On the Edge
By Alex Hutchins
One of the most common pitfalls facing any person who has achieved a position of power is the arrogance of thinking that because you have this position, all your decisions must be correct; and this simply cannot be correct, not for anybody at any position at any time; yet, despite knowing this underlying knowledge, potentially great people or even great people continue to make stupid decisions. This is epitomized by our current political leaders no matter how high or low of an office they hold and is indicative of both Democrats and Republicans alike.
As we see below, the Insurance Journal has compiled a list of the top 10 business risks that businesses faced in 2011 and will again be facing in 2012.
1. Economic slowdown
2. Regulatory/legislative changes
3. Increasing competition
4. Damage to reputation/brand
5. Business interruption
6. Failure to innovate/meet customer needs
7. Failure to attract or retain top talent
8. Commodity price risk
9. Technology failure/system failure
10. Cash flow/liquidity risk
Armed with this information, the present administration seems enthralled with a mission of making sure our businesses take care of the workers first before taking care of the business or of maintaining their competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The present administration is engaging in age old battle of which came first: “the chicken or the egg,” while Congress continues to feverishly debate should we take care of: “the chicken or the egg?” Meanwhile, young entrepreneurs are forcing ahead, oblivious to all previous: “rules of the road.”
Entrepreneurs like:
- Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin – Founders of Google
- Jeffrey Bezos – founder of Amazon
- Pierre Omidyar – founder of EBay
- Mark Zuckerberg – founder of Facebook
who, despite the controls set in place by the Democratic Party to regulate all businesses so that the worker will always be protected at all costs, have turned their dreams and fantasies into multi-million or billion dollar operations that continue to grow and provide jobs and taxable income with which our politicians can play and have played.
Not only do these young entrepreneurs ignore the rules, they create their own rules, a trait which was no doubt acquired by learning how American power politicians have operated in the past while at the same time, improving upon the existing behavior – a character flaw that made this country great. I say a flaw because those who are in power do not want the others to use the same patterns that got them there – sublime hypocrisy.
Outlaw Mentality – refers to a tendency among Americans to rally around and behind those who have the personality and behavior to go against “the man,” and/or those who try to and actually do “beat the system.” In one of my business classes in the spring semester of 2012, I will be asking the student to develop a new business model for the traditional, Southern, small 4-year college as the business model currently in place, in the opinion of some, is not working.
Like my students, I would suggest to the present administration or the new administration, if different, that they consider developing a new business model as well; and, I would suggest they draw on the opinions, according to listphobia, of the top business leaders (listed below) of the world to help them develop this new business model.
As the great, great, granddaughter of the founder of Swarovoski she has brought the brand to new heights. With equal parts glamour and shrewd marketing, she has relentlessly pushed Swarovski into the realms of celebrity and fashion. Notice all those crystal-studded gowns on Oscar night? That’s because Nadja persuades designers such as Alexander McQueen and Zac Posen to embellish their creations with crystal. She also links up with well-known artists, furnishing them crystal to make everything from chandeliers to handbags, then displaying their work during major art shows and fashion events. Sales have tripled under her leadership.
An Alma mater of Harvard business school Meg Whitman is the first woman in the world to become a billionaire on the internet. Currently the CEO of Hewlett Packard, she was the CEO of e-bay from 1998- 2008. During her tenure she expanded to company from 30 employees to 15000 employees. She was one the top 5 most powerful women featured in Fortune magazine.
During the past 25 years technology was the choice of industry for most people. Bill Gates is a classic example of an exemplary business leader of the past quarter-century for his mix of entrepreneurial energy, dogged leadership and philanthropic interest. Bill Gates to date is the biggest philanthropist in the world.
Carlos spent 46 years of his life to build his telecommunication empire. He has been the richest man in the world for the past two years consecutively. He is the chairman and chief executive of telecommunications companies Telemex and America Movil and has extensive holdings in other Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SAB, as well as business interests elsewhere in the world. 
Welch adopted Motorola’s six sigma quality program in late 1995. In 1980, the year before Welch became CEO, GE recorded revenues of roughly $26.8 billion. In 2000, the year before he left, the revenues increased to nearly $130 billion. When Jack Welch left GE, the company had gone from a market value of $14 billion to one of more than $410 billion at the end of 2004, making it the most valuable and largest company in the world.
Buffett has become the most successful investor in the world by sinking his money into undervalued companies with low overhead costs, high growth potential, strong market shares and low price-to-earnings ratios. He is the opposite of get rich quick schemers that has ironically made him one of the richest men in the world today. He is also a generous philanthropist and has donated $31 billion to Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
The co founders of you tube (below) were declared the best leaders by business week in 2008. They showed the world how to build great companies while treating employees well, how to improve dysfunctional corporate cultures, reinvigorate tired brands, and develop new strategic plans. They surprised us with bold decisions and acquisitions.
(Above) - The brains behind China’s largest search engine Baidu. He has been able to acheive what microsoft has not- beating Google. By far China’s No.1 search engine, Baidu has a 62% market share, more than double Google’s. And Baidu widened its lead over the Americans in 2006, despite Google’s efforts to boost its China operation. Li, 38, has had his problems, including lawsuits alleging Baidu’s involvement in click-fraud. But Baidu denies wrongdoing. Its NASDAQ-listed stock is up over 80% in 2008.
1 comment:
I applaud some of those people, but given those in the tech sector really did not have to invest much money, I can't say I'd add them to the list of risk takers. And some of them, like the CEO of HP were responsible for sending american jobs overseas, so cant give them my stamp of approval, because they made their money on the backs of the minimum wage workers
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