Why Really Smart People Don’t Get Hired….and struggle with strategy….CRM Agonistes….A Little Fun in honor of Father’s Day….Econ Recon: Flying Blind and Negative Interest Rates??

“I want to congratulate all the men out there who are working diligently to be good fathers whether they are biological fathers, stepfathers, or just spiritual fathers.”

 Reverend T. D. Jakes

Founder and Leader of The Potter’s House

A Non-denominational church with 30,000 members in Dallas, TX

 Why Smart People Don’t Get Hired….and struggle with strategy.

Have you ever had friends whose intelligence you admired but they struggled to get hired? One executive who leads an international consulting company took a look at this phenomenon and offers this short and insightful article that explores why Smart People Don’t Get Hired  …and while we’re on the subject of smart people, this brief blog entry at the Harvard Business Review site explores why “Smart People Struggle with Strategy.”

CRM Agonistes (or What Salesforce Won’t Tell you)

Is there a really good Customer Relationship Management  (CRM) System out there that you and your team will really like?

Of course there is!!, says Gene Marks, a Forbes Magazine technology writer and the good news is you’re probably already using it! The author takes the position that if you don’t like the way your current CRM system is performing, stop whining and look in the mirror. He offers three common sense steps for making whatever CRM system you’ve invested in finally work the way you want it to. As Pogo says, we’ve met the enemy and it is us!

A Little Fun in honor of Father’s Day….

 “So, Papa, how do you like the new Ipad we got you? “  ….. asks the daughter of her father in this humorous video clip from Germany. It reminds us that the so called “digital divide” is not only between the rich and poor, it can be generational too…and a little instruction with new technology is always a wise move!!

 Ten things a Dad should know:  This short article from Smithsonian magazine lists 10 research findings about being a dad that have been published since last Father’s Day, including an admonition that a man who wants to be  a dad (for the first time or  again) should not carry a mobile phone in their front pants pocket.   

“To the Boys Who Will One Day Date My Daughter”:  A father (who is also a standup comic) recently shared with a group of college students the feelings of protection he has towards his daughter in a way that is heartfelt, humorous and not likely to be forgotten by any young man there who heard it.

Econ Recon: QE: Flying Blind at Home…

Negative Interest Rates Abroad

If you watch the Fed and are concerned that its ever expanding balance sheet due to years of “Quantitative Easing” (printing money and using it to buy government and mortgage securities in the open market to increase the money supply) is setting the stage for trouble later…then check out economist Brian Wesbury’  latest Wesbury 101 video  “The Fed is Flying by the Seat of Its Pants.”   His concern: The Fed likes being the world’s largest financial institution and will have trouble trimming its balance sheet back to the status quo ante. Wesbury worries that all this excess money supply, far in excess of historical percentage of GDP and currently being held in financial reserves by banks, is “gasoline being stored next to the hot water heater,” and the sooner sopped up, the better.

Vistage Staff Economist and ITR Economics Principal Alan Beaulieu also weighs in on quantitative easing, but does so by looking at the Europe Central Bank’s (ECB) offering  “negative” interest rates  and what it means.