Love the One You’re With; Hustle; How to Plan a Coup; More on That Sucking Sound; Econ Recon: Pendulum and Pricing

“Love the One You’re With”

Remember the Crosby, Stills and Nash hit song “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with?”  One CEO thinks you should look at your current job that way, especially if you’re not happy doing it. Ben Chestnut who runs email marketing services MailChimp reflects on his own career path and choices he made along the way that weren’t always what he wanted at the time, but ultimately rebounded to his benefit and advises us to “Learn to Love the Job You’ve Got.”

Hustle

We have all heard of “Engaged,” “Disengaged,” and “Actively Disengaged” employees from the Gallup Orgnization’s surveys. Engaged employees are giving their employers extra “discretionary effort,” “disengaged” are giving just enough to keep from getting fired, and “actively disengage” are actually trying to hurt the organization.

In sports discretionary effort is called Hustle,” and the NBA has figured out how to measure it on the court! A recent Sports Illustrated article “The Warriors’ Deadly Combo of Hustle and Flow.” describes how Pat Riley, when he was coaching for the New York Knicks many years ago, figured out how to “make the intangible tangible” and measure and reward “Hustle.” How are you measuring and rewarding Hustle in your organization?

How to Plan a Coup

The tense situation being created by North Korea has the full attention of the US, China, Japan, South Korea and just about everyone else.   It’s a very complex situation that requires all the players to move carefully lest disaster ensue. Many believe that regime change is the only viable solution.

Vistage Speaker and former CIA Special Assistant to the Director Herb Meyer looks at this possibility, bringing his usual insightful analysis and first hand foreign affairs experience to the problem. Whether you agree with any political opinions expressed, this article can be studied as a first rate demonstration of how to think through a complex situation fraught with risk. Herb has shared this process in presentations to hundreds of Vistage Groups and in keynotes to major organizations around the world.

To that end, I recommend you read this article, How to Defuse the Crisis with North Korea, to sharpen your own analytical sword in high risk situations in your business life.

Econ Recon:  Pendulums and Pricing

Pendulums: Economist Brian Wesbury looks at the US and Europe and sees a reversal of some long term negative trends leading him to forecast a stock marketing that is still significantly undervalued. Find out by how much in his most recent Wesbury 101 video The Pendulum Swings.

Pricing: In both down markets and competitive situations, we often focus on volume and forget about pricing. ITR Economics President Alan Beaulieu has some thoughts on this in his most recent ITR blog entry.