The horrific events of the last week have seemed to call into the question the genurine progress that has been made in this country since the days of slavery and Jim Crow laws. The tragedy in Charlottesville, coupled with the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and elsewhere around the world could make us wonder if mankind will ever live together in equality and harmony. The sermon preached at my church today included a message from the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry. His six minute message answers the question: Where do we go from here: chaos or community?

Elvis Presley, CEO

August 16 was the 40th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley at age 42. (Hard to believe Elvis would be 82 now!)  Much has, is and will be written about “The King” and I will not attempt to recount his astonishing musical career here.

But Elvis has much to teach entrepreneurs, marketers and strategists.  A brief article in Entrepreneur Magazine provides some insight into how Presley innovated in serving his customers (fans); and to still be generating an industry of impersonators who were born after Presley died is nothing short of amazing.  Talk about a brand!

Five significant lessons can be found in this tribute to his business acumen: Long Live the King: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Can Follow Elvis Presley’s Ingenious Business Playbook .

If you still have trouble envisioning Elvis as a business person, I’ll let his own words convince you: “I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific uses for two highly trained certified public accountants.”

Millenials

Are now the largest portion of the workforce – over 1/3rd. Love them or hate them, we have to work with them. And they WILL become the next generation of leaders. So it is in our best interest to help them to grow into those leadership roles.

Many of you are familiar with Simon Sinek’s famous analysis of Millenials. He repeatedly states “They were dealt a bad hand,” and were “the victims of bad parenting. He enjoins business leaders to correct the situation and help them grow into the real world. Author Jon Mertz has written a thoughtful piece on “What Simon Sinek Got Wrong about Millenials in the Workforce.” Fundamentally he challenges us to avoid broad generalizations and to engage individuals in relationships. Not a bad idea for every generation.

An EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) blogger looks at Millenials and finds that as a group they share a lot of traits with entrepreneurs.

And no discussion of Millenials would be complete without some humor. A song You’ve Gotta Love Millenials and a training video.

Econ Recon

The Consumer is Consuming: The turbulence in retail as brick and mortar stores duke it out with online sellers should not lead anyone to think that consumers are not doing their part to drive the economy forward according to Dr. Brian Wesbury. Overall retail sales may not be up substantially year over year, but his quick recap of a deeper dive into the data reveals some important and reassuring info. Find out why Consumers are Doing Fine!

The Dollar is Still Almighty: For a quick overview of the strength of the dollar, and why it will stay that way, Alex Chausovsky of ITR Economics provides a good recap of the reasons in a few paragraphs.