Culture Fit & Staffing: is it all talk?

I’ve known Bob for twenty years. When he found himself President and equity partner in a small but prosperous distribution company, he thought he had finally arrived. He said to me at the time he got the job how excited he was to at last be in a position to worry about things like vision and strategy. Finally, he would have a chance to focus on the important aspects of business.
One night over dinner recently he recounted his story. About ten thirty Monday morning, the first wave hit. Two of his star managers walked into his office and announced with all the resignation of a fighter being carried out of the ring, that they could no longer tolerate working together. Pushing back a meeting with his CFO, Bob decided to dedicate the necessary time to bring these two back to earth. After a forty-five minute counseling session, they agreed they could work it out.
As he later left his CFO meeting, one of his staff cautioned that the service department was threatening to sabotage one of his best sales people because he didn’t treat them right. Jumping into another personnel crisis, Bob put his afternoon schedule on hold to meet with the service and sales team.
Two hours later, he found himself trying to put what was left of his schedule back together and salvage something productive out of his day. Bob complained that he sometimes felt that upwards of seventy-five percent of his week was sometimes spent on personnel related issues - resolving conflict, mentoring, hiring, firing, coaching or pumping up the team. Bob was so busy trying to put salve on the wounds and reduce or contain the casualties of so many of his team during the workweek, that vision and strategy became distant strangers.
Talking with a number of colleagues and entrepreneurs, Bob’s not exactly residing in an exclusive club. More and more business owners and managers of large organizations have lamented what they term the unfortunate but necessary time they must spend on issues that get in the way of productive work caused by clashing personalities, raging egos, conflicting styles and insecurities. These issues can sometimes be magnified by our prevailing focus on building a team comprised of different levels of experience, skills and styles in the hope that the result generates quality and quantities of work greater than the individual parts of the team.
Personnel issues are terrible for morale, stifle productivity and cause turnover which can be costly in many ways. One answer is to share with new and existing employees your plan to build a positive culture at your company. What is it that we, as managers, are striving to build? What is our vision of the culture that would work best for us? Is it a culture that promotes open dialogue and eliminates the usual tendencies that businesses have to compartmentalize responsibilities? Are we trying to build a team of people who collaborate across departmental or organizational lines? Why do we want to build this and how will it help our company achieve which of its goals?
Put the reasons for building this culture into logical perspective so that people understand what goals your company has and how you hope to accomplish them. Once people understand what it is you’re aiming to accomplish, you can support them by giving them specifics about how to work together. Offer examples about how people and organizations can collaborate to succeed. And then, reinforce this information by pointing out examples where excellent cooperation resulted in great work and happy customers.
Leaders and executives have long sung the song of clearly painting the vision they have of where their company belongs in the future. They talk about their industry, their organizations, their management structure and the tactical plans they believe necessary to motor them ahead of their competitors. But, as we approach the dawn of our twenty first century and we come to understand and grasp the importance of the impact of people in our business, it is time to clearly address in our strategic plans, the shape, design and texture of the culture we believe will allow our vision to become a reality. Then, perhaps we can get back to the business of work.

Finding Great Jobs for Great People

I was raised at the back-end of a black road. Our games were played in the dirt and dust…and occasionally the mud and slush. It was here that my youth delivered its lessons and challenges… mostly from the endless ball games…all of them…and of course the crazy sometimes violent fights that entertained us between and during our games. Out of this came character lessons of loyalty, pride, work, honesty, self-respect…truth and fear; packaged in those days of summer, outside from dawn to dusk as scores got settled only to begin anew.
The rest of the year it was about the school days offering up a warm place to go and the continued challenges of forging friends and enemies with captains and soldiers each building reputations and sucking up the consequences and the spoils. We learned from the glory and the embarrassment that came with each changing year. And it molded us. Taught us how to behave. Taught us about honor, respect and to have a work ethic.
So, what’s become of us that our views of character…of character and values upon which the responsibilities and journey to adulthood are drafted?
I’m watching this slow, on-again off-again recovery as my clients begin asking us to provide them with great candidates and we struggle to find willing, capable people and I’m wondering what’s going on? People refusing to leave unemployment because if they accept a job they’ll forfeit the government paying 65% of their COBRA benefits added to the overwhelming cost of day care that they figure they’re financially better off staying on unemployment (which now lasts a couple of years) collecting two-thirds of their working pay and staying home with their kids. Then there are people who do need to work, accepting jobs that are “temp to hire” and when the client offers to hire them at an increase in salary, the candidate demands more…more salary, more benefits, more, more, more….until it frustrates everyone involved and we begin our search all over again. And our candidate chooses to sit home rather than get paid to work, not giving a thought to honoring their word or their commitment. These are just a couple of experiences that give us insight into our culture that cause us to re-examine our thinking about how people work and live and the choices we make.
We tell our clients to look for strong core values in anyone they hire. We can always improve someone’s skills but there’s no fixing someone’s true character. Companies should build on these character traits as the foundation of the culture they build with their work force. But we all struggle these days to understand how some people think. I believe it has to do with their beginning.
The tides of change in our culture make doing the right thing harder with each passing day. Walking the line…bellying up to the bar with your money on the table…nothing to hide, trusting human nature…seems that men…who can leave their money on the bar... number fewer by the day. We keep thinking we can learn our lessons from a cold man’s stone. It’s just too often too late for too much of it.
So, a perfect game is ruined by an umpire’s mistake. And a young pitcher responds to the disappointment and obvious slight to his history with dignity and grace suggesting that “it’s a mistake, that’s all”… the umpire searches him out and apologizes admitting he made a “terrible mistake”…and the umpire is humbled by the fans cheering him the following day and the young pitcher’s grace. And what’s everyone talk about? There are editorials and commentaries calling for instant replay to solve this terrible injustice. It’s said that “perfection can be the enemy of good”. Let's not "paint the lily" here. Think about the world you want to live in...a world where the character of accepting how things may not always work out perfectly or the sterile, robot’s game of perfection where we make no room for humanity or for people being people. This is one of those things that is already perfect. Let's not change perfection. Let’s celebrate grace, good will, honest work and man’s humanity toward their fellow man...then let’s move on. We can find jobs for some great people who want and need to work. As we mold our young and mentor people entering the workforce…we can reinforce the traditional values that made us envy previous generations and helped build our country. Let's fix our character now and in the meantime maybe we’ll actually fix some other stuff while we're at it. I heard something about an oil problem in the Gulf we can take a look at....

Getting the Job

It’s 1969 and I need a job. Just out of school and trying to figure out how to pay my own rent and do my own laundry. We landed a man on the moon, Senator Kennedy failed his swimming test as his picture earned a spot in dictionaries the world over alongside the word “coward”; Manson and his family slaughtered 5 people in the Hollywood Hills, Civil War zealots in Biafra were starving 3 million of their own people, Woodstock rocked 350,000 in a mud soaked American love fest, Ratso Rizzo went boffo in Midnight Cowboy, Nixon took over and February 11 marked an historic occasion for generations of boys as Jennifer Aniston sprung forth into the world. God Bless America!
In those days, it was the classifieds that led us to jobs. I can remember feeling pretty discouraged reading those ads as I quickly realized I had no marketable skills. I was an English Major who worked his way through school making money on menial summer jobs such as mixing cement, tarring roofs and cleaning cesspools. During semesters Harris Gordon taught me how to play cards for money to win and I could hustle guys when they pressed me on the pool table. I always wondered how Harris filled out those applications where they asked for last name first and how he had to explain to people: “no, it’s right this way, honest.” I ended up at one of those Employment Agencies in Plainfield. I had no idea how they worked. I just read it didn’t cost me any money, they find the job for me and I wouldn’t have to run around trying to beg for work.
So, I toss my black raincoat on over my best slacks, dress shirt and tie; spit-shine my shoes and head out the door. Up a set of creaking stairs, I felt like I was in a Hitchcock movie opening the door to find an older woman who properly asked if she could help. Looking over her manicured hair and chipped nails I could see a half dozen metal desks, chairs and dividers. I noticed no one was smoking. That was unusual. Pretty good, I thought. (Of course, I was token a pack of Marlboro’s a day at the time but I was happy to see I didn’t have to deal with the smoke.) Half an hour later, I finished the paperwork and they showed me to the last cubicle on the right. Some old guy in a white shirt and tie stood up immediately shaking my hand, motioned for me to “sit, please”. After a few questions he said, “let’s see what we have for you”…and he pulled his index card file toward his face explaining, “these are my job orders”. I held my breath as he theatrically and methodically fingered through the cards, occasionally pausing, always muttering under his breath before reluctantly moving on. I was gonna die right there if he didn’t offer me something. Finally he said, “now here’s something I think would be right up your alley, young man”. “It’s a sales position with AT&T”. “I don’t want to be a salesman, I said.” “I don’t want to sell stuff”. (I was a sophisticated kid, huh?) He stopped dead in his tracks, leaned back in his chair like I just said something bad about his sister … looked me straight in the eye and said…”don’t be silly, it’s AT&T…you don’t really have to sell anything…I mean, it’s AT&T…everybody gets their phones there… they just call it sales.” The only thing he forgot was to add the word idiot to his sentence. So, of course, admonished and nervous I said “great. I’d love to be a sales guy with AT&T and not really have to actually sell anything. Where do I sign?” After verbally smacking me around a little, it was off to the interview where this uptight guy asked me to sell his pencil to him. I did and got the job.
I got home a little late that night, walked in the door, tossed my jacket on the bed in my room and made my way to the kitchen table. My father, home from a tough day at the job looked up and grunted…which was always his way of saying hello. “Well, college boy…find yourself a job yet or will you be camping out on the couch some more?” I looked my Mom in the eye…she peered at me a little nervously over her steaming plate of macaroni. I could tell she was getting ready to defend me from the assault that was no doubt coming. “Yup, got a job today” “Hey, whaddya know?” Where?” “AT&T” “Whoa, a big shot, huh?” “How’d you get a job with them? That’s a good place to work.” “Snelling & Snelling” I said. “They told me about the job, sent me over there and showed me how to interview with the guy…and I got the job.” “Snelling and Snelling, huh?” Sounds like a pretty good outfit.” Yeah, a pretty good outfit, Dad.”
So, after 18 years, when I left AT&T, I looked at almost 30 different companies to buy. I chose a Snelling office. “A pretty good outfit.” And never looked back.
There are thousands of people just like me. People who Snelling helped give a leg up to in their career, in some form or other. It would be great to hear your story. Check out the Snelling Circle. Circle because sometimes it all comes around again…right back at ya.
By the way, if Jack Bauer happens to ask you for the SIM card from your cell phone…just give it to him, ok?

Spring Break

Well, I’ve pretty much heard from everyone I know that I’ve been negligent about writing my blog. Truth be told, I’ve been reluctant because I think everybody’s bombarded with all this self-serving stuff from “experts” on every conceivable business topic. Sure, I have opinions on business and certainly on the business that relates to my work…you know…the Staffing business…and the myriad of related topics having to do with people hiring people…but I’ve decided you deserve a break. I mean, the sun’s shining. Spring is in the air. And I swear I can hear the whir of the motors starting up at the Dairy Queen just down the street. So, today…it’s about other stuff meant strictly to give you respite from the drudgery of your daily work day grind.

Let me begin with what’s been most on my mind of late. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is a beautifully written, devastating, monumental literary achievement. Before I had gotten half-way through, it had replaced Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead as my favorite novel of all time. Here’s a couple of quick reasons to show you why:
“He could remember everything of her save her scent. Seated in a theatre with her beside him leaning forward listening to the music. Gold scrollwork and sconces and the tall columnar folds of the drapes at either side of the stage. She held his hand in her lap and he could feel the tops of her stockings through the thin stuff of her summer dress. Freeze this frame. Now call down your dark and your cold and be damned.”
I read this and thought, whoa. How straight, how simple and poignant a picture.

And how about this?
“It took two days to cross that ashen scabland. The road beyond fell away on every side. It's snowing, the boy said. He looked at the sky. A single gray flake sifting down. He caught it in his hand and watched it expire there like the last host of christendom.”
“Ashen scabland”? “Like the last host of Christendom”? C’mon, that’s amazing stuff, no? You feelin’ it yet?

Or this?
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. So, he whispered to the sleeping boy. I have you.” Somebody find something more beautifully written for me…someplace…anyplace, please.

So, here’s the thing. I know we all get caught up with American Idol, or 24, or The Good Wife; and we need to get away in the aftermath of the beat-down we’re getting during our work day, especially lately. And there’s no getting around the whole “spring cleaning” thing that sits on so many calendars. But wouldn’t it be a great way to kick off Spring, with the sun staying awake longer each day, and the sights and sounds of a more pleasant time that we grab a box of pretzels, an extra bottle of cold water and commit to a book?

It seems the more I talk to my friends, family and associates…as well as the people I bump into at work, no one has time to read anymore. Our lives are moving so fast. And, no don’t talk to me about audio books or the new Ipad stuff…it’s the touch of the page…reading a great book the way a great author intended…it’s a great legacy to pass on to our kids…a generation starved for direction and unknowingly in search of a saner field of promise. For something real.

Oh, and yeah…grab one of those DQ’s for yourself and the family while you’re at it. Happy Spring everybody…it’s up to each of us to move it forward.

Shhh, it's picking up ... & Oscar stuff too

And, so….here it comes. Along with the warmer weather, daylight savings time and the ability of the American people to put things behind them to concentrate on the present, while they get comfortable with being fed up with the incompetence of our Federal and State governments …. here comes the vitality, the energy and the uptick everybody’s been waiting for….Honey, we’re baaaaack.
You know, a guy hates to jinx this kinda thing but we’re definitely noticing an attitude change lately. Clients calling up asking about hiring people, needing some temps or giving us a “heads up” that they’ll need some help in a week or two. Makes me tingle all over.
I feel as if our team’s hard work through the slow period is going to be paying off. The Marketing Programs, the follow-up, staying-in-touch stuff, information calls, temperature calls… it’s all going to be paying off to help us get our traction sooner rather than later. This just drives home the importance of keeping your name in front of your clients and prospects… especially if they’re not buying today; so they remember you when they buy again tomorrow. So, for those of you wondering when things are turning around, I offer the following. If you’ve made the mistake of putting your Marketing plans in hibernation, pull off the tarp and re-kindle that fire… amp up your personal positive attitude for your team…and get it in gear. You don’t want to be left behind.
I hope that now too, we can get our friends and neighbors to re-visit the price versus value proposition we’ve been talking about. As a community, we have to start managing smart for the long term. In the end, our consumers and clients will be looking for value … lasting value… quality and value they can count on. The price points will still be there…but we have to loosen up a little to get the value we need in order to reap the benefits of improved efficiencies and effectiveness. We need to stop thinking that it’s ok if the useful life of the products and services we are buying are short. How many times do we want to re-buy our products and when are we going to get fed up with cheap labor changing our culture and diluting the quality of our products? Let’s go back to “do it right and it will last” as our motto. We can learn something from Toyota. They acknowledge they got too concerned with growing at the expense of not paying enough attention to safety. That’s also saying they were willing to sacrifice quality for growth. You really are going to get what you pay for.
Of course, the Oscars deserve a mention too. Martin and Baldwin were great but who had the brilliant idea to NOT sing the nominated songs but give us an interpretive dance instead. Yawn. I don’t know about you but I wanted to hear Randy Newman and of course, Ryan Bingham. My personal favorite for movie was Precious and I really do think they made too big a deal out of Katherine Bigelow being a woman who directed a war related movie (The Hurt Locker, my 2nd fav.). I mean, I just don’t get that. A good director directs a good movie…since when shouldn’t a woman be able to direct a movie about a war? So, now men shouldn’t be directing romantic comedies? Misogynists...and then they played her off the stage with Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman”. Please. How trite. How silly. But, I liked Sandra Bullock in Blind Side…she deserved it and I liked it more because she actually went and received her “razzies” award in person for starring in the worst movie of the year (All about Steve) telling them “you can’t be a hypocrite and not come to pick up these tough awards and expect it’s ok to just go to get the good ones). She also brought a wagonload of DVD’s of the movie for the audience. So, she’s got a sense of humor about herself unlike the smug Sean Penn and George Clooney. And Jeff Bridges was great in Crazy Heart but deep down we all know they gave it to him for The Big Lebowski; which is just fine with me. Best dressed my wife tells was a toss-up between Demi Moore and Sarah Jessica Parker…but I was snoring by this time.

Flexible Staffing

The last several years of unbridled consumption, creative & secondary financing, fancy bookkeeping and unlimited M&A activity morphing Financial institutions into too-big-to-fail behemoths and the great awakening that came from the bottom falling out of our economy has brought many of us to a new discipline. As Wall Street and the engine of commerce driving it demonstrates, that while sales revenues continue to sag, profits grow to reflect the cost management strategies managers embraced as they learned to live within their means. At kitchen tables and in living rooms all over America people reworked budgets and remembered core values taught us by the Greatest Generation as wallets closed and mcmansions sat empty. Business managers & leaders continue to refine their lessons learned as we prepare for the much anticipated and overdue upturn.
Many companies have strategically positioned themselves for the recovery by taking advantage of the employment market and upgraded key leadership positions as they changed their company labor rolls from armies to SWAT teams. Now, not wanting to repeat mistakes of yesterday that made life difficult for them financially when the turbulent economy and lack of consumer confidence shrunk their sales revenues straining their banking relationships, they’re beginning to realize they no longer have the luxury of over-specializing their company employees. Instead of ramping up their employee numbers with people specializing in niche functions and disciplines, hiring managers are instead searching for people who bring the ability to perform multiple functions and assume a broad range of responsibilities. This flexible staffing approach to rebuild your team allows you to get more work done with fewer people. This is one of the key lessons learned from recent, challenging economic times. Flexible Staffing will help drive profitability as our economic ship rights itself. So, put an oar in the water and as you begin to rebuild, hire people who can play more than one position for your team. It’ll help you control your costs; build a broader base of talent from whom to choose your future leaders and prevent crippling or hardship from employee turnover.
Now if only we could get our government to learn some of this stuff and find the benefit of doing more with less and oh yeah, living within our means.

So, the Superbowl surpassed the final episode of Mash as the most watched television program in history? More than 106 million people watched the game. Ok, I enjoyed the game, the nachos and the pizza as much as the next guy...and even felt my eyes tear-up a little with that shot of Drew Brees holding and kissing his son in celebration... but c'mon...the final episode of Mash is an unforgettable moment in our history. For some of us it's like bell bottom jeans, weejuns and the Honeymooners all of which represent an era in our evolution. It helps us remember who we were and the way we were. Most of us feel so beat up or out of place as we become the older generation and feel less current or contemporary about today's living and it's issues...that we have a vise like grip on these iconic moments because often, it's what separates us from everyone else. It's like talking to someone who gives you a blank stare back after you mention Sinatra...and you realize they have no idea who you're talking about.
So, don't let me catch you thinking for one minute that because this last Superbowl had more eyes on them than the final episode of Mash means it's a more momentous moment in our history. It's not. And by the way, just remember...we didn't have 300 Million people back in those days either...so, the record should really be based on the percentage of people alive who were watching...don't you think? Yeah, me too.
And speaking of the Superbowl...they hire the Who for the half-time show. Now I can tell you know I'm all for nostalgia but after listening to the Who I thought they should change their name to the What. I mean seriously, 2 grandfathers and a drummer? What's that? I don't even like the guys music but I would have thought a better choice would have been someone like Daughtry...maybe a little more "today", know what I mean?
Ok, enough about football. I don't even like it that much anymore. But let's give Basketball and Baseball some time too. Flash alert: Lebron's NOT coming to the Knicks. Know why? Because the guy has a brain and he's too competitive to come to this mess. And speaking of Baseball...What's up with Cashman NOT giving Johnny Damon a contract. He's gotta get that done. Too many women in the Tri-State area are revolting...seems they like Damon in pinstripes.
The movie thing: Crazy Heart is good plus not great. It took forever to get here under limited release and I listened to all that noise about how great an acting job Bridges did...but know what? I guess I'm sick of these guys making a name for themselves by playing drunken jerks...I think Nicholas Cage and that movie about Vegas had something to do with that. It's not so much acting as it is remembering college behavior. Like when Dustin Hoffman was in Marathon Man and shooting a scene where he had been running a long time. Just before the shot he was running in place and his co-star Laurence Olivier said to him, "what are you doing"? Hoffman replied, "well, I'm running because my character is supposed to be exhausted in this scene." To which Olivier said, "can't you just act exhausted?" Ah, the difference, eh?
Oh, yeah...pitching a book: "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving. Asks and answers some of the more important questions and just so damn well written.
See you next time when we pick up Chapter 2 of "The Bend in the Road".

The Bend in the Road

Chapter 1

The last thing he wanted to do at 5am was leave his warm, comfy bed knowing the coldest thing next to an ice cream brain-freeze was waiting for him as his bare feet slapped the ice cold, hard-wood bedroom floor. But crawl out of bed he does, creaking joints n’all, shivering as he races to close the window Margaret insists stay open through even the coldest winter night … you know, because In Style Magazine told her how healthy it is.
The hot shower barely woke him as he promised himself to start that exercise program 1st thing tomorrow. For now though, he had to get to work. The rest of his house and from the look of things, his neighborhood is still sleeping as he pulls down the driveway after that delicious bowl of Cheerios Margaret insist he eat (again with the healthy stuff…”I swear I’ll end up a healthy corpse…she’ll have the funeral parlor window open if it’s winter just to make sure the corpse stays cold.”
The small company parking lot was empty as he pulled in, wishing he had made a pit stop at Starbucks. He looked up at the loading dock as he trudged toward the warehouse. God, he hated the loading dock. How did he end up here? Here, was him, a 48 year old, prime of his working life, honest guy starting all over again. Laid off his last 3 positions (last one in, first one out on the last 2, right after he got let go, along with 45 others from the first job he got out of college, when the bosses kid took over and drove their company and his life into bankruptcy hell. What a punk. So, after a couple of false starts as a Customer Service Manager, he sat unemployed for 9 months with his wife and 3 kids holding their breath, hoping daddy got a job today. After 9 months and a pyramid of mailed resumes, hours on Career Builder, Monster…even Hot Jobs…and zero interviews…he'd had enough. This networking group of angry adults sat around telling each other how ridiculous companies were for not hiring them. At least they made him feel like he wasn’t alone. Not alone in failure. Not alone in broke.
Chris, the group leader mentioned "Temping". Maybe he’d give it a try. At least, maybe somebody’ll talk to him…give him an idea. But if he has to hear one more smug kid give him advice…he’s gonna lose it...By now he had no pride left, he'd already swallowed it all. But after 9 mos. without a paycheck he needed to try something to get his rhythm back. At least I can tell Margaret I had something new to try, he thought. Just then his phone rings. It's John Markle from the networking group...he thinks to let it go to voice mail but Markle’s one of those guys who doesn't give up. "Hi John, what's up?" Markle was all amped up…"They knifed Chris man, Chris, you know... our group leader. They got him in the heart man...he's dead....deader’n Michael Jackson." and Margaret's husband Bill turned his car around and headed back to the group. Another day without a job...

My Friend, Tim Loncharich

A good man was calmed today. Humble, narrow by nature with a good heart,strong of spirit and a hearty laugh. There was much we respected and appreciated about Tim and his leadership …especially his regard for the emotional and financial investment we made in our franchise business and the personable way he wove his integrity and core values into the fabric of our business family. He straddled the chasm of responsibilities that come with the territory of Chairman & CEO of franchisor and franchisee… responsibilities so many before and after struggled to solve.

Tim had an amiable manner and a sharp analytical approach to business and life. But his energy always amped higher and his eyes shined brightest when talking about his family and his fishing.
Yes, men die. But today a good man left too soon, a life well lived.
Good night Tim.

12:05 am would make it the Tomorrow Show, right?

So, there are a couple of things concerning me right now. First, the airline safety thing, I mean, you know...after the underwear bomber and all. Back after 911 and terrorists were caught with knives and guns-the airlines immediately prohibited knives, guns and sharp objects from being brought on the planes. Then, the shoe bomber got caught and the airlines made us take off our shoes and check them before getting on the plane. I’m just waiting to see how they handle this whole underwear bomber problem; it’s getting me a little nervous, you know? "Ok, line up…boxers in the left lane, briefs on the right"-tell me the truth, that's a little uncomfortable, right?
Then there’s the NBC Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien-Jay Leno fiasco. It seems like Letterman and Kimmel are having the most fun with it. But it’s interesting to see how much both of them dislike Leno. There’s some really nasty stuff going on here. These guys are all sparking at each other. I mean, the only person they’re hammering harder than Leno is that brilliant executive Jeff Zucker, President of NBC, who caused this mess in the first place. What a dope. He had a good thing going with Leno's Tonight Show but decided to fix it anyway. But how much do we want to hear about how these spoiled stiffs, each reportedly earning more than $20M a year, crying and moaning over how unfair everything is? To steal from that great American philosopher Artie Lange; "Whaaah, they're messing with my TV show ma." There’s no question that O’Brien didn’t get a fair shake. After moving his entire staff from the New York area to California the rug gets pulled out from under him after 7 months. But they're paying him off with a check in the $30-45M range. Of course, he didn’t kill with ratings but his lead-in is Leno who’s a bust at 10 o’clock. And it’s clear Leno’s a snake and not trustworthy but hey, he’s got a contract too and if you’re working 2nd shift and your boss tells you he wants you on 1st…you honor your contract and change shifts. The thing about Leno though is not his lack of loyalty. I mean, why should he be loyal to his competitors like O’Brien or Letterman or anyone else his show competes with? And he is showing loyalty to his network…for whatever that’s worth. But the thing that kills me about all of these guys is the complete absence of grace from all of them. Their behavior is unseemly and childish.Letterman is reveling in Leno's misfortune because he hates Leno. Kimmel, showing his unabashed hatred for Leno to his face. Look, we’re fighting wars, unemployment is surging, people’s homes are being foreclosed, Haiti is dealing with devastation and these guys are worried about their glossy image or the legacy of a television show? Get over yourselves people. And please, why are we paying attention to this junk?
Oh, and one other thing has my attention these days. Since when did business become so evil? I’m more than a little tired of Obama, other politicians and the entertainment community making business people out to be the bad guys! After making the insurance companies out to be Hannibal Lecter and chewing up Wall Street, (with fava beans and a nice chianti) they’re going after the banks and financial institutions. Obama wants to tax profitable banks to recoup $90 to $117B over the next 10-12 years and bad mouthing them in the process. These firms are the most profitable in their sector. The ones that took TARP money have repaid the money with interest. They want these guys to pay the freight for the companies unable to repay the money the politicians fronted them. That’s like loaning 2 people each $1000 to repay with interest. The first goes off to Atlantic City and gambles his thousand dollars away and can’t repay the loan. The second invests in his business repaying the $1000 plus the interest. Now the government wants the guy who repaid his loan to pay off the loan of the guy who blew his money in AC. It’s not capitalism. It’s not individual responsibility….and it certainly isn’t honorable. It’s supposed to be free enterprise. We had no business bailing out any of these bums in the first place. There's no such thing as too big to fail. Trust free enterprise and our market. Let the market take care of itself and stop micro-managing it.Obama and Jeff Zucker-ever see them in the same room together? But,who cares about individual responsibility and honor anymore? After the way these politicians have worn us out the new value system seems to work best for cynics and lazy people. It's up to us to demonstrate what hard work, belief in ourselves and the products and services we represent and the way we will service our clients to earn their trust and their business is the true formula for success. Let's work together and support each other to make 2010 our year.

Back on track

I know…I know…I've got a little catching up to do. I took a little time off. I’m sorry already. I happened to be reading our Employee Handbook the other day and came across this statement about vacations where we tell people it’s important to take some time off to re-charge batteries and get away from business for awhile. Well, that’s what I did. Know what? It doesn’t work. I’m consumed with thinking about business, the economy, jobs, people…all of it. But the one thing that has really captured my attention is…. Should NBC move Leno back to 11:30 and send Conan on his way? Ok, I’m sorry… but doesn’t it make you crazy how much attention this kind of stuff gets? Every television show, including the Fox Business Channel with Neil Cavuto is speculating. As if this is a key ingredient fueling our economic turnaround. But what’s truly kept me thinking is what the business landscape is going to look like once this economy really begins to rebound. How will business be different? How will our clients’ purchasing decisions change? Will we ever get people to look at value instead of price alone? And with this in mind, how should my business look? How do we prepare for what’s next?
After surviving the plague of recession, this is an exciting time to be in business. The timing is perfect with this chance to now reinvent our businesses to respond to the new world order of things.
The jobs report came out today. Seems like even though the market trends up being plus more than 200 points for the week, we lost another 85,000 jobs last month. New Jersey has 83,000 fewer jobs than we had in May of 2007. Hello…is anybody over there in Washington listening? Could we stop spending money we don’t have now? When small business (which accounts for 84% of the jobs created in our country) believes that in the end the government will come back to them to finance this mess through increased taxes it locks up hiring and stifles growth and bank lending. Now with interest rates poised to begin to rise…it could make for a challenging time. But yet, I’m optimistic. We’re all revitalized and we’re creatively changing our business to reflect the new business needs. So, I believe we can all be successful this year in spite of all this help we’re getting from our government.
A couple of other things since I’ve been gone…..NBA players with guns in the locker room? C’mon, that’s nuts. When we played, the only person allowed to bring violent weapons into the locker room was the coach. Maybe the answer is to give each Coach in the NBA a gun…just shoot people if they’re gonna be that stupid. Oh wait, there goes the league. We’d have nothing but 50 year old guys playing. Wait, I could watch Bird, Magic, Earl Monroe and Frazier playing when they’re 80…so, maybe that is the answer. Oh, and the other big news that riled me up? Katherine McPhee is a blonde. Yup, you heard it here. The American Idol contestant went blonde about 9 mos. Ago and is now upset that nobody’s talking about her new look. Katherine, I don’t want to hurt your feelings and your new look is pretty hot….but when you factor in your personality and your music….nobody is ever gonna care.
Book alert: Artist on Fire, James Baldwin…compelling, artful and interesting.