Telling It Like It Is

THE ENTERPRISE-Wisdom Without Waiting

THE ENTERPRISE
We will be on vacation for the next couple of weeks, but that doesn't mean you can escape my words...unless you choose to do so.  I am trying an idea I've had for some time. The material below also appears on my web site: http://www.mariotti.net .  Either read it here, or go there now--your choice.
Here's what you'll see on the upper right section of the site:

The Enterprise Group announces:
Wisdom Without Waiting
A Common-Sense Guide to Success in Life and Work
By John Mariotti ©2006

Over a decade ago, I started to write a mini-book for new professionals, newly promoted supervisors or managers, college or MBA graduates, and in fact, for "everyone" who values common-sense solutions as a means to success in both life and work. It became one of those projects that never quite got finished.

As time went on, I added, changed and tweaked it, until I finally decided to stop and share it with the world. Then came two questions:
1. How to get it to the most possible people?
2. How to make it valuable and relevant to those already in professional or managerial positions.

The solution that resulted addresses both questions.  It is almost book length (155 pages) but it is not so much a book as a collection of essays and articles.  And, they are not bound by "atoms glue and paper" but conveyed by "electrons, bits and digits."

That's why I am offering Wisdom Without Waiting (WWW) in two forms on my web site, instead of going through the lengthy process of "publishing it" as a conventional book.  That leads me to next part of the solution:

To give the most people access to it, GIVE PART OF IT AWAY--FREE.

The first part offered consists of two of the most important parts - the first chapter and the last chapter - and they are FREE on the web site!  Yes, you read that correctly I want to give away these important pieces of "Wisdom" to those who can't afford to buy it all or just don't want to read that much.

The second part of the solution is for those who are willing (and able) to pay for the whole thing. This is a downloadable, printable PDF-file version. Since you'll have to use your own paper and ink, it is priced at HALF-PRICE. The normal retail (if it ever makes it into book format) was planned to be $19.95. By clicking on the button to buy the book as a downloadable printable PDF file, it is only $9.95.

(Note: this version is subject to copyright provisions and is for the sole, single copy use of the original purchaser and may not be copied for any other purpose, physically or electronically, without the express written permission of the author.)

The remaining answer to the second question was to divide WWW into two parts. I wrote the first part of WWW to be useful to everyone, from new work force entrants to seasoned managers or professionals. The second part gets into some topics that are more interesting to more "experienced people," but it also contains many that will interest everyone.

    * Part One: "Wisdom Is Mostly Condensed Experience" is only 35 pages long, and while it is basic in nature it also contains a lot of "good stuff."
    * Part Two: "Wisdom In Small Bites" covers 120 pages, but is organized to be easy reading for a busy person, with "chapters" that are usually 1-3 pages long.

Whether you read the part that is FREE on-line or BUY IT, print it, read it all, or just the parts that interest you, this is "wisdom" I believe you'll value. Click on that link or paste it in your browser--PLEASE and then, SPREAD THE WORD to your friends and associates and invite them to go to the web site http://www.mariotti.net.  (Just forward this email with your note at the top.)

I encourage you to buy and print "the whole thing," not because I'll get the money (although that is good) but because you'll want it to refer to later. Most of all, I hope WWW is something that each generation of your family can use.

Put it in a nice binder and it becomes a great graduation gift. Buy copies for colleagues and they'll be forever grateful. It is an especially timely gift for someone who just took a new job or was promoted.

Or just read it yourself, and use the material to make your own life and work happier and you more successful. That would be a very nice outcome too.

There you have it.  While I'm on vacation, there is plenty of good stuff in WWW to keep you reading until I get back.  Here's the web site again:  http://www.mariotti.net

Try it.  I think you'll like it.

Best, John

THE ENTERPRISE-Hot Summer Issues

THE ENTERPRISE
Just two issues of THE ENTERPRISE left before "vacation time" rolls around.  With so little time and so much to cover, let's hit some high spots.

MEDICAL ERRORS ARE MURDER--BUT A LACK OF CONVICTIONS
Multiple reports, including one by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies confirms these facts.  Medication errors cause injury 1.5 million times each year.  As far back as 1999, 98,000 deaths were attributed to medical errors of all types, and the most common ones have to do with medication.  That is simply scandalous.  Today's world of technology won't let the wrong part go down an assembly line because the bar code reader will flag it; a passenger cannot easily board the wrong aircraft with a bar coded boarding pass; RFID technology identifies when a case of products leaves Asia--or Wal-Mart's back room.

How can the medical profession, pharmacists/pharmacies and the entire pharmaceutical industry permit this inexcusable problem to continue?  If they're (all) smart, they'll jump on this and collaborate before the class-action lawyers do it for them, because there is plenty of liability to spread around.  A combination of confusing labels on medicine containers and inscrutable drug interaction warnings that are pages long are just part of the problem.  The most incredible failure is the entire medical/health care industry's unwillingness to use proven technology to solve this problem and stop injuring or killing people.   As more people live longer, and the aged become less able to manage their own medications, this will get worse before it gets better--unless somebody does something.

What needs to be done is to FORCE massive and rapid reforms.  I guess it will take a series of government mandates to finally force the issue. Medicare can lead the charge, but the senior administrators of hospitals, the doctors who are responsible and the staffers who make far too many human errors are all to blame.  Equally to blame are the archaic, scribbled written prescriptions, illegible medical charting and the Luddite mentality of the medical profession at large. 

This is a good place for Bill Gates to focus some of his foundation's billions--and FAST.  It's time for the American Medical Association to refocus its attention away from conventions in glittery locations, and onto raising awareness of this problem and putting solutions in place--NOW.  Hey, Senator Bill Frist, you're a Doc.  How about a push from the Senate leader?

CHINA STRUGGLES TO CONTAIN RUNAWAY GROWTH
There's trouble coming in China, and it will affect almost everyone in the US in one way or another.  China's central banks are trying to find a solution to growth that threatens to explode its economy.  Growth in 2Q '06 was 11.3%, up from (a too high) 10.3% in 1Q.    Fiscal policy in China has been lagging reality for a long time, but now the reality is catching up.  Like a rocket accelerating too fast, the Chinese economy could literally tear itself apart unless this area is brought under control.  The solutions will not be politically popular either--so a side effect could be huge social upheaval in China.  Nobody said it was easy to build a world power overnight.  Danger.

WAL-MART'S FINDING CHANGE IS DIFFICULT
As Wal-Mart tries to reduce inventories, its shelves are empty in spots until suppliers can adapt and its own systems can respond.   The result--lost sales.  Then there is its move to more upscale goods.   You can "perfume a pig" but it is still a pig.  Upscale goods (e.g., $2000 flat screen TVs) appeal to a clientele that neither expects them at Wal-Mart, nor goes there seeking them.  The result--core shoppers pass them up, and more sales are lost, while inventory sits unsold.  Net, net--comp store sales drop, perhaps for the first time ever, into negative territory.  Once you have solidly defined what you are, it's really hard, and really risky to try changing that--even a little.  Wal-Mart is "Always the low price, ALWAYS"--not "sort of" or mostly, or on certain items.  Danger.

MICROSOFT HOPES TO CHALLENGE APPLE'S IPOD WITH ZUNE
Microsoft is a huge, powerful, pervasive company.  But it doesn't get it, when it comes to ease of use.  Never has.  Probably still won't.  It's introducing a music player named Zune which it hopes will compete with Apple's iPod.  (Actually it plans a whole system around Zune--Microsoft never introduces a single-purpose thing.)  Will to work?  Probably.  Will it be too complex.  Probably. That is the Microsoft way.  The Microsofties are just too smart for their own good.  This is a great company that is drowning in self-induced complexity.  I should probably include a chapter on it in my book, but I keep hoping it will wake up.  I don't want a misguided chapter a new book like those many authors who wrote about how great Enron was.  C'mon Ray Ozzie--take hold.  Keep it simple.  Do one thing well, fast.

SOUTHWEST DOMINATES CHICAGO MIDWAY--AND COMPETITORS
Two of the poster children for success stories are entering new stages of their corporate lives.  Southwest (so far) has avoided burdening itself with unnecessary complexity as it grows.  Its acquisition of ATA, and the resultant dominance at Chicago's "other airport"--Midway--plays to Southwest's strengths.  So far so good.

DELL HITS A ROUGH SPOT
Dell has gone the other way, complicating the simple part of its processes, and trying to be too many things to too many people.  That's a sure prescription for failure.  HP is catching up.  Lenovo is figuring out how to compete in the US.  Apple is resurgent.  And to top it off, Dell's once vaunted customer service is now a "dis-service."  It has become the bad joke of stories about Indian call-center confusion and interminable waits just to be disconnected.  Time for Michael Dell to get off the covers of magazines and get back into the business.  Think hard about where his company has come from, where it is now and especially, where it needs to go.  HE can...but will h?

ISRAEL FINALLY DOES WHAT OTHERS SHOULD HAVE DONE--FIGHT BACK, HARD
It's about time somebody fought back at the "bullies."  I'm proud and pleased that Israel is doing what the US grid-locked politicians don't have the guts to do.   I hope we help them all we can.  As far as the poor Lebanese people, I feel sorry for the innocents...but only them.  If you let a band of criminals live in your house, you deserve to face the consequences.  I hope the Europeans see this too, and mostly (except for the idiot French) support Israel too.  The unfortunate element is that no good solution exists to the Middle East's tangled web of religious and ideological belifes and borders.

This could be a good way to publicly face down Syria and send a strong message to Iran too...if only the vaunted UN "peacekeepers" can wait until Israel has blasted much of Hezbollah (and Hamas too?) into dust.  Sure, some will hide and escape.  Cockroaches have survived for centuries.  But destroy their nests and they go away for a while to rebuild.  Keep doing that and they spend all their time rebuilding new nests, and none of their time being a nuisance--and worse.  It also helps to keep them from getting help rebuilding the nests.

BEAT UP THE BULLIES; TERRORIZE THE TERRORISTS
The only way to stop a bully from bullying is to bully them back.  Evander Holyfield proved it with Mike Tyson in the boxing ring.  The way to slow down terrorists is to subject them to terror of their own to deal with. A few might escape, but many will not.  The US bleeding heart liberals will think it's terrible, but it is their very freedom to be such a misguided pain in the A-- that we fight so hard as a nation to protect. 

Go get 'em, Israel, and don't stop until there is nothing coming back at you.  Drive the cockroaches into their holes in the ground.  And you guys who (allegedly) represent us in Washington, HELP the Israelis.   The part of the world that hates Israel already hates the US too.  And let's Israel hope learns a lesson from Iraq, too.  A fair fight can occur only if both combatants fight fair, and by the same rules.  Otherwise, it is just a fight, and it might well be "to the death,"  so fight accordingly.  Victory must come before occupation, and occupation is not a long-term solution.

That's where I stand on a warm summer day.  Where do you stand?  And will you say it loudly enough for others to hear?  I hope so.

Best, John

PS:The question of the week is whether Syed Saleem Shahzad is right in his Asia Times (Hong Kong) article that says Osama bin Laden is seriously ill and virtually bedridden, next to his dialysis machine.  We could learn that bin Laden is near death or dead, (eventually) but that his successor Ayman al-Zawahri is still running al Qaeda, and it is just as dangerous as ever.

THE ENTERPRISE--A dangerous world

THE ENTERPRISE

DANGER--EVERYWHERE
The world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place.   The Indian explosions, the North Korean missile tests, Iran's continued belligerence, and now a shooting conflict between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah (Lebanon), with Israeli claims that Syria and Iran are backing Lebanon, the continued insurgency in Iraq, and on and on.  That's all a lot more dangerous than Sarbanes-Oxley.  The fact that the US is so politically divided is very dangerous for us as a nation, too. 
We'd better think about pulling together as a country, and set aside petty, partisan politics.  Is anyone in Washington listening?  (Not likely.)

OIL GOING UP, UP, UP--ALL SPECULATION BASED
What does all this global unrest mean?  First, it means oil prices will keep rising.  This is not a supply and demand issue.  It's all about speculation, and that means more global upsets will keep pushing oil prices all over the place--but mostly up.  If your business is even moderately oil related (aren't they all?), get ready for another round of cost increases, which you will have to translate to price increases--and FAST.  The old school price increase process, which allows buyers to stiff-arm increases for months or longer is not viable any more.  It's time to find a new, better way.

THE OLD PRICE INCREASE MECHANISM IS BROKEN
Suppliers will either shut off supply or go broke waiting for price increase relief--either of which is not good for the buyer.  The question is who will carry the message to the mega-buyers who practice stiff-arming, threats, shifting of business and worse.  Sooner or later, the good suppliers will choose sides, and they'll pick the customers who understand the new global order and act accordingly.

BUYERS MUST RETHINK HOW THEY TREAT SUPPLIERS
I don't care whether the buyers are huge auto companies (GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, et. al. ), an industrial conglomerate (GE, Tyco, Emerson), a retailer (Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc.), a retail supplier (P&G, Unilever, Kraft), an aerospace/defense company (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon) or IT/Technology/Services companies (IBM, Dell, HP, Motorola).   The old saying "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) became obsolete as big buyers built huge leverage over sellers. They all need to wake-up and help their buyers find better a way to partner with suppliers -- instead of treating them like servants or second-class citizens.  Remember, to make a good product or deliver a good service, a company MUST have good suppliers, and really good suppliers are scarce. That worm may start taking a turn in favor of the sellers--suppliers--good ones are scare and getting scarcer.

THE PRINCIPLES OF PARTNERSHIP ARE STILL VALID
Given the global parity in so many aspects of business, there remains one way to achieve a competitive advantage.  Find and partner with the best partners.  The critical partners are Customers, Associates, Suppliers, and Truth-tellers.  To remember these , I use the acronym CAST.

YOU NEED THE RIGHT C.A.S.T.
Sell to the best Customers, they'll gain share and take you along for the ride.
Choose the best Associates--the best talent and right skill-sets--and you are on the way to winning.
But, you must have the best Suppliers, too.  Companies that use and abuse their suppliers will find that really strong suppliers do have a new kind of leverage.  There are not enough of them to go around.
Finally, everyone needs Truth-tellers--someone(s) who will be honest and call things as they are, or at least as they seem to be.

KEYS TO PARTNERSHIPS
Partnerships are built on Trust first, which is based on Open Communications and sharing of information.  Partnerships mean Balanced RIsks and Rewards, with enough in it for both partners.  Finally, partnerships are not easy, they not soft/squishy, they can be tough/hard to forge,  but most importantly, partnerships are interdependent relationships built on honesty and fairness.

WHOEVER HAS THE STRONGEST PARTNERS WILL WIN
When times are tough, those who have the strongest partners and partnerships will come out the winners.  Are you working on yours?  Are your partners on board.  When times get tough, partnerships are even more critical.  Do your favored partners a real favor, and pass this message on to them.  It's a good reminder, anytime, but especially in these dangerous times.

Best, John

THE ENTERPRISE--An Era of Discontinuities

THE ENTERPRISE

So many things to reflect on after a major holiday weekend and time to think.

AN ERA OF DISCONTINUITIES
This is an era of discontinuities.  Perhaps it started with the death of "the father of management" Peter Drucker, and now recently the passing of Theodore Levitt, one of the great minds in marketing.  Then the sudden and shocking death of Ken Lay, voiding his "guilty verdict," but leaving so many unanswered (and unanswerable) questions for Enron's former employees and for Ken Lay's family.  It's an even sadder end to a tragic story.

Now Bill Gates announces his intention to pull back from Microsoft's day to day business in the next 2 years to concentrate on his charitable work and foundation.  OK.   Next, Warren Buffet donates more money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation than most foundations could ever imagine, "because he's not good at the charitable stuff (and presumably, his friend Gates, is)."  OK.  Both are understandable, even if surprising.  Gates has been the  inspiration behind Microsoft since its inception, and he must find a way to enable Microsoft to come out from under his shadow.  This is a good one.  So is Buffet's move.

Of greatest concern in this era of discontinuities are the scary leaders in Iran and the downright crazy North Korean leadership, both of which are intent on building nuclear (weapons) and delivery capabilities.  When leaders who are clearly radical if not downright unstable, take such precipitous actions, it makes the likelihood of diplomatic solutions very low.   We are entering a new era of global danger.  Russia is becoming more like its old self (not good). China won't lean on N. Korea hard enough either.  It has its own problems--see below. 

Nobody knows what to do with these first two (new problems) or how to deal with the next two (old problems) and that's not even mentioning al Qaeda,  the Taliban, Pakistan, and the entire Middle East crowd of assorted crazies,  still out there making trouble and blowing each other up.  Then there is Iraq.   There may be an end in sight, but it isn't pretty.  New democracies never are.  (We had a Civil War here, remember, so who are we to be critical?)

MEGA-MERGERS--JUST MAKING A BIGGER RANCH?
After this we get a continued run of mega-mergers, mostly of European and American companies.  (Can anyone successfully merge a French company with a US company?  I don't think so.) Seldom do mergers of large companies increase shareholder value over the long term.   They simply provide a short-term burst of savings from synergies and cost-cutting, then value tails off as time goes by.   (Think DaimlerChrysler, for one prominent example.) 

I remember my old Oklahoma cowboy friend's saying, that mergers don't do much good..."It's like putting big ranches together. All you get is a bigger spread that's harder to tend.   And more manure"  Of course, the latest amazing adventure is Kirk Kerkorian's baby of trying to combine bits and pieces of GM-Nissan-Renault.  This could be the granddaddy of them all--globally.   Carlos Ghosn had better be good.  Let's see, we want a Japanese company, a French company and the original big American company to all "play nice together."  As another old friend used to say, "sure, that'll happen when donkeys fly."

MEDIA CREDIBILITY HITS A NEW LOW
Major news media is under siege (deservedly), thanks to its incredible, overblown sense of self-importance, and its consistent support for anything that might harm the Bush administration, without regard to what effect it has on other Americans, or what semblance it has to the truth.  Remember Dan Rather?  He's gone.  Then there was the NY Times writer who just made up the material for his stories, Jason something.  He's gone too.  And the lady who went to jail to protect a source who leaked what everybody already knew about a CIA agent.  But wait, wasn't that the defense for the recent SWIFT leak story that it's OK to leak something if a lot of people know about  it, but that rule is only good when we want to use it against the Bush Administration?  I'm getting confused.

Anyway, she's gone too, along with a couple of middle management editors that were the sacrificial lambs. A lot of others need to be gone when the news media oversteps its bounds, but mostly they aren't (yet).  The onesat the top (editors and owners)  need to feel the pain.  We need a Sarbanes-Oxley type law for newspapers and electronic media.  Knowingly publish something wrong, illegal or unAmerican and "Do Not Pass Go, Go Directly to Jail."  That might protect the First Amendment against wholesale abuse and misuse.

AND...now we get Katie Couric?  The mainstream media has been dumbing down its news content for years, packing everything into 7-second sound bites.  Newspapers are losing circulation and fewer people are reading the ones that are printed.  When a major network chooses a news anchor like Couric, it's a signal that network's news has (both) unabashedly swung further "left" and openly moved into "entertainment-news", where unbiased facts are inconveniences to be included only when they fit the story, and to be distorted to fit the story when they don't.  Smile Katie.   At least you're cute and perky--as long as I mute the sound.

CHINA--ALL IS DEFINITELY NOT WELL
China may be the next leader of the world in economics, but it has a few internal problems to solve en route to that exalted role.  Its financial systems are a mess.  Its government run/owned factories are losing money faster than the government can prop them up.  Social problems are huge, and growing.  It is still the world's workshop, but it is short of energy, long on pollution and short on answers as to how its financial crisis can be solved without huge political repercussions.  It keeps buying US debt because that is the safest haven it can find to put its money into.  There's trouble looming in China.

GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENCE?  HUH?
As I was working on my book on complexity, I added a brief chapter about that bastion of complexity, our Federal government.  Why do we have Intelligence coordination problems?  In today's high tech world, it should be easy to share info.  That assumes that the 18 (yes, that's right 18) separate intelligence agencies that make up the US Intelligence Community want to share info.  The web site only lists 16, but two are super-secret, so there really are 18.  They don't.  They want to protect their power base and budgets.  The old joke was that Government Intelligence was an oxymoron.  Now it's not a joke.  It's deadly dangerous.

CYBER-TERRORISM STILL A THREAT
When I wrote my novel THE SILENCE in 2001-2002, I described a fictional conspiracy to bring down all communications at once through a combination of then known technologies--jamming, hacking into control computers, Worms and viruses leaving back doors into computers, etc.  Guess what?  They all still exist and according to experts far more knowledgeable than me, the risk of cyber-terrorism still looms very large.  Imagine a 2006 world with no email, no Internet, no cell phones, no Blackberries, just for a day or two.  Scary, huh?  That is possible.  THE SILENCE describes just one scenario out of many, (and it is still available on amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.)
Go to either to buy it:  ---http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0595744591/qid=1152500771/sr=12-13/002-8857603-6078410?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
---http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0595744591&itm=8

UNITY08?  FOR REAL?
Last, but not least, the partisan politics and polarization of our governmental leaders is finally bearing fruit.  Go see http://www.unity08.com/believe.  Is it possible for an Independent ticket to be the winning one in 2008?  In the old days I'd say "no way."  With the Internet and the mood of Americans today, who knows.  Could it happen?  A long shot, but no longer out of the question. Watch this and see if it grows.  It could change your life forever.

Best,  John

THE ENTERPRISE--Happy 4th of July

THE ENTERPRISE

Independence Day.  Time for all Americans to get off the treadmill and celebrate our Independence, and more appropriately, our freedom as a country.  Amidst the huge, acrimonious debate about what we are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places that have not enjoyed our freedom, we forget just how fortunate we are.

BOOK(s) PROGRESS
I celebrated on June 30th as I hit the SAVE key on my Mac iBook marking the completion of the manuscript (first draft plus my edit) for THE COMPLEXITY FACTOR.  I then emailed it to about 6-7 kind colleagues who offered to read it and give me feedback before I do the final edit.  Along those lines, my friends Jim & Joe Swartz's new book, SEEING DAVID IN THE STONE is about to hit distribution.  I'm waiting for my advance copy of the finished product and will "review it" for readers here in a future edition of THE ENTERPRISE.

THE NY TIMES ISSUE
I was all set to write about this, but after penning a suitable (lengthy) diatribe, I did some additional research (thanks to some help from friends) and decided that only a little more was worth being said.  The Times didn't violate the law.  Perhaps the people who leaked the story did, but I don't know enough to say that.   (If they did, they deserve prosecution, and any one who helped them would be an "accessory" including NY Times personnel.)

There were a lot of people who already knew about the US government programs to track financial transactions.  Perhaps the biggest error was one of judgement unrelated to the newsworthiness or legality.  The NY Times continues to thumb its nose at the US Government in general and President Bush (who its owners, editors and a lot of reader) genuinely hate.

But...you know what.  President Bush is still the leader of our country, and until he is replaced, he deserves a bit of respect and perhaps even occasional cooperation in the war against terrorism--even by the NY Times.  Hubris (a characteristic defined as "exaggerated pride or self-confidence") is something that both the Bush administration and the NY Times are guilty of, and for both, it undermines their credibility with the American public.  That's the tragedy of "circuses" like this one. 

This past week, I heard a report (unverified) that the mainstream media now trails both Congress and the President in public credibility.  Isn't that a shame?  (FYI--USA Today finally back off its reporting about telcos giving phone numbers to NSA...but it was buried in a small correction on page 2.)

A REAL CRIME--FEMA's INEPTNESS
I heard a member of our church report on her visit to Bay St. Louis, MI where the church is helping a "sister parish" recover from Katrina.  She reported that there is NO evidence of Federal help at all being given to the people around that devastated community.  Piles of trash 7 ft. tall and 15 ft. wide sit in the street with no idea of who, when or if it will be collected.  People are still paying mortgages on "slabs" where houses used to be, and where there are still houses, mold is the primary occupant.  On their way back, they drove past a field with over 1000 FEMA Mobile Homes sitting unused.  Why?  One guess? Federal Government's bureaucratic ineptitude would be mine.

I have a good idea.  VP Dick Cheney was a pretty effective manager in the private sector.  How about President Bush sending him down there to untangle some of the "red tape," get some things moving and bring back a series of recommendations about what to do to keep them moving.  In case no one has noticed, hurricane season is here again.  God forbid that another one blows up that way while the people whose home were destroyed last time are now gone, in mobile homes (hurricanes and tornados do awful things to mobile home parks) or just in the process of rebuilding.  If anyone reading this it in contact with the administration, please pass on a "heads up."

BUSINESS & RETAILING
Turning to the business front for just a moment, no one knows where the stock market is going.  Are interest rates going to be raised again this year?  No one (including the Fed and Ben Bernanke) knows that answer.  Depending on what those highly erratic and oft-revised indicators say about inflation, consumer confidence, spending, etc. they will wait and decide later.  That makes sense, too.

The last half of the year, and especially the 4th quarter is "retailer time." Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas generate a huge amount of retail sales and determine which ones do how well.  Each year, after all of the YE Financials are in, I compile a list showing a few of the biggies and their relative operating expenses.  I think these expense comparisons are a key indicator of who has the relative power and leverage to dominate.  This year's are interesting and revealing.

Wal*Mart is still the top dog, but the competition is closing in on it.  Sears/Kmart still can't compete--at least not yet.  Target better have the best style, because it will lose the price battles.  And everyone should be afraid of Costco.  As long as it doesn't fall into the trap of adding too much complexity, it will keep winning.  And don't count Kroger out yet.  I was critical of it, but it is getting stronger as Wal*Mart wipes out the other competitors.  Most industries eventually get down to 3-4 remaining competitors, and perhaps groceries will too (leaving room for niche players like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Wild Oats, etc.).  Time will tell.

MAJOR US RETAILERS SALES AND EXPENSE RATIOS            
Retailer        Symbol    Sales    Oper.Exp.  % N.S.         
Wal-Mart        WMT     315654    56733    17.97%
    Est. Sam's              47000       4478        9.53%  (assumed = Costco)
    WMT - Sams's        268654    52255    19.45%
Home Depot    HD        81511     16455     20.19%
Target            TGT       52620     11461     21.78%
Sears/Kmart    SHLD    49124     10759     21.90%
Lowe's            LOW      43243      9014     20.84%
Costco            COST    52935      5044      9.53%
Kroger            KR         60553     11688      19.30%

GO TO THE CLINIC AT WAL-MART?
Several years ago, I held forth in THE ENTERPRISE that it was just a matter of time before Wal*Mart got into the medical care business, somehow.  I already get my eye exam and glasses there, and it is equal to what I paid twice as much for at private clinics.  The glasses are not cheap, but are guaranteed and seem just fine.  Why not go on to compete with the "doc in a box" urgent care clinics that have sprung up all over.  Get the kids runny noses checked out while shopping for the groceries.  Have blood drawn and the results of the blood tests evaluated and printed out.  I bet that will cost a lot less than i just paid at my local Doctor's clinic.

I don't think this kind of service can or should replace having a family Doctor (or visiting specialists as needed).  That is an essential part of knowing the history, your nuances and managing/treating a person's overall health.  But if we are serious about getting health care costs under control, Wal*Mart's clinics can do the routine stuff, load the results onto a flash memory stick (which it can sell you cheap) and you take that to your Doctor who reads it into his computer and then pokes around and uses the old stethoscope, etc.  This is coming--soon--and you read it here--over a year ago.  Get ready to be "greeted" when you go to the Wal-Doc.

Best, John