Archive for May 23rd, 2012

What do Mitt Romney and Steve Jobs have in common?

May 23, 2012

I love the irony when it’s revealed that a villain and a hero are found guilty (innocent?) of similar deeds.

Past couple of weeks, Team O has been pouncing on Mitt & Bain for the evil done by private equity firms.

And, for years, Steve Jobs has been revered for his magic at Apple.

Here’s an interesting snippet from an NRO article: “Praise Private Equity“ …

Just months before Romney’s career at Bain Capital became controversial, Americans mourned the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

And yet when Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, Jobs returned as an angel of destruction. He fired over 3,000 employees, a move that helped swing Apple from a $1.05 billion annual loss to a $309 million profit.

He shut down Apple’s manufacturing facilities and outsourced almost every aspect of production.

He swung the axe pitilessly, since he was convinced that survival requires leanness.

And in the 14 years after Jobs returned, employment levels at Apple soared.

Apple’s manufacturing work force was eventually replaced by engineers, support staff, and — in a move that would have surprised many in 1997 — a vast army of retail employees.

The destruction was a prerequisite for the creation, and for the transformation of a wounded technology firm into one of the world’s most valuable public companies. “

And, oh yeah, Apple is insanely profitable … and pays no Federal income taxes.

Jobs is good; Romney is bad.

Hmmm …

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So, what’s a brand worth?

May 23, 2012

Millward Brown — a brands’ consultancy — has just released its Brand Z 2012 brand rankings and valuations (see chart below and click through for the complete list).

Apple tops their list … followed by IBM, Google, McDonald’s, Microsoft and Coke.

Sounds reasonable … but, according to Ad Age — the list re-opens a can of worms re: brand valuations.

Ad Age cites IBM as a case in point:

According to Brand Z, IBM continues its rise up the brand-valuation hierarchy, leapfrogging Google and rising to No. 2 behind Apple, its value up 15% to nearly $116 billion last year.

Omnicom’s Interbrand also had IBM No. 2 in its brand-valuation ranking released last October, up 8%, but valued Big Blue at just under $70 billion, only about 60 cents on Brand Z’s dollar.

But, the CoreBrand Brand Power ranking released about three weeks earlier, said  the value of IBM’s brand plummeted last year as it fell 18 places to No. 66 on that firm’s list.

Hmmm.

Ad Age says it’s illustrative of a bigger problem:

The IBM case is but an extreme among many disparities the Marketing Accountability Standards Board has found in publicly available valuations of brands.

The MASB  has been trying to develop a common way of measuring what brands are worth and how those values change.

“Many of the valuators treat them as black boxes, so you don’t even know what’s in it.”

So, how much is a brand worth?

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Gallup: “National Mood a Drag on Obama’s Re-Election Prospects” … say, what?

May 23, 2012

According to Gallup :

Some six months before voters head to the polls to choose the next president of the United States,

Gallup finds several indicators of the economic and political climate holding steady at levels that could be troublesome for President Barack Obama.

According to Gallup polling in early May, Obama’s approval rating is below 50%, Americans’ satisfaction with the direction of the country is barely above 20%, and the economy remains a dominant concern.

Talk about a juxtaposition of cause & effect …  perhaps, its President Obama who is responsible for the country’s lack of confidence … rather than the lack of confidence causing headwinds for the President.

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Side Note

41% of the country was  “satisfied with direction of the U.S.” when Bush was vying for re-election.

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