Should the Government Bailout the Banks?

Yesterday, congress rejected the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Consequently, the DOW Jones Industrial Average dropped 777 points (7%)and Wall Street lost $1 trillion in value. Although yesterday was certainly a crummy day, it was no where close to the 22.6% black Monday crash in the summer of 1987. Today, the market is initially rebounding as investors speculate that the US government will eventually pass some form of the rescue package.

So, what would be the continued effect if the government bailout fails? Credit becomes tighter as illiquid banks struggle to sell debt assets to other possible buyers. The increased credit crunch will squeeze companies dependent on bank money to run businesses, including meeting payrolls in many cases. Some small and mid-size companies would have layoffs. Corporate bankruptcies would increase in the immediate term. Innovations and entrepreneurship would most definitely suffer for some time.

For many taxpayers, the impact of the government inaction could be a lot closer to their homes. The housing market will continue to slide and homes will be devalued further with a shortage of qualified buyers with money. With most families' largest asset in houses, the credit crunch will hit everyone's net worth.

However, the financially strong will survive and even take advantage of the discounted value of companies with good businesses but poor cash flow. The struggling banks will eventually sell their debt assets at more market-appropriate rates than the artificially propped-up rates offered by the government rescue plan. The market has a chance, after some time of tremendous turmoil, to correct itself with better financial fundamentals. How long would such a correction and rebound take? That's up to much debate.

If the government comes back with an approved bailout plan, troubled banks would be liquid again and able to support businesses and individuals. Companies would continue to use credit to sustain and grow businesses. Some possible bankruptcies and insolvencies could be potentially avoided. In the short-term, jobs would be saved. The stock market would rebound at least to some degree. The real estate market would be saved from further deterioration.

However, a government bailout would most certainly be setting the economy on an inflation climb by printing so much more money. What will a dollar even be worth by the time the credit market fundamentals are truly back on course? And do we really trust that the government will be able to do something worthwhile with the assets purchased in the bailout? The long-term impact of a government intervention could end up being a more prolonged correction of the capital market fundamentals and a bleak economic forecast with inflation and the possible devaluation of the US dollar.

So, should the government bailout the financial market? Vote your opinion.

Who Won The Presidential Debate?

My good friend and former colleague, Kendall Kunz (CEO at Explore Consulting), decided to put up a poll on his blog, MeetKendall,  after the presidential debate.  The poll asks WHO won the debate?  What a great idea.  Feel like voicing your opinion?  He's allowed me to post the poll as well.

Project 10 to the 100th

Do you have an idea for helping other people?  Google has a nice campaign around helping others, which in turn really helps you (to be fulfilled and happy).  If you have ideas, by all means, share! I love this kind of stuff.

Project 10 to the 100th

Using Linkedin to Plan Business Events

Ascentium has used Linkedin as an event-registration platform on a couple of occasions.   

The first was the "Light Up Your Brand" conference organized by our Portland office.  This was a highly effective, collaborative event featuring presenters from Intel, Linkedin, Federated Media, as well as Ascentium.   "How to Light Up Your Brand" was particularly focused on leveraging social media platforms to, well, light up your brand.

All registrations for the half-day conference came through Linkedin.  Organizers created a group within Linkedin displaying the "Light Up Your Brand" logo and a summary of the event. Interested people registered by joining this Linkedin group.

  

The results were generally positive. The Linkedin group obviously provided a convenient area for interested parties to share ideas and thoughts before and after the event.  We also found that the group was searched by the Linkedin community at large from persons interested in such topics as brightening up brands within the context of social media.  Since anyone wanting to join the group needed approval by the group's manager, it has a built-in screening process as well.  

One issue that did arise was that persons outside the greater Portland area tried to sign up to the group and register not realizing this was an "in-person" conference. 

Even today the group remains on Linkedin with 130 members.  Should we want to make this an annual event, for example, this membership could be the foundation used in drumming up community interest again. 

The second event was for the Ascentium|ZeroDash1's seminar series.  Admittedly, this was not as well organized and we offered other methods of registering.  We found that for a series of events, creating one group for registration does not work -- obviously!  Moving forward, however, our Linkedin Group, Ascentium|ZeroDash1 Seminar Series, can continue to function as as a forum for discussing our seminar topics and soliciting feedback from attendees.  

In conclusion, Linkedin does provide interesting possibilities as a social media platform for registering and/or announcing business events.  

Twitter For Effective Executive Communication

Social media applications are changing the way we communicate.  We expose ourselves with a portfolio of personal data to be understood, appreciated and unique.  Communication is now open, collaborative.  

In the corporate world, however, very few companies consider how to use social media applications and its concepts for internal communication.  Sure, marketers and thought-leaders around digital information are making great strides in understanding how to leverage this new communication medium for reaching the masses.  How about for reaching out to an employee base? 

One application I thought that would be useful is Twitter.  Yes, Twitter.  Many companies are ineffective in communicating their executive vision and personal conviction to all the employees. Many vision statements are broad and bland.  Some corporate initiatives are too complex to digest from one detailed document or powerpoint presentation.

So, imagine a Twittering CEO who writes short micros blogs (140 characters or less) about relevant happenings (i.e. wins) that support the company's vision and initiatives.  One quick, witty antedote can provide the "ah-ha" moment for many following employees.  Or more likely, a string of Tweets can piece together what the company is trying to achieve in the minds of the followers.

In this process, the personality of the executive can also come through, building a stronger bond for the employees with their leader.  Another benefit would be the immediate feedback from employees as executives continue to refine their corporate strategies.

Would there be risks?  Absolutely! Tweets needs to be insightful, interesting and geniune.  Without complete commitment, this would not be successful.  But for a transparent organization with good thoughtful leadership, Twitter can provide a great platform for "augmenting" communication. 

Of course, face-to-face communication ususally trumps all forms of communication.  Now, however, the social media platforms provide other ways to augment the "town meetings".  

You can follow me here.

Facebook Widget Shows $1 million Results

Centric, an agency that seems to thoroughly understand the power of the new "collaborative" interactive marketing model, posted a fascinating blog about one of its recent campaigns for Warner Brother.

Centric was engaged to promote the new animated movie, "Batman Gothman Knight". In a superb move, Centic built a relatively full-featured widget on Facebook:

"The widget allowed people to see the trailer, browse stills, and find out more about the movie, and it had an interesting social feature: When you installed the widget, you became a member of The Concerned Citizens of Gotham City. The more people who installed the widget, the brighter the Bat-signal would glow".

Cool for sure but the numbers are even cooler. Before the launch of the movie, the widget generated more than 1MM pageviews. In a nutshell, the blog stated that this widget generated more than $1 million of responses, at a fraction of the cost. Of course, Batman Gothman Knight had one of the best orchestrated overall viral marketing campaigns seen to date, which helped Centic's results.

Nonetheless, this is a tantalizing case study of a brave new interactive marketing world developing right in front of our eyes.

Click here if you want to read the full blog.

Prefer Another Visit than a Book about My Hometown

 Please indulge me.  I want to tell a story – of course, about myself.

While I was the managing director in London running the EMEA region for Noetix, my wife decided to rent a flat in Paris during one of the summers.  She found an adorable place in “Le Marias”, a chic district in the heart of the city.

I visited her on weekends coming in from London on the Eurostar.  Given the generous European levels of vacation time, I also planned an extended stay for almost three straight weeks.  However, I don’t always “vacation” well, sometimes becoming very stressed when trying too hard to relax.  So, soon after arriving, I went to a community center recommended by a French friend. 

There, I walked in and in my broken French asked if I could volunteer for two weeks.  I explained that I played sports and was good with teenagers.  The nice woman made several calls on my behalf, explaining to whoever was on the other end of the line that she had a person who spoke horrible French interested in volunteering. 

After a couple of unsuccessful calls, she delicately explained that they actually needed volunteers who could communicate better with the teenagers.  Then, she said in perfect proper BBC English that she appreciated my initiative to come and ask.  We spoke for awhile but she didn’t have any suggestions on where I should go next.

After a few more days of drinking coffee, finding wonderful local restaurants and bars, I was starting to get a little antsy.  I found a community newspaper where a nursing home asked for visitors for its residents.  I called right away and made an appointment with a certain gentleman.

The nursing home was in a rather rough part of town and I had trouble finding it.  Nonetheless, I eventually found myself there being lead to this gentleman’s room.  He was in his bed, with family pictures on the dresser. 

I introduced myself, but he stared blankly at me.  Then, he motioned to his ear and said he doesn’t hear well.  So, I introduced myself more loudly.  He waved at me to sit down.  We asked each other basic questions.  On occasions, he would ask me to speak up.  Up to that time, I had never had the confidence to yell in French.

I learned that he had been in World War II.  His daughter was out of the country and his wife had long since passed away.  He showed me pictures, and asked politely about my family.  I’m not sure how much he understood of what I was saying, but he would smile and nod repeatedly.  As time passed, I knew he was tiring.  I pulled out a book about Seattle that I had bought from a bookstore on Champs Elysees.  I showed him Mount Rainer and the Space Needle, among other Seattle sites.  I told him that I had brought it for him to keep.

He grabbed my hand pulling me closer, and said, “Merci”, but he would prefer that I visit him again than have a book about my hometown.  I saw such honest sincerity in his eyes.  We had connected despite language, generational, and cultural gaps. 

When I opened the door to leave, a crowd looked up at me.  Apparently, my loud butchering of French had attracted many at the nursing home.  All the faces smiled at me.  They parted their walkers out of the way and let me leave.  Some patted me gently on my back.

Success in business or life should always feel like I did that day leaving the nursing home.

 

Life in the Transition Lane

When we decided to be acquired by Ascentium, we knew that things would change mostly for the better and some for the worse (from our perspective).

Aided by Ascentium’s large client base and broad offering of services as an interactive agency, our group has found more diversity of interesting work. Our revenues have steadily grown, improving the fundamentals of our business. There definitely has been a good “Ascentium lift” by joining the larger company.

The improved foundation has allowed us to offer interesting career paths around the developing field of web analytics and optimization. So, we’ve brought onboard additional talented, smart people to the team. We’re so fortunate to have an industry thought-leader like Anil Batra, who also is an excellent mentor to the whole team. He’s helped develop an environment of collaboration.
We are now an integrated part of Ascentium, although we will maintain our brand (ZeroDash1) for some transitional time. For all purposes, however, we are Ascentium Analytics & Optimization. It’s very rewarding as the leader of ZeroDash1 to see both pre-acquisition groups benefit from the deal.

Unfortunately, changes benefit many but not all. That’s to be expected, but difficult to see happening. After all, we all had been through so much together. Consequently, a couple of initial key contributors have left and gone onto other opportunities. They are talented people and will be impactful contributors for their new companies. I wish them well. They deserve success. I will miss them.

Meanwhile, however, our current group has grown steadily, adding interesting new perspectives and personalities. We’re really starting to settle into a groove as a business and team. Yes, the office culture has changed with slightly younger employees and the influence of broader Ascentium. I look at this team and it motivates me every day to do my part the best that I can. They are tremendous and all work for the greater success of the team.

After 17 years in the service industry, I’ve seen organizations grow and change many times over and achieve great success. And during those times, key players have left my organizations and achieve incredible success in their own right. I’m proud of each of them, as well as what my teams have always accomplished.