Teri Bernstein, MBA, CPA has been teaching full time in the Business Department of Santa Monica College since 1985. Prior to that, she worked in Internal Audit and Special Financial Projects for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, CBS, Inc., and Coopers & Lybrand. She attended the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.
image by Minh Uong for the NYT
It is easy to take technology for granted--as a tool that doesn't need attention. But even a toothbrush needs to be replaced, and cars need maintenance. Technology habits can also use some "tweaking" to stay problem-free. Here are five technology resolutions for the new year:
Check out the linked article for specifics.
Source: "Five Resolutions to Simplify Your Tech Life," by Brian X. Chen, New York Times, December 28, 2016.
Follow up:
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Millennials in the workplace are sometimes pre-judged by harsh stereotypes. But, according to Simon Sinek, millennials are the product of environmental influences over which they have had no control. He cites four instances which have had unforeseen consequences resulting in significant challenges for millennials as they transition into adulthood.
The first of these hurdles is "failed parenting (and educational) strategies." These strategies were employed with the best of intentions, but had the ironic effect of producing unrealistic expectations about life for millennials, which led to low--rather than high--self-esteem. These strategies included:
Sinek identifies three other destructive influences to which millennials have been subjected, through no fault of their own:
Nevertheless, the deeply fulfilling goals of job satisfaction and strength in relationships are not obtainable except with time and effort. Therein lies the real challenge.
Sinek has a very interesting solution to this problem and he assigns responsibility to a surprising stakeholder.
One footnote: This piece has some limitations in its applicability. Sinek (who, born in 1973, is a Gen-Xer) is addressing issues facing privileged, upper middle class millennials--not those of under-represented or impoverished groups.
Source: "Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace," posted by David Crossman, Inside Quest, November 27, 2016.
from smallbiztrends.com
After the holidays, many retail goods are returned. In a season of retail sales of around $600 billion, approximately $70 billion in returns are expected. Some of these returns are legitimate, of course, but there will be at least $2 billion in fraudulent returns. Some of techniques used by the crooks perpetrating these returns are:
Listen to the linked podcast for details about these types of fraud, and how retailers attempt to prevent, stop, or ameliorate them.
Source: "Retailers Brace for Return Fraud in the Holiday Season," by Rheema Krais, Marketplace; American Public Media, December 26, 2016.
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Social media networks that do not charge a user fee make their money from advertising revenue. So companies who want to reach their customers have to go where their customers are hanging out. The expense of advertising on these platforms might be just an allocation of part of a large company's advertising budget, but for small companies with fewer discretionary funds, the decision about which social media outlets to purchase ad space on can be challenging.
Small businesses sometimes use trial and error with various sites--often with more failures than success. Nevertheless, according to Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of media consulting agency VaynerMedia, “Facebook is a must. It’s the oxygen of social networks."
Source: "Still Mastering Facebook. Do I Really Need to Learn Snapchat?" by Ian Mount, New York Times, December 17, 2016.
Trump has criticized several business over the last several months, and businesses have developed strategies to respond before their sales are negatively affected. Earlier this year, Vanity Fair magazine published a negative review of a restaurant that was housed in one of Trump's hotels. Trump then tweeted that Vanity Fair magazine was "way down, big trouble, dead." Vanity Fair then launched a marketing campaign with the tagline, "The Magazine Trump Doesn't Want You To Read." The result? Circulation increased by 40,000.
Another Trump statement was that he was going to put the taxing-preparing company "H&R Block out of business" by making the tax code simpler. As a result, H&R Block has developed a campaign using Trump's own language regarding his use of tax advantages: that he was a "winner." The H&R campaign uses the slogan, "Get Your Taxes Won." Better yet, they have landed Jon Hamm (of Mad Men fame) as a spokesperson. This is the first time that Jon Hamm has ever pitched a product.
Other businesses are readying campaigns to be launched straightaway JUST IN CASE Trump criticizes them. According to Scott Farrell, president of Golin Corporate Communications (and a specialist in crisis management), in the age of lightning-speed Twitter, a slow response is of no value at all.
Source: "Brands Start Planning for Unexpected Criticism by Trump," by Zach Schonbrun, New York Times, December 25, 2016.
Often, as the New Year rolls around, people make new goals to achieve. In the business arena, there are some goals that make sense...and others that, for various reasons, are not the best way to frame a desired outcome. One rubric to evaluate goals is the SMART strategy:
Here is a link to a QUIZ that will help you evaluate the missing components of twelve goals: GOALS QUIZ
Source: "Can You Identify a SMART Goal?" by Tara Duggan, Bright Hub Project Management, December 14.
image from the Time Out London blog
Capitalism, in theory, is supposed to create efficiencies that increase net income to the corporation. Ironically, the opposite trend has been occurring in the last several years--more jobs exist that add nothing of value to the economy. "Pointless" jobs, for the purpose of this blog and the article cited, are jobs that do not produce anything tangible and that do not satisfy a previously existing need.
It doesn't make economic sense that so many jobs are non-productive. John Maynard Keynes predicted in the early 1900s that by 2000 the work-week would be 15 hours, due to automation. Clearly this has not occurred. Some of the reasons may be:
"Ruthless downsizing" occurs more at the production level due to automation. And automation creates speed in production, but more of a need to sell, and to have administrators correcting mistakes. In addition, fuller employment means more people to buy products, and fewer people using their leisure time to become more educated and creative about expressing what they really might want and need. The article makes a strong case for the moral and psychological problems created by this situation.
On the other hand, there must be an argument on the other side, since the reality that exists is one of more pervasive full-time employment.
Source: "Why Capitalism Creates Pointless Jobs," by David Graeber, Evonomics, September 27, 2016.
Consumers have been enjoying low interest rates on mortgages for the past several years. Businesses have also benefitted from lower-than-usual rates (at least established businesses and large corporations have been able to take advantages of these rates. Unfortunately, banks have not passed through these low rates to credit card holders.) The lower "retail" interest rates have been possible because the Fed has set benchmark interest rates lower than it has in decades--primarily to encourage growth in the economy. On the down side, these lower rates have also meant that savings accounts earn almost nothing.
The rate has been increased to "from 0.5 to 0.75%" which is still very low. The increase in the benchmark rate by the Fed is a sign that Janet Yellen and her cohorts believe that the economy is doing well enough to no longer need the support of the low interest rate. This optimism is in contrast to the President-elect's assertion that the economy is "terrible."
Not everyone is in favor of the increase in interest rates. According to Roger Williams, a Texas Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee:
"Today’s decision by the Fed to raise the interest rate is entirely premature and will be burdensome to a nation already struggling to pull itself out of this slow-growth Obama economy. By making rates even higher, the Fed is effectively making our hardships even harder.”
Source: "Fed Raises Key Interest Rate, Citing Strengthening Economy," by Binyamin Applebaum, New York Times, December 14, 2016.
image from Social Text
"Burnout" at work is not only a possibility for long-time workers. It affects those in demanding jobs with time pressures...and in boring jobs as well. Customer service representatives--who are caught in the middle between corporate scripts and unhappy consumers--may have a particularly hard time with it. Those in "helping" professions--psychologists, social workers, teachers and nurses, for example--are classic victims of burnout.
Ironically, "burnout" has never become a diagnosable mental disorder in the DSM classification system used by mental health professionals and insurance companies. Most Human Resource department don't have procedures for dealing with it. Nevertheless, it is prevalent throughout the workforce and some companies have made strides to address it. Maybe the "Zen Room" concept discussed in the podcast can help.
Source: "Burnout," Episode 740, by Stacey Vanek Smith, NPR Planet Money, December 9, 2016. [Transcript]
Business skills are a new priority for the Girl Scouts of America. They were always a factor in the annual cookie sales event. But the organization is "rebranding" itself as a broad-based builder of business skills with its GIRL initiative. GIRL is an acronym for:
Parts of the new campaign include a song, a 30-second ad, and a gathering in Columbus, Ohio called GIRL 2017.
Source: "More Than Cookie Sellers: The Girl Scouts Buff Their Image," by Elizabeth Olson, New York Times, December 11, 2016.
Are your friends and relatives asking you what you want for the holidays? You might send them The New York Times Business Bestsellers list to give them some ideas:
Several of these books have been on the best seller list for several months, and have been the subject of previous blogs.
Source: New York Times Business Bestsellers, December 11, 2016.
image from Fashionisers
Pantone is the standard-setter for industry color. It influences colors in clothes, cars, appliances, paint and decorative fabric. The fashion industry, in particular, pays attention to the annual unveiling of the "new" color trends, as announced by Pantone. The very act of creating a "color of the year" creates a need in some consumers to buy or replace items in order to remain up-to-date.
This year, the color is Green--to be more specific: "Greenery 15-0353 TCX". This is not an environmentalist's green. This is not a money-like green. This isn't the green you would find in your standard box of Crayola crayons. It is a very yellow green--somewhat like a newly opened springtime leaf. According to the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Leatrice Eiseman, Greenery 15-0353 TCX gives us:
“the reassurance we yearn for amid a tumultuous social and political environment. Satisfying our growing desire to rejuvenate and revitalize, Greenery symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another and a larger purpose.”
I am not sure that Greenery can really deliver on these promises. But the announcement makes good advertising copy!
Source: "The Pantone Trendsetters Have Spoken: Green is the Color of 2017," by Lisa Boone, Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2016.
image from PartyMusicLeader.com
Shipping goods overseas was not always done in the "intermodal shipping containers" that are in wide use today. This "containerization" became a reality because of a logistics insight made by Malcom McLean. In order to reduce shipping costs, McLean did not focus on the ships; he focused on the docks.
Dockworkers lifting and unloading individual crates and transporting them onto large trucks was very labor intensive and time consuming. This process, as a result of McLean's insight, eventually morphed into the creation of huge truck-sized and standardized containers that could be efficiently packed onto a ship. They could then be loaded by a crane or forklift directly onto truck bed frameworks. It is also possible to move a shipping container without a crane--and still save time and labor costs [VIDEO].
Using the containers, the cost of shipping on international freighters went from almost $6 per ton to only $0.16 per ton. This improvement in price meant that goods could be shipped all over the world, between each step of their production processes, taking advantage of cheap labor and low manufacturing overhead in developing countries.
In that way, containerization transformed not only shipping logistics, but the global manufacturing market as well.
Source: "The Power of Outsiders," by Charles Duhigg, Aaron Byrd, and Samantha Starr, New York Times video, December 8, 2016.
photo from article linked below and urbvangeekz.com
Moovn is a ride-sharing app similar to Uber and Lyft. It was started by Godwin Gabriel, and currently operates in seven cities in the U.S., as well as three cities in Africa--Johannesburg (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya), and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania). Though there are huge marketing challenges in the U.S., where Uber and Lyft dominate, the decision to launch the app in Africa was a good one. Smart phone use is on the rise on the continent, and the bigger apps have not penetrated this market. Gabriel feels "confident that the global market remains sizable enough for all of us to fit in and play.” He also believes that "Moovn is changing lives – particularly in Africa and developing markets. For instance, drivers earn more on our platform, are reducing idle time and are able to provide and build their communities."
One innovation that Moovn offers commuters is the opportunity to schedule rides up to a month in advance. The vehicle options also are varied--and even include motorcycles and tricycles in countries where those modes of transport are typical.
Source: "Godwin Gabriel Launches Moovn, a Ride-Sharing App to Compete with Uber, Lyft in the U.S. and Abroad," by Wilfrid Ainsworth (urbangeekz.com), Good Black News, October 16, 2016.
image from Global Trade Magazine
China has consumer protection laws that provide for payments to people who look for goods that are manufactured by generic product makers, and have a fake label slapped on them. Gullible consumers--or those who want to impress others with a designer label, but who don't want to pay designer prices--have been protected by governmental regulations and those who identify counterfeit merchandise.
Here's the problem: the Chinese government is now saying that they never intended for entrepreneurs to become professional "bounty hunters." They say that the law was intended to give individual consumers who found a problem an incentive to expose the wrongdoer. The law did not anticipate that professional counterfeit hunters would buy up huge quantities of fake goods, and then get paid for each item, as the law provided. One counterfeiter with 1,000 pieces of counterfeit product would generate a windfall to the professional bounty hunter--the same payment that would be paid out to 1,000 individual consumers who had purchased one item from 1,000 different counterfeiting companies.
In favor of this law is that it provides protection to both Chinese and international consumers. Online marketplaces like Alibaba in China and Amazon in the USA and elsewhere cannot police individual sellers. These online marketplaces rely on regulation of commerce by other entities--such as these bounty hunters. But Chinese officials have proposed rules to eliminate the possibility of doing this detective work as a livelihood.
Source: "Though Awash in Fakes, China Rethinks Counterfeit Hunters," by Sui-Lee Wee, New York Times, November 30, 2016.
Today, every faction on the political spectrum seems to be weighing in on two topics--one of which is directly relevant to business life:
As it happens, the topics overlap: the Founding Fathers had a clear opinion regarding corporations and their influence. The Founding Fathers did not like corporations at all:
On the other hand, an opinion piece in the NYT points out that there was plenty of disagreement among the Founding Fathers about what was best for the nation in many arenas. They may not all have agreed on the limitations of corporate power, either.
To complicate things further, here are some quotes to ponder:
Sources: "What the Founding Fathers Thought about Corporations," by Stephen J. Foster, addictinginfo.com, June 9, 2013. "Our Feuding Founding Fathers," by Alan Taylor, New York Times, October 16, 2016.
Steven Mnuchin (Treasury) and Wilbur Ross (Commerce) photos via businesstimes.com and NYT
Trump's primary advisors--individuals who will set the tone and implement policy during Trump's presidency--comprise his Cabinet picks. Surprisingly, several of these people are former hedge fund managers and Wall Street professionals--some with a poor track records of success. Very few Cabinet picks have any government experience. Observers note that the policies favored by these Cabinet picks indicate the likelihood of several economic and business events, including:
Many Trump voters may have expected the opportunities for middle class workers and small business that were described in his campaign ads. According to one, he would rescue America from “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations.” While this message was heard audibly, these images flashed across the screen: "The New York Stock Exchange, the hedge fund billionaire George Soros, and the chief executive of the investment bank Goldman Sachs." Market reaction to Trump's election would indicate that these interests will be benefitting the most.
At least one additional opportunity exists for middle class professionals. According to a recent Bloomberg article, the demand for computer programmers on Wall Street exceed the supply.
Source: "Trump's Economic Cabinet Picks Signal Embrace of Wall Street Elite," by Landon Thomas, Jr. and Alexandra Stevenson with Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times, November 30, 2016.