do? Do what I am doing now, write about it…talk about it…keep sounding the alarm….ALL THE TIME!

A famous member of the governmental war on drugs once said , “It’s not really the SALE of illegal drugs that is the real problem…it’s the BUYING of them that really cause the problems. If no one bought them, the problem would go away overnight.” If that SOMEBODY-SOMEWHERE that falls for the phishing stopped falling for it….. If sales of fake Viagra didn’t rise after a spam campaign…. if sales of bogus stocks DIDN’T go sky high when the spammers sent out those “stock tips”….. THEY WOULD STOP!

I remember a quote I read by a famous con-man who had gone straight and was working for the law. “ You can’t con a truly honest person. All cons have an element that appeals to the larceny in someone’s heart. If you truly believe that you can’t get something for nothing and are not willing to compromise your principals , NO ONE can successfully con you.”

So , my brothers and sisters in technology, keep preaching the gospel about spam and phishing. Do not shirk your task or waiver from your purpose! The soul you save from spam will be one less SOMEBODY-SOMEWHERE!