Archive for November 23rd, 2009

Resurrect the 90% tax on bonuses — not for AIG — for Goldman.

November 23, 2009

I’m a life-long hard core capitalist. 

But, Goldman Sachs is shaking my belief structure.

They were at center stage in the financial meltdown,

They ran to the gov’t for a rescue package — even if they didn’t need the money, they took it  — and they solicited and got a favorable redesignation as a bank.

They reaped a windfall when Paulson & crew refused to extend comparable advantages to other financial culprits.

Now, they have the audacity to pay themselves mind-boggling reward bonuses.  Even their asleep-at-the-switch shareholders are whining.

WSJ: Goldman Holders Miffed at Bonuses:
Some Investors in the Stock Urge That More of the Riches Be Passed Along to Them
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704533904574545981008841004.html

Last year, reacting to some AIG bonus payouts, Congress toyed around with a  90% tax rate on bonuses to TARP supported companies.

WSJ: House Passes Bonus Tax Bill: 90% Hit Would Affect Major Banks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123745823318182841.html

At the time, I argued that the tax code shouldn’t be used for punitive purposes, that contracts are contracts, and that execs should be paid to the terms of their contracts even if there were unintended consequences, e.g. big bonuses for poor performance. 

I’ve changed my mind. 

A 90% punitive tax on the Goldman bonuses strikes me as just about right.

Dante must have a special place in his Inferno for these soul-less knuckleheads.

Posted in Financial Crisis | 1 Comment »

Pitch like a pro … how Steve Jobs does it.

November 23, 2009

TakeAway:  If you can’t effectively communicate your thoughts then your thoughts are essentially worthless.  Below, find Your guide for how to knock your next presentation out of the park.

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Excerpted from Washington Post, “Seven secrets of a Steve Jobs presentation,” By Carmine Gallo, November 4, 2009

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is considered one of the greatest corporate storytellers on the world stage … he has transformed the typical dull, plodding, technical presentation into a theatrical experience. Here are his 7 techniques for … inspiring his audience … wow your employees, customers, investors, and, oh yeah, your profs … 

  • Sell dreams, not products … It’s important to have great products, of course, but passion, enthusiasm and emotion will set you apart.
  • Create Twitter-like headlines … If you can’t describe your product or service in 140 characters, keep refining.
  • Introduce the antagonist … great brands and religions have something in common: the idea of vanquishing a shared enemy. Creating a villain allows the audience to rally around the hero–you.
  • Stick to the rule of three … the human brain can only absorb three or four “chunks” of information at any one time …
  • Strive for simplicity … It’s difficult to find 10 words on a dozen Apple slides. Most of Steve Jobs’ slides are visual–photographs or images … Jobs tells the Apple story; his slides complement the story …
  • Reveal a “Holy Smokes” moment … There is always one moment in a Steve Jobs presentation that is the water cooler moment … These showstoppers are completely scripted ahead of time … everyone who watched it–and those who read about–seem to recall …
  • Share the stage … Your audience craves variety. Give it to them. They also want to see teamwork. Show it to them.

Edit by TJS

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Full Article
http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/leadership_playlist/2009/11/seven-secrets-of-a-steve-jobs-presentation.html?wpisrc=newsletter

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Posted in Communications - Presentations - Powerpoint | Leave a Comment »

Moving forward in uncertain times … 4 success factors.

November 23, 2009

Excerpted from: HBR, How to Get Unstuck, by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan, May 2009

A lot of businesspeople seem to be frozen in the headlights, paralyzed by uncertainty, fear of failure, and lack of trust.

In studying how leaders prevail in uncertain times, we’ve observed four practices you can use to get yourself, your people, and your firm moving again.

1. Decrease uncertainty.

  • Rather than wait until you can clearly see the entire route to a distant goal, focus on getting to the next bend.
  • Identify a series of near-term goals that can serve as checkpoints along the way, indicating your progress and illuminating the best way forward.
  • As you proceed down the path, you can stop, change direction, or continue on the same trajectory, depending on what you learn en route to each checkpoint.

This approach is cost-effective and reduces risk because only relatively small investments are required to move from one milestone to the next and because it reveals false starts early.

2. Reduce the fear of failure.

  • People fear failing, particularly in a downturn, when they think any misstep might cost a job.
  • As a result,they tend to freeze because it appears that the easiest way to avoid failing is to do nothing.
  • To spur action, shift your emphasis from cutting the rate of failure to minimizing the cost of failure.
  • To reduce people’s anxiety, give them permission to be wrong but not to make expensive mistakes.

Silicon Valley’s famous discipline—fail fast, fail cheap, and move on—applies here.

3. Hedge your bets.

In some cases, the shortest route to the goal involves investing in simultaneous experiments whose outcomes are mutually exclusive: Try A, B, and C in tandem; whichever succeeds first necessarily negates the others.

4. Create momentum.

Once you’ve settled on a course, two further steps can give the final push needed to get moving:

First, remember that the more uncertain things are, the more people prefer to stick with comfortable and predictable routines. Leaders need to insist on substantial, coordinated changes that depart from obsolete practices and make business-as-usual impossible.

Second, they need to defang or otherwise neutralize the people who persist in resisting change.

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Posted in AMS Concepts-Frameworks-Examples, Leadership, Management - General | Leave a Comment »