Telling It Like It Is

JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS...AND SOMETHINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR ON THANKSGIVING

These are not original pieces that I wrote, but they are wonderful thoughts to share with all my friends on this special weekend.  I’ll be sidelined for a bit (an outpatient procedure, which was successful) and that gives me something else to be thankful for!

This first piece was found and shared by a friend.. It really struck me with how right it was. The other one was written by Alan Miller, Editor of the Columbus Dispatch, who always writes thoughtful columns..” 

FIRST A SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR ALL MY FRIENDS WHO (LIKE ME) ARE "OLDER THAN AVERAGE"

JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS...

A newlywed young man was sitting on the porch on a humid day, sipping ice tea with his Father.

As he talked about adult life, marriage, responsibilities, and obligations, the Father thoughtfully stirred the ice cubes in his glass and cast a clear, sober look on his Son.

"Never forget your friends," he advised, "they will become more important as you get older." "Regardless of how much you love your family and the children you happen to have, you will always need friends.  Remember to go out with them occasionally (if possible), but keep in contact with them somehow."

"What strange advice!" thought the young man. "I just entered the married world, I am an adult and surely my wife and the family that we will start will be everything I need to make sense of my life."

Yet, he obeyed his Father; kept in touch with his friends and annually increased their number.

Over the years, he became aware that his Father knew what he was talking about. In as much as time and nature carry out their designs and mysteries on a person, friends are the bulwarks of our life.

After more than 70 years of life, here is what he, I and you will have learned:

Time passes. Life goes on. Children grow up, cease to be children and become independent. And to the parents, it breaks their heart but the children are separated from the parents because they begin their own families.

Jobs / careers come and go.Illusions, desires, attraction, sex....weakens. People can't do what they did physically when they were young.

Parents die but you move on. Colleagues forget the favors you did. The race to achieve slows.

But, true friends are always there, no matter how long or how many miles away they are.  

A friend is never more distant than the reach of a need, intervening in your favor, waiting for you with open arms or in some way blessing your life.

When we started this adventure called LIFE, we did not know of the incredible joys or sorrows that were ahead.

We did not know how much we would need from each other.

Love your parents, take care of your children, but keep a group of good friends.

Stay in touch with them but do not impose your criteria.

Send this to your friends (even those you seldom see) who help make sense of your life.... I just did.

By the way, thank you for being my friend.

Happy Thanksgiving,

JOHN

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Amid a second year of pandemic, we still have much for which to be thankful

Alan D. Miller

The Columbus Dispatch

Last year at this time, I wrote in this space that, "in this year like no other in modern history," it was easy to focus on the significant challenges we all faced and overlook the blessings.

Sadly, 2021 has been very much like the year before it as we struggled through a second year of the coronavirus pandemic.

And yet, as we head into the week of Thanksgiving, it's worth repeating what I said last year: We can still give thanks for so many things.

We can be thankful for the doctors and nurses, EMTs and other first-responders, and the researchers who are all working to keep us safe and make us well.

We give thanks for the grocery workers who have kept shelves stocked throughout the pandemic. For the truck drivers, mail carriers, package delivery teams and others who bring things to us so that we can remain safely in our homes. And for so many others who work tirelessly to bring some sense of normalcy and comfort to us amid a most unsettling time.

I give a personal note of thanks for being blessed with a loving and supportive family. I'm also blessed to spend each day with colleagues in newsrooms across Ohio who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to bring you the news and information you need to navigate life in uncharted waters.

And we all can give thanks for the beauty and bounty of nature. After more than six decades on this Earth, I remain in awe of the natural beauty of Ohio, especially at this time of year.

I have said it before in this column, and it is worth repeating, that a drive through the countryside in fall gives a clear image of more of the many things for which we can be thankful: Fertile land, hardworking farmers and the abundant food produced on the 14 million acres of agricultural land between Ohio's many cities.

The patchwork of gray-brown soybean fields, golden cornstalk stubble and the still-green pastures stretch out for miles. Cows loaf near their barns, deer graze on the corn kernels dropped by pickers, an occasional hawk scans the naked fields for vermin, and we can count among our blessings that we live in a place as beautiful as this.

We also can give thanks for what those fields and farms represent – the land from which we receive our food for Thanksgiving, Christmas and every other day.

Turkey, chicken, beef, pork, milk, eggs, wheat for flour, fruit and vegetables produced here, combined with the food processing and packaging businesses around all of that farming, make up Ohio's largest industry.

So in this challenging year of 2021, take a moment to thank a farmer, remember the true meaning of Thanksgiving and consider a little of the history of what has become a national holiday.

President George Washington issued a proclamation in 1789 declaring the first national day of thanksgiving, asking people for gratitude to God "for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country" and "the favorable interpositions of his Providence."

In following years, states set their own dates for the day of thanksgiving until President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November for all to give thanks on the same day – "reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People."

He issued that proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863 – a year in which America was more divided than ever, one in which tens of thousands of American troops died in Civil War battles.

"In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions of foreign states, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union," Lincoln's proclamation said.

Amid that time of unparalleled division, President Lincoln took time to remind people of the many reasons to be thankful, and he easily could have been talking about Ohio today:

"The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God."

Alan D. Miller is editor of The Dispatch. [email protected] @dispatcheditor

THE ENTERPRISE—DOES AMERICA HAVE THE WILL TO BE GREAT?— THE LEADERSHIP & WILL TO WORK FOR IT?

It’s been too long since I published an edition of THE ENTERPRISE… My fault is from "waiting for the dust to settle" on so many issues—and realizing that "the dust never settles.” Thus I am adding two versions of columns I wrote first ten years ago. They are more appropriate now than ever.  We have millions of unemployed people and millions of jobs going unfilled. That conundrum is, in my opinion, a result of the accumulated effect of political policy, current conditions and human nature.

A wise person once said, “The behavior rewarded is the behavior repeated.” 

TWO 2011 ARTICLES BELOW EXPAND ON TWO ASPECTS OF A MALAISE THAT AFFLICTS AMERICA TODAY
Current political leaders believe government knows best and must do everything to drive that point home. That includes every imaginable form of welfare and government largesse, and some that no rational person ever thought were imaginable (until Bernie Sanders, the Democrat Socialist weighed in with his personal form of foolishness.)

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” is a quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism. This quote assumes the man is willing to "learn how to fish," and will expend the effort to feed himself.  These days, that is not so true. By spending inconceivable amounts (Trillions) of borrowed money (that it doesn’t have), the USA has convinced millions of people that they don’t need to work to feed themselves. They can just expect the government to “take care of them!”  As they buy into this concept, they are putting themselves into a form of “Economic Slavery” where the government is their de facto “master."

About half of Americans no longer pay income taxes—they live off the efforts to the other half. Many people can stay home and have more government supplied income than their skills could earn—if they were willing to work for a living, in regular jobs. The American government led by Obama’s compromise VP, “Clueless" Joe Biden (a long-term Senator with no real achievements except getting elected, and no real experience except how government can spend taxpayers earnings). He is now the President. His policies seem to be controlled by liberal Socialists (now marketed as “progressives”) within the Democratic party. Socialism has been proven over and over to be an unworkable system.

I guess I’m old fashioned to think that people should earn their living by working, rather than being wards of the government welfare state. The government and its programs create NO wealth. All government income is collected from taxes on the wealth creating (working) Americans or levying/collecting tariffs on goods coming into the US from foreign entities.  

The government was created to work for the people, not vice versa—(to do for them what they alone couldn’t do for themselves.)  Disagree if you wish, but that statement is a fact.

To finish let's consider the other aspects of America’s plight. 

“Slavery" comes in many forms — to control people’s behavior— to serve other masters:

• Worker Shortages—(Already described.)

• Inflation—Printing more money, with nothing of value backing it, creates inflation and devalues the money. BIG Problems follow.

• Covid—Allowing hundreds of thousands to suffer and die when vaccines exist to stop this is inhuman, immoral and irresponsible

• Supply Chains—Finely tuned  “just in time” supply chains lack the capacity/resilience to respond to unexpected surges in demand

• Welfare—If excessive largesse creates “Economic Slavery,” so does excessive reliance on China, et.al. to create "Supply Chain Slavery”

• Climate—Misguided political/media alarmism re: short-term Climate Change adds widespread panic to create “Climate Change Slavery”

• Information—Mis-information & big tech censorship creates “propaganda” & widespread disbelief & "Information Confidence Slavery”

• Immigration—No Border control leads to chaos, and adds countless unfortunate people to our country…A Human Tragedy

• Foreign Policy—Confusion creates chaos and mistrust, and contributes to weak, Ineffective Leadership

 

Ironically, we need more "willing workers" in the USA. Immigrants have always filled the gap in our falling birth rate. Fewer willing workers leads to lower national productivity and less wealth creation. 

Finally, someone needs to remind the people in charge of our country, our states and cities: There is no such thing as a “free lunch!  Somebody always pays, even if the person “paying" is unknown, unwilling, hidden or simply unaware. 

 

The natural tendency (in families and organizations) to economize in one place to compensate/pay for an economic need in another has been completely forgotten (ignored) in American government—especially at the Federal Level.

THAT’S ALL FOLKS
Just “Telling it Like it Is”
JOHN

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SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Mar 24, 2011,04:43pm EDT

Forbes.com

A Nation of Grown-up Children? 
@2011 John Mariotti, Contributor

When I see the reaction of so many Americans in the polls and the demonstrations, I am reminded of the days when my children were growing up.  I often had this same reaction when leading a large group of corporate employees.  I felt like these “grownups” were exhibiting the same reactions my children had (in their formative years) to discipline, good behavior and accepting responsibility for their actions (and the consequences). This is one of the most important responsibilities of parenting—to teach their children to be accountable, responsible and practice good behavior and judgment in the face of difficult situations.

I fear that what our U. S. (and State) government(s) have done over the past few decades is to “train” a huge number of people in America that they don’t have to be responsible for their actions, their financial affairs or the consequences of misbehaving. Somehow, the government—“Uncle Sam”—or another “big brother” (such as the union, the welfare agency, etc.) would take care of them—somehow.  And someone else would pay for it.  YOU!

Katrina’s Bad Example: New Orleans and Louisiana

Nowhere was this mentality more evident than during the catastrophe of hurricane Katrina, when thousands of New Orleans residents failed to heed the warnings to leave the city.  They had plenty of time.  The buses were just sitting there, but no leadership demanded their use.  Then these people were finally driven by flood waters to converge on the Superdome where they sat, whining “help me, help me,” while demonstrating vociferously and generally acting like petulant children who had been denied their allowance.  It was both tragic and appalling at the same time.  Misguided mainstream media made it worse with their bleeding-heart sensationalism—interviewing a few of the most outrageous “victims” over and over.

Katrina’s Good Example: Mississippi

It was instructive that the other state as hard hit by Katrina, as Louisiana was its neighbor Mississippi.   There its governor, Haley Barbour, took an entirely different tone in what he said, as he spoke “hitching up his pants,” saying to Mississippians and the world (paraphrasing), “We really got slammed; now we have to get on with cleaning up the mess and rebuilding our state and cities.  After all, it’s our state and if we don’t do it, who will?” Barbour led Mississippians in a positive direction, and the results were notable.   Mississippi immediately rebuilt the coastal casinos that provided such a large source of the state’s revenue.  Then they pulled together to get on with the massive job of rebuilding other parts of their state and cities.  Some areas are still devastated, but unlike New Orleans and Louisiana, Mississippians showed a sense of resolve, of courage, responsibility and a mature, can-do attitude—derived from their governor’s leadership.

Unaffordable Entitlements

Now we have the massive government entitlements:  Social Security (A Ponzi scheme if there ever was one), Medicare and Medicaid driving our country rapidly toward insolvency.  Few politicians have the courage to tackle and cut these unaffordable programs because they know that many of these dependent, grownup children can vote—and will likely vote them out of office.  So instead, they nibble around the edges, trimming smaller (but still huge and wasteful) “peripheral” budget accounts.  While these cuts will help, they are like pruning a few small the limbs on a dying tree—too little, too late.  Where is the leadership?  What are they showing us?

Union “Tantrums” 

Unions are now exhibiting the same kind of “tantrums” that spoiled children use to get what they want, whether they deserve it or not.  After a decade or two of negotiating unaffordable pay and benefit packages, and then redirecting union dues to elect sympathetic politicians, the unions are now being called to “fess up and pay up.”  Citizens of so many states are now supporting too many public employees (and their unions) unaffordable pay and benefits (especially under-funded and un-fundable pension plans).  These unions, the members, the officers and liberal political friends believe that if they have bad enough tantrums, they’ll get to keep their non-competitive, unaffordable pay and benefit plans.

We cannot let that happen.  Spoiled grown-up children, like our own children at formative ages, learn what kinds of misbehavior they can get away with.  It’s time to stop this nonsense.

Endless Unemployment

Another area of “spoiling grown-up children” is the practice of extending unemployment benefits almost forever.  Before you accuse me of being unsympathetic to the plight of the unemployed, I am not.  I do feel bad for them and their families.  BUT—I have heard far too often the comment, “What’s the point of going out looking for a job which is hard to find, I have to get up everyday to show up, and my take home pay is hardly more than unemployment—where all I have to do if fill out a form and stand in line.”

“The Behavior Rewarded is the Behavior Repeated”

Once again, we train these dependent “grownup children” that if they wait long enough, someone will rescue them; relieve them of their “grownup responsibilities.”  And the government does, time after time.  If there are no negative consequences of the failure to accept responsibility, so what?  That unemployment check comes out of the pockets of employers and indirectly out of the potential pay for working people: grownups who are being responsible—that’s what.  The longer we teach people that there are no consequences of their actions, the more they avoid responsibility.  We call companies “too big to fail” and then bail them out, when their fate should be bankruptcy. We feel sorry for cities and push unfunded mandates on states to help them—even if the state is flat broke.

Bright Spots—Courageous Governors

Courageous governors are facing these issues and trying to bring fiscal responsibility back to the U. S.: Chris Christie in NJ; Mitch Daniels in IN; Scott Walker in WI, to just name a few.  Other states, such as CA and IL are so deeply mired in their own irresponsible spending that they are functionally, intellectually and morally bankrupt.

But then what would you expect from a government whose leadership calmly proposes a budget that spends $1.40 for every dollar of income.  Perhaps we have found the “grownup-child-in-chief” and he lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. When the President of the United States fails to accept his responsibilities, why should the rest of us worry? 

John Mariotti

 

© John Mariotti 2011
DOES AMERICA HAVE THE WILL TO BE GREAT?

There is an apocalyptic piece that has been circulating around the Internet for several weeks, entitled “Changes are Coming.”  It is written in two parts, and is quite long.  I’ll summarize it and just include a bit of the language—which is that of a very concerned author.

The first part says “Big Changes Coming” and cites the evolution of our way of life and the disappearance of familiar things we have known:

§  The post office (failing),

§  The personal check (replaced by debit cards),

§  The newspaper (replaced by on-line news),

§  The book (replaced by e-books),

§  The land-line telephone (replaced by cell phones),

§  Music (“discs” being replaced by “downloads”),

§  Television (broadcast and cable replaced by “streaming video”),

§  Privacy (becoming non-existent—being replaced by total transparency).  

The loss of these old, familiar part of our lives is troubling but more so, it is sobering. Change is constant—some would call it “progress.”  Life evolves and we adapt.  Or we don't--which is usually a bad decision.  

Many people long for the "good old days," but those days are gone forever. Some would say they weren't so good either.  They were simpler.  But so was life a century or more ago--but few would argue that our predecessors had it so good either. Pioneers led harsh and brutal lives—and simpler was not better. 

But adapt and evolve we must.  With change come opportunity and our lives and the possessions and services we surround ourselves with will continue to change with accelerating speed.  We must deal with change; but better yet, we should capitalize on change to make our lives better.

The second part of this lament is troubling.  It is titled “The Deindustrialization of America.” But it can also be interpreted as either tragedy or opportunity in the face of change? 

This blogger describes the symptoms of America’s "deindustrialization" in terms of the loss of manufacturing jobs and factories, but the way the data is presented and interpreted is designed to support only one point of view—“the glass is half empty!”  The words that follow are from “The Economic Collapse Blog”—I have inserted some different explanations where I believe it is either misleading or could be interpreted differently.

The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe.  All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. America was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. America showed the world how to mass-produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes.  The great American manufacturing base crushed Germany and Japan in World War II.  

The preceding is true but that was then, and this is now. The rest of the world has “caught up.”  Germany and Japan were war torn and have been rebuilt, as has South Korea. China and Taiwan have grown into industrial powers.  Nothing the USA could have done would have slowed or stopped this from happening.  What is important is what the USA does now that this is the global reality.



But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America.  The United States has become a nation that consumes almost everything and produces almost nothing.  Once upon a time America could literally out produce the rest of the world combined.  Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world. 

In fact, the US is still the world’s largest manufacturer out-producing the manufacturing output of China, India, and Brazil combined, despite manufacturing being a very small portion of the entire US economy as compared to most other countries.

The U.S. produces approximately 21% of the world's manufacturing output, a number that has remained largely unchanged for the last 40 years. The job loss during this continual volume growth is explained by record-breaking productivity gains. In addition, growth in telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, aircraft, heavy machinery and other industries along with declines in low end, low skill industries such as clothing, toys, and other simple manufacturing have resulted in U.S. jobs being more highly skilled and better paying.

If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children? 

 Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things.  So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation?  

There is no doubt that the measure of industrial and commercial greatness in the past century was measured in terms of manufacturing competence and output.  However, in this century, I contend those metrics must be reevaluated.  The explosion of global electronic communications has made it possible for knowhow in manufacturing (and many other areas) to be quickly and easily transported to wherever it can be best implemented—and that is not always a high standard of living, developed country like the USA, Japan or Germany!

We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable. So what happens when the debt bubble pops? 



Sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them. Perhaps what they read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber.    

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The following are facts about the deindustrialization of America, (circe 2011, when written).

The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001.  About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation.

According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.



As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.


In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output.  In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.



The manufacturing share of the USA economy dropped from 21% in 1980 to 18% in 1990, 16% in 2000 and 13% in 2008. Still as previous posts show the USA manufacturing output has grown substantially: over 300% since 1980, and 175% since 1990.

The proportion of manufacturing output by the USA (for the top 14 manufacturers) has declined from 31% in 1980, 28% in 1990, 32% in 2000 to 24% in 2008. The proportion of USA manufacturing has declined from 33% in 1980, 29% in 1990, 36% in 2000 to 30% in 2008. While manufacturing output has grown in the USA it has done so more slowly than the economy overall.

As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing.  

The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941
In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.
The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use.  

Today it ranks 15th.

The agrarian age passed by, and the numerous farmers who fed themselves and rural America decades ago are now largely gone too.  The industrial age came and now it too is moving on.  The jobs that created the golden age of America have been taken by people in faraway countries, who can and will do them for far less in compensation, and the global economy is a hyper-competitive marketplace.  The new age of America is clearly based on knowledge and information, and on being what I would call "systems integrators."

America of the 21st century must also evolve and adapt to the new world realities.  The question is not "will America evolve and adapt?  It is "does America have the will to evolve and adapt?  Or have we created a country of lazy dependency, unrealistic youthful expectations and governments populated by people that have forgotten that government was created to work for the people and not vice versa.  

The America "of the people, for the people and by the people," must be recreated by a new group of leaders.  We need leaders who practice common sense and fiscal responsibility.  We need leaders who realize the extreme positions in any matter are a great risk.  We need leaders who listen--and hear--what the vast majority of Americans are saying.  Help us, serve us, but do not oppress us or burden us with a bureaucratic monstrosity that is unmanageable, unaffordable and dysfunctional.

As we approach this holiday season, I am including this "anonymous" author's perspective to make us all think

What kind of America do we want?  Are we willing to make the sacrifices to return it to a solid financial footing?  Will we find and elect leaders who want to serve us and help us and not oppress and control us?  When we find those, will we support them--and hold them accountable?  We may not ever be able to return to the good old days, but we can create good new days.  However, it will be neither simple nor easy.  But it is not our only choice--but it is our best choice.  Do we have the will to choose correctly?  Do you?

We are just seeing the end of the second era, the industrial era.  The first era was agrarian, when small farms were all over and much of the population was engaged in farming, and now it is only a small percentage.  

Congress created the (farm) extension system nearly a century ago to address exclusively rural, agricultural issues. At that time, more than 50 percent of the U.S. population lived in rural areas, and 30 percent of the workforce was engaged in farming. Extension's engagement with rural America helped make possible the American agricultural revolution, which dramatically increased farm productivity:

      In 1945, it took up to 14 labor-hours to produce 100 bushels of corn on 2 acres of land.

      By 1987, it took just under 3 labor-hours to produce that same 100 bushels of corn on just over 1 acre.

      In 2002, that same 100 bushels of corn were produced on less than 1 acre.

That increase in productivity has allowed fewer farmers to produce more food.  Fewer than 2 percent of Americans farm for a living today, and only 17 percent of Americans now live in rural areas.

Then came the industrial era, when factories proliferated, and now that activity is in decline, finding its "steady state" at some level.  

BUT--A total of 3.2 million – one in six U.S. factory jobs – have disappeared since the start of 2000. The manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy has experienced substantial job losses over the past several years 

In January 2004, the number of such jobs stood at 14.3 million, down by 3.0 million jobs, or 17.5 percent, since July 2000 and about 5.2 million since the historical peak in 1979. Employment in manufacturing was its lowest since July 1950.

What is the next era?  Knowledge and information workers--service businesses--or perhaps AI and "systems integrators?"  Enough for now—there is always some transition taking place and change is scary—but necessary.

[1] http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/19-facts-about-the-deindustrialization-of-america-that-will-blow-your-mind

THE ENTERPRISE--SPECIAL EDITION--CLIMATE CHANGE—THE FLEECING OF AMERICA VIA WIDESPREAD MYTH & MISINFORMATION

THE ENTERPRISE--SPECIAL EDITION--CLIMATE CHANGE—THE FLEECING OF AMERICA VIA WIDESPREAD MYTH & MISINFORMATION

Why do countless scientists and journalists and political figures continue to distort and manipulate climate reports for decades? The answer is the phrase from the movie Jerry Maguire: “Show me the money!”  Scientists depend on grants. Journalists depend on readers/viewers. Politicians are known to distort information (or lies) so they can win elections. 

A headline, “Everything in Climate Change is OK—Not much different than it's ever been” would not encourage grants, attract audiences or stir the emotions of voters. 

IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS, NO MATTER WHOSE BLOOD IT IS. —William Randolph Hearst, 1898. News paper publisher.

The opinions I have formed on this topic of Climate Change are drawn from multiple sources, and several people whose expertise far exceeds mine. A couple of important distinctions, actually definitions—to begin with. Weather and Climate are often confused as being interchangeable terms. They are NOT. According to NOAA: "Whereas ‘weather' refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, ‘climate' describes what the ‘weather' is like over a long period of time in a specific area. Different regions can have different climates…"

Here’s just one of many typical FALSE statements carried widely by news media attempting to sensationalize Climate Change:
President Joe Biden often says:  “Climate change is 'the existential threat of our time” is simply wrong.

(It's actually unfair to blame Biden’s ignorance—or cognitive impairment—for the inaccuracy of this statement. His speechwriters write nearly everything he says/reads.)  When anyone, including President Biden talks about “the science [about climate change] being settled”—they are also simply wrong. 

 

Whoever claims that may be simply misinformed, mistaken, lying, distorting the facts or all of these things, usually to to support what they want us all to believe about “Climate Change” or that The Science is settled.  The Science is "not settled." Maybe it never will be!

I capitalized The Science, as did author Steven Kooniin (former science advisor for the Obama administration) in his excellent recent book “Unsettled —What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters. 

This is necessary to differentiate what so many politicians, scientists, reporters and journalists are claiming is “settled” —when it fact, it is far from settled—and probably cannot be “settled.” 

 

Rather than duplicate a fine piece from the WSJ, I am posting it here. It explains far better and more succinctly than I could. 

 

Climate Change Brings a Flood of Hyperbole

Despite constant warnings of catastrophe, things aren’t anywhere near as dire as the media say.

 

By Steven E. Koonin  Aug. 10, 2021 6:33 pm ET   ©Wall Street Journal

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its latest report assessing the state of the climate and projecting its future. As usual, the media and politicians are exaggerating and distorting the evidence in the report. They lament an allegedly broken climate and proclaim, yet again, that we are facing the “last, best chance” to save the planet from a hellish future. In fact, things aren’t—and won’t be—anywhere near as dire.

 

The new report, titled AR6, is almost 4,000 pages, written by several hundred government-nominated scientists over the past four years. It should command our attention, especially because this report will be a crucial element of the coming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. Leaders from 196 countries will come together there in November, likely to adopt more-aggressive nonbinding pledges to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. 

 

Previous climate-assessment reports have misrepresented scientific research in the “conclusions” presented to policy makers and the media. The summary of the most recent U.S. government climate report, for instance, said heat waves across the U.S. have become more frequent since 1960, but neglected to mention that the body of the report shows they are no more common today than they were in 1900. Knowledgeable independent scientists need to scrutinize the latest U.N. report because of the major societal and economic disruptions that would take place on the way to a “net zero” world, including the elimination of fossil-fueled electricity, transportation and heat, as well as complete transformation of agricultural methods.

 

It is already easy to see things in this report that you almost certainly won’t learn from the general media coverage. Most important, the model muddle continues. We are repeatedly told “the models say.” But the complicated computer models used to project future temperature, rainfall and so on remain deficient. Some models are far more sensitive to greenhouse gases than others. Many also disagree on the baseline temperature for the Earth’s surface.

 

The latest models also don’t reproduce the global climate of the past. The models fail to explain why rapid global warming occurred from 1910 to 1940, when human influences on the climate were less significant. The report also presents an extensive “atlas” of future regional climates based on the models. Sounds authoritative. But two experts, Tim Palmer and Bjorn Stevens, write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the lack of detail in current modeling approaches makes them “not fit” to describe regional climate. The atlas is mainly meant to scare people.

 

As is now customary, the report emphasizes climate change in recent decades but obscures, or fails to mention, historical precedents that weaken the case that humanity’s influence on the climate has been catastrophic. The Summary for Policy Makers section says the rate of global sea-level rise has been increasing over the past 50 years. It doesn’t mention that it was increasing almost as rapidly 90 years ago before decreasing strongly for 40 years. 

 

Extreme weather events are invoked as proof of impending disaster. But the floods in Europe and China and record temperatures across regions of the U.S. are weather, not climate—singular events, not decades long trends. Both Europe and China have experienced equally devastating floods in past centuries, but these are forgotten or deliberately ignored. The drought and wildfires in the Western U.S. are part of a trend going back a few decades, but forest management and expanding human presence in the forests are perhaps more important than climate change in causing these events. 

 

The report expresses low confidence in most reported hurricane trends over the next century, and it remains uncertain whether there’s any trend beyond natural variability in Atlantic hurricanes. In other words, we have no scientific proof that humans have made hurricanes worse, despite what many say.

 

Refreshingly, the report deems its highest-emissions scenarios of the future unlikely, even though those are the ones you’re mostly likely to hear about in media reports. The more plausible scenarios have an average global temperature in 2100 about 2.5 degrees celsius warmer than the late 1800s. The globe has already warmed 1 degree since that time, and the parties of the Paris Accord arbitrarily agreed to limit further warming to another degree. But since humanity’s well-being has improved spectacularly, even as the globe warmed during the 20th century, it is absurd to suggest that an additional degree of warming over the next century will be catastrophic. In fact, the AR5 report from 2014 says even 1.5 degrees of additional warming by 2100 will have minimal net economic impact.

 

Good science is characterized by detail, data, proven models and reasoned debate. That takes time. Meanwhile, we should be wary of the torrent of hyperbole that is sweeping the globe.

-------------------------

Mr. Koonin, a professor at New York University, is author of “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.”

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THE YEAR 2010—WAS WHEN I CONCLUDED THAT CLIMATE CHANGE HYSTERIA HAD SOMETHING PHONY ABOUT IT

 I found a 2009 book— HEAVEN AND EARTH global warming the missing science, by Ian Plimer, Australia’s best known geologist, and part of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide.  I read Plimer’s book shortly after it was published and a correspondent (reader of THE ENTERPRISE) told me about it. I will quote just a few of his most convincing statements. He takes almost 500 pages of scientific information to support his premises. (Confession: I didn’t actually read all 494 pages. NOTE: I read the material that follows from Plimer in the year 2010—a full decade ago.

Plimer’s Introduction p.11 says, "To reduce modern climate change to one variable, CO2 or more correctly, a small portion of one variable human (human produced CO2) is not science, especially as it requires abandoning all we know about planet Earth, the sun, and the cosmos. Such models fail.(He adds a graph of temperature increase from 1990 to 2008 that shows this.)

He adds two other simple sentences in the next few paragraphs. "If we humans in a fit of ego, think we can change the normal planetary processes then we need stronger medicine.”    He goes on to say, “To argue that we humans can differentiate between human induced climate change and natural climate change is naïve.” But as he later explains, “Humans can change the weather."

As for models and projections, Plimer writes, “A phenomenon is not scientifically proven because various authorities and some scientists Say so.  Evidence now no longer matters". …  Models with simulations,  projections and predictions prove nothing.  All a model shows is something about the model itself and the modelers, normally their limitations.  As the Talmud states, ' We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.’ “

Once again, Plimer strikes out at the naivete of the modelers. “...to try to predict the future based on just one variable, (CO2) in extraordinarily complex natural systems is folly." (Remember Al Gore and his later debunked movie, An Inconvenient Truth?) 

 

As far back as 1996, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was formed in 1988) was the source of what is called The Science”  and ever since then, it has been altering its reports to support conclusions reported in the media, all of which were proven to be either wrong or misstated and exaggerated. 

Way back on June 11, 1996 the Wall Street Journal exposed this in an article entitled Coverup in the Greenhouse, followed by similar article by the former president of the National Academy of Sciences, entitled Major Deception on Global Warming. In the IPCC'S report, the authors/editors simply decided to add “discernible human effect” and deleted passages, one of which said, “No study to date has positively attributed all or part (of the climate change observed) to (man-made) causes.”  The final phrase deleted was “We do not know.”

 

RECENT NEWS RELEASES REVEAL THAT THE WIDELY TOUTED “PARIS ACCORD” IS ALREADY FALLING FAR BEHIND ITS GOALS AND PROJECTIONS. The solution, I’m sure will be "to throw more money at solving a problem that is falsely created.”

 

THE ODDS ARE HIGH THAT IF YOU READ AN ARTICLE IN MASS MEDIA USING THE PHRASE “CLIMATE CHANGE” IT IS FULL OF LIES, MISREPRESENTATIONS AND MISLEADING STATEMENTS TO SENSATIONALIZE WHAT WAS ESSENTIALLY WRONG!

 

NOTE: NOTHING IS CHANGING THAT HASN’T BEEN CHANGING FOR CENTURIES, AND YES, HUMANS CAN EFFECT WEATHER, BUT HUMANS HAVE A VERY SMALL EFFECT ON THE CLIMATE OVER THE LONG TERM, THUS EFFORTS TO “FIX THAT” WILL KEEP ON FAILING!!

=============

 

I titled this newsletter “Telling it Like it Is” a long time ago. THAT’S WHAT I’VE DONE HERE.

To disagree is your prerogative. Gather your own data, but you might want to read on…before deciding...

 

Best, JOHN
 
=============
THERE ARE MORE ARTICLES POSTED HERE WITH SNIPPETS OF EACH, FOR THOSE WHOSE WANT MORE INFO.

===========
Download Same Climate Report Different Day - WSJ

CLICK ON THE PDF TO READ ALL OF THIS...The solar panels Americans are being subsidized to install, the Wall Street Journal recently noted, are produced in “carbon-dioxide- belching, coal-burning plants in China.” Your subsidy to buy an electric car is the manufacturer’s subsidy to consume fossil energy in mining the lithium and rare metals needed to make it. Your subsidy to get a Tesla is the electric company’s subsidy to burn more fossil fuels to keep it charged….

...A carbon tax, because it reduces the incentive to consume fossil fuels across the board, is the way to lower emissions meaningfully. But a carbon tax would be unpopular and never pass, exclaimed President Obama as he abandoned his climate promises the moment he took office. …

...This week the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a draft of its long-awaited sixth assessment report coupled with an unscientific and fatuous preamble that said “no one is safe” from a warming planet. Yes, and no one is safe from iced tea and Kylie Minogue either, since both also involve costs and benefits just like humanity’s habit of using the atmosphere as a CO2 dump….

...Of interest to the nonfatuous was the track of real-world temperature changes. The IPCC estimates a rise of 1.1 degrees celsius in the past 150 years. This information, which it highlighted in bold print, led the IPCC in much finer print to lop 0.5 degree Celsius off its likely worst-case impact of a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. In other words, real-world warming, the IPCC finally acknowledges, has been less than that expected from its climate models. ...

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Download Climate Change Has Consumed Journalistic Standards - WSJ

CLICK ON THE PDF TO READ THE FIRST PART OF THIS...It’s extremely hot: Climate change. It’s extremely cold: Climate change. It’s raining a little: Climate change.

With the definitive affirmation comes the lurid panic followed by the stern lecture: The Earth is going to combust (or drown, or freeze, or starve—the science isn’t fully settled on that yet). And it’s all our fault. Specifically, it’s all Americans’ fault for driving SUVs, cranking up the air conditioning and refusing to become vegetarian. How can we expect the Chinese to stop building 50 coal-fired power stations a month if those Republican-voting rubes in Missouri insist on eating hamburgers?

Be ready for much more of this in the coming weeks after the publication Monday of the update by the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change in advance of the so-called COP 26 meeting in the U.K. in November. You will scarcely hear a dissenting voice as the monolithic media faithful echoes every frightening forecast from the scientists whose livelihoods depend on maintaining the highest level of alarm.

My beef here isn’t mainly with climate extremism itself. I’m no climate scientist: I’m confident the planet is warming and that evasive action would be smart. I’m less confident that a spate of historically familiar extreme weather events constitutes proof that we’re all going to burn in the next decade or that the answer lies only in the most drastic government-mandated responses, which the media will insist we must immediately adopt. Better-informed writers on these pages have put the case for a more measured judgment and approach. “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters,” a recent book by Steven E. Koonin, a scientist and former Obama administration official, provides an elegant rebuttal to much of the extremism. 

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Download Media Can’t Handle the Climate Truth - WSJ

 

CLICK ON THE PDF TO READ THE FIRST PART OF THIS...Imagine the news industry was still able to discern news. If the latest in a 40-year succession of climate forecasts differs from its predecessors in finding temperature change and emissions not as bad as previously projected, this would qualify as news. That is, to a media not wedded to the senseless assumption that climate science can only produce a succession of ever more dire discoveries.

Our climate fluctuates under many influences, but one factor that overwhelms all others is the increase in human beings and their valuable property placed in the path of extreme weather, behavior encouraged by politicians. Even so, human preparedness has advanced faster than climate change or even human building propensities. As University of Colorado Boulder’s Roger Pielke Jr. has patiently pointed out, your odds of dying from extreme weather have been declining drastically all through the period of growing human climate impact.

This progress had been made, so far at least, without help from climate policy, unless you consider fracking, which has led to a decline in total U.S. emissions, to be climate policy. Since mankind demonstrably is not going to arrest climate change by banning fossil fuels, and quite likely would leave itself on balance worse off if it did, let this be your good- news story of the day. 

=============

 Download Doctors Join the Climate Lobby - WSJ

Medical journals are supposed to be forums for doctors to publish research and debate ideas. But like traditional media outlets, many are finding it harder to control their political bias. Now some 200 journal editors are showing their political hand on climate change in an apocalyptic and misleading joint editorial this week ….CLICK ON PDF TO READ MORE

 

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GEOLOGISTS HAVE LONG CONTENDED “THE ROCKS DON’T LIE”

The history of the earth and its climate is contained in the rocks (and in the ice, if you want to watch the video below.

 Download 0p)

 

This four-minute recent video example—proves that climate temperatures now are only warmer than the coldest time in 10,000 years—starting to warm just 140 years ago!

================

PEOPLE CAN INFLUENCE WEATHER, AND IF THEY CHOOSE TO BUILD IN WEATHER PRONE AREAS, THEY CAN ALSO CAUSE MUCH GREATER DAMAGE AND LOSS OF LIFE.

Thus much of the media hype about Climate Change causing loss of property and life are directly linked to human behavior—not the Climate Change itself. Weather is different from Climate. Humans can effect weather, and be effected by Weather. READ THE TWO PDF FILES ATTACHED BELOW TO LEARN MORE...

Download UN: Weather Disasters Soar in Numbers Cost but Deaths Fall | World News | US News

 

Download Report: Climate change could see 200 million move by 2050

THE ENTERPRISE--THE END OF AN ERA, AND SEARCHING FOR A VERY DIFFERENT "NEW NORMAL" FUTURE

SEARCHING FOR THE "NEW NORMAL" FUTURE

First the column I wrote 7+ years ago:

WHAT’S A RETAIL STORE, GRAMPS?   By John Mariotti, ©2014

The time is only a decade or more in the future. Little 4-1/2 year old Susie just finished her Christmas—whoops—“Year End Annual Holiday” (YEAH) wish list using her latest 3D tablet. The list was instantly posted electronically to Gramps' and Gran's tablets. 

They reply with a question. "Would you like to go to a retail store to shop for your YEAH gifts? The answer nearly floors them. "What's a retail store, Gramps? And how do you 'shop' in one? What does 'shop' mean? How will I find what I want? Is there a way to ‘search’ for what I want? And then can we buy it and do we carry it home with us?"

If you think this is a far-fetched scenario, think again. Imagine the inefficiency of the entire retailing process. First someone must 'guess' at what consumers might want to buy. They are inevitably wrong, to varying degrees. Then the merchandise they 'guess' is needed must be ordered and transported either from the producer, or from a distribution center, to numerous stores spread all over population centers.

Then people must drive their electric or hybrid vehicles from store to store, wasting energy and creating traffic jams, consuming huge amounts of time, just to see IF the desired items are there, and in the desired shape, size, color, spec or whatever. Often they are not, so it is on to yet another "store" (even the name implies accumulation and storage of goods) where the hunt continues...often fruitlessly.)

The signs are clear that traditional "bricks and mortar" (BAM) retailing is in decline. America has been "over-stored" for decades, so a natural selection process continues to winnow the number of retail outlets, forcing losers to close and winners to adapt to an entirely new landscape of "shopping and buying."

Regional discounters were wiped out by Walmart and Target's growth, which devastated dozens (too many to list here) of less efficient discounters who no longer exist. The hulks of their stores still litter the urban landscape, unused or being torn down and/or repurposed. Big box stores fell next. Circuit City, Linens 'N Things, Borders, and more, are simply gone. Consolidation further narrowed the field as new retailing concepts emerged, spread, then consolidated all within a few decades. Wholesale/warehouse clubs are a prime example of this...as are video rental stores, and recently, office products superstores.

The explosion of e-commerce, on-line shopping, behemoths like amazon.com, and next day delivery is eating away at conventional BAM retailers faster and faster. Sears Holdings (Kmart) has been slowly sinking into oblivion, kept alive only by cash from real estate holdings. JC Penney is reeling after a failed makeover attempt. Office product superstores, spawned only 3 decades ago continue to consolidate and shrink. Office Depot & Office Max are merging, and Staples is closing 225 stores and shrinking the footprint of the remainder. Radio Shack, once ubiquitous, is disappearing before our very eyes.

Considering that the life cycle of both wholesale/warehouse club and office product superstore evolution was only 3 decades (early 1980’s to date), and that the rate of change in how goods are sold is accelerating, then Susie’s question is only a decade or two away from being realistic.  Even behemoth Walmart at nearly $500 Billion in annual sales is wondering and reconsidering what its “stores” should evolve to look like in a decade or two.  It is an enormous question for all retailers. Their very future existence depends on how well they answer it.

So, what's a retail store, Gramps? Little Susie's question is a harbinger of a future where a retail store is more of a "presence" than a "store." Retail stores of the future are more like physical "samplers" where "shoppers" want to see, feel, touch and investigate potential purchases--but not necessarily buy them. Ask Best Buy how this feels. Not so good, unless there is a newer, better revenue and profit model developed for BAM locations.

If this future of retailing were completely clear, everyone would be charging toward it, but it's not. What's clear is that just as hybrid autos are bridging the gap between gasoline/diesel vehicles and fully electric ones, and streaming audio and video are eating into sales of CDs and DVDs, there is a big transition coming. How soon no one knows, nor exactly what it will be, thus Susie's question might still be very appropriate: "what's a retail store, Gramps?"

 ======================

LESS THAN A DECADE AGO...

Unlike many of my older columns and articles, this one is less than a decade old. It was also written before Covid even existed in anyone’s imagination—except maybe a few futuristic (apocalyptic) authors. As you read this, I suspect you will realize how impractical the way mass shopping is done, and why it is rapidly falling prey to better ways to choose—and actually find—find what to buy.

The naïveté of a child seemed a good way to illustrate the impossible shopping of today’s (yesterday’s) mass retail, especially department stores and even large discounters like Walmart & Target (who survived the demise of Kmart, Sears and a huge list of discounters who have disappeared in the last few decades. Some of those stores sales moved to “big box” specialty stores in electronics (Best Buy), sporting goods (Dicks), housewares (Bed Bath & Beyond), toys, (Toys R Us), etc. Those also are struggling, suffering and some have already disappeared

Home improvement stores like Lowe's and HomeDepot are currently thriving, because they offer both the abiliy to find and buy exactly what is wanted—with a degree of confidence in what need it fulfills. Departments stores are disappearing faster than the 17 year Cicadas. To survive, many are shrinking their formats, in hopes of finding a new “shopping experience” that is economically viable.

I once had a theory that a good indicator of retail financial success might yield a Surivial Index considering inventory turns and gross margins. It seemed that multiplying the inventory turns by the gross margin, might yield a number that was a Survival Index. For example, a IF big discounter like Walmart or Target had a gross margin of 25+%, and inventory turns of 5-6, that Survival Index would be 125-150. The same test for Macy’s might show its problems. Even at a gross margin of 33%, it would need 4-5 inventory turns to reach a Survival Index of 130-160, and to get the turns needed, discounting would drop the gross margin, thus reaching one factor in the Survival Index caused a decline in the other.

Shoe stores (e.g.,Payless—now gone) with a large number of styles and sizes have a bigger problem. Housewares, like Bed, Bath, similarly have problems with styles, fashions, sizes, and trying to offer multiple price/value choices in too many product categories. Sporting Goods are both seasonal and regional. Fishing in coastal (salt water) areas is far different from fishing in lakes (fresh water). Boating needs in warm climates and cold climates differ widely, as do sporting apparel (sizes, styles, colors, etc.). And they also carry shoes for many sports, in a range of sizes, styles, prices, etc. It’s hard to see how big box Sporting good stores can make the Survival Index.

The bottom line is that on-line pre-shopping is far more efficient, and thus it has grown rapidly. Shopping as a “recreation" is the only salvation of too many retailer stores/chains. Assemblages of stores whether Malls or strip malls, or Lifestyle Centers survive as destinations for “Recreational Shopping” where there are also resting, dining and beverage spots (Starbucks!).

However Covid is resolved—hopefully making gatherings possible via vaccines and seasonal boosters—recreational shopping can only save a fraction of America’s “over-stored” retail environment.  Just as many restaurants are pre-order and either pickup or delivery, so too will the new normal mean pre-shopping on line then deciding whether to do pickup, have the goods delivered, or go for the old fashioned “treasure hunt” for “good deals” among way too many choices.

Putting other recreational options where recreational shopping concentrates, will define many of the new “centers.” The malls of yesteryear and the huge “anchor” stores, are dinosaurs just waiting to become extinct. Plan to survive by capitalizing on a very different “New Normal” future, or join the many who are going or gone extinct. 

Which retailers will survive? And why?

JOHN

 

AMERICA HAS A LEADERSHIP CRISIS—OR RATHER A "LACK OF LEADERSHIP CRISIS”

AMERICA HAS A LEADERSHIP CRISIS—OR RATHER A "LACK OF LEADERSHIP CRISIS”

 

Why would I say this? I CAN NO LONGER REMAIN SILENT! (I apologize for this edition being late. I was torn about exactly how to open it.)

 

Too many responsIble leaders are simply retiring from Congress and gov’t jobs, rather than fight this wave of idiotic non-leadership…

Our President must be led around G-7 by his wife, or reading (poorly) from scripted teleprompters for his garbled remarks.

Our Vice President is flying about the world, looking for something/anything she can do—to avoid the dealing with the real problems—listed below:

1. The US Border is swamped with uncontrollable floods of illegal immigrants—no one (including the VP, supposedly in charge) has a clue what to do.
2. Major US cities are riddled with crime, murders, rioting and worse—amidst questions about defunding police—and inept majors making it worse.
3. Major US cities controlled by Democrats in top government spots are all bankrupt/and deeper in debt than imaginable. (Farewell Cuomo & DeBlasio!)
4. Democrat leaders controlling the major branches of government are “throwing money at problems” (hard-earned taxpayer money & massive debt.)
5. Uncontrolled spending is driving deficits to record highs, and fueling inflation-driven costs higher than ever; consumers will suffer.
6. There is little or no attempt to find bi-partisan, compromise solutions to problems.(exception, maybe, the misnamed Infrastructure bill).
7. Education is in disarray, controlled by powerful teacher unions, instead of school boards and parents; it’s time to change that.
8. Political correctness under the banner of “woke” (rhymes with “joke”) and cancel-culture runs rampant, threatening reasonableness.
9. The "Biden solution" to Covid was to continue the Trump solution—but without support of most Trump devotees (a bad result).
10. Covid-Delta surge among unvaccinated/younger age groups grows, until "adults in charge”(if any) make shots mandatory for work & public venues.
11. The Tax increases in the pending “Bidenomics” tax bill will dramatically hit most Americans in either direct taxes or inflation or both.
12. The exit from Afghanistan (which is years overdue) was poorly managed (no surprise) and a de-facto concession to the Taliban. Now what?
13. Aggressive foreign leaders: China (Xi), Russia (Putin) & North Korea (Kim) are pushing Biden (& his Socialist manipulators) hither & yon with ease.
14. Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE)—worthy causes all—have been co-opted and distorted, pushing good intentions aside.
15. A true Scientist (former Obama admin.) has revealed that the Science of Climate Change is “UNSETTLED" in his new book of that title—and unlike Biden’s favorite phrase, climate change may NOT be an "existential threat to the the future of life on earth!" (Read the book—if you don’t believe it.) https://www.amazon.com/s?k=unsettled+steven+koonin&crid=MFLQZCD4MDZR&stprefix=Unsettled,aps,231&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_9

I’ll stop there, but the list could be much longer. Only the Stock Market continues to rise—but the cumulative effect of INEPT LEADERSHIP will force it to drop preciptously at the first sign of big, bad news. The US can only be thankful that the rest of the world offers no better places to invest.

 

NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM; IN THE ABSENCE OF STRONG LEADERSHIP, THE MISGUIDED MANIPULATORS TAKE CHARGE. 

WELCOME TO THE USA OF 2021.6, IN YEAR-ONE OF THE BIDEN-HARRIS-SANDERS-SCHUMER-PELOSI-AOC ADMINISTRATION

 

Take a few moments and think about Leadership. We may not be able to define it precisely, but we know it when we see it, and feel its impact. 

List the “great leaders” you personally know, have met, or at least are aware of and believe in. Most people find it hard to list very many, living (or dead.) 

 

If you read the piece below that I wrote two decades ago, in answering the question of "what it takes to be a great leader” you’ll see why. It’s a high bar to clear, especially over a span of years.  Even great leaders have flaws—but they are usually revealed or admitted, and overcome by their positive behaviors.

 

Here’s my latest “2021.6 list”…a few of whom I’ve met or known, most I have not (which makes it risky to confer “great leader” status from afar, except by observing how they led.)  See who’s on your list. I stopped after ten because many leaders in history are highly regarded until their flaws were later revealed.

1. Vince Lombardi (never met)—Green Bay Packers coach
2. Sam Walton (knew him)—Walmart founder
3. George H. W. Bush (met once)—US President & former government official & decorated military officer
4. Ronald Reagan (never met)—US President, California Governor & noted actor
5. Chuck Rolinski (knew well)—Toluca, IL HS coach & teacher
6. Lou Holtz (met twice)—Football Coach
7. Mitch Daniels (never met)—Former Governor of Indiana, now President, Purdue University
8. Condoleezza Rice (former US Secretary of State, National Security Adviser and Professor.
9. Mike DeWine (met briefly)—Governor of Ohio, former US Senator
10. 4-way tie: Ryan Day & Luke Fickell (met briefly)—Football Coaches; Frank LaRose,(know well) Sec. of State OH; Steve Stivers (know well) US Congress retiring & Brigadier Gen. US /Army Reserve.

NOTE: The absence of women on my list is due to a “generational” effect. (Most of the female leaders have emerged in recent years, as women became more prevalent in leadership roles.) The recent years’ history and resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of NY shows how fragile a public (political) person’s leadership can be—both perceived and actual.

 

Download What It Takes To Be A Great Leader-1

The Role of a Leader 

© John L. Mariotti 1998

A few months ago, a reader emailed me about the several pieces I have written on leadership. He was going to a session with noted author Warren Bennis and wanted to get my perspective on this topic. I was flattered until I realized the difficulty of the question he posed. He asked that I define leadership in one sentence.

I responded with the caution that Bennis has written numerous books and studied leadership exhaustively, so my one-sentence attempt was unlikely to add much to that body of work. After I wrote it, and he attended his session, he emailed back that the one sentence I wrote was very useful to him, and it was then I decided to share it here.

Leadership is the ability to convince people to follow a path they have never taken to a place they have never been and upon finding it to be successful, to do it over and over again.

For any business to be successful the one ingredient, which is not optional, is strong leadership. This leadership consists of many people, throughout an organization. A single leader at the top, usually the President/CEO, is the starting point. Put a weak leader there and strong leaders in other parts of the organization will become demotivated and leave. Without a strong leader at the top, if the organization that retains a few strong leaders in other positions, it will be pulled hither and yon as each of them pursue their own agendas, taking some part of the organization with them.

But what, exactly, is the proper role of a leader? A few years ago an MBA intern in my company posed this question. My answer at that time was lengthier, and less logically formed, but I have refined it over time.

The role of a leader is:

• To create a clear understanding of the current reality, and

• A healthy dissatisfaction with it (the current situation);

• To help develop a shared vision of a more desirable future situation;

• To create the belief that there is a viable path from the former to the latter; and

• To create an environment in which people are motivated to embark on the journey to that future.

I had no sooner finished the answer to his first question than he fired a second one. " If that is the role of the leader, then what are the responsibilities of the leader?" Once again, I launched into a spontaneous answer:

The responsibilities of a leader are:

• To help the organization remove or overcome obstacles on the journey, and 

• To assure that the resources needed for the journey are available or can be obtained.

• To provide encouragement, honest feedback (positive or negative) and continued support during the journey.

• To take part in the journey.

At an IW conference a few years ago, when I asked noted leader and retired chairman of Motorola, Robert Galvin, “What is the most important aspect of leadership?” His answer was, “To take people to places they would be afraid to go alone.” I liked that answer so well; I followed with a second question. “Can leadership be taught?" His answer was, “Not exactly, but rather it can be role-modeled and then emulated.”

As I reflected on those answers I realized that there is a large quantity of "latent (undiscovered) leadership" in everyone. The amount varies, and the circumstances under which it emerges (if ever) depend on the need, the alternative leaders available, and the risk of taking a leadership role. In one of my earlier pieces on leadership, I concluded that great leaders needed one ingredient more than anything else--great followers. Those followers are also leaders, but they are leading only one, or at most, a few people-- themselves and those in their immediate circle of influence.

The key conclusion is that leaders must help the followers decide where they are going and how they will get there. Then they must continue to lead, keeping the group on course during the journey as unexpected obstacles and pitfalls are encountered. When leaders assume their roles properly and take their responsibilities seriously, followers will almost always follow them-- usually successfully. Are you living your leadership role? Are you taking your leadership responsibilities seriously? If you are, then you are a better leader because of it, and others will follow you! 

 

====================

 

UNFORTUNATELY WE ARE IN AN ERA WHEN MEDIA, CELEBRITY OR STAGING WRONGLY CONFERS AN AURA OF  EXPERTISE, BELIEVABILITY AND PERCEIVED LEADERSHIP.

 

Followers have a big role in bestowing leadership on anyone.  The next time you see President Biden speak, (or worse yet, VP Harris) and many other prominent elected leaders. ask yourself, "Do you think these people embody the leadership principles you want in a leader you’ll be proud to follow.” 

 

In about 15 months, we wll all get to make new choices for the leaders we elect. That’s one of the great benefits of a country that can have (we hope)"free and fair elections." 

 

NOTE: I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, for the exemplary job he and his office did with our Ohio elections last fall. It was a model of behavior that more states in the US should emulate. When people in positions of responsibility like Frank step up and do the right things, we should all be proud—and choose more leaders like this.

 

Now go back to the top and read about the characteristics of great leaders, and TRY TO IDENTIFY CURRENT LEADERS WHO MEASURE UP! 

IT’S HARD, VERY HARD.

 

AS WE LOOK FORWARD TO 2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, I HOPE YOU’LL SAVE THIS LIST TO USE AS A CHECKLIST FOR CANDIDATES.

 

BEST WISHES FOR OUR FUTURE

 

JOHN

 

 

Here’s a book on Leadership that I co-authored with Dave Lukas several years ago. 

Check it out; there’s a link below the cover photo that will take you to it on amazon.

It appears that President Biden is repeating many of President Obama’s leadership mistakes all over again.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Hope-Not-Strategy-Leadership-Presidency-ebook/dp/B007KDGO9G/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=hope+is+not+a+strategy+Mariotti&qid=1628691836&s=books&sr=1-1

 

 

   

 

 

 

THE ENTERPRISE--HOW CHANGE IMPACTS US ALL— A TRIBUTE TO DOUG DEMPSEY, A BRILLIANT CHANGE AGENT

I PLANNED THIS EDITION ON CHANGE LONG BEFORE I KNEW IT WOULD ALSO BE A TRIBUTE ON THE PASSING OF MY FRIEND, DOUG DEMPSEY

I met my friend and colleague Doug Dempsey in 1982 (with his wife Brigitte)—almost 4 decades ago. Little did we know then what those next four decades would hold in store for us. I had recently been named President of Huffy Bicycles, a consolidation of three divisions into one, with a huge plant (in Celina, OH, 900,000 Sq. ft.) and big workforce (2000 United Steelworkers). Huffy Corp. (NYSE—HUF at the time) top corporate executives thought the plant was maxed out producing 11,000 bikes/day. It also had been troubled by a variety of union-management problems in recent years. It was clear from the outset that I was going to need help in my position—enter Doug Dempsey—who provided that “help" and contributed to many successes during our years together as colleague, and soon thereafter, friends. 

Because the Huffy Bicycles offices were split—a plant in Celina, and a Sales/Mktg, etc. office in Dayton, OH—it was imperative that we have a strong, trustworthy Operations executive leading the Celina part of the organization. Doug filled that bill—and then some. He was a Kansas farm boy who learned young about hard work and making things to work (including his skills at improving/fixing machinery). He had a great education (Engineering degrees plus an MBA), and had proven credentials. Doug’s early career was at Ford, then as an entrepreneur, and then heading Wilson Sporting Goods R & D. He innovated and was a patent holder for the first carbon fiber (graphite) tennis racquet—the Wilson Profile—which revolutionized the entire industry. I was lucky to find him, only after the recession of 1982 crippled his entrepreneurial business (racquet strings to work with graphite racquets), and luckier that he agreed to join me at Huffy Bicycles.

Technically he reported to me, but practically speaking we were culturally “partners" in the best connotation of the word. Our goals and principles were aligned and our skills were complimentary. Doug developed "Huffy's people" and led them both creatively and culturally. He and I could debate many points, but it was never an “argument.” It was two like-minded people seeking better ways to do things in new, better ways, to maximize the results for everyone in our organization. At times he was more idealistic and I was more pragmatic, but when necessary, we would reverse those roles. That’s what good partners do. I later wrote many times about how I was always seeking partners with CHIPs: Character, Honesty, Integrity, and Principles, using Doug was my model of that ideal partner/collaborator.

I could write pages of examples to illustrate Doug’s contributions, and his visionary leadership attributes, but I’ll only cite a few examples that illustrate those traits. 

Working together, we developed a strategic plan based on Quality, Service, Speed, (competitive) Cost and (superior) Innovation—through having better skilled and trained People. That’s easy to say, but not so easy to do. That was where Doug’s talent showed. 

Doug had an easel/whiteboard in his office, on which he’d write a few words that inevitably led to the points he wanted to make with anyone who ventured in:

• DIRTFT: Do It Right The First Time  (when he was seeking much better Quality)
• FIKIF: Fix It, Keep It Fixed (Fixing problems that were critical to a factory making 15,000-17,000+ bikes per day)
• Innovate, Emigrate or Evaporate: Strategies while fighting competitive threats from Korean and Taiwanese bike makers
• Donuts for Dollars: Recognizing and rewarding the 2000 employees for making plant-wide goals with free coffee & donuts. (It took the local donut shops best efforts to deliver 170-dozen fresh donuts in a short time frame!)

Doug was always looking for new & better things to do, and how to do old things better. The people there will never forget him.

We both departed Huffy within a couple of years time in the 1990s, as always, over matters of principle and culture, to move on to share our knowledge and experience with others, as consultant or executives, and build our friendship. Doug moved to his home, “Falcon’s Nest,” on a mountain overlooking Fort Collins, CO and Horsetooth Reservoir. I kept on consulting, writing magazine articles and books, and speaking, often about the things he (or we) had done, or that we had dreamed up and done together. He also kept innovating, working on other revolutionary concepts—like a “spokeless” bike wheel. (Inserting spokes is the hardest, most time consuming part of making a bike wheel.)

Doug did many other things while on that mountain, including maintaining over a mile of steep, curvy mountain road for his entire neighborhood—often using his home-made innovations, on decades old equipment. I’ll never forget building RR-tie steps together, up to the parking area. We enjoyed such mini adventures, as going up to the headwaters of the Cache le Poudre river, and then eating afterward at rustic mountain diners. At times we might walk the newly graded road, throwing baseball sized rocks off it, so vehicles didn’t hit them. When Falcon’s Nest caught fire and burned, Doug & Brigitte rebuilt it bigger and better. Even then we had to creep up the road in low gear, in the decades old Ford V-8 truck, carrying a 1000 gallon water tank — until the well could be rebuilt. 

Most times we’d just sit on the deck, sipping Irish Whisky, looking as far as the eye could see (to the East—miles—limited only by haze) and recapturing our shared memories of successes and hardships.  Our ideas were still so many, that on a few occasions, we found receptive people to share them with.  We dreamed of a better world—and how to build it and lead it. We both thought we could keep doing that for longer, but as we hit our 80th birthday this year (mine in April, Doug’s in May), Doug was struck down by a fatal combination of medical problems that he couldn’t survive. (In our last phone call, just weeks ago, he shared that he had hoped he would have 6-7 more years, but that wasn’t looking so good now!)

However, his memory and his accomplishments, will survive, both in Brigitte’s memories and mine, and those of everyone who knew him, who he touched with his inspirational spirit and the remarkable positive changes he created — as his legacy. Goodbye old friend, until we meet again, I’ll POR (Press On Regardless—as he signed so many messages.)

God bless you.

Your friend, John

https://memorials.viegutfuneralhome.com/douglas-dempsey/4652826/index.php

===============================

How 25 Years Can Change the Entire Landscape.

©John Mariotti 1995, 2021

To begin A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens wrote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” The part that is little known of this opening paragraph bemoaning the times is the final phrase, "...it was a time not unlike all other times."

This topic clearly illustrates that the most important management lesson of the past 25 years has much to do with the upheaval of change, and its relationship to people and technology.  The acceleration of change is certainly the biggest challenge of the next 25 years as well.  Compounding the effect of this change is the explosion of information and communication technology.

Three of the leaders of industry in 1970 were General Motors, IBM, and Sears.  Companies like Toyota, Apple, and Wal*Mart were almost unknown. Yet they are today's emerging leaders. This kind of change not only becomes the primary challenge to management, but also the driver of change in the character of industry, past and future. 

Many lessons were learned by business since 1970.  Some of the most important were taught by the people of a small group of mountainous islands located along the Pacific Rim.  Japan rose from the ashes of World War II to become a world industrial (and banking) leader in a few short decades.  Taiwan and Korea similarly created major industrial countries.

Whether what we have learned will cause us to change is uncertain, because the separation of cause and effect by time obscures the connection and inhibits learning.  A few most critical lessons we should have learned:

• People are the most important factor in success, yet we often take them for granted or mistreat them.
• Technology is important, but not sufficient, without people involvement and cooperation.
• Knowledge is power and information combined with experience is the source of knowledge.  This is the new source of competitive advantage
• There are lessons to be learned from the past–otherwise many errors will be repeated.  A study of the lessons of history is valuable.
• People working together in interdependent relationships–partnerships–creating value—will determine success in the turbulent world we will face in the next 25-years.  

Business will learn many new lessons.

 

John L. Mariotti, Knoxville, TN 1995

© John L. Mariotti  1995, 2021

THE ENTERPRISE: THE PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT--A TRIBUTE TO PETER F. DRUCKER

I FOLLOWED THE WORK OF PETER F. DRUCKER FOR MOST OF MY CAREER UNTIL HIS DEATH AT AGE 95 IN 2005.

One of his most brilliant books, many say his seminal work was a book titled The Practice of Management, published in 1954, a book that featured GM, the behemoth of American industry in that era.

While seeing the words used to describe things throughout my life I noticed how words are meaningful. Office buildings cal their entry area “foyers;” medical facilities call them “waiting rooms.”  Most companies serve “customers or clients,” but the medical service providers call them “patients.” Finally, medical professionals, doctors if you will, do what they call “practice” medicine. Combining science, observation, experience and intuition leads to diagnoses, which in turn lead to course of treatment—not always sure to cure the ailment, but made of their best informed choices.

Drucker employs much if the same progression in his most powerful book, written 67 years ago…and still highly relevant, and in most cases brilliantly insightful. 

I read The Practice of Management years after it was published. I graduated from high school in 1959, college in 1963, & grad school in 1964. I really can’t recall specifically when I read it, but my guess is during my college days. I do know it has had a profound impact on my life, my thinking, and my career. Although his examples are circa the 1950’s, the situations have recurred repeatedly in business after business. 

As I reread parts of the book in successive decades, I’ve recognized how what Drucker described has repeated itself (for example) in the evolution of retailing (Sears/Wards, Kmart, Walmart, et. al.) and of the American steel industry going back to US Steel, and of course the auto industry, in which GM and Ford are two of his primary examples.

SOME OF THE MOST PROFOUND CONCLUSIONS—BUSINESS PURPOSE 

There are many words leading up to this, but in its essence, Drucker arrives at this conclusion: “…the ultimate test of management is business performance. Achievement rather than knowledge remains, of necessity, both proof and aim. Management, in other words, is a practice, rather than a science or a profession, although containing elements of both.”

Peter Drucker puts it this way: "There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. It is the customer who determines what the business is… What the business thinks it produces is not of first importance, especially not to the future of the business and to its success in the market place. The customer determines what a business is, what it produces and whether it will prosper."

"There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer. —Peter F. Drucker-- The Practice of Management (1954) 

Drucker adds, “...of course it is always important to adapt to economic changes rapidly, intelligently, and rationally. But managing goes way beyond passive reaction and adaptation. It implies responsibility for attempting to shape the economic environment, for planning, initiating, and carrying through changes in that environment, for constantly pushing back the limitations of economic circumstances on the enterprise's freedom of action.”

This is why I constantly come back to how the economic and political conditions have such a large impact on business and management. Those who wish the business's management and economic/political environment could be kept separate simply do not understand the interdependency. One impacts the other constantly and significantly—there is no other way to say it, Drucker uses interesting terms, He says, “the economist’s economic conditions…is only one pole in managing a business. What is desirable in the interest of the enterprise is the other [pole].” 

Closing out this part of his opening on the Jobs of Management, he goes on…" Management is not just a creature of the economy; it is a creator as well. And only to the extent to which it masters the economic circumstances, and alters them by conscious, directed action does it  really manage. To manage a business means, therefore, to manage by objectives.”

Drucker could not have imagined how much impact his wisdom would have in the second half of the twentieth century. The term "manage by objectives” led to an entire body of work about what that meant. To many it is just common sense to set objectives and measure progress toward achieving them. To many others it was a fearful, threatening practice: to actually set specific objectives, reduce them to writing, measure progress toward them, and base rewards on results became a threat to the incompetent and a gift to the competent people engaged in "the practice of management.”

My gift to you is this link, to buy the book on amazon.com. My advice is to use it as a learning tool—not only what to do but how and why: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Management-Peter-F-Drucker-ebook/dp/B003F1WM8E/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3L0CHLN7PLTTR&dchild=1&keywords=the+practice+of+management+peter+drucker&qid=1623771212&s=books&sprefix=The+practice+of+management,aps,306&sr=1-1

I cannot think of anywhere managers—aspiring or practicing—who are willing to actually read and think about what Drucker wrote, can learn as much from a single book, especially one written almost seven decades ago.  I have applied his principles for sixty years of my career, and still use them constantly.

I hope you will make this your summer reading and be sure to substitute the generational evolution of different companies (from those he used on the 1950’s) that you recognize in it.

HAPPY READING—AND LEARNING FROM ONE OF THE GREATS.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL YOU FELLOW DADS—DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR IMPORTANCE IN YOUR CHILDREN’S LIVES.

JOHN

PS: Remember one of my favorite quotes, from originator Josh Billings or later users, Will Rogers and Mark Twain:

It ain't what you don’t know that gets you; it’s what you thought you knew that ain’t so!” 

Check your sources…over and over…only believe half of what you see and none of what you hear….without checking it. And be very suspicious of what you find in books, articles, podcasts, blogs, from TVs talking heads, and on the Internet—there is very little (or no) quality assurance on most of  it…just lots of opinion and biases.

 

 

CHANGING THE WAY AMERICA WORKS—Redux

©John Mariotti 2021

Fifteen years ago, I started a series of several columns with this title. It was intended as a play on words—a double entendre—changing the way our country,  America Works, and changing the way we, as Americans work in our day to day lives. During that era we were holding annual “think tank” — roundtable conferences — called the Reunion Conferences, and this was the theme a very important one of them.

I never imagined I’d be resuming this topic after fifteen years and so much change. Ironically, when I review my columns from 2-3 decades ago, I’m surprised at how much is still the same—no doubt the result of human nature. 

Certainly after this Covid pandemic, much more has changed in how America works, and how Americans Work! I even began a book manuscript of the same name. What I plan to do now, like I’ve been doing, is to reflect on, point out, and speculate about how Changing the Way America Works (in both meanings) will change our behavior, our lives, our country, and its future. 

We have now seen the generations get names—Baby Boomers, Millennials, GenX, GenZ and recently iGen, for those born since the advent of iPhones in 2007-2008. Those devices, numbering 1.5 Billion as of now, and their successors yet to come, have changed so much in our world—and will continue to do so.

Hang on. This will be a wild ride! At the end I’ll share a few conclusions I reached along the way. Feel free to share yours in reply.

Headlines about this year of the Covid pandemic definitely tell many things that have changed about how America works, changed more than any year in recent history. They typically fall into several topical categories. The first is how many workers are needed, to work where, doing what—compared to pre-pandemic. Companies went from slashing workers and closing office buildings to control costs, to recalling them while figuring out how to operate in the totally different hybrid situations, and trying to ramp up both suppliers and supply chains and their workers and locations. 

None of these are easy, and doing them simultaneously and/or in rapid succession tests organizations, managers and leadership. 

Hybrid workplaces and work situations offer unique challenges, whether the hybrids are locational—office/home  or hi-tech/hi-touch (that’s mixing Zoom-type and live meetings in the same venue, at the same time, on the same topics.) Companies are still figuring out what works and what doesn’t—and won’t. 

Doing hybrids that work is harder than just staggering days in the office and adding monitors for video.  What’s lost in hybrid setups is collaboration and cooperation that happens spontaneously when people encounter each other in the context of the workplace and workday.  What’s also lost in hybrid setups is the power and value of non-verbal communications—movement of the eyes, body language, both active and passive and the ability to sense subtle cues that lead to agreement (or disagreement) and consensus.

How and where people work matters a lot, as does how the USA works...

RECENT HEADLINES:

Job openings surge to a record high

US Jobless Claims Decline to Pandemic Low

Demographics Help Squeeze Labor Supply

Study: Long hours at work killing people

**Hiring: As economy heats up, workers are scarce

The Return to the Office Weighs on Workers

Firms Brace for Hybrid Workers

Small Businesses Struggle to Fill Jobs

Retailers Retrain Staff Amid Shift In Skills Needs

Companies Weight Faster Office Return

How to Rally a Jittery Workforce

Good Moods Often Lead to Bad Decisions

Reopening Tests Appetite for Goods

Food Suppliers Scramble as Diners Return

Help Wanted: Restaurants surprising new labor shortage

Dry Cleaners might be undressed by pandemic

**Is the Work Ethic Dying?

**The Covid Welfare State

How Remote Work is Reshaping America’s Urban Geography

**Remote Work Poses New Questions

Home-Improvement Retailers Raise the Roof

**What the Pandemic Taught Us About Telemedicine

 

The Governmental Actions (reversal from Trump to Biden executive orders) complicate everything.

MORE RECENT HEADLINES

**The Real Infrastructure Problem

Vaccine Proof is All in the Cards

You Can Cope with Chronic Uncertainty

Shoppers Feel Bite as Prices Rise

Gretchen Witmer’s Pipeline War

It Isn’t a New Era for US Productivity Yet

Commanding Amazon’s Army of Workers—With Software

**The Old New York Won’t Come Back

Big employers cut office space

**Woke Corporations: Why they've switched sides

Corporate America’s ‘Big Lie’

Joe Biden: Labor Economist

Europe Balks at Biden’s Tax Plan

**Did Biden Peak on Inauguration Day?

Here Comes the Biden Tax

Democrats to States: No New Taxes

H.R.1—A Time Bomb for the 2022 Elections

**The GOP’s Post-Trump Trauma

McCarthy Grapples with Legacy of Trump

Tim Scott Takes a Larger Role in GOP

Florida Republicans See Model for GOP

 

** These indicate some of the most vexing issues…

 

ITS CLEAR FROM THE HEADLINES THAT MANY VEXING ISSUES REVOLVE AROtUND FOUR CORE PRINCIPLES:

1. People working together as partners, make everything good happen—and vice versa.
2. Complexity in organizations, work and government is wasteful and unless measured and managed, creates masss ive waste.
3. Unity of purpose leads to strength in organizations, countries and the world; lack of unity of purpose leads to failure.
4. "What goes around, comes around,” And that means Covid and its variants...sooner or later…to change everything again! Get vaccinated!

THE PIVOTAL QUESTIONS FOR NOW (with a few of my answers)

• HOW SHOULD AMERICANS GET BACK TO WORK—AND WHERE—AND WHEN—AND DOING WHAT? Yes, but hybrid work setups are unlikely to be broadly successful, except as a transition, and when used to connect widely scattered work forces. The ethybrid workers on the video inevitably are less involved than those in person. That’s not a good outcome.  A good outcome would be to redesign processes to fit a new paradigm—fostering collaboration, partnerships and innovation in offices while reducing complexity of doing routine jobs via machine learning and AI
• HOW DOES THE WORLD INTERACT WITH AMERICA AND WHAT DOES IT MAKE OF THE NEW BIDEN/PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT REGIME? The world will like having a weaker, more docile America that it can take advantage of—a good system for them—a bad one for America.
• WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF COMPETING POWERS—CHINA, RUSSIA, THE MIDDLE EAST, ET. AL. ON AMERICA IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS? As America’s weak leadership bends to the will of stronger, more aggressive foreign countries, America will suffer, become weaker, and suffer adverse consequences. America’s stature in the world will decline.
• HOW MIGHT COVID REQUIRED NEW BEHAVIORS AND NEW WAYS OF WORKING—GOOD OR BAD? A few areas will do better, such as Telemedicine, and the use of remote systems to eliminate wasteful travel to faraway places. Eliminating wasteful commutes for jobs that can easily done remotely is good. Losing spontaneity and collaboration from in person offices will damage innovation, communication, and coordination. Taking out the element of human interaction too much will make companies and leaders less effective even if they seem to be more efficient.
• FINALLY—WHAT DO AMERICANS BELIEVE, AND HOW WILL THEY BEHAVE? 
• IS America is a Systemically Racist country? OR Is Critical Race Theory more relevant?
• HOW should America Reform/Rethink Law Enforcement & Policing, in the face of traffic stops, demonstrations, shootings, looting, etc.?
• WHAT IS THE PROPER ROLE OF GOVERNMENT? 
• SHOULD GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE? (PROVIDING ONLY WHAT THE PEOPLE CANNOT DO BEST?) Yes.
• IS CAPITALISM THE BEST ECONOMIC SYSTEM? Yes…definitely.
• SHOULD THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT? (WHO PROVIDES MORE & MORE AS WORK ETHIC DECLINES) No.
• IS SOCIALISM THE BEST ECONOMIC SYSTEM? No…a proven failure over and over.
• THESE AND MANY MORE INFLUENCE “HOW AMERICA WORKS” (AS A COUNTRY), & “HOW AMERICA WORKS” (AS A PEOPLE)… 

 

THINK HARD ABOUT THESE ISSUES…RE-READ THE HEADLINES... AND CONSIDER THE IMPLICATIONS & WHAT HAS BEEN PROVEN TO WORK (Representative Democracy)—& WHAT HAS BEEN PROVEN TO FAIL (Progressive Socialism)

 

THE CHOICE WILL BE OURS TO MAKE AS WE ELECT OUR LEADERS IN THE FUTURE.

 

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND.

JOHN

 

FYI—HERE IS MY ARTICLE FROM 2006

================= 

Changing the way America Works  ©John Mariotti 2006 

This column continues a series begun last year, reflecting on people in the work environment. Most of us have a clear understanding of how we think about work. But the more recent entrants into the workforce--those born in the 1970s and early 1980s--often have different perspectives. Managers today must deal with workforces that are demographically bimodal. To younger workers, many significant events in the lives of their supervisors and managers seem like ancient history. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King are not personally relevant to them. They think TV sets always had remote controls. And the phrase "winding a watch" has no meaning for them in this battery-powered age. 

Managers born 20 or 30 years earlier lived through the boom of the 1960s and the inflationary 1970s, when interest rates soared to double-digit levels. New workforce entrants barely understand the term "runaway inflation." Technology comes naturally to them, while older, technophobic managers are often unable to cope with the avalanche of new technology. Personal life choices weigh more heavily with new workers than with prior generations.

In dealing with the workforce of the 21st century, managers should keep a couple of rules in mind: --The first rule: Judge people, as well as leaders, on their competence, character, and courage--not on the color of their skin, country of origin, age, or sex.

In many cases, older workers will find themselves reporting to managers who are a generation younger, different looking--or both. The new workers (or managers) may be female or may come from African, Asian, or Hispanic roots. Many are immigrants whose heritage is evident from their physical appearance--unlike earlier waves of Caucasian immigrants whose features did not readily identify their nationality, even if their language did.

A worker's country of origin is relevant only because it likely shaped his or her values. The values of the newer groups differ widely, and their perceptions of meaningful leadership are often different, too. Almost all immigrant workers are seeking a better life, and thus are very diligent. Asians are often more educated than earlier generations of immigrants.

In time, sociologists will develop theories on how to lead this new generation of workers, but that guidance may come too late. We must deal with the issue now, in today's context, and determine what that means to managers and supervisors. --The second rule: Learn all about computers, communication devices, and new technology--the uses, shortcomings, and potential--or get left behind.

Computer literacy is a given for much of the new workforce. Many managers are less computer literate than the incoming workers. This presents a problem when new computer-based tools are introduced into the workplace. The workers may grasp their use and significance more quickly than their superiors. This can diminish the respect they have for their leaders and damage manager-employee relationships.

Devices like cell phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants, as well as use of the Internet, are familiar to a generation that grew up with video games, remote controls, cordless phones, beepers, and PCs. As new technology permeates the workplace, older workers often must learn to swallow their pride and rely on the younger ones to adopt, use, and master the technology. This may be a bitter pill for many experienced workers and managers to swallow.

By itself, advancing technology is powerful. But it works best when married to the skills and experience born of years of work. And it is especially powerful when combined with a strong work ethic, youthful exuberance, and a drive to succeed. Successfully blending the knowledge, ambition, and experience of diverse groups is the key to success in the future. Management, more than ever, must be willing to look at workers based on what they can do--not their age or their ethnic origins.  Older, more experienced workers can provide experience and context while the younger ones contribute their technological prowess and energetic drive. The combination should produce exciting times in the years ahead.

===================== 

THE ENTERPRISE—“Hard Times Are Coming”—HOW DISTORTED MEDIA CREATES SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES!

Over twenty years ago I wrote the column posted below as a cautionary note. As media has migrated from “factual news” to “positioning bias” in its so-called news coverage, the consequences can be—and often are—enormous. Whether you call it “Fake News” or “biased reporting” such misinformation is very damaging when it creates self-fulfilling outcomes. 

======================

Are hard times coming? 

©John Mariotti 1999

The current business buzz is all about which way the economy is headed in the next year or two. No one can predict the direction confidently, because there are too many complex factors--not the least of which is how businesses will react to Y2K and global economic events. In short, will companies focus on problems or opportunities?

Many years ago, I read a short story that describes a chain of events that can unfold in such a situation. The story stuck in my mind, although I can't recall where it came from or the name of the author. But I think the message is appropriate in the current business & political climate.

 "Hard Times Are Coming--All Will Suffer from Downturn."

 The scene is a bistro in Paris. A young painter enters the bistro and asks the waiter for a bottle of his finest wine to celebrate his first big commission--on a painting for a rich businessman. As waits for the wine, he notices a newspaper lying on a chair at the next table. The headline reads, "Hard Times Are Coming--All Will Suffer from Downturn." 

Alarmed, he calls the waiter back and asks whether he has opened the wine.

Finding that the expensive bottle is still unopened, the artist tells the waiter to bring him a more modestly priced wine instead. The waiter asks why he wishes to change--is he less excited about his good fortune? "No," replies the painter, "but look at that headline--'Hard Times Are Coming.' I think I should be cautious."

When the waiter goes to exchange the wine, he encounters the owner of the bistro, who asks why he is not opening the fine wine. The waiter relates the painter's reaction to the headline, "Hard Times Are Coming--All Will Suffer from Downturn." As the owner returns to his office, he ponders the food and wine order he'd just placed for his bistro. He has ordered the finest wines and cheeses, and assorted trimmings, because business has been good lately.

But now uneasy about it, he picks up the phone and calls his supplier back, asking to reduce the size of the order and downscale the assortment of food and wine. When the supplier inquires why, the bistro owner repeats the headline, "Hard Times Are Coming." The supplier, himself a small businessman, then calls his supplier--a larger company--and cuts back on his future orders--just in case.

When the owner of the larger company sees the order from one of its best customers reduced sharply, his concern is great, especially after he hears the reason--the headline, "Hard Times Are Coming--All Will Suffer from Downturn." The owner then decides to cut down on his extravagances, so he calls the young painter and cancels the painting he had commissioned.

The young painter returns to the bistro that evening, crestfallen, and asks for a bottle of its cheapest wine--to drown his sorrow. As he awaits the cheap wine, the painter reaches over and picks up the newspaper, still lying on the chair next to him. He discovers that the date on it is two years old!

Self-fulfilling prophecies like the one in this little story may influence the economy next year. For companies, the pivotal decision is whether to to be aggressive, in hopes of gaining market position, or defensive, in fear of more hard times.

Perhaps more than anything else, the decision depends on how well-managed and financially sound a business is just prior to the decision point. It also depends on the strategic thinking of the management team. Downturns present an opportunity to gain market share and position, while defensive-minded competitors blame their losses on the down market, the Asian crisis, and a host of other excuses.

Which decision will your management team make? Have you prepared to capitalize on this kind of opportunity? Are your finances in order, overheads under control, inventories in line?

With the right plans and preparations, great gains are possible. Without them, it could well be that "hard times are coming--and all will suffer from the downturn."

LESSONS TO LEARN?

Actions taken because of expectations are usually perilous and either too slow or too fast—or both. 

When times are good, the human tendency is to expect them to stay good—too good, for too long.

When times turn bad, human nature is to be too slow to react to how bad they might be, and not take action, until things get even worse. 

Then human nature expects things to stay too bad, for too long again & miss the start of a recovery. 

Such behaviors ripple through industries and sometimes the entire economy…often based on something as simple as an article HEADLINE on a two-year-old newspaper.

===========================

HOW MIGHT THIS BE RELEVANT TODAY? READ ON...

 

Mass Media is now the most influential and loudest voice heard or read by most Americans. IF we believe propaganda-like biased news is true and accurate, then we are all its victims. And we deserve the dire consequences.  Even grossly wrong media often goes viral across the Internet and gets accepted as “truth.” (Trump overworked the “fake news claim" so that many people forget what’s what.)  

 

NOTE: Even “fake news” gets accepted as truth after it’s blasted into the public consciousness millions of times.

 

FINALLY, CONSIDER THIS INFO AND ASK YOURSELF IF MEDIA & POLITICAL MANIPULATION LED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE INTO ELECTING A NEW PRESIDENT OUT OF FEAR AND/OR MIS-INFORMATION.

 

(THIS SCENARIO HAS BEEN FLOATING AROUND THE INTERNET FOR MONTHS. )

"Figures Don’t Lie, but Liars Figure—Food for thought!” (source unknown, but CDC data is verifiable!)

 As reported by the CDC ... Here are the US deaths by Year and the change from the previous year. —Year 2017—2,818,503 Americans died. —Year 2018—2,839,205 deaths (20,702 more than the previous year 2017). —Year 2019—2,855,000 deaths (16,300 more than the previous year 2018). The year of the pandemic ...—Year 2020—2,913,144 deaths (Only 57,641 more than the previous year 2019).  

BUT WAIT: There were zero deaths from Covid-19 during 2018, and 2019 and the jump from 2019 was only 57,641? 

We've been told that COVID was responsible for 375,000 deaths in 2020. Shouldn't the 2020 CDC annual death increase be A LOT higher than 57,000 ?  

How many people really died of COVID, and how many died of other pre-existing illnesses or “co-morbidities” counted as (or triggered by) COVID?

=============

WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHAT'S THE TRUTH? ARE "HARD TIMES COMING?"

With the Stock Market hitting new highs every week or two, buoyed by the massive influx of money in government handouts/stimulus courtesy of the Federal Reserve’s Debt Printing Press. Someday, someone must pay—or else there will be massive inflation and/or a devastating devaluation of the US dollar—in which case, “Hard Times WILL Come, and All WILL Suffer.”  

 

The problem is “Bidenomics" and the Democrats' spend & tax plans, which will feel good in the near term, but not in the long term. (Like an addictive drug fix  Bidenomics offers “highs” in the short term, followed by "downers and painful withdrawal" later.) 

 

When Biden says he will not raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000, he fails to mention three inconvenient facts: 

1) Raising corporate taxes will force corporations to raise prices to everyone—rich and poor alike—regardless of what they make; 

2) Raising corporate taxes will drive companies (and their jobs, payrolls and taxable profits) out of the USA, and into foreign countries and subsidiaries.

3) Even the poor and middle-class will see their costs go up, and jobs go away—to faraway places.

 

CAN AMERICANS RECLAIM CONTROL OF THEIR GOVERNMENT BEFORE THIS INSANITY TURNS INTO A PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT AVALANCHE? 

 

MANY BELIEVE THAT UNLESS SUCH AN “AVALANCHE" IS AVERTED, AMERICA IS IN DANGER OF BECOMING A “ONE-PARTY” COUNTRY.  

 

Historically and politically—THAT’S NOT GOOD FOR ANY OF US.

Winning back control of the House and/or Senate in 2022 mid-term races—the only way to stop it?

 

JOHN

 . 

 

THE ENTERPRISE--BONUS EDITION: Suddenly Last Summer--A Perspective on Diversity and Life

I CELEBRATED MY 80TH BIRTHDAY LAST WEEK—WHICH MAKES A PERSON THINK

As I read the all nice cards and birthday wishes, my thoughts went more and more to “what matters most” (in life). Pastor Craig Groeschel of Life Church (https://live.life.church) reminded us a few years back: “Be patient, and focus on ‘what you want most' instead of 'what you want now’.”  Craig also reminded us the God has a plan for us—but it may not match the one we have. Figuring out God’s plan requires a lifetime, and we may still not "get it." That doesn’t mean we should stop trying, and we shoud be willing to expect (and accept?) obstacles, when our plan encounters God’s “detours." 

Then I realized that I’ve actually been thinking about these same things for years as I wrote about life and business. As we grow older, hopefully we grow wiser. We also might reflect more on perspectives, other than the seemingly urgent (but not all that important) things right ahead of us. I found several things I had forgotten about. One was this piece I wrote a long time ago. The second was written by Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises. I want to share both of them to help you think about your perspectives on life.

========================                       

 I  FIRST WROTE THIS ARTICLE 25 YEARS AGO.  I LIKED THE MESSAGE THEN, AND I STILL DO.

Suddenly Last Summer--A Perspective on Diversity and Life

People are where it all begins … and ends

©John Mariotti 1996

I had an interesting five days last summer, and I want to share some of the thoughts these days brought to mind. I grew up in a very small midwestern town where I learned, above all else that people are "just people." I hadn't even thought much about wealth, status, or such things for a lot of my early years. I guess the professionals and business owners did have slightly larger homes, but few people said much about it.

People have often asked me about the key to leadership success and one of the first words that usually comes out of my mouth is "caring," usually followed rather quickly by words like "character, values, integrity, and doing good!" Over the years of my career I have found the old phrase "what goes around comes around" to be especially true when it involves leading people or being part of a real team, in a successful (or even a not so successful) setting. 

There are times that success is based on more than "just people," but they are relatively few. Competency is required, no doubt about that. Courage and persistence and hard work are necessary too. Perhaps most of all, the appreciation of the richness of the diversity and talents of people is what makes the whole picture complete.

This summer day, as I walked the streets of my old hometown with my wife of 32 years, the beauty surrounding me moved me. On a weekday morning, the streets were quiet and peaceful. The sun shimmered with a special clarity and brightness. The old shade trees cast big, cool shadows as a light breeze rustled their leaves. A few people washed windows or tended their gardens. A dog barked and the faint sound of hammers signaled some repair work being done. The yellow of the day lilies and the green of the grass were so bright they could have come from an impressionist painting.  Nearly everyone who drove by waved. This is a place where people cared about people; a place where they knew your name and your face; a place with a slower, warmer, friendlier life and pace.  In this place, I learned that people are above all else, regardless of their station in life, just people.

The next day, I visited a company where I had worked for 12 years--but that was seventeen years ago! I had not been back for over ten years, but there were still about 15-20 people working there who I knew well.  The reception they gave me was terrific. I found I immediately recalled names of people I had not seen for 10-15 years, and I realized how much people meant to my career and life. Two specific events stick in my mind. 

One was the parting handshake and after a brief hesitation, a warm hug from a man with 41 years service (whose father before him had worked for this company over 45 years!). This was a man I found working in the service department, who has been a management stalwart in production planning for over 20 years. What an exceptional treasure.

The second event was a comment by another close friend whose job the past few years might best be called "human relations."  While discussing some of the managerial errors of the past, he said emphatically, "It's pretty simple.  Tell the people what's going on, make sure they understand what needs to be done, and then help make sure it's getting done.  But never, ever lie to them!!" So much for high-minded theories and fancy terms.  Common sense, honesty, and decency with people can accomplish a lot.

My next stop that week was for my mother-in-law's 80th birthday party.  Seeing all the family together was a special treat.  As I photographed the four generations of women in my life--mother-in-law, wife, daughter, and granddaughter--I realized how precious this cycle of life was, and how rich the diversity around me was.

I never really considered the enormous range of talents and work lives of my own family represented there: a meat cutter, a maintenance supervisor, an art gallery owner, a computer system supervisor, a tow-truck operator, a police officer, a pipe-fitter, a bank officer, a teacher, an office worker, a retail operations manager, a sales manager, a transportation consultant, a retired pharmacist, and on and on.  

One common theme--all part of my family, all loved ones with spouses, children, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins. When the "human resource" professionals speak about diversity, it somehow comes out sounding like something in a bottle or out of a textbook.  It isn't.  It is the very fabric of life and the richness of business itself.

The last event of the five days was a sad one. I came home to a message from the wife of a former colleague and friend that he was dying of cancer and didn't have long--so if I wanted to speak to him, I should call soon. (I did, and had a nice conversation--he died five days later.) It was then that reality hit me.

We worry about a lot of things in business and in life: promotions and demotions, projects and deadlines, late airplanes and early meetings. We espouse fancy theories and speak in high-sounding phrases. When it comes to the bottom line, I believe the life of business and the business of life are pretty much alike. Care deeply. Do good. Help people. You never know when your time is up. 

Enjoy the sunshine and flowers on a summer day. Give somebody you love a hug. Live, love and leave a legacy. And be sure to keep things in perspective. Most of all appreciate the richness and diversity of the world and the people around you--they are what success in life (and business) is all about.  I am not sure of many things--but of this I am certain!

 

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THE “PRESENT”
–– Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air.  You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit, and you're keeping all of these in the air.  You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass.  If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.  They will never be the same.  You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.  How?  

• ·        Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

• ·        Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.  

• ·        Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

• ·        Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future.  By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

• ·        Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.  

• ·        Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.  It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.  

• ·        Don't be afraid to encounter risks.  It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.  

• ·        Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.  

• ·        Don't forget that a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.  

• ·        Don't be afraid to learn.  Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.  

• ·        Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

• ·        Don't use time or words carelessly.  Neither can be retrieved.   Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.  

REMEMBER—Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery and Today is a Gift.  That's why we call it – “The Present.”        

Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises

==============

 

i HOPE THIS BONUS EDITION GAVE YOU SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT … JUST REREADING THEM DID THAT FOR ME.

ALL THE BEST,

JOHN

 

THE ENTERPRISE—WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEROES GONE?

THE ENTERPRISE—WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEROES GONE?

I once worked with a behavioral sociologist who would often ask,”Who screwed up that we needed a hero?”  This question made us all think hard.  Our conclusion was “maybe nobody ’screwed up,'—maybe someone just did something above and beyond—something really heroic.”  The three pieces below frame the subject of “heroes” in three different ways. (I didn’t cover “first responders" like police, EMT, firefighters, etc.whose jobs put them in heroic crisis situations.)

Today, far too often, we have replaced admirable heroes with celebrities. Role modeling is hard. Real heroes are role models—in that moment at least. “Sully," the pilot who safely landed a jet plane on a NYC river, was, in my book, a hero. The tragedy of 911 created many heroes, too many of them are no longer with us. Everyday people are heroes; maybe by saving a child or a dog from an oncoming car, or rescuing a person from a flaming auto crash or a frozen lake. 

Heroes exist in all walks of life, at all ages, and in all genders, races, and ethnic backgrounds. Take a minute right now and think of 2-3 real heroes you’ve known, seen or emulated.  Deciding who are real heroes these days is very difficult. Media's always-on coverage exposes many people to be neither as heroic or admirable as we might have thought. Fame is fleeting; so is misplaced heroism.

Who do you truly admire and tried to emulate during your life? If you can name a few (other than your parents or Jesus Christ) you are truly  fortunate. Think about people who inspire you to be a better person.

We need more genuine heroes these days. Our next generations desperately need people worthy of admiration and being role models. Being able to win, to run fast, throw or hit or catch a ball accurately, sing a song or play an instrument, or portray real heroes from history in dramas. That doesn’t make those athletes, musicians, actors or entertainers no matter how highly they might are regarded in their professions.  Ditto elected officials, business leaders, and other notables.

There is a depth to people who are true heroes—and it is no about being famous. It is more about being worthy of respect, admiration and an inspiration to others for what they do and why or how they do it.  So now tell me: Where have all the heroes gone? Who are yours?

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Where have all the heroes gone?  Perhaps business leaders can help fill the void.

©John Mariotti 1998

When I was growing up, the folk-singing group Peter, Paul and Mary had a hit song: "Where have all the flowers gone?" The melody is coursing through my head as I begin this column. Another thing I remember about growing up was that, back then, we had heroes. They were real people, but somehow larger-than-life figures whom we could admire and emulate.

Maybe it was the influence of being a post-war child that made it possible to believe in heroes–-at least some of them—like Sir Winston Churchill. You may remember his stirring admonition--"Never, never, never, never, never give up."

I remember heroes in sports. There were legendary figures like Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, and Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi. We looked up to Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 

Even business and congressional leaders commanded respect in days past--people like Thomas Watson of IBM, Alfred Sloan of General Motors, and Sen. Everett Dirksen.

Music and the movies created stars--not as role models for their own personal lives, but for those they portrayed.  What man hasn't at times admired "The Duke"--John Wayne--or at least the characters he brought to life on screen?

Today's young business people--the so-called "Generation X"--grew up in an era when their heroes inevitably were proven to be not only human, but fallibly so. With the assassinations of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, our heroes began to die--although more often at the hands of the media than from an assassin's bullet.

Sports heroes fell victim to the excesses of their youth and riches. Meanwhile, business and government leaders lost their luster as inspiring figures. Often they were painted as the "Ugly American," "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit," or "Barbarians at the Gate."

In the wake of all this disillusionment maybe--just maybe--things are about to turn around again. Perhaps a revival of the age of heroes can be built on the legacy of such people as the late Sam Walton, who was a hero to those who worked for him; or Michael Eisner, whose main asset is a big-eared mouse named Mickey; or even a wunderkind billionaire named Bill Gates.

Walton believed in his Wal*Mart "associates" and he treated them well. He also believed in giving Americans the best value for their money, and treating them like friends. While Michael Eisner is not as revered as Sam Walton was, he is respected by many for what he has done with the Disney legacy. With only a few exceptions (in the movies) Disney has done it with largely wholesome products.

Young people are incredibly computer literate today--and getting more so. They know Bill Gates, who recently was named by IW readers as America's most-respected CEO. Gates is young enough to be a real role model for the next generation. So far he has only been "exposed" as being brilliant, tough, visionary, and hugely successful.

I know who my heroes were. They are all gone now, but I really got to know three of the four--my mom and dad and "Mr. Sam" (Walton). The fourth was Coach Vince Lombardi. I could do worse than to measure up to them.

My dad was a talented professional musician who died when I was eighteen. My mom was my real mentor--a successful businesswoman in an era when that was very uncommon.

Lombardi was well known for his work ethic, his insistence on flawless execution, and his relentless pursuit of excellence (and winning). So was Sam Walton. I admired these traits. And I can think of literally hundreds of instances in my business career where hard work, superb execution, and high standards led to success.

What is it about heroes or maybe I should call them role models that make them worthy of respect? 

First and foremost, these role models have integrity, character, and principles. They invariably have a fire within them based on deep-seated beliefs and values. There is an almost-visible "aura" about them that makes people want to believe in them and follow their lead. And, finally, they have energy and enthusiasm for what they do and believe in.

We all need role models, a mentor, and some heroes. They don't have to be famous people--just someone we can aspire to emulate. It provides a foundation upon which to build the success of our country, our businesses, our careers, and our lives.

Who are your heroes? 

==================

Corporate Executives--Villains or Heroes—Can you really tell how compensation much anyone in "worth"

© John L. Mariotti 2002

Headlines lately have been vilifying corporate CEOs for their downsizing actions and large compensation gains. Is this right or wrong? I have been considering this dilemma and decided to share my thoughts here. Business leaders are not (categorically) villains. They are not ogres or mindless, heartless, evil people. They are usually hard working, God-fearing people trying to do the right thing. Only a small minority of business leaders deserves such criticism.

Businesses exist for the purpose of creating and delivering value, for which customers and consumers will pay money. This money goes to pay the employees and suppliers (and their employees) of those businesses and create wealth for those who have invested their money (at a risk) in the businesses. In free enterprise systems such as ours, the private sector--companies--are the only real source of wealth creation and employment. 

The government can create jobs. They certainly have proven that as employment in the public sector--U.S. government now exceeds the private sector.   Those jobs and the paychecks of those employees can only be paid from the revenue created by taxes. These revenues come from taxes on profits of companies and earnings of employees.

Raj Aggarwal, the Mellen Chair professor of Finance at John Carroll University reminds me that a business, which cannot earn a return on invested capital that exceeds their cost of capital, will eventually cease to exist. Some of the cuts in employment are made to reduce costs and generate a sufficient return to stay in business.  If competitors, particularly foreign competitors whose countries enjoy a much lower pay level and standard of living (such as China) choose to compete with U.S. companies, the jobs held by employees of those companies come under attack in a different way.  The result is the same.  Compete or cease to exist.

I am not a fan of downsizing. It hurts, often more than it helps. I just helped a corporate client go through it. They had to do it or go out of business.  In the U.S. alone, millions of lives have been disrupted, and whole communities damaged. The way it is done often seems heartless and even cruel. But is it so terribly wrong--or just painfully necessary? In nature, trees and shrubs require pruning. Dead wood must be cut out. 

The words from Star Trek ring very true. In these shows, Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock remind us "...the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one..." Many of the corporate layoffs are done to save the jobs of the many people by the layoff of "few." (While ATT's well-publicized 40,000-employee cutback was devastating, those cuts represented only a small percentage of their total employment.)

Productivity gains, which are critical to improving our standard of living, have another side to them. When population grows at 1-2% and industrial productivity grows at over 2% the total increase in output is 3-4%. If our economy is only growing at a 2.5%, then1% must be added to the rolls of unemployment (or underemployment--working for less pay). This is why the growth side of the equation needs attention. Controlling inflation by restrictive monetary policy (instead of fiscal responsibility--spending less than income) limits growth and adds to the dilemma. High taxes (especially on capital gains) consume investment capital that could be used for growth and channel it to one of our least productive sectors--government.

Corporate management usually does their best to make such painful cuts in the most humane manner possible. They will also continue unless or until we can grow our way into using our improved productivity.  Stephen Covey's research confirmed that as a country, we have created a generation or two of managers and executives who sometimes are misguided. They fail to create new value and growth, and thus must reduce costs (and people which are usually one of the highest "cost" items in the budgets of companies). This is wrong and can lead to what is called corporate anorexia.

What is the manager, executive and professional to do? First, understand that the market is the relentless predator of the weak. If corporate management doesn't do the necessary pruning, either the plant will die, or it will happen due to competitive pressures "clearing the dead wood." William Safire says it this way in his New York Times column; "You can't make a prosperity omelet without breaking some eggs." When this happens, many more who are undeserving will likely suffer.  Second, productivity gains must be made or the jobs will just as certainly be lost in even larger numbers. 

 Competitiveness is driven by constantly improving productivity.  Third, <i>don't let yourself or your department/function/team become technically obsolete--continue learning to be competitive.

Victims often choose to be just that. Be proactive about continuous learning.  Most companies encourage it and pay for it.

What about the conflict between the rights of shareholders to profits and the rights of employees, customers, suppliers, and communities. I contend they are not in conflict in the long run--just in the short run. Corporate executives are paid to look out for  all of their several constituencies:  Shareholders, Employees, Customers, Suppliers, and Communities. If they do not look out for the shareholders interests adequately, they are fired and replaced. If they do this well, they are rewarded, sometimes handsomely (or even excessively). But what about these exorbitant compensation packages received by CEOs.   Most of the "really big ones" are due to performance bonuses or appreciated stock options. This means they did what the shareholders wanted, and helped cause the stock value to rise. 

Why shouldn't they share in the rewards?  Think about some of our society. Mike Tyson gets millions of dollars for a few minutes in the ring.  Madonna and Rush Limbaugh make more in a year than a hundred working people make in their lifetime.  Stallone or Schwarzenegger make millions for mediocre, violent movies.  Twenty-two year olds receive multi-million dollar contracts in many professional sports.  Who complains about these as injustices.  How many jobs do they help secure?  Should we indict them if their teams lose, movies fail or attendance falls?  Or are they just being paid "competitively?'  The same could be said of CEO pay levels!

The solution to this dilemma is not simple.  What most of us can do is simpler--provide superior customer value and do it in partnership with suppliers, employees and intermediate customers.  This is the foundation on which to provide excellent rewards to shareholders and communities.  This is what the majority of these corporate executives are trying to do--not to be "villains, killers or hit men."  

They may not all be heroes.  A minority are selfish, and misguided, but don't let the few reflect on the many who are trying to do the right thing.  Do your share to help by understanding the competitive pressures of the marketplace, improving productivity, and staying personally competitive through continuous learning.   That is the best "job security policy" there is.   These companies and their leaders (with the exception of the misguided minority mentioned earlier) are the only source of jobs and wealth.  Let's start looking at the good they do instead of the harm.  We might be surprised.

=================

UNSUNG HEROES

©John Mariotti 1999

Every successful company has these “unsung heroes” – and no company can survive without them.They are seldom recognized, appreciated or properly compensated. They are not listed among the assets, or even itemized in the “goodwill” on the balance sheet. One hardly even notices that they are there, but without them the wheels of business slowly grind to a stop. Who are they?  They are the unsung heroes who make a business hum. 

• They are dedicated line employees who come to work every day, do boring and repetitive jobs over and over, and take pride in the quality and quantity of work they produce. 
• They are group leaders who risk ridicule and resentment from their peers and take the heat for decisions in which they had no input. 
• They are supervisors whose cars are the first in the parking lot and the last to leave, because they feel the responsibility for the company’s and the employees’ well being. 
• They are the maintenance people who work weekends and holidays so the plant can function at the optimum level during normal running hours.  
• They are the line engineers who labor long and hard to design and build increasingly efficient and profitable equipment. 
• They are customer service representatives who handle each customer’s concerns courteously and effectively, even though no one seems to notice or care. 
• They are truck drivers who leave their families on Sundays, drive on increasingly crowded highways to get product to ever-more-demanding customers, and try, by their example to sell the customer on the fact that theirs is the best company in the industry. 
• They are the accountants, clerks, middle managers, janitors, buyers, computer technicians, and ordinary people who do their level best to do a good job every day in spite of the fact that they are seldom asked for their input or given credit for their dedication and intelligence. 

God bless them all!

Without these unsung heroes, America’s unprecedented run of prosperity in the last couple of decades would not have been possible.  People who are visible and in the spotlight in their companies should make an effort to seek out these folks and, once in a while, give them a sincere face-to-face “Thank You.”  It costs nothing and means so much to the individual who contributes every day.  In our experience, executives who do this are seen as heroes themselves, because it is so rare for someone in the “visible” organization to recognize the people who make them successful. 

If you are one of the unsung heroes, give yourself a pat on the back, and accept a sincere “thank you” from one fellow American to another for your contribution.  You have made and are making this a better world.  If you are a “visible” person in your company, remember the efforts of all the people behind you who are making you and the entire economy look good.

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NOW TAKE SOME TIME TO THINK ABOUT WHO YOU THINK DESERVES THE NAME “HEROES!”

JOHN