We “Market” Feelings And Image Not Products Or Services

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.
—     Peter Drucker
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On This Day In:
2023	We “Market” Feelings And Image Not Products Or Services
2022	Until Something Better Comes Along
2021	Facing The Headwinds
	Still Thankful, Still Don’t Read Well (Signs)
2020	Write For Yourself
2019	I’m Actively Irresponsible
2018	I Will Love You… Forever
2017	Pebbles In Your Shoe?
2016	Resolute Will
2015	Absorbed And Civilized
2014	Relax And Lead
2013	Location, Location, Location
2012	Are You Really Good?
2011	Relatively Objective, Anyway

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Honesty In Business

I realize that a lot of people feel that speaking out against unions is almost:  ‘Un-American.’  I remind them:  not all of America is unionized — in fact, the vast majority of Americans are not — and glad about it.
Some people fear that if the unions were to vanish, the labor situation would return to the way it was in the beginning, with child labor and sweatshops.  I agree with them.  Large employers do tend toward unscrupulous behavior when nobody is looking over their shoulder.
So, what the bottom line here?  I would like to see more honesty in business — at both ends of the table.  Honesty in U.S. business appears to be at its lowest ebb in history.
There are a number of reasons for that.  When political leaders do not demonstrate honesty, when people lie constantly in the media — everybody gets used to “The Big Lie” as a way of life.  At that point, honesty becomes a quaintly outmoded concept — nobody wants to be honest anymore, because if they are, they might finish last.
I would say that today, dishonesty is the rule, and honesty the exception.  It could be, statistically, that more people are honest than dishonest, but the few that really control things are not honest, and that tips the balance.
—     Frank Zappa
From his book:  “The Real Frank Zappa Book“
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On This Day In:
2022	Honesty In Business
2021	Momentary Offering
	Happy Noise (Down On The Corner)
2020	No Crumbs
	Too Many Detectives On This Case (Whodunit)
	A New Day Is Coming (Crystal Blue Persuasion)
2019	Or In This Case – What’s Wrong
2018	Just Passing Through
2017	True Torture
	Happy Thanksgiving – 2017 !!
2016	Overtaken
2015	Alone Praying
2014	A Full Man
2013	Off Defending The Universe
	Taking Precautions
2012	Never, Never, Never
2011	Testing 1, 2, 3

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Almost, But Not Quite

A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.
—    Arnold H. Glasow
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On This Day In:
2022	Start By Living This One
2021	Almost, But Not Quite
	Just Messin’ (It’s A Shame)
2020	The Definition Of A Modern Republican Senator
	#45 Has Got To Go (Back Stabbers)
2019	Just Rewards
2018	Diet Resolutions For The New Year
	Day 3: Late December Diet / Fast
2017	Daily, Mr. President, Daily
2016	We Did This
2015	I’m Talking To You
	Forced (Again)
2014	We Are Not A Fearful Nation!
2013	Risking Truth
2012	Working On Reality
2011	Massive Contradictory Changes

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Still Dangerous

Derivatives are dangerous.  They have dramatically increased the leverage and risks in our financial system.  They have made it almost impossible for investors to understand and analyze our largest commercial banks and investment banks.
—     Warren Buffett
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On This Day In:
2022	At Least Pay A Fair Share
2021	Still Dangerous
	My Destiny (Could It Be I’m Falling In Love)
2020	Explaining And Gilding
	That Way (I Want It That Way)
2019	Lead To Action
2018	Listen And See
2017	The Big Illusion
2016	What Are You Thinking About?
2015	What The Framers Chose
2014	Lost Anything Lately?
	A Life Of Science
2013	Serve The World
2012	Acquaintance, n.
2011	On Why His Father Was A Great Teacher
	A Baker’s Dozen

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A “Modest” Goal

…We have no idea – and never have had – whether the market is going to go up, down, or sideways in the near – or intermediate term future.
What we do know, however, is that occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur in the investment community.  The timing of these epidemics will be unpredictable.  And the market aberrations produced by them will be equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree.  Therefore, we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either disease.  Our goal is more modest:  we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
—    Warren Buffett
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On This Day In:
2022	A Time Advantage
2021	A “Modest” Goal
	I’ve Had Enough (Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues)
2020	BLM
2019	Courage And Patience
2018	Push The Envelope
2017	Ents
2016	Are You Sure?
2015	Distracted
2014	What It Takes
2013	We Are
2012	Utopian
2011	Seen Any Black Swans Lately?

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Four Buffett’s

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
—    Warren Buffett
Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.
—    Warren Buffett
Rule No.1:  Never lose money.  Rule No.2:  Never forget rule No.1.
—    Warren Buffett
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
—    Warren Buffett
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On This Day In:
2022	The Arc Of Justice Sometimes Bends Too Slowly
2021	Still Stumbling
	Make It Your Own… (Make Your Own Kind Of Music)
2020	#45: Diarrhea Of The Mouth, Constipation Of The Brain
	Not As Often As I Used To (I Gotta Get Drunk)
2019	Four Buffett’s
2018	Change Happens
	Day 13: Ginger / Mint Relief
2017	Still Removing Bricks
2016	Namaste
2015	Still Learning
2014	Dark Processes
2013	To The Last Link
2012	Slept In Again
2011	Home Again, Naturally
2009	Thoughts after a long day of OT…

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Woof! Woof!

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog.  The man will be there to feed the dog.  The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.
—    Warren Bennis
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On This Day In:
2022	Is Normal Just Routine?
2021	The Rush Is On
	Another Rerun
2020	It Is Still About Sharing And Cheering
2019	Sounds Like #LyingDonald
2018	Start Building
2017	Woof! Woof!
2016	Cast Out
2015	Small Pieces
	Happy Father’s Day!
2014	Uncertain Work
2013	Unpatriotic And Servile
2012	What Price Freedom?
2011	Particular Importance
	Three From Bette…

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Talent Hates To Move

Yet hiring managers, VCs, and tech-focused talent agencies worship at the altar of the A-player, assuming that they need a fleet of superstars to build a great company.  And they’re willing to steal them, if necessary.  …   After all, exceptional employees aren’t just a little bit better than the average worker.  They’re 1,000 times better.  They’re more productive, more creative … more everything.  We should shower them with money and perks and do whatever it takes to keep them happy.  Right?
Wrong.  Companies are better served when they double down on cultivating in-house talent instead.  Sure, superstar workers exist.  And yes, they can be extremely productive and beneficial to a company’s bottom line.  But their stardom is frequently context-­specific, and it doesn’t always survive the transfer.  When Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg looked at the talent portability of 1,052 rock-star financial analysts, he found that about half did poorly in the year following their switch.  And those whose work suffered never recovered.
…
Star talent is partly innate, sure, but it’s also linked to specific teams and projects or just the culture of a company.  As Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford, puts it:  “People’s performance is a function not just of their individual abilities but also of the systems in which they work.”  Talent, it seems, really hates to move around.
—    Bryan Gardiner
From the article:  “Forget Stars — Companies Do Best When They Grow Their Own Talent“
Appearing in:  Wired Magazine, dtd:  July 2016
The following is a link to the original article:  http://www.wired.com/2016/07/forget-stars-companies-best-grow-talent/
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On This Day In:
2023	Wide And Yawning
2022	Where One Goes
2021	A Direct Relationship
	Another Night Train South (Can’t You See)
2020	One Person’s Roses…
2019	In The Long-Run
2018	#NeverAgain
	Doss II
	Doesn’t / Does
2017	Talent Hates To Move
2016	Looking To November
2015	It Isn’t The End
	Prospero’s Precepts
2014	Friends
2013	Learning Bitter
2012	Remembrance, Minstrels & Going Off To War
	May I Have More Happiness, Please?
2011	There Is No God, But God
2010	Another Running Book…

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The Ideal Business…

The ideal business is one that earns very high returns on capital and that keeps using lots of capital at those high returns.  That business is a compounding machine.
–    Warren Buffett
(As quoted in:  “The Snowball”;  written by:  Alice Schroeder)
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On This Day In:
2023	And I Always Will
2022	What You Know
2021	Some Doctors Are Better Than Others
	Lessons (Love Don’t Love Nobody)
2020	A Liar As President Corrupts Us
2019	Is It Dark And Quiet For You?
2018	Undeniable Requirement
2017	Orange Corrosion
2016	Both Particle And Wave
2015	Deep In Debt
2014	The Difference
2013	My Heart Is Described
2012	Keen To Be Alone
2011	The Ideal Business…
2010	55

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