The Business Thinker

Integrated Marketing: If You Knew It, You’d Do It

By: Steve McKee on 05/17/2012

Steve McKee is president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland and author of When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You’re Stuck, and What to Do About It. Find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

www.businessweek.com If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, is such a cliché that it has spawned its own cliché: If it ain’t broke, break it. Unfortunately, that’s just what many companies do unwittingly to their branding programs, playing into the hands of public enemy No. 1 in today’s marketing environment: fragmentation.

More and more television networks, radio stations, print titles, and outdoor billboards are competing for attention, and new marketing channels pop up every day, from apps to publicity stunts and beyond. The number of places we hit people with marketing messages these days is growing a lot faster than the number of eyeballs that can take them in, and as a result audiences (and attention spans) are becoming increasingly fragmented. That reduces the chance any message has of getting through…………

To see the entire article please click on: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/integrated-marketing-if-you-knew-it-youd-do-it

(The recent) elections: Democracy and the fiscal compact

By: Francesco Daveri on 05/11/2012

Professor Francesco Daveri is a Professor of Economics at the University of Parma. He also teaches Macroeconomics in the MBA Program of Bocconi University in Milan, where he also taught Applied Growth in the Master in Economics and the PhD programme.

This article ir republished from and in accordance with the policy of “VoxEU.org”

Voters in France, Greece, Italy, and Germany rewarded politicians who opposed austerity. This column argues that attempts to fulfill campaign promises will run up against a hard constraint. The countries whose voters are calling for looser fiscal policies are those where public spending rose fastest since the birth of the euro. The only way out of today’s difficulties is to use the flexibility already in the fiscal compact and continue with bold implementation of the economic reforms that are under way.

Sunday 6 May 2012 was Europe’s “Super Sunday” of elections:

The French presidential election gave the victory to Francois Hollande.
Parliamentary elections have left Greece without a coalition capable of governing.
There were local elections in Germany and Italy.

All these showed similar results.

With Europe in recession, voters rewarded those who oppose budget cuts. But the turnaround of budgetary policies advocated by the majority of voters runs up against an important constraint. The nations where voters demand lower taxes are those in which public spending has risen more in the last ten years. The only way out of today’s difficulties is the bold implementation of economic reforms. This has started in many countries, but it must continue.

(Greece) Apocalypse now

By: Nikos Konstandaras on 05/11/2012

Mr. Nikos Konstandaras is managing editor and a columnist of Kathimerini, the leading Greek morning daily. He is also a contributor to The BusinessThinker.com

This editorial is also published in Kathimerini.

There are two ways to see our situation: Either the whole international community — and its Greek lackeys — has conspired to throw us into the bottomless pit of debt, or we are closing our eyes to reality and taking a flying leap into the void.

If the first is true, soon we can break out the champagne, as the mixed bag of political forces that are against the loan deal and reform program have come out strongly after the May 6 election. Soon they will call our creditors’ bluff and cancel the austerity program, roll back every reform and take us back to 2009, when the deficit came to 24 billion euros that was easily borrowed. The memorandum’s enemies will then be able to renew, with greater pomposity, their talk of traitors and gallows at Syntagma — while spreading the wealth the traitors were hiding. Read More »

Revolutionary Change and the Greek Financial Crisis: Lessons from the Venture Capital World

By: Tamir Agmon and John Psarouthakis on 05/09/2012

Dr. Tamir Agmon is the Associate Dean for Research and Development at the School of Management and Economics, Academic College Tel Aviv Yaffo in Israel. He is also a Professor of Financial Economics at the School of Business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University in Sweden.

Dr. John Psarouthakis is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow-Professor, Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Scotland Founder and former CEO, JPIndusries,Inc., a Fortune 500 industrial corporation. .He is th Publisher of www.BusinessThinker.com

1. Introduction

Greece is in great need for a peaceful revolutionary change in her political and socio-economic structure and culture. All the current programs for austerity and such like are based on the existing system. They are necessary, but not sufficient. We know from our research of the market for ideas that incumbent system cannot initiate or even supports revolutionary change. What is needed are new ideas and independent way of funding the ideas in their development stage. A good example is the case of supporting revolutionary change in technology by venture capital funds

The current financial crisis in Greece is a test case for the ability of the Greek government, the European Union, and the global financial system to deal with the need for revolutionary change. The current crisis in Greece is an outcome and a reflection of deep seated political, social and economic factors in Greece. The fact that Greece is a member of the European Union makes what could be a Greek problem a European and hence to a global problem. In a recent article in the New York Times Professor Aristides Hatzis from Athens University relates the problems today to the, justified, imitative of the senior Karamanlis to join Greece to the European Union. He succinctly summarizes the deep rooted nature of the crisis as follows:

“The Greek New Deal (joining the European Union) was not based on the redistribution of wealth created by the market since the market in Greece is highly regulated: it is a paradise for oligopolies, close shops and pressure groups where tax evasion is socially accepted and politically excused. Greece aggressive pressure groups, (unions, government agencies, cartels, close profession, etc.) seized big chunks of the E.E.C. transfers and government borrowing”. (NYT, June 14, 2011).

Leadership and Employee Engagement

By: James Stilwell and Stephen J. Gill on 05/09/2012

Mr.James Stilwell helps organizations in their leadership design and helps to implement ways to authentically engage their entire workforce. He has also taught at the University of Michigan’s Executive Education focusing on building collaborative organizational cultures

Mr. Stephen J. Gill– is a guest contributor. An Independent Consultant for Human Performance

Successful companies have high levels of employee engagement. Much has been written about why this is true and the factors that increase employee engagement. The vast majority of these writings and research findings focus on organizational and structural factors or put responsibility for becoming increasingly engaged in the lap of the employee. Some of these often cited factors include training and development, team building, recognition and rewards, information flow and access, performance reviews, and decision-making processes. Absent from this list is the powerful impact that leadership has on employee engagement. We imagine that as you read this you are saying to yourself, “Of course leadership is a key factor.” But we aren’t talking about giving lip-service to engagement, nor are we talking about having an engagement program, a director of engagement, or doing an annual engagement survey. We are talking about something much deeper that goes to the heart of leadership. This is self-awareness of ones values, beliefs, and attitudes regarding engagement and how the leader’s self is manifested in subtle but powerful behaviors that communicate volumes to an organization about the extent to which a leader truly supports increased engagement. Make no mistake about it, genuine employee engagement shifts power away from leaders and many leaders find this shift unsettling. Here are two examples.

Greek Elections: Time to speak frankly

By: John Psarouthakis on 05/08/2012

Mr. Alexis Papachelas is a guest editorial writer to The Business Thinker. He is currently the Executive Editor of the long standing and highly respected daily Greek newspaper “Kathimerini”.

This editorial is also appearing in Kathimerini.

Greek society will not find peace unless it takes a different path. Rightly or wrongly, many have come to believe we signed on to the memorandum because certain traitors wished to bring the International Monetary Fund into Europe and the country was the victim of a global conspiracy. Society has also come to believe there is absolutely no way we will be kicked out of the eurozone and that if we exert pressure they will actually erase the debt and hand out money to us in the form of growth packages.

Unfortunately, New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras contributed a great deal toward the above by not sticking to his valid criticism of the policy mix, but instead using social media and other tools to foster idle talk of collaborators and demonizing anything to do with the memorandum. In the end he paid a hefty price as this gave rise to Panos Kammenos’s Independent Greeks and ND lost a large portion of the sensible middle class. However, Samaras did act responsibly when he supported the Lucas Papademos government and discovered in practice to what extent Greek leaders are able to renegotiate. In the end, however, he was punished for the kind of delusion he created in the first place.

AN AMERICAN SYNERGISTIC TRILOGY: The Space Program, The Free-Market Economy And Philanthropy

By: V.E. "Bill" Haloulakos on 05/05/2012

Dr. V.E.”Bill” Haloulakos is an AIAA National Distinguished Lecturer and a contibutor to The Business Thinker

The Space Program, The Free-Market Economy and Philanthropy, form the earth-shaking and world-shaping triumvirate of American Exceptionalism. The most important part of this “trinity” is The FreMarket Economy, for it is the beating heart that feeds everything else. Because of the aspects and practices of the free-market economy the space program was such a spectacular success and along with the numerous other attributes of the American System, to be enumerated later, vast wealth and prosperity were created that allowed an expandedphilanthropic activities, although they of themselves are the core of the greatest philanthropy known to man which is “Modern-Day Responsible Capitalism”.

A WORD ON SYNERGY

Synergy is a mathematical concept, which specifies that one plus one is not always equal to two. Sometimes it is more in which case we say, “The total is greater than the sum of its parts”. This is known as positive synergism and there’s also negative synergism when the “total is less than the sum of its parts”. The mathematical concept of one plus one is always equal to two is called “the principle of superposition”, i.e. putting one thing on the top of the other, so they just “pile up”. According to the principle of synergism, what the sum of one plus one is equal to depends on the particulars of the case, e.g. when one buys auto insurance as a bundle for two or more cars he saves money as compared to buying them separately. So, one can say that one plus one, synergistically, are less than two because of the lower cost or that it is more than two, because for a given amount of money one effectively buys more insurance. We have and we shall enumerate a multiplicity of items and activities within the American Exceptional System where positive synergism is at work and “like an invisible hand”, to quote Adam Smith, creates a multiplication factor that improves things and situations far and beyond any “normal” (whatever normal is) expectations.

Is our Economy Floating at best?

By: John Psarouthakis on 05/04/2012

Dr. John Psarouthakis, Founder and former CEO, JPIndusries,Inc., a Fortune 500 industrial corporation. . Currently, Distiguished Visiting Fellow / Professor, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Publisher of www.BusinessThinker.com

The job numbers reported by the U.S. Labor Department today were very disappointing. Lower than hoped 115,000 jobs were created in the U.S. in April. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, whatever that means these days. The government’s unemployment rate doesn’t take into account people that are underemployed and cannot get a full time employment. Nor does it include people who have given up looking for work. If we include these unfortunate persons the real unemployment is closer to 15%

We are experiencing the worst post-recession economic recovery since the great depression. The historically low interest rates and the government’s printing of over $2 trillion have kept the economy from falling into recession again. Today’s employment numbers is a clear indication that we have yet to see an economy structural improvement. If the economy does not accelerate soon the odds are in the direction of a mild double deep.

Recession is “Expanding”

It looks like that Britain joined into recession Italy, Ireland, Greece, Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. France is moving in that direction as well. If we add that China is growing at slower rates than in the recent past and if these recessions become somewhat “deep” then Germany will find herself also in economic straits. Germany’s exports, 30% of GDP, will slow down significantly and her economy will suffer measurably. If all the above hold true into the future then you can all guess well what would be the effect on the USA economy and employment! It won’t take much of anything for a recession to revisit the USA

An Editorial: How we will Create jobs is the Question

By: John Psarouthakis on 04/15/2012

Unemployment is still very high, 8.2%. If we include the underemployed and those that have given up looking for employment the level is close to 12% levels.

This situation could create a threat to our country’s social inclusivity and stability.

That is why the number one priority of our investors, businesses, entrepreneurs, and politicians is to tell us how they can create employment opportunities and politicians should tell us of the policies they have in mind. They must tell us specific details and not just broad demagogic statements

There are several sectors and opportunities that the country could take good advantage of, provided the government does not suffocate initiative with thousands of pages of regulations and impedes investments through the uncertainty of undefined or scary tax policies.

Acquisitions: NEGOTIATING THE DEAL

By: John Psarouthakis on 04/15/2012

Dr. John Psarouthakis, Founder and former CEO, JPIndusries,Inc., a Fortune 500 industrial corporation. .
Currently, Distiguished Visiting Fellow / Professor, University of Edinburgh, Scotland,
Publisher of www.BusinessThinker.com

Successfully negotiating the deal requires a clear understanding
of the negotiation process. This article presents a view of the negotiating process which will help you to be a more effective negotiator. Negotiation needs to be viewed as a problem-solving process. Your goal should be to establish a positive atmosphere of communication and trust. Such an approach is likely to increase the odds that you actually close the deal and develop a sound business relationship with the seller after closing. To be successful, you must be well informed–about both the company you plan to purchase and the industry. You should also understand a seller’s motives for selling, but don’t waste too much energy on fancy techniques designed to psyche out the seller. Further, you must avoid romanticizing or “falling in love with” any one deal. Being a good negotiator does not require fancy tricks, “bamboozling” or bluffing the other side or reading tiny signals of body language. It requires that you, as the buyer be as informed as possible about the situation–the seller’s motives and details about his or her company and the industry. Finally, good negotiation also requires that you know exactly when you are going to walk away from the deal and when the seller is likely to do so. When you have that clarity, you can be a tough negotiator.

Negotiations begin with the first phone call to the broker or seller and continues through closing. Different aspects of negotiation are usually covered at different stages or steps in the acquisition process. This chapter also reviews some of the more common reasons that sellers sell. An understanding of the seller’s motives is likely to assist you in structuring a deal successfully. This chapter closes with some other tips that will help you to be a more effective negotiator.