Newsletter April 2014 - Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
Newsletter April 2014 Volume 18 Issue 1
Quad Cities SCORE 1601 River Drive, Suite 310
Moline, IL 61265 309-797-0082
Quad Cities SCORE SCORE
GREAT WORLD LEADERS Fortune Magazine recently published its list of the fifty greatest leaders who are currently active in the world today. To be selected, leaders had to be transformational. And they had to inspire others to follow them to their goal even though their goal was sometimes only clear to
them. Just being admirable and powerful was not enough for being included. Many on the list are not widely known. Before reading on, I suggest that readers pick a handful of their candidates for the Great World Leaders list and compare it to Fortune's list. The complete Fortune list can be seen in the April 7, 2014 Fortune magazine or Fortune .com/BestLeaders. Number one on the list, by a wide margin, is Pope Francis. In a little more than a year, he has set a new direction for the two thousand year old Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion members. He started by setting a personal example: he lives in a modest apartment, drives a Ford focus, and reaches out to some of the world's most wretched people. He is willing to reform the corrupt Vatican Bank, face sex abuse scandals by the clergy, and challenge the self-absorbed Vatican bureaucracy. Number two on Fortune's list is Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany for the last nine years. In addition to governing Germany, she is the de facto leader of the enormous economy of the European Union. She leads by quiet persuasion, studious deliberation, and a first class intelligence. Students of European history might compare Merkel to the head of the ancient and oncepowerful Holy Roman Empire, a position first held by Charlemagne.
Pope Francis
Angela Merkel
Number three is Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford. Mulally took over a company that, since the days of Henry Ford, had trouble finding a new identity. Mulally was hired away from Boing. He effectively ridded the company of its ingrown nature, resistance to outside ideas, defensiveness, and risk aversion. Since Ford hired Mulally it has gone from nearbankruptcy to making barrels of money that it has generously shared, via bonuses, with its UAW workers. Alan Mulally
Number twelve on the Fortune list is Geoffrey Canada, a NYC social worker and educator. He took over the educational and social development of a twenty four block zone of New York City. The zone was the home of underprivileged people who were usually regarded as intractable and hopeless. He tirelessly managed to help them from birth with their educational, social, and medical needs. He redefined their expectations. The original zone, now expanded, is spectacularly successful. The zone serves 12,000 children with 95% of the high Geoffrey Canada school seniors ready to go off to college. He broke the cycle of poverty. Number thirteen is Christine Lagarde, French-born Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. She had to juggle the concerns of the fund's 188 members while financially bailing out financially sick countries such as Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. She has been largely successfully in insisting that a bitter prescription of austerity is the best medicine to help the poor and the unemployed.
Christine Lagarde
The top ten on Fortune's list of transformational leaders are: Pope Francis, Angela Merkel, Alan Mulally, Warren Buffet, Bill Clinton, Aung San Suukyi (political leader in Burma), General Joe Dunford, Bono, Dalai Lama, and Jeff Bezos. How many were you able to name from Fortune's top ten-or from its complete list of fifty leaders?
SCORE LOSES A MEMBER Steve Tagtmeier, a valued SCORE member, recently passed away. In the several years that Steve served as a volunteer SCORE member, he ably assisted many SCORE clients with their plans for starting and improving their small businesses. Steve's long career in accounting, forecasting, budgeting, and finance was of significant benefit to the SCORE clients who he counseled. His deep knowledge of finance was especially helpful to clients who needed to secure bank loans. Steve will be missed by SCORE members for his affable companionship and for his ready willingness to help clients with their business needs.
THE KIND OF PROBLEM TO HAVE Norway, with its small population of five million people, is awash with oil wealth. The government takes a big slice of the oil revenue and salts it away in the Government Pension Fund Global. The fund value is nearly one trillion dollars. It owns 1.2 % of all of the stock in the world and 2.3% of every listed stock in Europe. Every Norwegian attends school and university free. Women's medical birth costs are paid by the government and yearlong maternity leaves are mandated by law. At 65, retirees receive a pension based on 80% of their salaries for life. And yet there is concern that the goose will not always be there to lay its golden eggs. The oil is not indefinitely sustainable. Because of over dependence on oil wealth, businesses are not staying competitive.
The old-timers remember that until the 1970s and the discovery of oil, Norway was an economic basket case. Traditionally Norwegians are conservative and likely to downplay their wealth. There is little evidence in grand, national projects that would publically reveal their wealth. Government officials are in heated debates about what to do with Norway's growing wealth and how to consider the needs of future generations. What a problem to have!
FLAG OF NORWAY
THE GREATEST INVENTIONS IN THE WORLD The Atlantic surveyed a panel of scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and technology historians to ask for their assessment of what the fifty greatest inventions were to shape modern life since the invention of the wheel about 6,000 years ago. This ruled out fire that has been around for hundreds of thousands of years. How many of them can you name? The Atlantic lists the top ten in order of importance:(1) the printing press, (2) electricity, (3) penicillin, (4) semi-conductor electronics, (5) the optical lens, (6) paper, (7) the internal combustion engine, (8) vaccination, (9) the internet, and (10) the steam engine.
Quad cities readers may be interested to know that 30th on the invention list is the moldboard plow and the 50th is the combine harvester. Both played important roles in Quad City development. For the complete list see: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovationslist/309536/ How many inventions did you name that were on The Harper list?
# 50 EARLY HORSE-DRAWN COMBINE
NINE CEO'S WITH THE WORST REPUTATION At the beginning of this newsletter is an article about CEOs noted for their transformational leadership. At the other end of the scale is a list, by 24/7 Wall Street (a financial news firm), of nine CEOs with the worst reputations. At these firms, forty percent or less of their employees do not think favorably of their CEO. The lowest rated CEO is Edward Lampert, CEO of Sears holding-Sears and KMart. Twenty percent of its employees gave Lampert positive reviews. In the writer's opinion these stores are like decrepit dams with slow leaks that could cause split and cause a catastrophic collapse at any time.
J. Paul Raines, CEO of GameStop received a favorable rating from forty percent of the 17,000 company employees. Low wages, store closings, poor earnings, and high executive pay discouraged the employees. Jeffrey Yabuki, CEO of Fiserv Inc. (Information technology) was favorably rated by 39% of the employees. They object to low wages, disrespect, and senior management that won't listen to them. Bill Nuti, CEO of NCR also was favorably rated by only 39% of the employees. They object to cronyism, won't listen to employees, and unreasonable work schedules. Ursula Burns, CEO Xerox received a 30% favorability rating from her 140,000 employees. They do not like the layoffs, flat salary growth, and poor company performance. Others on the list of CEOs with poor reputations were: Michael Jeffries of Abercrombie and Fitch-31%; Bill Dillard of Dillards-24%; Do Won Chang of Forever21-26%; and George Paz of Express Script-27%. Although most readers of this newsletter run small businesses, the reasons for unfavorable opinions of the bosses in large firms are likely the same as for employees of small companies.
FREE SCORE SERVICES For the best source in town for free small business mentoring call on SCORE volunteers: SCORE volunteers are men and women who represent all walks of business and professional life. SCORE volunteers are experienced active former accountants, business owners, management and marketing personnel, and other professionals. SCORE volunteers are willing to share their knowledge gained from years of business experience. SCORE volunteers are counselors, mentors, and workshop leaders. SCORE volunteers have helped thousands of small businesses achieve success. SCORE volunteers are part of a team dedicated to the success of small businesses. SCORE volunteers listen and help make entrepreneurial dreams come true. For more information see: Web Site: www.quadcities.score.org.
Quad Cities SCORE 1601 River Drive, Suite 310
Moline, IL 61265 309-797-0082
Quad Cities SCORE SCORE
GREAT WORLD LEADERS Fortune Magazine recently published its list of the fifty greatest leaders who are currently active in the world today. To be selected, leaders had to be transformational. And they had to inspire others to follow them to their goal even though their goal was sometimes only clear to
them. Just being admirable and powerful was not enough for being included. Many on the list are not widely known. Before reading on, I suggest that readers pick a handful of their candidates for the Great World Leaders list and compare it to Fortune's list. The complete Fortune list can be seen in the April 7, 2014 Fortune magazine or Fortune .com/BestLeaders. Number one on the list, by a wide margin, is Pope Francis. In a little more than a year, he has set a new direction for the two thousand year old Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion members. He started by setting a personal example: he lives in a modest apartment, drives a Ford focus, and reaches out to some of the world's most wretched people. He is willing to reform the corrupt Vatican Bank, face sex abuse scandals by the clergy, and challenge the self-absorbed Vatican bureaucracy. Number two on Fortune's list is Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany for the last nine years. In addition to governing Germany, she is the de facto leader of the enormous economy of the European Union. She leads by quiet persuasion, studious deliberation, and a first class intelligence. Students of European history might compare Merkel to the head of the ancient and oncepowerful Holy Roman Empire, a position first held by Charlemagne.
Pope Francis
Angela Merkel
Number three is Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford. Mulally took over a company that, since the days of Henry Ford, had trouble finding a new identity. Mulally was hired away from Boing. He effectively ridded the company of its ingrown nature, resistance to outside ideas, defensiveness, and risk aversion. Since Ford hired Mulally it has gone from nearbankruptcy to making barrels of money that it has generously shared, via bonuses, with its UAW workers. Alan Mulally
Number twelve on the Fortune list is Geoffrey Canada, a NYC social worker and educator. He took over the educational and social development of a twenty four block zone of New York City. The zone was the home of underprivileged people who were usually regarded as intractable and hopeless. He tirelessly managed to help them from birth with their educational, social, and medical needs. He redefined their expectations. The original zone, now expanded, is spectacularly successful. The zone serves 12,000 children with 95% of the high Geoffrey Canada school seniors ready to go off to college. He broke the cycle of poverty. Number thirteen is Christine Lagarde, French-born Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. She had to juggle the concerns of the fund's 188 members while financially bailing out financially sick countries such as Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. She has been largely successfully in insisting that a bitter prescription of austerity is the best medicine to help the poor and the unemployed.
Christine Lagarde
The top ten on Fortune's list of transformational leaders are: Pope Francis, Angela Merkel, Alan Mulally, Warren Buffet, Bill Clinton, Aung San Suukyi (political leader in Burma), General Joe Dunford, Bono, Dalai Lama, and Jeff Bezos. How many were you able to name from Fortune's top ten-or from its complete list of fifty leaders?
SCORE LOSES A MEMBER Steve Tagtmeier, a valued SCORE member, recently passed away. In the several years that Steve served as a volunteer SCORE member, he ably assisted many SCORE clients with their plans for starting and improving their small businesses. Steve's long career in accounting, forecasting, budgeting, and finance was of significant benefit to the SCORE clients who he counseled. His deep knowledge of finance was especially helpful to clients who needed to secure bank loans. Steve will be missed by SCORE members for his affable companionship and for his ready willingness to help clients with their business needs.
THE KIND OF PROBLEM TO HAVE Norway, with its small population of five million people, is awash with oil wealth. The government takes a big slice of the oil revenue and salts it away in the Government Pension Fund Global. The fund value is nearly one trillion dollars. It owns 1.2 % of all of the stock in the world and 2.3% of every listed stock in Europe. Every Norwegian attends school and university free. Women's medical birth costs are paid by the government and yearlong maternity leaves are mandated by law. At 65, retirees receive a pension based on 80% of their salaries for life. And yet there is concern that the goose will not always be there to lay its golden eggs. The oil is not indefinitely sustainable. Because of over dependence on oil wealth, businesses are not staying competitive.
The old-timers remember that until the 1970s and the discovery of oil, Norway was an economic basket case. Traditionally Norwegians are conservative and likely to downplay their wealth. There is little evidence in grand, national projects that would publically reveal their wealth. Government officials are in heated debates about what to do with Norway's growing wealth and how to consider the needs of future generations. What a problem to have!
FLAG OF NORWAY
THE GREATEST INVENTIONS IN THE WORLD The Atlantic surveyed a panel of scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and technology historians to ask for their assessment of what the fifty greatest inventions were to shape modern life since the invention of the wheel about 6,000 years ago. This ruled out fire that has been around for hundreds of thousands of years. How many of them can you name? The Atlantic lists the top ten in order of importance:(1) the printing press, (2) electricity, (3) penicillin, (4) semi-conductor electronics, (5) the optical lens, (6) paper, (7) the internal combustion engine, (8) vaccination, (9) the internet, and (10) the steam engine.
Quad cities readers may be interested to know that 30th on the invention list is the moldboard plow and the 50th is the combine harvester. Both played important roles in Quad City development. For the complete list see: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovationslist/309536/ How many inventions did you name that were on The Harper list?
# 50 EARLY HORSE-DRAWN COMBINE
NINE CEO'S WITH THE WORST REPUTATION At the beginning of this newsletter is an article about CEOs noted for their transformational leadership. At the other end of the scale is a list, by 24/7 Wall Street (a financial news firm), of nine CEOs with the worst reputations. At these firms, forty percent or less of their employees do not think favorably of their CEO. The lowest rated CEO is Edward Lampert, CEO of Sears holding-Sears and KMart. Twenty percent of its employees gave Lampert positive reviews. In the writer's opinion these stores are like decrepit dams with slow leaks that could cause split and cause a catastrophic collapse at any time.
J. Paul Raines, CEO of GameStop received a favorable rating from forty percent of the 17,000 company employees. Low wages, store closings, poor earnings, and high executive pay discouraged the employees. Jeffrey Yabuki, CEO of Fiserv Inc. (Information technology) was favorably rated by 39% of the employees. They object to low wages, disrespect, and senior management that won't listen to them. Bill Nuti, CEO of NCR also was favorably rated by only 39% of the employees. They object to cronyism, won't listen to employees, and unreasonable work schedules. Ursula Burns, CEO Xerox received a 30% favorability rating from her 140,000 employees. They do not like the layoffs, flat salary growth, and poor company performance. Others on the list of CEOs with poor reputations were: Michael Jeffries of Abercrombie and Fitch-31%; Bill Dillard of Dillards-24%; Do Won Chang of Forever21-26%; and George Paz of Express Script-27%. Although most readers of this newsletter run small businesses, the reasons for unfavorable opinions of the bosses in large firms are likely the same as for employees of small companies.
FREE SCORE SERVICES For the best source in town for free small business mentoring call on SCORE volunteers: SCORE volunteers are men and women who represent all walks of business and professional life. SCORE volunteers are experienced active former accountants, business owners, management and marketing personnel, and other professionals. SCORE volunteers are willing to share their knowledge gained from years of business experience. SCORE volunteers are counselors, mentors, and workshop leaders. SCORE volunteers have helped thousands of small businesses achieve success. SCORE volunteers are part of a team dedicated to the success of small businesses. SCORE volunteers listen and help make entrepreneurial dreams come true. For more information see: Web Site: www.quadcities.score.org.
