Factoid: “Unprecedented” drop in holiday sales?
Reuters: No Thanksgiving rest for retailers in sales race (read article)
(see full size image here)
5 Mind-Blowing Web Stats You Should Know (Harvard Blog)…
Before you read this blog post…
…snag a napkin and write down answers to the following. How close did you get? Hint: you better know scientific notation.
1) # of Web sites
In 1994 there were approximately 5,000 Websites. How many times more Websites are there today?
2) # of Blog posts per day
On December 7, 1997 the term ‘Weblog’ was coined. How many blog posts are there per day now?
Negotiation: Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz (video)
Stan Christensen, partner at investment banking firm, Arbor Advisors interviews former Secretary of State George P. Shultz on negotation. Christensen teaches a course on negotiation at Stanford University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
My take
I haven’t watched the entire video yet. The speaking is a bit slow and you’ll have to work to take away usable lessons. Nonetheless, it almost always interesting to listen to how major events unfolded and what the players perceived as being the critical factors involved.
Buffet Biggest Bet…
In his biggest bet yet, Warren Buffet (via Berkshire Hathaway) is buying a 77% stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe (a railroad company). Do the purchase price and long-term financials make sense? I have no clue . One assumes they do unless Warren’s lost his mind. The basic argument for rail makes sense:
- American’s buy stuff
- Stuff has to get from manufacturer to marketplace
- Pending any breakthroughs in teleportation, rail is going to be a big part of that moving stuff
So it’s an industry with a long-term future. The long-term outlook for oil and coal probably played a part investing in rail, too. But, I still have to ask…
Has Warren Lost His Mind?
This is a semi-serious question. Or is he telling the whole story?
A CEO’s guide to reenergizing the senior team (McKinsey & Co)
“Should you stay or should you go?”
In tough times, Boards ask this about CEOs and CEOs ask it about their teams. This article from McKinsey does a reasonably good job of framing the problems and pitfalls (e.g., getting rid of people too quickly) and the direction of a solution.
The direction, simply put, is for CEOs to manage, including managing their team’s emotional states. As much as we all hate to admit it, our states of mind are what lead to bad, blind or brilliant decision making. The idealized rational man –homo economicus– is as elusive as the mythical sasquatch, even in the halls of executive power.
Denial!
My favorite part of the article is a review of the “cognitive errors underlying denial…”
Toyota is Dead? Part 2
In Part 1 (Toyota is Dead? Part 1) I quoted a recent blog in BusinessWeek that suggested because Toyota had it’s FIRST quarterly loss in 70 years they needed to “…rethink supply chain technology…” A sub-heading in the same post reads, “The Limits of Lean: Why Technology Is Now a Must”.
Huh?
Anyhow…read my prior post for my opinion about this conclusion. Whatever anyone’s opinions numbers ultimately tell the story. Today Toyota announced a return to profitability in the latest quarter. I doubt new supply chain technology had anything to do with the return to (quarterly) profitability, just as a lack of technology had nothing to do with the previous (quarterly) loss. Both the recent loss and recent-er gain were driven by unique events (government programs helped this quarter, while crashing auto sales hurt the previous quarter).
Einstein famously said… ‘make things as simple as possible, but not simpler’. As humans and Americans in particular we’re constantly pinning ‘simpler than possible’ conclusions and solutions on problems that are warranted by the facts on the ground (i.e., when in doubt, computerize something).