Archive for October 27th, 2011

Prediction: Obama’s midnight pardons will rock the world.

October 27, 2011

On his current campaign swing, President Obama is throwing around tax payer money to rebuild his base.

Earlier this week it was the Federal refinancing of underwater home loans.  Taxpayers will own any defaults.

Yesterday it was the announcement of an executive order to restructure, cap, and eventually forgive student loans after 20 years of payments.

That one troubles me.

Even CNN acknowledges:

The president’s focus on college loan assistance could also help him with younger voters — generally a core Democratic constituency. In 2008, Obama carried two-thirds of all voters ages 18 to 24, according to national exit polls.

Did you know that a provision of the ObamaCare law was to nationalize student loan programs?  Amazing what you can sneak into a 2,000 page unread law.

Now, the Executive branch (i.e. the Obama administration) has wide, unprecedented latitude to grant, structure and forgive student loans.

Presidents have often issued pardons and waivers during their last hours in office.  Think Bill Clinton pardoning uber-tax evader Marc Rich.

I predict that if Obama gets beat in 2012 – a 50 / 50 bet as things now stand – he will issue the mother of all pardons: forgiveness of all Federally held student loans and maybe, while he’s at it, the forgiveness of all Federally held home loans.

Far-fetched?

I don’t think so, and now, I’m on the record.

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Mr. Sculley, what makes a good manager?

October 27, 2011

An interviewer asked John Sculley, former Pepsi exec and Apple CEO;

Mr. Sculley, you’ve said you aren’t a great manager. What makes a great manager?

Sculley’s answer:

Really good managers want to turn one-off projects into as much of a routine process as they can.

I am a project-centric leader.

I like to work on projects and solve tough problems.

Whereas a really good manager will say, “How do we replicate the processes so that when a problem comes up like this again we can routinely solve it?”

That is a very different skill set.

It takes both to run a successful company.

I always tried to complement my creative problem-solving skills with people on my team who had more process and management skills, so as a team we were very successful.

It’s important to understand what you are really good at and weak at so you can fill out the leadership team with all the needed talent to be successful.

So, are you project-centric or process-oriented?

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Taking a pulse … How’s your “Facebook health”?

October 27, 2011

Punch line: While there is no magic way to gain strong consumer engagement on Facebook, a Covario study highlights the “Facebook health” of 100 leading advertisers across industry verticals. This study reveals less is more and quality counts …

* * * * *
Excerpted from mediapost.com, “Facebook Fans Say ‘Coke Is It’”

Coca-Cola ranks as the world’s No. 1 brand in a Covario study focusing on the Facebook health of 100 leading advertisers.

Hyundai, MTV, Disney and Bayer round out the top most liked and Wal-Mart rates best for engagement.

With the number of global Facebook users exceeding 750 million, its importance as an advertising medium is undeniable and growing fast … Coke has more than 34 million fans on Facebook, which is growing at a monthly rate of nearly 3%. The brand has strong fan engagement, typically posting seven items a month on its page with each garnering more than 235 comments and nearly 1,750 “likes.”

… “Several advertisers — Bayer and SC Johnson — have built followers, but their engagement statistics are relatively low … This is a huge branding opportunity for the firms.” AT&T, Wal-Mart, Dr. Pepper and Fox have excellent engagement, but lower than expected “reach” statistics …

Wal-Mart ranks on top for overall engagement, receiving an average of 7,390 comments and 726 “likes” on every post, which far exceeds all of the other advertisers in the study.

Apple is the only company among the nation’s top 100 advertisers that does not have an official Facebook page. The top Apple listing is a user page with 188,000 followers.

The study broke out Facebook leaders by vertical industry segments, including automotive, consumer packaged goods — sundries (Johnson & Johnson), consumer packaged goods — food and beverage (Coca-Cola), entertainment and media (MTV/Viacom), financial services/insurance (American Express), pharmaceuticals (Bayer), restaurants (Wendy’s), retailers (Victoria’s Secret), technology (Hewlett Packard) and telecommunications (DirecTV) …

Having many outbound posts is not an optimization factor … less is more with Facebook and quality is what counts … The best brands at engagement obtain upwards of 750 comments and 1,500 “likes” per post.

There is no magic to the type of posts being run by successful brand advertisers. While promotions are rampant in advertiser posts, often posting generalized questions is more successful than hard promotions …

Edit by KJM

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