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.