“I can tell you in the 35 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen who was in Washington alter the course of a business cycle.” 

“The amateur works until they get something right. The professional works until they can’t go wrong.”

Julie Andrews
Legendary Broadway Actress
(Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady)

Gladwell and the Dilemma of Success

There are many problems that the successful must overcome along the way. But once success is achieved, there is one problem that NEVER goes way. Check out some thoughts from Malcolm Gladwell in a one page article regarding the Single Biggest Problem Every Successful Person Faces.

A Future That Doesn’t Need You

There is much buzz about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a revolution in the work place that will be as or even more disrupting than the industrial revolution. This week an article from Smithsonian discusses how AI will displace employees at all levels in business including CEOs. File clerks and other admin personnel may be displaced at rates of 80%; but how likely is the C-Level employee to be made redundant? Check out this article about how you the C-Level executive will be impacted and the skill sets that might help you protect your position.   

Does the future still need you?

Have You Made A Phone Call to You?

CEOs spend a lot of time and money trying to get inside the head of their customers. Maybe the best way to do that would be to become one; that’s what nationally known speaker and customer service guru Nancy Friedman, known to thousands who’ve attended her seminars as “The Telephone Doctor.” Ms. Friedman suggests a quick, simple, no cost, but probably not painless, first step in sharing the same experience customers have when they contact your company. Her 2 minute video “Have You Called You Recently?” will show you how.

Brace yourself.

Econ Recon:  USA – Under New Management…..Trump and the Business Cycle

Donald Trump’s election came as a surprise to many of his supporters and detractors. (It may have even surprised him, although he would never admit that.) Trump is the first person to be elected to the presidency who had not served in some capacity in government or at the highest level of the military (e.g. Washington, Grant, Eisenhower), to say nothing of the fact that he is the first business person to hold the office. Economist Brian Wesbury has a few thoughts about what Trump will be able, and not able, to accomplish as regards the economy in a recent Wesbury 101 video: USA-Under New Management.

Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics reminds us that the economy is bigger than all of us in a short article on Trump and the business cycle. He also has a few thoughts for those of you in the oil and gas business.