As my wife would concur, I loved to go shopping with her – a strange phenomenon when the Cubs are playing. While she shopped for essentials, I would look at leaders of the industry battle for shelf space and display space for their new and existing products. I have done this for years, and I grew in understanding […]
No Marketing, Sales or Employee inputs for decades. Lack of leadership has been very evident. I say this, due to knowing Mr. Fischer personally, who moved from Motorola to Kodak as CEO. Every morning I met Mr. Fischer at 5:00 AM at Buehler YMCA waiting for the pool and exercise room to open. Once, he came by […]
The week of August 18, was when Apple touched $2 trillion in market Valuation. Who would have believed this achievement – not even Steve Jobs? Where have 7 years gone since Steve stepped away from Apple, due to not being able to fulfill his duties. Many thought this was the end of Apple. He died six weeks […]
To You and Your Family a Very Happy and Rewarding Labor Day from our entire staff. As I was catching-up to my reading, I happened to run across some questions posed by GARY BURNISON, KORN FERRY CEO.
Trend Meetings need to be conducted by YOU and your managers to ensure that you will have effective strategies to be ready to put in the overall Plan for the short and long term. If you aren’t working with a strategy, you are wasting the time of everyone. To grow as a leader, you need to understand […]
The importance of clear and transparent communications from the Manager in-charge is so important that one can see what confusion is created, as can be evident in 300 Million U.S. citizens not knowing whether they need to wear a mask as the Memorial Holiday approached. Over the Holiday, 50% of citizens didn’t wear a mask with […]
Trend meetings are a must on a weekly schedule at AMD – in order to identify the trends that zero-in on market opportunities, identify gender shifts, present and future competitive equipment plus a total competitive overview, and trend shifts that are creating an impact on the overall business and capabilities of AMD. Outsourcing is a […]
Having watched one of the largest office building’s in the world stay empty for a decade +, with cats as large as Coyotes taking up residence in this super office space ideally located in downtown Chicago, I am surprised to see that finally our government has made a deal with Uber, Walgreens, Ferrara Candy; they’re […]
IT TOOK AMD A FULL SIX YEARS TO COME BACK, AND CAPITALIZE ON ITS FULL POTENTIAL ONCE IT IDENTIFIED WHAT THE SHORT AND LONG TERM PLANS WERE FOR THE BUSINESS. IMPORTANT TO LISA SU TOOK OVER AS CEO. SHE INHERITED A COMPANY THAT WAS, AT BEST, AN INDUSTRY ALSO-RAN, THE REVENUE WAS DOWN 40%, MARKET SHARE […]
REMOTE TEACHING IS NOT EASY. FROM KINDERGARTEN THROUGH 12TH GRADE WE HAD (4) MONTHS UNTIL TODAY TO EXPERIMENT IN REMOTE LEARNING – THAT’S 50 MILLION STUDENTS THAT BECAME ELIGIBLE FOR THE EXPERIMENT IMMEDIATELY – THE EXPERIMENT FAILED, AND HERE ARE THE REASONS WHY:
In my weekly BLOG “It Starts and Ends with Management” we are constantly focusing on trying to identify characteristics that provide an environment that will allow employees to motivate themselves. The topic of Leadership represents a constant challenge to anyone, due to the endless theories that exist and will be added. “If it works, it’s […]
For thirteen weeks I have been isolated to my apartment/ office and limited to walks in the rose garden. Our staff has had no access to our building during this time. If you talk to the 200 people that live in this building, majority over 65 years old, you see the criticism of management growing […]
While being isolated to my apartment and our North Garden for twelve weeks, I have had the chance to watch FOX NEWS broadcast the rioting and the peaceful demonstrations. If you watched carefully, you could identify the difference between peaceful protestors and the destructive criminals.
Here’s what I would do: (1) enforce the Curfew and separate […]
Where does the U.S. stand in the race for 6G Technology? While we put up with a few hundred people burning and rioting in major cities due to a lack of strong leadership. We spend more time discussing closing polls (7PM or 8PM) in those cities facing a 7PM Curfew. Supporting my assertion of ‘lack of leadership’ resulted in […]
Our staff is back to work, and I am the only person starting my 9th week locked-down in my apartment. During this time, I fully got the feeling and pain of the small business owners during these tough times. If blog readers can help, we would appreciate any help and ideas that you could provide […]
As I sent copies of Blogs #91 & 93, to President TRUMP, Governor Newsome and current CEO of PG&E, I received support for my recommendations from U.S. District Judge Alsup in highlighting all the fixes I recommended in my Blogs. He was citing PG&E for being in violation of the criminal probation following its conviction of safety violations […]
In order to provide a true assessment of the problems at PG&E, we go back to the basic four questions of our Management Learnings (BLOG):
IS THERE A PROBLEM?
YES, there is. PG&E has no concern for the FIFTH largest country in the world CALIFORNIA and its citizens. PG&E is so busy getting out of Chapter 11 for the second […]
It would be easy to blame the distinguished Board of Directors of IBM for the demotion of Ginni Rometty as CEO of IBM. The Board of Directors had given enough of a chance to Ginni – they stood by Ginni for all 8 years of her tenure as CEO of IBM. When I attended last years […]
As I prepared to write this BLOG, I was overcome with disbelief that the PGE Management group had a total disregard for responsibility, accountability, ethics, trust, and just plain common sense. Of course, we are in CALI-FORNIA where “tree-huggers” have ruled the roost for the last ten years. “IT STARTS AND ENDS WITH MANAGEMENT” is very […]
It took 15 days and an in-depth review of 2019 to come up with this forecast to help you with your decision making.
The following are our staff’s and my 10 recommendations on major issues facing all of us in 2020:
Our employees extend their thanks for your dedication and support of our BLOG on a wide variety of business examples that had both happy and sad outcomes. One idea, and you would have capitalized on the profits that accrued. The “BLOG” is free which translates to learning about fact – verified info of what is working or not […]
My Father in Law’s profession was to be the “best” butcher in the business. To the benefit of our entire family we constantly had the best choice of meats, but around this time of the year, we all looked forward to the “two” 20lb+ turkeys that would be selected by “Gramps” for the holidays. We […]
As the world’s #1 toy maker by sales Lego is recognizing that digital distraction of children’s time is a constant challenge and innovation that leads children to utilizing the LEGO blocks in a unique and instructional manner that holds their interest so that repeatability of use becomes a competitor to the digital screen that is so […]
AS AN INFANTRY GRUNT STATIONED WITH THE 11TH AIRBORNE DISION IN GERMANY, I WAS THE PROUDEST SOLDIER – READY TO SERVE MY COUNTRY, SERVE MY PRESIDENT, HAVE PRIDE IN THE U.S. FLAG, AND REALLY APPRECIATE THE FREEDOMS THAT I ENJOY EVERY DAY.
Then came along Colin Kaepernick who had a fair record with the S.F. 49er’s only […]
As a stockholder of Walgreens, I have lost all respect for the recent management (5 Years) that covered up the fact that it had losses in the beauty area for three straight years of decline in same store retail sales. In light of industry declines this last year, the industry had two good years out of […]
About a year ago, the world crossed Cameo’s CEO’S desk in a phone call from the NFL indicating that Bret Favre had been duped by a Supremacist group into filming a video filled with coded hate speech. Favre thought he was giving a shout-out to military veterans, but now his error was all over the internet and […]
Throughout my Corporate career I hated to face daily power point presentations by staff who saw this as their one chance to show their creative abilities expressed by a set number of functions of the software that could be used to differentiate a presentation. We were so tired of sitting there and watching pages open and […]
Management Lesson:
The idea of another recommended meeting, has you thinking, who has all the time for these meetings? By no means are we suggesting that you adopt every recommendation, but if you skip too many, you could negatively affect your business. If you don’t realize that you employees are the most capable people in the industry, you […]
Commercial uses of DRONES, which are under the jurisdiction of the FAA and starting to be used as a result of favorable trial results over the last two years. The industry is growing rapidly without any FAA rules – industry needs clarification limits for DRONES on airspace, requirements for hardware, and many more areas that need rules. […]
As we entered a new decade 2010-2012, I was teaching Business 101 at Harper College and as usual the requirement to come-up with a new and innovative idea or product, and make a presentation to the class as a term project. In checking the backgrounds and the past/current work experience of the students, I noticed […]
THE MANAGEMENT LESSON IS TO:
HAVE A VERY CLEAR SUCCESSION PLAN IN PLACE THAT IS CLEAR TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY OWNING THE BUSINESS, TO ALL MEMBERS OF SR. MANAGEMENT IF PUBLICLY OWNED, AND TO KEY EMPLOYEES IF DEEMED NECESSARY. THE PLAN SHOULD BE LEGALLY REVIEWED AND APPROVED ON AN ANNUAL BASIS TO INSURE ALL THE CHANGES REQUIRED […]
It has been years during which I have seen a 24/7 currency exchange being opened at every other corner of a major road like Irving Park Rd., in Chicago with special focus on areas that have both legal and illegal immigrants (we are a sanctuary city). With technology creating electronic banking, it kept baffling me as […]
The 100% fail safe guarantee against fake goods can only be achieved through having your OWN quality control at the manufacturing point and at the receiving point – costly in terms of having to add these increase to the price of the Consumer having to pay these added costs as the end user. The popular slogan […]
Many of the Nissan executives are gone, without being charged, but Carlos remains out on bail (restricted to Japan) until his sentencing next spring. The longer the pre-trial phase for Carlos lasts, the more dirt is being dug-up on the various dirty schemes that Nissan executives participated in. There are various versions of corruption rising to […]
No sooner did I write BLOG #68 addressing the Customer Service fixes starting to be recognized by the Airline Alliances as a profit opportunity, an industry that has had no new innovative Marketing ideas in the last 20 years. I can see a major change coming as Delta announces the linking of far-flung markets on their […]
Why did Joe get released from his position as the Cubs Manager in a very un-ceremonial manner? I recognize that Joe Epstein has the right to replace Managers for any and all reasons. However, he is the most accountable person for the downfall of Joe last and this year, followed by the players themselves. Joe didn’t lose […]
The management lesson from Wendy’s actions covered in this BLOG are focused on keeping your product line vibrant and that you create excitement amongst your franchise employees, staff and most importantly the Customer. A bacon breakfast sandwich and a chicken biscuit with a Coffee-flavored-Smoothie just won’t do it, when these items join the 300 Wendy’s Restaurants already […]
ITW (Illinois Tool Works) finds that building up to 800 Divisions (over a period of 25 years), doesn’t necessarily assure organic growth. To hit an acceptable growth rate, the company shed 713 divisions, down to 87 during the period 2011 – 2018. The actual growth margin in (2018) – 44 Divisions grew at 7.6%, but in 36 divisions […]
The frustrations mount as we find people discussing whether it’s the police, the gangs, the politicians who are responsible for the Chicago violence we the residents are facing weekly.
In early 2019 a report called “The Fracturing of Gangs and Violence in Chicago” prepared by Teresa Cordova of “The Great Cities Institute” illuminates how the structure of African American […]
I remember Grandma Skowron, from the days of being part of a multi-racial neighborhood, where she was the Block Captain. If she caught you spitting gum on the sidewalk, she would smack you on the side of the listening post and after she informed your father, he would smack you on the side of the listening post again – […]
When watching the TV news, I heard AOC mention the fact that the burning of the Amazon Fires will contribute greatly to the end of the earth in a very short period of time – a decade or so. Hurricane season is upon us, so the media hysteria about the Amazon Fires has moved off the front […]
For the last 20 years most alliances have brought minimum benefits to their Customers. What level of management would allow 20 years to go by without maximizing an opportunity to serve the Customer? Here are examples to support my observation:
I have been saying that Joe is gone either before the season ends or shortly thereafter. My main reasoning is based on his DNA match with his Millennial group of athletes, who are getting a little “old” in the tooth and wore subject to injuries and aches that their bodies can’t withstand. Joe is still a big softie, […]
With rats multiplying by the thousands, and the threat of being overrun with them creating deadly diseases, the “tree hugging” S.F. city management team is banning plastic straws. As a real additional threat “Defecation” is taking place by pets and homeless human beings in SF & LA. Let’s quantify the size of the threat – in LA 36,000 […]
Key Management Learning focuses on the need to know as many happenings in the industry as possible. That means that your Senior Management has to keep it’s ears to the ground and be willing to view the future through various lenses- such as Trade & Commerce Group meetings, reading two to three Newspapers a day […]
Let’s face it – the U.S. is dominated by Baseball, Basketball, Football and the following recruiting example will provide one of the many areas that YOU should be reviewing and adopting in your recruiting tool kit. Once you get away from cities with high immigration groups from Europe and the Latin countries, soccer is not practiced and talked about. For example, I […]
The MANAGEMENT LESSON IN THIS BLOG is simple: TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY.
If you don’t, here’s what will happen; earlier this year a rat infestation in downtown Los Angeles near a homeless encampment led to an outbreak of typhus. Cats USA Pest Control was hired to investigate the outbreak. They came up with this conclusion – “poor sanitary conditions” […]
There is no doubt that “Twitter” has a major Customer – Our President – that not only contributes to the consistent profitability that has been there for the last 7 quarters, a contrast to years of sustained losses that the company had reported after going public in 2013, and on any given day, 139 Million active users […]
John Paul Stevens was a 1947 graduate of Northwestern U’s Law School. While JPS was extremely liberal, and I did not agree with many of his decisions, I did respect him a lot due to having met him several times during the 15 years I served on the Advisory Board of the McCormick School of Engineering […]
Who Can Do Something to Correct the Problem?
Management at all functional levels (department, division, CEO, Chairman of the Board.
What Can They Do?
Make sure the HR department gets the leader that will create an HR role that meets and exceeds todays and tomorrows requirements on staffing with individuals and technology to ensure consistent growth of employees […]
In order to use the management tools and strategies we feature in our weekly BLOGS, we will address the subject of Recruiting as an example to show that asking the four questions listed in BLOG #2, should be part of the process in developing strategies aimed at providing a solution to the identified problem. Many […]
In 1974, Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, was asked to speak to the MBA class at the University of Texas in Austin…
“What business am I in?” Ray asked, once the group all had their beers in hand.
“Everyone laughed,” my friend said. “Most of the MBA students thought Ray was just fooling around.”
No one answered, […]
Boeing has been incurring problems in building a quality plane ever since they decided that in order to grow, they would need to move their headquarters and production facilities out of their well-established Washington State location where they could have expanded with 1ample real estate availability. Instead they chose to move their Headquarters to Chicago and […]
Most businesses are constantly struggling with pricing, the cost of product, and have no means of getting a positive impact on net profit without major considerations being weighed. Refer to Blog #13 that shows the numbers impact of Sales & Expense, CGS increases/decreases on Operating Income. However, most of the savings in this article are gained […]
Management has to prepare transparent accounting records and very carefully monitor internal and external audits that take place. The reports that these two separate efforts comprise should be compared and the CFO should present their reports to the Board. To ensure absolute integrity each audit team should be present at respective presentations – that buys […]
If You as a Manager want to experience the potential loss of trust by your employees due to someone leaving by voluntary or “fired means” keep doing the following:
If the reason for someone not being […]
Here’s what’s facing Mr. Fox, owner of numerous restaurants in Florida and Alabama where he employs 600+ employees. He’s currently paying a living wage to all his employees, but his servers who make $3.00 per hour – average from $17.00 to $28.00 salary when you add in tips. He will have to look at a possible 600% hourly wage increase to Servers plus increases to $15.00 to a large number of support personnel.
In 1964 – 1965 I took my two week vacation and Karin and I took off for New York City, where we had a great time and spent extensive time at THE WORLDS FAIR. I knew that the FAIR would be as great as the one I attended in Brussels, Belgium (1958) while being stationed in Munich, Germany.
I strongly urge each Manager of a business to consider getting a status report from their IT person or group on the present and long range implications for this software in your business.
In reviewing Apple Inc. over the last few months a whole series of accusations tend to address that the I-Phone has run out of gas and that Computer Watch is not achieving targeted objectives. Yet the movement towards on-line streaming information, has the Netflix type competitors getting a big surprise.
Boeing has been incurring problems in building a quality plane ever since they decided that in order to grow, they would need to move their headquarters and production facilities out of their well established Washington State location where they could have expanded with ample real estate availability.
To think that since 1995 taxpayers have shelled out $600,000 to various people who claimed to have been sexually abused in Senator’s Offices … the same SENATORS who put an innocent man’s reputation on the line during the Brett Cavanaugh hearings.
It is obvious that Avon has to be misleading potential investors by releasing PR in the WSJ on the 23rd & 24th of March that reads as follows – AVON CONSIDERS GETTING ITSELF BACK TOGETHER. Three years ago the company split into two – one was focused on Avon’s International Business and the other half on the Domestic business which was suffering badly.
In both of the companies mentioned in this Blog, the Management lesson shows the weakness of planning for downside contingencies, knowing the competition, staying on top of demographic trends, and greed to maximize income without investing back in the business.
This will end the sad story of a successful person not having things in writing and operating with a non-transparent view towards his activities.
Chainsaw Al’s public track record was troubling in that he made his fame in laying off personnel by the thousands, but stockholders and Wall Street benefited because they knew if AL took over the show, profits grew at an amazing rate – (73% at Sunbeam – a fix they badly needed- and 900%+ in stock price at Lily-Tulip).
How could it happen? It happened because the stakeholders in Sears are a bunch of spineless Lemmings. The simply did nothing to stop Fast Eddy from achieving his PLAN of stripping Sears of all its cash and assets up to this point, and the payment of $5.2B for 245 stores and the acquisition of two key brands (Kenmore and Diehard) that by- themselves that only required a maximum of his own cash of $1.0B which he amassed through being a 48% owner of Sears as well as 48% owner of ELS.
The savvy Manager is constantly seeking the next area of growth and trying to see where he could be maximizing the opportunity for his business. The field for new products, job opportunities and career planning are endless.
Not only did the Good-Old-Boys in Japan replace him from his job at Nissan and Mitsubishi, now Renault Caved in under union and French government pressure, and will dismiss him from his job as Chairman at their next Board meeting on Thursday January 24th. On top of all this he’s been in jail since November 19thwhere he’s been held in isolation without access by anyone except his Japanese lawyer who knows which side his bread is buttered on – he can’t even get Carlos out on bail – or maybe it’s payback time for successfully messing with Japanese culture over the last two decades.
As a graduate of the Kellogg School School of Management at Northwestern University I finally had a chance to catch-up with my reading materials coming from various sources. When reading my fall 2018 issue of Northwestern magazine, I came across an article in the Student Life section with a title that caught my immediate attention – “Food for Thought” which focused on The Purple Pantry whose primary purpose was to provide groceries to NU students who don’t have enough to eat.
Lack of planning and a MANAGEMENT TEAM that lived in the past Resulted in Motorola being split into two companies – One of which seems to have some insight of what Managements responsibilities are when it comes to survival in a very competitive environment
My first experience of flying Southwest Airlines came early in 1999 when I missed my flight from Hobby Airport in Houston to Love Field in Dallas. More importantly, I had promised my son, who was playing football late that afternoon, that I would be at the game. I asked the A&A ticket agent about later flights, and she told me that there was this Lovey–Dovey–Airline leaving in a few minutes from a gate down the hall.
Joe will continue reading a book called “Managing Millennials for Dummies” Due to the fact that he has used our recommended four step process identifying the problem.
Recently the Postal Service reported a financial loss for the 12th consecutive year. What will the report requested by President reveal – declines in mail volume, out of sight costs for pensions and health Care obligations. Yet, prices went up by $.05 to $.55 per ounce for a first class letter.
My favorite woman entrepreneur was Evelyn Berzin who died recently at the age of 93. She started her career as an entrepreneur in a man dominated era after having identified several fields that had a dearth of women. On top of her identifying specific career opportunities, she saw the men of her generation going off to WWII.
