30 June 2009 
Small Business Management PowerPoints
26 June 2009
The Obama Hell Burger and Why John Kerry Lost
A few years ago in 2006 Charmaine and Your Business Blogger(R) did some original on-site reporting on a John Kerry campaign misstep.
The post Why John Kerry Lost the Big One & The Big Question For Political Scientists might address the same politician-populist questions that president Obama raises when he chows down with the common man.
Obama recently schlepped to Arlington across the Potomac River to eat a common burger at an uncommon eatery. Barack ate like a normal person except for maybe that Dijon mustard request…
The Dijon slip was not as bad as John Kerry’s Swiss goof.
Barack and Biden even waited in (a short) line and left a five dollar tip.
Charmaine took an hour from evaluating office space for her growing law firm and joined The Dude and me for a dining experience on par with the president of the US of A where Obama got his burger.
The line was some thirty strong when we arrived at Rays during the lunch hour. We order three Hell’s burger specials — the counter guy says business “was going up and up” since the Obama visit. The counter guy — wisely — would not talk politics. His job is to sell burgers.
Or did we look like conservatives?
Are Democrat politicians elitists? Looking for answers a while ago, Your Business Blogger(R) packed up kith and kin and headed to Philly.
To sit at the feet of John DiIulio, Ph.D., Harvard. Teaching now at the University of Pennsylvania, a former aide to President Bush.
John began by positing the central question for any political scientist visiting the home city of Ben Franklin:
Who has the best Philadelphia cheese steak?
John was addressing a packed ball room at the American Political Science Association annual weekend meeting (Labor Day, every year).
The Dude & Diva
at APSA
The question got a laugh, but I think Professor DiIulio was on to a smaller truth.
After the conference, Charmaine and I loaded up the Monster Suburban and decided to load up with Philly cheese steaks. And to teach a basic political lesson and business lesson to the Penta Posse. We drove to South Philly to the famous eatery where John Kerry lost the election.
Pat’s King of Steaks open 24 hours. Where we joined the queue snaking around the old joint built in 1930 and not upgraded since. And no one cares.
We avoided the 3 errors John Kerry committed at Pat’s: Parking, Table, Cheese.
The Dude at Pat’s
Error #1) Parking. Pat’s is located on a busy intersection with some five odd parking spaces. We did not find a space. No one does. But when John Kerry came to get greasy, his able advance staff staked out a spot for his limo to glid into. The Very Important Presidential candidate got a parking spot.
John Kerry ties on
the feed bag
Error #2) Table. There are about 5 tables for the dozens and dozens of customers. We couldn’t get a table. And no one cares. But the Kerry Advance Team, on that fateful day, nailed down a table. Even the reporters were beginning to wonder. There was no standing around for the Elite. No slopping steak droppings in the car, no sitting on the low brick wall next to the basketball courts across the street. Nosiree. The sitting Senator had a seat saved. And didn’t have to wait on no man.
The Whiz
Error #3) Cheese. The Philadelphia Cheese Steak from Pat’s is ordered, as everyone knows, Wiz Wit. Every one knows but Kerry, that is, who is not Everyman. Translated, this means Chees Whiz With onions, if you please. John Kerry ordered his steak sandwich with Swiss cheese. Swiss. I didn’t know Pat’s would inventory Swiss: Why bother with slow moving sku’s? Even the lapdog liberal reporters snorted. Ordering is simple and fast — making my offer of queue management consulting moot. A business process needing nothing more than processed cheese.
Just like politics.
Even the Penta Posse understood this.
Was this helpful? Do comment.
Thank you (foot)notes:
Follow us on Twitter.
Charmaine and I talked with John D. after his presentation. He tells us that the best cheese steak in Philly is from Tony Luke’s. Most Democrats, like John, know cheese steaks and politics.
This is an unpaid endorsement.
I cite has more on the APSA experience.
22 June 2009
Small Business Management, Northern Virginia Community College Syllabus
Syllabus
BUS 165 SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
John Wesley Yoest, Jr. (Jack)
Adjunct Professor of Management
Business Technologies Division
Summer 2009, (Second) Six Week — Second, June 30 to August 10, 2009
12 class sessions
BUS 165-060A Tuesday/Thursday 600P – 920P
Bisdorf Building, Class room number 454
Main Campus:
Northern Virginia Community College
3001 North Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311
NVCC phone: 703 845-6200
Fax: 703-845-6009
Jack@Yoest.org
or,
JYoest@NVCC.edu
Cell: 202.215.2434
Education:
M.B.A., George Mason University
B.S., Old Dominion University
Course Work, Oxford University
1) Course Objective:
Prerequisites: Each student must be able to
1) Read and write English fluently, and
2) Have the desire to manage an organization
The course will enable students to acquire knowledge concerning the basic principles and practice of management — including the ability to problem solve, plan, organize, reason, and communicate, lead, control and influence.
This course will give the student basic critical thinking skills and an understanding of starting and running a small business.
If you successfully complete this course, then you will be able to:
• Understand the principal reasons for failure and success of small business firms.
• Understand the role of entrepreneur.
• Plan to start a new business, buy a going concern, or acquire a franchise.
• Finance, organize, and staff a small business.
• Locate and layout the business.
• Market a product or service.
• Control the business.
• Develop a business plan.
The textbook must be purchased: Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, by Thomas W. Zimmerer and Norman M. Scarborough; Prentice-Hall, 2008, Fifth Edition.
2) Academic Requirements:
ASSIGNMENTS:
Homework: There will be reading assignments from the text for every class.
Find a friend. Exchange contact information with at least one class member to keep current on any missed classes. Your Business Professor is not the primary contact.
Establish a domain name. It is strongly recommended to reserve and claim your name, for example: www.yoest.com, www.yoest.org.
Quizzes: There will be a short quiz in the first ten minutes of every class period. Questions may be true/false, very short answer, or fill-in-the-blank.
Tests: NONE. There is no Final Exam, however, we will have a regular class during exam week.
Business Plan: Each student will create, present and turn in a Business Plan.
Small Business in the News: The student will make five presentations of news articles concerning small business or a profile of an entrepreneur.
Class Participation: This will be a subjective measure at the discretion of the instructor. Even with the grade structure following, class participation and preparedness are important — they could make the difference in a borderline grade.
Quizzes: Nine @ two points each; 18 points total
Small Business in the News: Five @ 10 points each; 50 points total
Class Participation: 5 points
Exchange contact info: One point
Claim Domain Name: One point
Business Plan: 25 points
Total = 100 percent
Structure for Small Business in the News:
Each student will be required to give a brief oral presentation on a current news article, found on the Internet.
This presentation should be organized:
1) Provide the source of the article.
2) Deliver a brief overview of the topic, and, most important,
3) Your opinion/reaction to the article.
At the conclusion of the presentation you will turn in a print-out of the article, being sure to include the newspaper source, date, and website.
Current Event grading scale:
1 — Choice of article
2 — Follow Directions
2 — Organization
2 — Overview/Reaction/Opinion
2 — Presentation
1 — Turn In
==
10 Total Points
Additional information and public speaking helps.
Course Grading System:
A = 90-100
B = 80-89
C = 70-79
D = 60-69
F = 0-59
BUSiness 165 Course Outline
June 30 Introduction
July 2
1) The Foundations of Entrepreneurship
2) Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind
July 7
3) Designing a Business Model
Small Business in the News Presentation #1
July 9
4) Crafting a Winning Business Plan
5) Forms of Business Ownership
6) Franchising
July 14
7) Buying an Existing Business
Small Business in the News Presentation #2
July 16
Marketing Plans
July 21
9) E-Commerce
Small Business in the News Presentation #3
July 28
10) Pricing
11) Financial Plans
July 30
12) Cash Flow
Small Business in the News Presentation #4
August 4
13) Sources of Financing
14) Business Location
August 6
15) Global Entrepreneurship
Small Business in the News Presentation #5
16) Building a Team
3) Attendance:
Regular attendance of this course is expected. Failure to do so could have an adverse effect on the student’s course grade. Any class material and assignments missed are the student’s responsibility.
It is a requirement that the student exchange names and phone numbers with a classmate. Excessive absences, as defined in the college catalog, could result in the student receiving the grade ‘F’ for the course.
Testing and Grading:
Attendance at scheduled presentations is mandatory. No make-ups will be given without advance permission from Your Business Professor. This advance permission will be granted only under highly unusual circumstances, which in the opinion of this instructor warrants such action.
Normally this instructor will assign only the grades of A, B, C, D, or F. Special grades such as W, I, and R will be assigned only in those circumstances prescribed in the college catalog. The grade of X (audit) must be initiated by the student and will be assigned only when the student has attended class regularly. Failure to do so will result in the instructor issuing the grade of ‘F’.
The Successful Student will devote two hours of class preparation for each hour of class room instruction.
The student will be asked to grade the effectiveness of the Professor’s Quizzes.
Withdrawals:
Any student may withdraw from this course without academic penalty within the first 60% of the session. Initiation of the withdrawal is the student’s responsibility and the grade of ‘W’ will be awarded. The last day for withdrawal, without academic penalty, for this semester/session is _______________. Beyond this date dropping a course or failure to attend will result in the grade of ‘F’ except under mitigating circumstances. Documentation of these circumstances is required AND a grade of ‘W’ implies that the student was making satisfactory progress (passing) in the course at the time of the withdrawal.
If a student misses the first two weeks of class s/he will be dropped from the class.
Special Needs and Accommodations:
Please address with the instructor any special problems or needs at the beginning of the semester/session. If the student is seeking accommodations based on disability, you should provide a disability data sheet, which can be obtained from the Counselor for Special Needs.
Cheating:
The following will be considered cheating in this course:
1. The giving or receiving of aid on any graded assignments or test without specific permission of this instructor.
2. The use of any material on a graded assignment or test other than those authorized by this instructor.
3. Talking or discussion of any kind during a graded test without specific permission of this instructor.
4) Notes and suggestions and hints:
Last Day for Schedule Adjustments with Tuition Refund is ____________.
Last Day to Withdraw Without Grade Penalty or Change to Audit is _________.
Attendance will be taken at each class.
Check the course catalog first for questions.
Be sure to log onto Blackboard to follow assignments and current grade.
Expect to be asked to contribute to each class session.
Do not text-message during class.
When Your Business Professor says “Tomorrow” he means the next class meeting — not the next day.
It is normal and customary to wait for any late Professor for 20 minutes.
Draft Your Own Reference Letter.
Refer your friends to take this business class.
Canceled Classes: If class is canceled FOR ANY REASON, you are still responsible for the material due. The quiz on that material will be given at the next class, in addition to the regularly scheduled quiz. Campus classes are closed by division, day or evening. Sometimes day classes will meet and evening classes will be canceled or vice versa. The evening division starts with 4:30 p.m. classes.
Other Business Division courses:
ACC 211 Accounting
BUS 165 Small Business Management
AST 107 Editing and Proofreading
BUS 200 Principles of Management
AST 236 Software Applications or IST 117
BUS 241-1 Business Law I and II
BUS 280 International Business
BUS 100 Introduction to Business
FIN 215 Financial Management
BUS 125 Applied Business Math
ITE 115 Intro to Computer Applications and Concepts
18 June 2009
USS Bonefish Lost; In Memoriam 18 June 1945
At a recent funeral — they seem to come faster and faster as we get older and older — Charmaine and I talked about burials. Cremation, well, lights our fire and speeds up that dust-to-dust transition.
Charmaine asked what we’d plan to do with the ashes, where on earth to put them. We talk about the extended family’s burial plots.
“Where do you want to get buried?” She asks.
“37º18′N, 137º55′E,” I say.
“What?”
“The Sea of Japan,” I remind her.
She just looks at me. Women!
“What’s there?” she wonders.
Bonefish.
June 18th is the day we remember the loss of USS Bonefish.
This piece was originally published by The Virginian Pilot and the Courier Post.
My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.
On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II…
This piece was originally published by The Virginian Pilot and the Courier Post.
My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.
USS Bonefish,
Returning from her 4th patrol.
Sailors, rest your oars.
On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, the Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II. Dad eventually went back to high school and married my mother.
The other man is “on eternal patrol,” as the veterans say.
A half-century later, after fighting in and surviving two wars, my father was buried in Arlington Cemetery. He had the chance to raise a family and devote 30 years to the armed services, and pin second lieutenant bars on my shoulders.
He didn’t talk much about the Bonefish or the man who replaced him.
Still, I imagine in some Navy Valhalla my dad and this other sailor linked up together and asked the Creator, “Why?”
“Why him? Why me?”
War forces these questions on us, and they echo for generations. My father had me, and I now have a 4-year-old son, John, who carries his grandfather’s name and his love of battle and discipline.
John, like all children, often asks, “Why?” Like all fathers, I struggle to answer. But there are questions mere human reason cannot fathom.
Why was my father not on that submarine that fateful day?
And the answer does not come. Only that John now lives. With a purpose and a destiny still unknown.
When my wife was pregnant with our first child, someone asked her, “What is your greatest fear?” She answered that it was losing her husband; she feared the possibility of facing the awesome responsibility of motherhood alone.
But now, several children later, as I reflect on that same question, my fear is not of losing her, or even one of our daughters. I fear losing my son. In my masculine pride, I believe I can protect my wife and girls, but in my heart lurks the dread possibility that I must one day send my son to war.
My boy loves my cavalry saber and my dad’s medals. Wearing a military uniform and military service runs in our family. My son’s bloodline is traced through the Civil War and the Revolutionary War to William Penn to Charlemagne of ninth century France. His great-grandfather helped build Virginia Military Institute.
I pray the time never comes, but if it does, I expect that he will fight for God and country like his fathers before him.
Buried at sea, there are no headstones. I cannot mark the grave of the man who took my father’s place, so I mark the date. I pay silent homage in remembrance of June 18, 1945, when the sea smashed through the bulkheads and turned a warship into a coffin.
There have been many such coffins, and if history is any teacher there are many yet to come.
When I think of future wars, I pray that a doomed high-tech Bonefish will not carry my John. The fear of this nearly unendurable loss humbles me. That young man who walked on the Bonefish to take my father’s place was another man’s son. Another man’s dreams lost at sea.
War turns civilization on its head. In peace, sons bury fathers. In war, fathers bury sons.
It is a weighty debt. A debt of honor due. I expect to instill in my son a sense of history, of purpose, of his mission. That his body is not entirely his own, that he has a high calling.
I hope that I can teach him the lessons of his forefathers, those men now called the Greatest Generation.
It is my prayer that instilling this sense of mission will drive out the distractions, temptations and destructions of his growing generation. That drugs will not cloud his ambition. That he will see the hand of divine providence moving in his life.
That he will know he has so much to be thankful for. Like his fathers before him.
I pray he will be grateful, like his grandfather. It is my charge to tell my son that another man took his grandfather’s place. My son has the duty, and like me, the obligation to his family and to that other man, to live with a sense of purpose and awe.
To live with a sense of respect to the tomb of that other young submariner.
This June 18, I want to salute the man who died for me and the men who died for us all. I want my son to know his debt of honor. And, God willing, my son will bury me.
John Wesley Yoest, Jr., of Richmond, is [the former] assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Thank you (foot)notes:
Since this was first published a few years ago, Your Business Blogger has been honored to hear from other veterans who served on the Bonefish and naval historians. There were actually 85 men lost aboard the Bonefish and another boat holds the distinction of last sub lost in the war.
Charmaine blogged on the Bonefish June years past.
And, since this article was written, we’ve added John’s brother James to the family — Sons (and grandsons) of thunder.
See here for our visit to Arlington Cemetery.
Alert reader Greg Gray reminds us that,
“In peace, sons bury fathers. In war, fathers bury sons.”
That comes from Herodotus 1:87. But it’s still a wonderful point. Also relevant to today is Pericles’ oration in Thucydides’ Peloponnesian Wars.
Published: June 18, 1999
Section: LOCAL, page B11
Type of story: OPINION
Source: JOHN WESLEY YOEST
© 1999- Landmark Communications Inc.
Description of illustration(s):
Art by Margaret Scott
See Five Days in May: USS Scorpion Lost another boat that did not come home.
Be sure to visit Ron Newton with A Noble Generation Of Workers Matured The Hard Way.
Follow us on Twitter: JackYoest and CharmaineYoest
It Is Not Change, It Is Revolution
Following is an article by Herbert E. Meyer. If the Alert Reader has a citation, please leave me a comment or email to give Meyer the credit he well deserves.
Also see INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING FOR Chief Executive Officers By HERBERT MEYER
Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. He holds the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, which is the Intelligence Community’s highest honor. He is author of The Cure for Poverty and How to Analyze Information.
20 May 2009
By Herbert E. Meyer
During the last 30 [thirty] years we Americans have been so politically divided that some of us have called this left-right, liberal-conservative split a “culture war” or even a “second Civil War.” These descriptions are no longer accurate. The precise, technical word for what is happening in the United States today is revolution.
Because of our country’s history, we tend to think of revolutions as military conflicts, and of the revolutionaries as the good guys; the image of Minutemen fighting valiantly against the British forces at Lexington and Concord lies deep within our DNA. But sometimes — quite often, actually — revolutions aren’t military conflicts, and the good guys are the ones trying to keep the revolution from happening. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by its elected president; he would spend the next two years consolidating his power with the legislative connivance of his political allies in the Reichstag [building for lawmakers]. In October 1917, Lenin and his Bolsheviks took control of Russia from Kerensky and his Social Democrats — who had overthrown the Czar earlier that year — entirely through parliamentary maneuvering in Russia’s fledgling Duma.
What defines a revolution — and this is the crucial point to grasp — is that when it’s over a country has changed not merely its leaders and its laws, but its operating system.
Since most of us think of computers when we hear the phrase “operating system” let me use this analogy to illuminate my point: Every computer has an operating system, and most of us20are using either the Microsoft or the Apple operating system. If you want to do something with your computer — send an email, watch a DVD, read an online essay like this one — you must do it the way your computer’s operating system is designed to work.
No operating system is perfect, which is why Microsoft and Apple send updates to their customers from time to time. And every so often these companies launch new versions of their operating systems that incorporate a lot of modifications at once. Can you change the operating system you use? Of course you can. Two years ago I threw out every Microsoft-based machine in our company’s office and replaced them with Apple products. Last month I met a corporate CEO who had just done the opposite, and replaced the Apple computers in his office with ones that run on the Microsoft operating system.
Democracies and Dictatorships
Now, just as computers have operating systems so too do countries. In fact, countries have dual operating systems - one political and the other economic. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of each: Politically you can be a democracy or a dictatorship, and economically you can have either a free market or a command economy. Because countries don’t buy their operating systems off the shelf, the way we buy our computer operating systems, each country develops its own versions. This is why our country’s democracy is somewhat different from Canada’s, which in=2 0turn is slightly different from Australia’s, and so forth. These countries all have free-market economies, but again they aren’t quite the same. Still, the similarities among democracies and free-market economies are more striking than the differences. Likewise, while no two dictatorships are the same, and no two command economies work in exactly the same way, the differences among them are comparatively trivial.
Since no country’s operating systems are perfect, can they be improved? Of course they can. Every time our Congress passes a new law, or enacts a new regulation — or whenever the Supreme Court issues an opinion — that’s the equivalent of an update to our political or economic operating system. Can you change a country’s operating system? Yes, you can. And the precise, technical word for replacing one political or economic operating system with another is — revolution.
When politics in a democracy is normal, the political parties all agree to preserve the operating system while they compete to improve it. This is what is actually happening when one party in Congress introduces a new piece of health care or education legislation and the other party opposes it or introduces its own health care or education bill, or when two candidates for the Senate argue over whether or not to change our immigration laws. Honorable people often will disagree about what to do — sometimes quite strongly, just as the software engineers at Microsoft and Apple will sometimes argue through the night about whether a proposed change in the operating system’s code is an improvement or just “kludge.” But in normal politics the outer limits of all these disagreements are marked by a shared commitment to preserving and improving the operating system.
In abnormal politics, the objective of one party isn’t to improve the operating system, but to overthrow it.
With this analogy in mind, now we can see clearly what’s been happening in the United States during the last three decades. While conservatives have been working to improve our democracy and our free-market economy, liberals have been working to replace our democracy with a dictatorship, and our free-market economy with a command economy controlled by the government. The liberals couldn’t say this aloud, because if they did the American people would have tossed them out of office on their ears. So the liberals worked covertly, feigning support for democracy and for the free market while working diligently to undermine both.
This is why our politics has been so partisan, so vicious, and so deadlocked. This is why words have lost their meaning in Washington, why we can never get to the bottom of anything, why we lurch from one manufactured scandal to another. It’s all been part of a decades-long effort by the liberals to throw sand in our eyes — to keep us from seeing clearly where they really want to take us. (And this explains why, when we question their judgment on some issue, they go berserk and accuse us of questioning their patriotism. They’re afraid we’re on the verge of catching on. If you want to have some fun, the next time you’re chatting with a liberal and he goes nuts when you call him a socialist, say to him: “I’m so sorry you’re offended. Please tell me, what is there about socialism you don’t like?” You won’t get a coherent answer; he’ll just accuse you of a hate crime.)
Obama’s Two-Front Offensive
With the election of Barack Obama as president, the liberals have launched a massive, two-front offensive they believe will end in victory. They have judged that our public education system is so degraded that only a few Americans are left who even understand what a democracy is, and how the free market actually works. They are convinced that the majority of Americans are too frightened by the current recession to care about preserving the principles that made us the most powerful, productive and innovative country the world has ever known. In short, the liberals are reaching for victory because they believe that history now is on their side.
The speed and reach of their offensive is breathtaking.
At the core of democracy is the rule of law, and we have already lost it. The liberals lecture us incessantly that everything is “relative,” but that’s not true; some things are absolutes. You cannot claim to be faithful to your spouse because you never cheat on her — except when you’re in London on business. And you cannot claim to have the rule of law if the government can set aside the rule of law when it decides that “special circumstances” have arisen that warrant illegality. When the President and his aides handed ownership of Chrysler Corporation to the United Auto Workers union, they tried to avoid sending that beleaguered company into bankruptcy by muscling its bondholders into accepting less money for their assets than the law entitled them to collect. These contracts, and the law under which they were signed, were mere obstacles to a thuggish President bent on paying off his political supporters.
It’s going to get much worse, fast. President Obama has told us time and again that among his criteria for choosing Federal judges will be “empathy.” Empathy is a wonderful quality in any human being, but a judge’s job is to rule according to the law. Once our courts are presided over by judges who will reach verdicts based on how they feel about an issue — such as abortion or the right of citizens to bear arms — the law will be whatever the judges wish it to be; the rule of law will become an empty phrase rather than the architecture of our civilization.
We have lost our free-market economy as quickly as we have lost the rule of law. Money is to an economy what blood is to a body; life and death resides within the organ that controls its flow. The government already owns our country’s leading banks, which means the government now controls our economy. (And in all fairness to President Obama, it was the Bush administration that started us down this ghastly road.) One indicator of the Obama administration’s real objective: When some banks that had taken federal money attempted to repay their loans, the Treasury Department refused to accept repayment and step aside. This shows the government’s goal isn’t to prop up the banks, but rather to control them.
Here, too, things are going to get much worse, fast. The government now owns General Motors Corp., is reaching for control of insurance companies, and has launched plans to take over our country’s health care industry. It even wants authority to set the salaries of executives in industries that, at least for now, aren’t being subsidized or underwritten by the government.
Put all this together, and what we have in our country today isn’t a democracy and it isn’t a free-market economy. Reader, what we have now is a revolution.
This revolution won’t be stopped, and our country won’t be rescued, by the Republicans in Washington. This isn’t because they lack the votes. It’s because most of them are careerist hacks who’ve been playing footsie with the Democrats for too long; with very few exceptions they lack the intellectual firepower to articulate the present danger, and the political courage to stand up to this Administration and really fight. But for the absence of frock coats and pince-nez glasses, these Republicans in Washington remind me of those bumbling Weimar Republic politicians in Berlin who never grasped where Hitler and the Nazis were going until it was too late to stop them, or of those hapless Mensheviks in Moscow’s Duma who let themselves be tossed into history’s dustbin by Lenin and his Bolsheviks. (Yes, of course I realize it’s explosive to keep bringing up the Nazis and the Bolsheviks in an essay about the Democrats. I’m not doing this to be incendiary; I’m doing this to be accurate.)
The Future’s in Our Hands
Our country’s future now lies within our own hands — yours, mine, all of us who comprise what the Washington insiders sneeringly call the grass roots. Good, because unless I’m very much mistaken the liberals have over-estimated their strength. There still are more of us than there are of them. I mean ordinary, decent Americans from across the political spectrum who may disagree about specific issues, but who understand who we are and how we became who we are; who love our country, have a genius for self-organizing, and won’t let the United States go down without a fight.
We need to launch a counter-offensive, so to speak, and the place to start is at the local level. Working with our county and state political parties when we can — or working around them when we must — our objective will be to elect as many people as we can to public office who understand what a democracy is and how the free market works. This will include city council members, county commissioners, school board members, judges, sheriffs and even members of the local parks commission. With the strength and political momentum their elections will provide, we can surge to the state level and then — before it’s too late — take back the power in Washington DC.
I know this isn’t the kind of battle most of us want to fight; we would rather watch the talking heads slug it out on Fox News than stand on a street corner handing out campaign flyers. And given our country’s history, for a while it will be uncomfortable to find ourselves fighting against the revolution and for the status quo. But we’ll get used to this as we make our case over and over again — to our friends, our neighbors, at barbecues and PTA meetings and at public rallies like those marvelous April tea parties that drove the liberals insane. And we’ll draw strength as our ranks swell with new recruits.
The alternative to launching this kind of peaceful and political counter-attack is horrific. Right now sales of guns and ammunition are rising sharply. This reflects an intuitive grasp by grass-roots Americans of what history teaches may lie ahead. It was only after the Nazis had secured their grip on power in Germany, and only after the Bolsheviks had seized control of Russia, that they set out to disarm and destroy the vast numbers of ordinary citizens who - to the astonishment and fury of the revolutionaries — just wouldn’t go along.
That’s when the real shooting started, and when blood began flowing in the streets.
Herbert E. Meyer
Thank you to Alert Reader Janet S. for sending this along!
11 June 2009
Management Training in DC & NoVA, July-August ‘09
Management is getting things done through the active support of others.
These “others” are more than your direct reports. And are critical to the success of the manager.
In this six week course we will review how the experienced manager,
1) Gains the support of his network,
2) Practices followership as well as leadership, and
3)Trains his staff to be self-reliant, not boss-reliant
Watch the video clips at the end for a preview: The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey.
We will review strategies that women can use to break the glass ceiling.
Your Business Blogger(R)
interviewed in The Washington Post
The class is perfect for the manager looking for his next assignment.
The best time to look for a job is when you have a job.
Question: But what if you don’t have a job?
How to look?
And what to do meanwhile?
Answer: Go back to school.
Alert Reader, FaceBook and Twitter Friend, Janet, asks Your Business Blogger(R) about a common challenge:
What do I do about gaps in employment history; gaps on my resume?
If you are in this situation here’s what the job seeker can do to ‘mind the gap.’
Enroll in a course at your local community college.
Continuous learning is, well, continuous.
And it doesn’t have to be expensive.
Here are three F.A.B.’s, the Features, Advantages and Benefits of going back to class.
If you have a job or not.
First Feature
Meet a professor
Advantage
Learn subject matter.
Learn presentation — interview — life skills.
Get referrals.
Benefit
Cheaper than a personal coach.
Get a character reference letter.
Get employed faster
Second Feature
Meet other inquisitive minds
Advantage
Expand your Friend contact database.
Challenge assumptions.
Increased network of contacts for job referrals.
Benefit
Faster learning.
Cheaper than a job placement agency.
Get employed faster
Third Feature
Regularly scheduled class times.
Advantage
Encourages the student to get out of bed, out of the house.
Provides structure to the job seekers’ week.
Forces the student to walk past career counselors’ office.
Benefit
Get more done in less time.
Spend less time in Starbucks.
Get employed faster.
The purpose of continuing education is the gaining of new knowledge, skills and abilities. But this is even more important when one is out of work. A perspective employer is going to ask you a number of questions.
The first interview question will be, “What are you doing now?”
The perfect answer is, “As I look for my next position, I am taking a business refresher course at my local community college.”
Remember: the best time to find a job is when you are working — going to class is your job.
You may be unemployed, but you are busy: You are using your time wisely while you look for work.
As it happens, the Northern Virginia Community College has the perfect solution to help you find your next job.
Sit in my class.
NOVA has openings in my Business 200 class, Principles of Management. We will meet every Monday & Wednesday nights at the Arlington Campus, near the Ballston Metro. Beginning July 1 for six weeks.
Alert Readers know that Your Business Blogger(R) charges outrageous fees for a two day management seminar.
The same instructor at NOVA will set you back about 100 bucks a credit hour or about 500 bucks fully loaded for a three credit-hour class.
Course topics covered in Principles of Management:
1. Intro to Management
2. History of Management
3. Organizational Environments and Culture
4. Ethics and Social Responsibility
5. Planning and Decision Making
6. Organizational Strategy
7. Innovation and Change
8. Global Management
9. Designing Adaptive Organizations
10. Managing Teams
11. Managing Human Resource System
12. Managing Individuals and a Diverse Workforce
13. Motivation
14. Leadership
15. Managing Communication
16. Control
17. Managing Information
18. Managing Service and Manufacturing Operations
Call now to register. Operators are standing by.
Or apply on-line.
This after hours, summer evening class is the perfect career-management strategy and allows the attendee to job-hunt early in the day.
Come join my class. And get employed faster.
Thank you (foot)notes:
For more on your job search: tattoos, lying, resume enhancement and trick questions follow links below.
Read Job Search? PASS This Test
See how “Sarah” is getting it right. To get your next job, assignment or project PASS this test! See how the mythical composite Sarah learned new behaviors to find new opportunities.
As first appeared in The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, January 20, 2002
To get a job, first get a plan and then get busy…
Your Business Blogger(R) is of a certain age from a certain generation with teenage children and is confused by various body art. I do not understand tattoos. (Except on my dad, who was in the Navy…) A future employer also may not understand body art. Not even Starbucks. Tiny URL: http://tiny.cc/4FMr3
What is the first question hiring managers ask themselves? Get a Blog; Get Hired — And the First Question
Be sure to ask some questions in your job interview, Job Interview: 3 Questions for Your Prospective Boss.
The Lie: A Guide to Fibbing in the Job Interview, it’s not what you think.
Here’s what your interviewer is really looking for, Job Interview: How To Tell If the Candidate Will Lie, Cheat, Steal?
There is actually controversy on hiring competence, Hiring Super Stars vs Tolerating Turkeys
Yes, High School still counts. Forever. What’s the One Best Question to Ask a Job Candidate?
Why Were You Really Hired? The Two Qualities That Count.
Follow me on Twitter: @jackyoest
Watch The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey; short video
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
4 June 2009
For CEO’s: Should You Hire A Chief of Staff?
By Bill Oncken and Jack Yoest
President Clinton used a wagon wheel. So did Jimmie Carter.
President Nixon used a pyramid. So did George Bush.
Democrats and Republicans have traditionally used very different reporting structures to run a very large organization.
But which organization chart is best for today’s business? The wagon wheel — with its hub and spoke; or the hierarchical — shaped like a pyramid?
The wagon wheel is popular among populist managers because information is unfiltered and fresh. And input can be received and appreciated from dozens and dozens of direct reports and random passersby.
But the problem today is not the lack of information. It is the lack of discretionary management time from overworked supervisors. The most common complaint we hear in our practice is that the managers are running out of time while subordinates are running out of work.
Note that this is not a lack of time management, but management time — That time necessary for the line manager to give some thought to strategic initiatives and projects requiring more than 10 minutes of uninterrupted quiet.
Follows is a three step guide to move from the hub and spoke to the triangular pyramid. And help you with “If I only had a minute to think…”
First. Appoint a deputy. Eisenhower in 1953 was the first president to implement the hierarchical organization structure naming the New Hampshire governor Sherman Adams as White House Chief of Staff. Adams was a trusted second in command, who was thought to be all powerful, eclipsing his president as VP Cheney was so accused under Bush.
Only supremely confident leaders can handle the trade offs in the perceptions of power to achieve the increases in effectiveness. But as Eisenhower learned in managing the Normandy invasion, a talented deputy and staff can filter the signal from the noise providing the manager with only high quality decision options. And win whatever war the manager is fighting.
The pyramid structure with the manager at the apex with a strong gatekeeper-deputy provides the template to vet incoming issues. The formal chain of command, so loved by Ike, ensures accountability and completed staff work.
So boring. But predictable. In our combined 50 years of management, we have yet to meet a supervisor who liked surprises.
Second. Stop Thinking Outside the Box. Each business function should be in a box somewhere in the organization. Only 10 of these boxes should have a direct, solid line to the manager. Bill Clinton and Jimmie Carter had ‘flat’ organizations with massive meetings and enjoyed massive data dumps from staff. Clinton relished the informal comrade of endless assemblies that ran late; Carter loved to drill down into planning assignments on the tennis courts. Few would consider them among our better presidents.
Another common problem we find in our management training practice is in the egalitarian new-age of enlightenment where we are all equal to each other. And the manager considers the individual input and each and every suggestion of each and every one of her employees to be the equal of her own, or of anyone else.
This, of course, is nonsense.
Any business plan, even good ones need to compete with other well thought-out plans. The manager’s time should be consumed with deciding among great ideas. There will be enough goofy plans floated about without encouraging such output and having them tossed over the bosses’ transom or through his open door.
And finally, Close your door. Access to the manager must be restricted and rationed wisely. The pyramid design may insulate the manager and yield some power to the staff which may be troubling to the ranks. This would be the trade-off to allow the manager to concentrate limited time and attention on key issues.
The wagon wheel does put the manager in the center of the hub and spoke but can drain the energy of the executive and blur reporting lines creating confusion. Enforced hierarchy can be healthy for the company and the manager.
A business and its organization chart need discipline. Because time, as Beethoven said, is man’s most valuable possession. That organizational abomination that steals time is known as an,
Open Door Policy
Which leaves the harried manager at the mercy of his staff . . . who stroll by to deliver unfiltered information or cry about a missing cat or babble about a boyfriend.
(Yes, you can keep the policy, and even deploy the slogan, but with luck and the pyramid no one will get close enough to you to use it.)
The business-like, even cold-hearted hierarchy is still the best structure in these modern times. Which may be why the business-like Republicans prefer the pyramid organizational model — because it delivers results.
Just ask Jimmie Carter.
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Bill Oncken is President and CEO of the William Oncken Corporation. Jack Yoest is President of Management Training of DC, LLC. They are both former Army Officers in Combat Arms armed now with MBA’s.
Follow Jack, Your Business Blogger(R) on Twitter.