Monthly Archives: December 2019

12/20/19

The Economy, Darling

I am no fan of polls primarily because I find them to be statistical malpractice in the unscientific, haphazard manner with which the polling samples are constructed and the sponsorship.

There was a CNN poll on the economy completed a week ago that had some surprising outcomes.

76% of respondents agreed the “Economy is very or somewhat good.”

This is up from 67% last year.

97% of Republicans agree.

75% of Independents agree.

62% of Democrats agree, up from 47% in August. <<< this surprises me

The economy is the best economy since 1900 and the only reason that boundary exists is because we don’t have good numbers from before that date.

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12/20/19

Grading CEOs After the Pay Window Closes

Merry Christmas, y’all, from Austin By God Texas where it is cold and gray.

So, several years ago, a CEO who I had advised for a few years and who had taken his company to the pay window asked me, “What kind of a CEO was I?”

He didn’t mean in a Performance Appraisal way, but more as a final, historic debrief of his entire tenure. [His bank account suggested he’d been a good CEO.]

It was an easy conversation because the guy was crackerjack and I told him so.

The conversation went on and he wanted to know, “How did I develop along the way?”

That was a deeper conversation and I agreed to go back and consult my notes rather than give him a saccharine, off-the-cuff, in-the-light-emanating-from-the-pay-window reply.

When I did consult my notes, we had a very useful conversation: useful to him because it validated some things he was thinking, and useful to me because I had a good chance to see what impact I might have had on his journey.

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12/17/19

The Impeachment Paroxysm

This is the first time I have used the word “paroxysm” in a longish time. I may never have used it in this blog before. It means a “sudden, violent outburst; a fit of violent action or emotion.”

It is a word apropos for the impending impeachment of President Donald J Trump tomorrow by the US House of Representatives. [I predict Speaker Pelosi wears pink & pearls. Anybody want to make a small wager?]

“Don’t screw with me, Big Red Car, you rust bucket. I can do things to you you cannot even begin to imagine.”

In case you have been traveling or tunneling toward the center of the earth, the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee, after painstaking scrutiny of the misdeeds of our President spread over a couple of days in which we met some actual law school professors, has proposed two Articles of Impeachment which the entire House of Representatives will ponder tomorrow and approve.

[I can tell you they will approve them, because that is part of my super powers — I can see the future.]

Only Democrats will vote to impeach the President. Some handful of Dems will vote against it, but it will be hopelessly partisan.

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12/16/19

Death In The Sanctuary State Of Illinois

Corey Cottrell, 39 years old, was riding his motorcycle on Main Street, in Bloomington, Illinois, on 22 June 2019. He was headed to see his mother at church.

Jose Rodriquez, a 27-year-old, Honduran illegal alien was driving a van owned by his employer east on Macarthur Boulevard, when he ran a red light and killed Cottrell, leaving Cottrell’s two daughters (11 and 14) fatherless.

Rodriquez not only killed Cottrell — enroute to see his mother at church, he ran over him as he fled the scene of the accident. Rodriquez ran into Cottrell; Rodriquez ran over Cottrell as he lay dying on the pavement, Rodriquez fled the scene of the accident.

Beer cans were found in the van.

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12/16/19

Understanding US Trade

The last two weeks have been monumental in the arena of trade, but the country was too enmired in the shallow grave of impeachment to really focus on it.

Three things happened:

 1. The USMCA (United States Mexico Canada Agreement) was passed by the United States House of Representatives.

This deal replaces NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and does great things for agriculture with Canada and US product content in goods (cars) whose final assembly is done in Mexico as well as prevailing wages.

 2. The US and China had a first date on trade — nobody is renting reception halls for the marriage, but it was a first step on the crawl, walk, run continuum.

 3. The US neutered the World Trade Organization by refusing to nominate members thereby destroying the quorum and preventing the WTO from taking any action against the US, a brilliant move. This is one that is completely overlooked.

The guy who did this is the man on the right, Robert Lighthizer.

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12/15/19

The Feel For Running A Business

There are a great many things in life in which there is an element of earthy knowledge that I call “The Feel.” The Feel is real.

In my own life, I’ve run businesses for more than 33 years and have advised others for 8 years, ran Army units for 5 years. One of the big differences I find is the comfort with which a CEO is able to settle into the job and run the business, not solely by feel, but with a sense of feeling they know what they are doing.

I experienced this notion in a number of different undertakings:

There is a moment when you are sailing a largish sailboat when the wind, the sails, the heel of the boat, the current, the swells, the point of sail are all in perfect equilibrium. You can hear the wind wind singing in the shrouds. You are in the slot and you can feel it. If you let the wheel go, the boat stays obediently on that point of sail until one of those elements change. This is The Feel and, baby, you’ve got it.

When you are landing an airplane in a crosswind, you have to dip the upwind wing, you stand on the rudder, you control the speed, you manage the angle of attack, you tease the throttle — done well, the plane obeys and while it is wont to move about on short final because of the crosswind, it does not. The plane touches the upwind wheel, gently puts the other one down, you keep a bit of that rudder in, and you roll down the centerline of that runway. Because you have mastered The Feel of it.

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12/14/19

Team Performance — The Multiplier Effect

The board of directors and the investors in a company rarely get an opportunity to see a team function as a system, as a whole. They may become familiar with certain subsets of the team when they are in contact with the leadership and the management, but they rarely see the entire team working together and rarely without the team knowing they are watching.

When I work with a CEO, I sometimes get a chance to be a voyeur and watch the team functioning without the team being aware of my presence. This opportunity provides a keen and unique insight.

Today, I had such an opportunity. In this instance, I came away bowled over by the quality of the performance.

Here is what I observed:

 1. As a complete process, the team operated at a high level of performance. They were demonstrably better than peer organizations.

 2. The team was visibly interdependent and worked with each other. Clearly, this was neither novel nor unique to this day.

 3. Looking at the individual team members, I would not have thought them remarkable, but as I watched them several things jumped out:

 a. The team, at the individual level, was sympatico and had a native desire to work together.

 b. Whoever had hired this team had done a fabulous job. I spent some time watching individual team members and across the board they were performers.

 c. The team work was neither forced nor snarky. It was genuine and natural.

So, I spoke to the manager of the unit and we had a very nice chat. I quizzed him as to his hiring practices.

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