Here are a few things bargain-hungry consumers need to know before they hit stores before dawn the day after Thanksgiving.

Here's a Black Friday reality check: Of the hordes of pre-dawn shoppers who line up for hours outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving, most will not bag the best bargains that appear in merchants' circulars.

Look at the fine print that appears next to an advertised "doorbuster deal" at the bottom of the page in this year's circulars.

It will either say "While supplies last," "Minimum 2 per store," "No rainchecks" or "All items are available in limited quantities."

A quick scan through a few of this year's Black Friday circulars show quantities as low as a "minimum of 5 per store" on some models of large plasma and HDTVs and popular brands of home appliances such as a washer-dryer pair.

Should Black Friday deal hunters feel cheated? Yes they should, say some retail experts.

"It's a sleazy practice," said Craig Johnson, retailing expert and president of retail consulting group Customer Growth Partners.

"I am old school," said Johnson. "If a retailer is advertising a juicy deal and they are not prepared to have in sufficient quantity, don't advertise it. Or give consumers a raincheck."

Johnson said it's not enough for retailers to mention that they'll have such limited quantities of a product on one of the most-hyped shopping days of the year.

"Retailers aren't winning any customers. They are just pissing off people," he said. "It's poor retailing practice."

Unfortunately for consumers, more examples abound.

CNNMoney.com spoke to industry experts to uncover a few dirty secrets of Black Friday deals.

Limited quantities: Advertising a Black Friday deal as "limited quantities" is bogus, said Johnson.

"The only time it makes sense to have only two or three [items] in stock is if the deal is on a $2 million gift product that appears in the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog," he said.

Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and editor of Consumer World, agreed with Johnson.

"C'mon guys. Give me a break," said Dworsky. "How can you be the size of a retailer like Sears and only get a minimum of five per store, yet devote big space in your circular to advertise that deal?

Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500) has not officially revealed its Black Friday sales. However, the company confirmed to CNNMoney.com that two of its post-Thanksgiving deals include a Samsung 40-inch 1080p LCD HDTV for $599.99, "Only while quantities last, minimum three per store, no rainchecks."

The other is a Kenmore 3.5-cubic-foot high-efficiency washer and 5.8-cubic foot dryer pair for $579.98, "Limit four per store, no rainchecks."

"Sure, you probably have more, but how do you put out a circular to millions of households and only have three?," Dworsky asked.

When asked for a comment, Sears spokesman Tom Aiello said he was "not comfortable" addressing the issue of limited quantities for some Black Friday deals.

Such short supply on deals are not only annoying but can also be dangerous to Black Friday shoppers.

"We saw the stampede at a Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) store in New York last year on Black Friday that led to an employee's death," said Burt Flickinger, managing director of consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. "The stampede happened because so many of the deals were advertised as limited supply."

One retailer, while not explaining why its advertised deals are in such limited supplies, said it is taking measures to better handle the Black Friday rush.

"From going down the line and handing out doorbuster tickets that guarantee a purchase in advance of the store opening, to printing the minimum quantities in the circular, we go to great lengths to ensure that the Black Friday consumer knows exactly how many items will be at the store and whether or not they will be able to purchase one prior to entering the store," Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) wrote in an e-mail.

What do you mean this HDTV is a "derivative?" Some of the holiday electronics with those low sale prices are derivatives, models that have a few less features than a standard model in that product line, said Dworsky.

The difference can be subtle. "The image contrast ratio might be 20,000 in a derivative model versus 30,000 in a standard model," he said. "Most consumers probably won't even notice the difference."

A report earlier this month in Consumer Reports called attention to HDTV models from Samsung and Sony advertised in Black Friday deals that appear to be "derivatives." The report said these one-off TVs "with unfamiliar model numbers" are usually cheaper than the standard model in their class.

Dworsky cautions that retailers usually don't advertise these models as derivatives. "There's no way the average consumer will know that the TV model they are buying is not the standard one unless they are savvy enough to compare their model numbers," he said.

Which Black Friday deals are online? "Many retailers will say that their Black Friday deals are available online," said Dworsky. "But they're not nice enough to tell you which ones."

"How about telling me which exact ones so I can shop online from home and I'm not in my pajamas at 5 a.m. in front of your store," he said.

Online deals that never get shipped: Case in point: Sears. Last year, one of Sears' hottest Black Friday doorbuster deal was on a Kenmore washer-dryer pair for $600.

Even though the retailer advertised that deal to be in "limited quantities," the company decided to honor every customer order made on that deal last Black Friday.

Big mistake. The manufacturer could not ramp up production fast enough. Some customers waited months before their order was shipped. Others were sold a substitute model, that was "comparable or even better" for the same deal price, said Sears' Aiello.

Lesson learned. "We will not be doing that again this year," he said.

Be careful if you're shopping online on Black Friday, said Dworsky.

"Since retailers don't have a live inventory online you run the risk of getting an e-mail weeks later that your order had been delayed or worse, canceled, because the product is out of stock," he said.

About those rainchecks: Finally, if a retailer does offer you a raincheck on a deal, it could still turn out to be an empty promise, Flickinger warned.

"A raincheck doesn't guarantee that you will eventually get that elusive Black Friday deal," he said. "Consumers can go weeks waiting and hoping, and the retailer may never get more of the product shipped to its stores." 

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108212/dirty-secrets-of-black-friday-doorbusters

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the average annual utility bill in the United States is currently $1,767, and energy costs are expected to continue to rise over the next few years. But the financial burden of high monthly utility bills is only one part of the challenge of energy production in America. Energy independence is rapidly becoming a priority since it offers great opportunities in the areas of job creation, manufacturing and environmental preservation.

The DOE has determined that energy conservation is the cheapest, cleanest and fastest way to reduce the environmental impact of energy production and improve national energy security.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was signed into law in February of 2009 and is an economic stimulus package meant to create jobs and jump-start the American economy. As well as providing funding across a number of industries -- including health care, agriculture, and education -- the ARRA has allocated a significant amount of money for energy conservation and renewable energy production. To help get the nation working towards serious conservation, the bill allocates more than $40 billion to energy-related issues. Some of this funding will specifically address the new and existing housing industry by providing tax credits, rebates, and incentives to home buyers, homeowners and builders.

Builders, remodelers, home owners and home buyers can all take advantage of sizable financial rewards by investing in energy efficiency, but only if they understand how the incentives work and how to access them.

Understanding the expanded tax credits, how to utilize rebates and utilize loan programs, and how to keep abreast of changes at the state and local level -- which may add new incentives as the ARRA is implemented in the upcoming months -- will all help greatly with making informed purchasing decisions.

There are three basic categories of opportunity related to energy-conservation improvements and renewable energy systems in new and existing homes.

Tax credits: A tax credit is a sum of money subtracted directly from the tax liability at the end of the year. For consumers, tax credits can be very attractive because the amount of the credit directly reduces the taxes owed to the Federal or state government.

Credits are often confused with tax deductions but there is a significant difference.

A deduction is a sum of money subtracted from the total taxable income. For instance if someone has an annual income of $60 thousand, and qualifies for a $2,000 tax deduction, their taxable income would be reduced to $58 thousand.

A credit on the other hand, is subtracted directly from the tax burden. So for someone earns $60 thousand and is at 10 percent tax rate, their tax burden would be $6,000. A $2,000 tax credit would reduce that amount to $4,000. Tax credits reduce the amount owed on taxes dollar-for-dollar and not just by a percentage.

In 2005 and 2008, tax credits for some energy-efficient improvements were allowed with a limit of $500. The 2009 ARRA has increased the amount to $1,500 and has extended that deadline through 2010 for existing homes and 2016 for new homes. These credits include installing approved Energy Star-rated windows, skylights, and doors, insulation, heating and cooling equipment and certain "cool" roofing materials.

Another major change for home owners is the tax credits available for onsite renewable and low-impact energy systems, such as solar panels, small wind turbines, and geothermal heat pumps. These systems now have tax credits of 30 percent with no limit on the amount of credit available. This means that builders have an excellent incentive to encourage potential buyers to invest in onsite power generation and existing home owners can save almost a third of the costs on installing these systems. For remodelers, a 30 percent tax credit on equipment can enable home owners to expand projects without expanding their budget.

Home builders are also eligible for a $2,000 tax credit simply by building home that achieve 50 percent energy savings for heating and cooling over the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). At least 20 percent of these energy savings must come from improvements to the building envelope – the external shell of the building that seals out the weather and seals in a comfortable, efficient and healthy living space. The Energy Star web site provides the required forms for this tax credit as well as more information about funds available to builders of manufactured homes.

Rebates: Rebates are funds paid directly to builders and home owners when purchasing equipment or undertaking building improvements.

Unlike tax credits, rebates are generally paid "in cash" after purchase. Rebates are an effective way to stretch home remodeling and new construction dollars because simply by choosing energy efficient products, home owners, builders, and remodelers can save money. Whether it is purchasing a high efficiency laundry set that uses less energy and water, or a programmable thermostat, rebate programs can help offset the costs of normal purchases. There are two primary sources of rebates – manufacturers and utility companies.

Many of Energy Star's product partners provide significant rebates to encourage customers to buy energy efficient products. Rebates are intended to encourage energy conservation, but also to help accelerate adoption of new products in the market. To find out about manufacturer and some utility rebates, visit the The Energy Star web site.

Utility companies often provide rebates on installation of energy saving improvements like insulation, weatherization, and appliances. For example, Austin Energy offers a program designed to help home owners purchase improvements like heat pumps, air conditioners, home weatherization, duct sealing, and insulation.

To find out about utility and other rebate programs in your area, including state, local, utility and federal incentives that promote energy efficiency and renewable energy, visit the Database for State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE) web site.

Loans: In this economy, many people simply can't afford to front the cash for energy improvements or renewable energy systems. Loan programs with favorable interest rates and terms, including home equity loans and increases in mortgage amounts, provide an option for those interested in investing in improvements, but lacking the upfront funding. It may not make sense, the idea of taking out a loan in such trying times, to perform energy conservation measures, but combined with the tax credit situation, and rebates, the scenario is much more attractive.

Take this example: you want to install a geo-thermal or ground-source heat pump system in your new home to have ultra-low heating and cooling bills. The cost of $30,000 for the system is scary. But, if you roll that $30,000 into your 5-percent, 30-year fixed mortgage, it costs you an extra $160 per month and saves you a little less than that in monthly utility bills. But, because of the significant tax credits available today, you'll get an extra $9,000 tax credit come next April -- in cash. Plus, as energy costs rise, that $160 a month cost could be a whole lot more attractive than what your utility bills would have been had you not installed the system.

For builders and remodelers, making cases like this for the homeowner is critical. Often consumers don't understand what incentives are available. By helping them understand and claim these benefits, builders and remodelers can provide practical energy-saving solutions. These solutions helps upsell customers, helps the home owner save money and helps the country by putting the ARRA funds to work.

The bottom line is that the combination of tax credits, rebates and favorable loan programs provides a significant incentive for people wishing to improve the energy performance of their homes, or invest in renewable energy systems. These investments have the potential to increase green jobs -- the people manufacturing, installing, and maintaining these systems -- and to radically improve our environment, energy and economic security.

That's why the government is so interested in using some of this ARRA money for energy conservation, and why you should be, too.

http://www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/bp_green_building/article/0,3140,HPRO_29336_5941606,00.html

"The task force advised on Monday that most women should not start routine screening until they are 50, as opposed to the current standard of 40. The reason, according to the task force, is that studies show that “the additional benefit gained by starting screening at age 40 years rather than at age 50 years is small"

The additional benefit is small.....unless you are a women in her 40s developing cancer... Then what? How many women would have developed cancer and died from it had they not had screening... Statistical analysis, the cold hard facts, unless you are in the small percentage affected, then the benefit becomes substantial

Regulation is situation-specific; values guide people on what to do in any situation

Everywhere I travel, I hear the same refrains: "We need more regulation," or on the flip side, "If we hadn't deregulated, we wouldn't be in this financial mess."

It looks like the White House is of this mind-set. Citing Wall Street for helping to create a "culture of irresponsibility," President Obama wants to impose more rules on the financial industry by, among other things, creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

More regulation, and in particular a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, could be a very good thing, but I would suggest we don't rush to regulation without careful consideration of two key questions:

What is the source of the regulation? Is regulation being imposed on people from the outside or is it coming from within?

Is the mechanism another list of "dos and don'ts" or is it something deeper, something that inspires consistent and right behavior?

We all know that Thomas Jefferson once said, "That government is best which governs the least," and this quote is often used to support the argument for less regulation. But what many don't know is that Jefferson went on to say: "... because its people discipline themselves."

In this way, Jefferson isn't making an argument against regulation but rather putting forth an argument for the most effective source of regulation: self-regulation.

Theodore Roosevelt echoed Jefferson's sentiments when he said: "Men can't escape from being governed. They either must govern themselves or they must submit to being governed by others. If from lawlessness or fickleness, from folly or self-indulgence, they refuse to govern themselves, then most assuredly in the end they will have to be governed by the outside."

So as we, in 2009, work to overcome our "culture of irresponsibility," we need to embrace self-regulation and discipline and understand and embrace the most effective mechanism for it, which is values.

Don't get me wrong; I'm all for regulation. People need limits and boundaries. Thoughtful regulation can make financial transactions more transparent so consumers better understand the risks they're taking. But the more important questions we need to ask are:

Will regulation fix our culture of irresponsibility?

Can external rules prevent another financial Katrina?

Or does the culture itself — how we behave — need to change?

I would argue that our culture needs to change. And it can change only if it is driven by something more compelling than rules.

While I understand why we need rules, I also know that we need to understand what rules can do and what they can't. For example, I live in Los Angeles, and I am grateful that rules, based on solid science, have been implemented to govern the construction of buildings to make them earthquake-resistant. We need rules that prohibit sales of new drugs before they are approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Regulations can also promote transparency, as do laws that require publicly held companies to disclose their earnings, governance structure and executive pay.

But rules are less successful when they seek to govern human conduct and behavior. Rules ultimately fail because you cannot write a rule to control every possible behavior or cover every possible circumstance. It is very difficult to regulate deception, for instance. A rules-based law will do little to deter someone who wishes to be deceptive in their mortgage application. By setting floors for behavior, rules unintentionally also set ceilings.

This is a problem inside business as well as government. Let's agree that companies want to do the right thing. But they need and want to do more. They want to engage their people. They want to innovate. They want to encourage creativity and prudent risk-taking. To accomplish those goals, employees must be inspired. Rules and regulations do not inspire. To the contrary, too many rules and regulations limit behavior. They diminish autonomy and risk-taking. They suggest that people can't be trusted. Rules can be dangerous because they dictate what you can and cannot do and not what you should or should not do.

Rules are fundamentally coercive. If you misbehave, you'll be in trouble. Traditionally, business leaders have used a mix of motivation and coercion — carrots and sticks, if you will — to induce people to perform and to get them to abide by rules. Today, we are discovering the limits of carrots and sticks. We're learning that we can't write enough rules to get the behaviors we want. Nor can we deliver enough motivation.

All Rules Have Loopholes
If my carrot is a paycheck, I will leave the company for a bigger salary. If I chose to buy from a company based on price, my loyalty ends at the bottom line. Motivation turns out to be an expensive way to compel behavior, particularly in a recession when there are fewer carrots to go around.

Let's take the example of an Alaskan postal clerk who chose to express his individuality by wearing ties to work decorated with The Three Stooges and cartoon characters. His bosses were not amused and told the clerk to follow the rules regarding permissible neckwear. Now he wears suspenders that feature the caricature Taz, the Tasmanian Devil. Is this the outcome the bosses wanted? Of course not. But in focusing on the specific language of the dress code rather than the intent behind it, management has boxed itself into a situation where it really can't complain about the postal clerk's cartoon-character suspenders. Technically, the postal clerk is following the rules.

Or how about the Wisconsin law that uses taxpayer money to support a child-care-assistance program? The program pays for in-home child care, so the parents can work. But four sisters in Racine figured out they could stay home, watch each other's kids and be paid for it. They netted over $500,000 in taxpayer funds in less than three years. Legal? Yes. What the Wisconsin lawmakers had in mind? Of course not.

Rules create loopholes — values do not. If those in leadership roles want to shape behavior, they must pay more attention to instilling values. They are the underpinning of belief, and that's what inspires people and gives them a sense of mission and purpose. Only beliefs and the values that underpin them can be shared. Values perform a kind of double duty by acting as both a source and a mechanism for regulation.

If we go bowling, we can put a guard rail on the lane so that you don't throw gutter balls. But there is no mechanism to help you bowl a strike — either in life or in business. How do you throw strikes? By inviting people to buy into shared beliefs and values so that they are inspired — not coerced or motivated — to act responsibly. That's the way to avoid engendering a culture of irresponsibility.

Regulation can only go so far. Let's not try to regulate our way out of a financial meltdown. We must find the values and behaviors that will sustain innovation and ethical action. How you do things can never be based solely on rules.

Inspiration is the most sustainable and effective method of engendering principled performance. In response to those who say values are too "soft" to be reliable sources of inspiration, we need to make them "hard" by turning values into practices and behaviors.

Let's walk away from the mind-set that dictates "too big to fail" as a reason to act. Let's find a way to demonstrate that size doesn't matter, values do. Let's create a culture of responsibility by inspiring responsible behavior.

If we don't, we may find ourselves in trouble again.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/dov-seidman/how-why-how-we-do-anything-means-everything/why-values-trump-rules-and-regulation?partner=leadership_newsletter

More than 15 million taxpayers could unexpectedly owe taxes when they file their federal returns next spring because the government was too generous with their new Making Work Pay tax credit.

Taxpayers are at risk if they have more than one job, are married and both spouses work, or receive Social Security benefits while also earning taxable wages, according to a report Monday by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

The tax credit, which is supposed to pay individuals up to $400 and couples up to $800, was President Barack Obama's signature tax break in the massive stimulus package enacted in February.

Most workers started receiving the credit through small increases in their paychecks in April. The tax credit was made available through new withholding tables issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

The withholding tables, however do not take into account taxpayers with multiple jobs or married couples in which both people work. They also don't take into account Social Security recipients with jobs that provided taxable income.

The Social Security Administration sent out $250 payments to more than 50 million retirees in the spring as part of the economic stimulus package. The payments were meant to provide a boost for people who didn't' qualify for the tax credit.

However, they went to many retirees who also received the credit. Those retirees will have the $250 payment deducted from their tax credit — but not until they file their tax returns next year, long after the money may have been spent.

"While implementing a credit through reduced withholding is an effective way to provide economic stimulus evenly throughout the year, it is difficult to account for everyone's circumstances," said J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. "More than 10 percent of all taxpayers who file individual tax returns for 2009 could owe additional taxes."

The tax credit is also available for 2010. Russell said the problems will continue in 2010 if they are not resolved.

For many, the new tax tables will simply mean smaller-than-expected tax refunds next year. The average tax refund this year was about $3,000.

The IRS, in a response to the audit, advised taxpayers to check their withholding throughout the year to make sure they don't get hit with an unexpected tax bill.

"The withholding system must approximate the tax liability of tens of millions of Americans, and therefore, cannot be tailored precisely to fit every individual situation," Richard Byrd Jr., commissioner of the IRS' wage and investments division, wrote in the agency's response to the report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091116/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tax_credit_pickle

Belief that numbers are connected to physical things has a long history

If Friday the 13th is unlucky, then 2009 has been an unusually unlucky year. But your luck is about to change. Today is the last of three Friday the 13ths you'll have to endure this year.

The other two were in February and March. Such a rare triple-threat occurs only once every 11 years.

The origin of the link between bad luck and Friday the 13th is murky. The whole thing might date to Biblical times (the 13th guest at the Last Supper betrayed Jesus). By the Middle Ages, both Friday and the number 13 were considered bearers of bad fortune. In modern times, the superstition permeates society.

Here are five of our favorite Friday-the-13th facts:

1. Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science — is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

2. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13.

3. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

4. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

5. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

Pythagorean legacy
Meanwhile the belief that numbers are connected to life and physical things — called numerology — has a long history.

"You can trace it all the way from the followers of Pythagoras, whose maxim to describe the universe was 'all is number,'" says Mario Livio, an astrophysicist and author of "The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved" (Simon & Schuster, 2005). Thinkers who studied under the famous Greek mathematician combined numbers in different ways to explain everything around them, Livio said.

In modern times, numerology has become a type of para-science, much like the meaningless predictions of astrology, scientists say.

"People are subconsciously drawn towards specific numbers, because they know that they need the experiences, attributes or lessons associated with them, that are contained within their potential," says professional numerologist Sonia Ducie. "Numerology can 'make sense' of an individual's life (health, career, relationships, situations and issues) by recognizing which number cycle they are in, and by giving them clarity."

However, mathematicians dismiss numerology, saying it lacks any scientific merit.

"I don't endorse this at all," Livio said, when asked to comment on the popularity of commercial numerology. Seemingly coincidental connections between numbers will always appear if you look hard enough, he said.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33913248/ns/technology_and_science-science/

 

Some words are red flags to insurers and using them could mean that your claim might be delayed or even denied.

1. "I Think ..."

Never begin a statement regarding a claim with these words. If you aren't sure, don't guess. What you say could cause your claim to be delayed or denied, says attorney Vedica Puri. And if you're wrong -- say, you report driving at 30 miles per hour before an accident but police later prove you were going 50 -- it could hurt your credibility.

Particularly beware of speculating on blame or causation. For example, if you suggest that a water leak is due to a construction defect, you could give the insurer an out if that's a policy exclusion.

Stick to the facts. Should the insurance rep ask you a question you can't answer, simply say, "I don't know." If the person is taking a written or recorded statement, ask for a transcript to review for misstatements.

2. "I Got Whiplash"

Fraud costs auto insurers up to $6.8 billion a year, reports the Insurance Research Council. And suing for damages caused by whiplash is a fraudster favorite ("Oh, my neck!"). Merely mentioning the term is likely to get your claim flagged for further investigation, says Amy Danise of Insure.com.

Whiplash is a specific diagnosis. If a doctor says that you have it, then you should report it as such. Other wise, if you feel neck pain, just refer to it that way.

3. "It's an Experimental Treatment"

Truly experimental or investigational medical procedures are typically not eligible for health insurance coverage. So if a doctor tells you he wants to experiment with a treatment, don't represent it using those words. "In medical terms it may not actually be experimental or investigational," explains Danise. "If it's proven effective, your doctor deems it medically necessary, and it's not an exclusion, it should be covered." Verify with your doctor that it meets the above litmus tests before going to the insurer.

4. "My Basement Flooded"

With homeowners insurance, "flood" is a red flag. "The word refers to an act of weather or an overflow from a nearby body of water," says Danise. "And a standard homeowners policy doesn't cover it. You'd need flood insurance."

So don't use the f-word if your basement is knee-deep in water because of a burst pipe. Damages from such an incident should be covered by a homeowners policy. But calling it a "flood" could muddy the waters, so to speak.

5. "Just Send Me a Check"

When filing a home or auto claim, don't emphasize that you're just looking for the cash.

"If you were to say, 'I don't care about the roof leak, I just need the money,' that admission could slow things to a halt," says Puri. Technically, you're supposed to use the payout to make the repair for which you filed. While it's true that most insurance companies aren't going to check up on you, you'll certainly raise the fraud unit's suspicions if you imply that you won't. And then you might lose out on the money altogether.

http://finance.yahoo.com/insurance/article/108074/5-things-never-to-say-to-your-insurers?mod=insurance

Millions of consumers intent on grabbing holiday deals by way of mail-in rebates are likely to see fewer checks this year and more plastic designed to lure them back into the store, retail experts say.

The switch from paper rebate checks to plastic rebate cards isn't new, but the captive marketing it provides to retailers and manufacturers is growing, especially in a down economy, according to those who track the industry.

Industry estimates put the amount of rebates paid in plastic at $4.2 billion in 2008, up by more than 50 percent from the year before, a number that is expected to grow even more this year.

Instead of a rebate check, the prepaid rebate cards are branded either with a store name, known as a closed-loop card, or a major credit card logo, such as Visa or MasterCard, known as open-loop cards.

The only way to redeem the funds is to buy something, though a few rebates allow you to get cash at an ATM.

“The future of rebate cards is tremendous, not just for the captive marketing where consumers come back into the store for purchases, but the ability to track and manage that data,” said Brian Riley, research director for bank cards at TowerGroup, a research firm that tracks consumer credit card spending.

As many as 60 percent of consumers eligible for a rebate never bother with the paperwork or online process. Much of these unclaimed funds remain as a stream of pure profit for manufacturers and retailers.

The move to plastic makes rebates even more attractive for businesses. A rebate check costs about $1.85 to produce for a manufacturer, while a plastic rebate costs about 6 cents, Riley said. “That alone is worth millions to retailers and manufacturers,” he said.

The plastic cards, though they encourage spending, can also cause consumers to leave money on the table. If consumers don't use the entire amount, leaving perhaps a few dollars or cents as a balance, it is nearly impossible to use the remainder, consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky said.

“It's not like a store gift card where you can easily check a balance,” said Dworsky, who runs the Web site ConsumerWorld.org . “It's the gift that keeps taking. I see no redeeming value in these cards.”

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/25/cards-supplant-mail-rebate-checks/?success&dsq=21006425#comment-21006425

    
 

The best networkers know how to reciprocate. Open up your Rolodex and connect those you know, and others will do the same for you

By Dan Schawbel

In August, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that approximately 80% of human resources executives rate networking as the best way to get a job right now.

This should come as no surprise. People conduct job interviews—job boards don't. Job boards list positions either already taken or nonexistent. A job board doesn't build trust with a hiring manager, whereas your business contact personally recommending you for a position carries a lot of weight. The sooner you start networking, the more dividends it will pay later in life, as executives almost always get jobs through who they know.

If you're introverted, then a social network like Facebook, with its 300 million user population, is an anxiety pacifier and a place where you can start a conversation online and then talk offline later when you feel comfortable. Social networking allows you to connect with more people in less time, around a shared interest like sports, politics, or the stock market. You have the choice whether you want to start your own network or become a participant, or both.

Using social networks and blogs for networking is about reciprocation. You need to promote other people who work at companies you're targeting and business leaders you respect. "Promote what that person does well to your network through a newsletter, a link back to their Web sites on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or feature them as an expert on your blog," says Lewis Howes, author of LinkedWorking and owner of sportsnetworker.com. Shining the spotlight on someone else will build rapport and position you as a value provider. The end result is an addition to your network that will more than likely reciprocate down the road.
Background Checks

Of course, you have to be careful. Conduct a background check before attending a networking event or reaching out to people online. This doesn't mean going to the CIA or your neighborhood police station. You can use search engines, social networks, and private information shared between friends to find out exactly whom and what you're getting involved with.

In addition to finding information that allows you to filter out any dubious prospective contacts, you'll discover useful information about the people you do decide to contact. "Jot down three things that you learned about them doing the preliminary research, and then when you connect with them, ask them about their story," explains Scott Bradley, a social media strategist and founder of Rapid Results Marketing Group. It'll show that you care.

Indeed, you don't need an immediate personal agenda when social networking. Connect other like-minded people you believe will mutually benefit from one another. For example, if you know that one of your friends is working on a project that another one of your contacts has experience with, why not send an e-mail introducing both? Although you may not feel any immediate career boost, you'll be viewed as someone they both can go to as a resource.

"When you connect others, you become their center of influence," says Lewis. This method of networking becomes easier as your database grows, but the result is that more people will come to you in search of help, and you'll be able to make those introductions. In return, people will make introductions for you and open up their Rolodexes.
Hunt Down Contacts

Unless you're a celebrity or are extremely visible online, people aren't going to race to your doorstep looking to work with you and be part of your network. Instead you have to pursue relationships like you're hunting prey. Even when you have contacts, they won't always be an asset to you unless you cultivate them by actively engaging them and by figuring out ways to support their own goals.

It's the small things that count. Commenting on a contact's Facebook status or sending a holiday card can have a larger impact than you would imagine "Relationships are like muscles—the more you work them, the stronger they become," says Keith Ferrazzi, author of New York Times best-seller Who's Got Your Back.

Don't be intrusive or aggressive, however. Respect people's time demands, and don't go overboard trying to impress them. People are looking for genuine conversations, not self-promotional spiels. Instead of bragging about your accomplishments, listen to what they have to say first and make them want to hear about what you have to offer.

"A guy in my office connected with a well-known actress over Twitter because both their kids had a really bad flu at the same time," says Ferrazzi.

It's the best-connected people who are the most productive at work and have the most-helpful mentors. Start today by contacting at least one individual you've never dealt with and asking that person if she or he needs help. The response you get will surprise you.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2009/ca20091013_609903.htm

 

Ivanka Trump on Building a Brand

Whatever it is you're looking to do or make or sell, you build your business on the assumption that you can do it better, smarter, and more efficiently than the competition. Otherwise, what's the point?

The more I thought back on my mother's experiences (in shopping for jewelry) in high-end stores, the more I recognized an opportunity for a luxury jewelry line created for modern women based on their lifestyle needs and tastes, women who weren't waiting around for their husbands or fathers to buy them a fine piece of jewelry as a gift. I had in mind a customer with a sense of flair and fashion that perhaps wasn't being reflected in the designs of some of the more traditional, high-end jewelers; women who wanted to invest in fresher, more vibrant heirloom chic pieces. And above all, women who were perhaps looking for guidance from their more fashion-forward daughters on what to wear—as opposed to looking to their mothers.

As I kicked things around with Moshe Lax, a diamond vendor who's now my partner in the Ivanka Trump Jewelry Collection, I realized there was a void in the marketplace waiting to be filled, so we struck a partnership deal and set about filling it. Moshe already had a location on Madison Avenue, so our first move was to close his family-owned store and redesign the whole space from top to bottom. The first order of business was retrofitting the space and creating a signature style, identity, and logo for our emerging brand.

Along the way, I made some mental notes on what we'd need to do as we introduced our collection, and I share them here for the way they apply to the launch of any new business, product, or service:

Do a comprehensive trademark search. This is an obvious first step, but you'd be surprised how many startups hit a wall when it turns out someone else already owns their brand name. In our dot-com age, this means you'll have to secure the accompanying domain name as well.

Develop a powerful identifier. Your look and logo are incredibly important. These days, your Web site design is also a part of that "look" (check out ivankatrumpcollection.com), along with your packaging and collateral materials. Spend some time on these, because they'll be the image that goes home with your customers, whether or not they make a purchase or sign on to your service. Be memorable.

Do not confuse supply with demand. Another basic: Just because you have an item in plenty doesn't necessarily mean a lot of people will want to buy it. Identify the demand for your product first, and then dive in. Luxury condos offer a great case in point. Developers will pitch a site as ideal simply because other developers are building similar projects on the abutting properties. But we're not talking Field of Dreams here. "If you build it, they will come" might be a powerful message in a tearjerker baseball movie, but an overdeveloped resort area can be a huge negative.

Identify the void in your market, and position your brand so that you uniquely fill it. If you mean to provide a product or service that's currently unavailable at your planned price point, be sure to know your competition at the high and low ends. There might be a reason why no one is trafficking in that unclaimed middle. If not, find it, and fill it.

Create a strong and consistent identity. Whatever you want your image to be, establish it early and stay true to your identity. Without an established reputation, you don't have a brand, so take pains to keep on point and on message. Otherwise, you'll miss your target. For example, Trump is synonymous with luxury, glamour, and elegance. Every project we undertake reinforces that reputation. To deviate from these principles would undermine our brand's values.

Define your market. Figure out who your target customer is, even if it's not obvious at the outset. The better you know your customers and their needs, the more easily you can sell to them.

Make sure your team understands your mission, your vision, and your objectives. You'd be surprised how many salespeople I meet who don't understand their own product or share their boss's vision. At our hotels, we have a two-day acclimation program to thoroughly explain to our new hires who we are and what the Trump hotel collection stands for. Get your team on board, or you'll have a team of free agents moving to their own agendas.

Focus on customer service. In a competitive market, every business is a service business. The customer is always, always, always right. Even when he or she is wrong. Be sure to put a system into place that gives your customer a voice—and, just as important, be sure to listen to it. The CEO of Orient-Express Hotels (OEH) randomly connects to three rooms across the portfolio each day, introducing himself and asking guests how they're enjoying their stays. Do the math: three calls, 365 days a year … that's a lot of feedback.

Foster brand loyalty at every opportunity. One of the indicators of our success on the real estate front is that we have many condominium owners who buy units in more than one Trump building. We nurture these relationships and make sure our repeat buyers know that we value their business by giving them a first look at some of our properties in presales, supporting their philanthropic initiatives, or perhaps even offering them accommodations in one of our hotel properties.

Hold off spending whenever possible. You need to spend money to make money. This is especially true when launching your new brand, but if you're not careful you'll find that the majority of your expenditures will have minimal impact on your success. Do your research first before spending heavily in any one area. Look closely at your product design, your target segments, and your marketing strategy—then allocate your money to where it will do the most good.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2009/ca20091013_957704.htm?chan=careers_managing+index+page_top+stories

 

The U.S. Is Outsourcing Away Its Competitive Edge

Today, many people are looking to high technology sectors — like alternative energy — to be the growth engine that revives the U.S. economy and gets it back on track. They're in for a shock. During the boom years, when all seemed well, capabilities that underpin innovation in a wide range of products were continuing to deteriorate.

As my Harvard Business School colleague Willy Shih and I described in "Restoring American Competitiveness," a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, the U.S. has lost or is in the process of losing the ability to manufacture many of the cutting-edge products it invented. These include the batteries that power electric and hybrid cars, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for the next generation of energy-efficient lighting, critical components of solar panels, advanced displays for mobile phones and new consumer electronics products like Amazon's Kindle e-reader, and many of the carbon fiber components for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner.

The culprit is the outsourcing of development and manufacturing work to specialists abroad. The result: a damaging deterioration in the collective capabilities that serve high tech. This industrial commons includes not just suppliers of advanced materials, production equipment, and components, but also R&D know-how, advanced process development and engineering skills, and manufacturing competencies.

Making matters even worse is something that has been largely ignored: In addition to undermining the ability of the U.S. to manufacture high tech products, the erosion of the industrial commons has seriously damaged the country's ability to invent new ones.

The prevailing view of the past 25 years has been that the U.S. can thrive as a center of innovation and leave the manufacturing of the products it invents and designs to others. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This logic is predicated on utterly false assumptions about the divisibility of R&D and manufacturing and basic competitive dynamics.

In many cases, R&D and manufacturing are tightly intertwined. Unless you know how to manufacture a product, you often cannot design it. And, to understand how to manufacture it, you have to have manufacturing competencies and experience. The notion that you can design a product in the serene world of the R&D laboratory without any knowledge of the rough and tumble world of production is ridiculous.

To innovate, you need great two-way feedback. You need to transfer knowledge from R&D into production, but you also need to move knowledge from production back to R&D. The act of production creates knowledge about the process and the product design.

Follow the HBR Debate

This Topic: Does the U.S. Need a Manufacturing Sector?

Gary P. Pisano: The U.S. is Outsourcing Away Its Competitive Edge

David B. Yoffie: Why the U.S. Tech Sector Doesn't Need Domestic Manufacturing

Robert H. Hayes: Global Outsourcing Is High Tech's Subprime Mortgage Fiasco

Andy Rappaport: Outsourcing Isn't a Problem for Silicon Valley But Is for Detroit

Willy C. Shih: The U.S. Can't Manufacture the Kindle and That's a Problem

Is Short-term Thinking Eroding U.S. High Tech?

Ed Catmull: Pleasing Wall Street is a Poor Excuse for Bad Decisions

David. A. Patterson: Scientists and Engineers on Boards Will Keep Focus on the Long Term

Is Washington the Solution or the Problem?

Stephen R. Hardis: Beware of Gov't Solutions for America's High Tech Industry

David A. Patterson: Restoring DARPA Is the Key to Preserving the U.S. Lead in IT

Deborah L. Wince-Smith: Washington Must Help U.S. Regain the Lead in Manufacturing

Robert H. Hayes: Gov't Should Enlist Foreign Companies' to Rebuild America's Industrial Infrastructure

Yes, there are some instances where R&D and manufacturing are separable. But these are the exceptions. In the vast majority of high tech products (and even some low-tech products like apparel), knowledge about manufacturing helps you design products and get them to market quickly. What this means is that when manufacturing capabilities migrate from a country, design and R&D capabilities eventually follow. That's exactly what's been happening in many high tech industries in the U.S. over the past 20 years.

Now let's turn to a dangerous misconception of competitive dynamics that proponents of outsourcing propagate. Here's what they would have us believe: You focus on R&D and turn over the low-margin commodity manufacturing to contractors in Asia. You make out like a bandit because you have the intellectual property and your contractors have so much competition they cannot afford to charge you more. Markets are great.

Wait a minute. All this assumes your manufacturing partner is content to subsist on your table scraps. But what if they have their eye on the prime rib, too? Well, once they have learned to manufacture your product (and your ability to manufacture has eroded), they are in a much better position to move up the food chain into manufacturing and designing more sophisticated components and subsystems and, eventually, the entire product.

This is exactly what has happened in high tech industry after high tech industry. Unless business executives operating in the U.S. recognize the importance of manufacturing and grow wiser about outsourcing, the industrial commons — and the country's economy — will continue to decline.

Gary P. Pisano
Harry E. Figgie, Jr.
Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/hbr/restoring-american-competitiveness/2009/10/the-us-is-outsourcing-away-its.html

Just an amazing machine training here in San Diego, BMW Oracle giant trimaran challenger for the 2010 America's Cup, bring the cup home boys and bring BOR back to San Diego, she has been adopted by San Diegans

 

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH (Host): I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. You're listening to These Days on KPBS. Talking about change and making it work are two very different things. Companies struggling to survive in today's recession are talking about making big changes in everything from the number of employees they need to the type of products they offer. But many businesses find change doesn't work unless a plan is put into place to manage that change effectively. It doesn't matter how good your new ideas are, unless the people who have to carry them out know what they should be doing and like the idea of doing it. One man who has been teaching business and motivating business managers for years, is now dealing with the subject of making change work. My guest is Ken Blanchard. He's described as a business guru. He is a business trainer and consultant, author of the bestseller, "The One Minute Manager," and co-author of the new book called "Who Killed Change?" And welcome, Ken, to These Days.

KEN BLANCHARD (Author and Business Consultant): Maureen, nice to be with you.

CAVANAUGH: In the interest of full disclosure, I want to mention that KPBS worked with Ken to produce a TV special based on his book called "Gung Ho." We want to invite our listeners to join this conversation. Tell us the kinds of changes taking place in your workplace. And are those changes working, and if not, why not? Call us at 1-888-895-5727, that's 1-888-895-KPBS. Well, Ken, how important, I wonder, is good management during a recession? Now I'm wondering, don't all businesses, aren't they just hanging on during times like these no matter what management is doing?

BLANCHARD: Well, I don't think so. I think management is so important – In fact, Jim Collins, who wrote "From Good To Great," has just finished a book about, you know, why great companies fall essentially. And he said it takes a whole team of people to take a company from good to great but it takes one lousy leader to take it into the toilet. And at this time, I think people look towards leadership, and, you know, I'm sharing with people. There's three things, I think, that leaders need to do in their organizations. Number one, they have to be bearers of hope. You know, I think we've been through things before maybe not as drastic as this but what's the history? Where are we going? You know, if you're not a bearer of hope, then everybody'll be down. I'm always amazed at the – in the Bible that Jesus said over 300 times, 'Fear not,' and so I think you have to be a bearer of hope. Second one, which is very important, is you have to look at your people as your business partner. I think too many organizations, top managers get behind closed doors and say what are we going to do and who shall we let go and all these kind of things. They don't ever involve their people in it. I mean, our business is down. We actually had our best year in the history of the company last year but we could see it starting to head south in November and December and January kind of tanked and what we do always, anyway, is we share the balance sheet with everybody in our company and we, in fact, a number of years ago, brought a guy in from Colorado to teach everybody, include people in the shipping and – area to read a balance sheet. And so we shared it with them, even talked about how we deal with our credit line with the bankers and all, so everybody has the facts and then you say, okay, you know, given that, you know, we're going to have to cut a fair amount of expenses but what also helps is we're going to have to increase the revenues if we can. You know, how can we do it? We had a 30th anniversary celebration at the Hotel Del and it was going to be purely a party but given the situation, we turned in about half of the day to bring an outside group in to work with 350 people on suggestions for cutting costs and increasing revenues and all, so people really feel like they're part of the thing and so as you implement change, they feel that they've had some kind of voice. People will resist change when it's done to them, not with them.

CAVANAUGH: Exactly.

BLANCHARD: And I think that's the whole emphasis in "Who Killed Change." It's a funny – fun "Columbo," "CSI" book, you know, it's the third change killed this week and Detective McNally's going to get to the bottom of this.

CAVANAUGH: What is the third challenge that – for leadership now?

BLANCHARD: Well, the third one is that you need to maintain and be a servant leader. A lot of people say, what is that, the inmates running the prison or trying to please people? No. Servant leadership has two parts. One is setting the vision and the direction. That's part of being a bearer of hope. You know, where are we going, what are we going to try to do, and we need your help. And then the second part—and that's the leadership part of servant leadership—is how do we get there and that's when you really theoretically and in reality turn the traditional hierarchy upside down and now you work for your people. Your job is to help facilitate and cheerlead and support and encourage them to live according to the vision and values and the dream and strategy that you've all set up. And so, you know, this is not a time to become self-serving because enough self-serving leaders got us in trouble, you know, thinking that all the money and power and recognition ought to move up the hierarchy. And, you know, I think the key thing is that leadership is not about you, it's about the people you work with.

CAVANAUGH: Let's go back, if we could, Ken, to talk about the failures that got us into this mess that we find ourselves in in our economy. There – Would you say that you can see that there have been failures of leadership in some of the top companies of the United States that sort of propelled us towards where we are today?

BLANCHARD: Yes, I think, you know, there's two parts of great companies. One is what is the result you get, and the second is what are you doing with your people? And, unfortunately, Wall Street and other operations like that, they think the only reason to be in business is to make money and make profit. And I think a lot of times people take short term risks and do stupid things because it's going to look good to their bottom line. And I think a lot of greed and stuff like that was going on where people were making stupid decisions. I remember when I was young—and this might date me—is, you know, I was actually thrilled when I got approved for a credit card. You know, I mean, that was a big deal. And now my dog could get a credit card. And, you know, I think we've gone way overboard on trying to microtize everything so everybody should have the exact same opportunity without necessarily the work or the resources. And I think that that was all about, you know, getting results and doing this and wheeling and dealing.

CAVANAUGH: But if you look at it one way, the employees on Wall Street were creative enough to come up with these products, these derivatives, to sell and to make great profits for their companies. So in a way, they were very productive and they were very creative but they just went in a very wrong direction. How could management have stepped in and said, you know, this is not – even though this is very lucrative, this is not the way our company should go.

BLANCHARD: Well, I think that's where, you know, you need a company that manages by a set of operating values. Our number one value is ethical, you know, and doing the right thing. Number two is relationships. Number three is success, running a profitable – Number four is learning and we rank order those and when we have an issue we sort of say, let's take a look at this, you know. So, you know, if somebody in our accounting department comes and says, you know, Ken went to four different places this week but we have a contract that says round-trip airfare to each of those places, should we charge everybody a round-trip airfare because, you know, that's what the contract says. So you say, okay, is it legal? I guess that's legal there, but is it fair? You know, if you make that decision, how will it make people feel about themselves? You want it published in a local paper, you know? You need some ways to make decisions that make sense. You know, the classic case years ago is Tylenol when somebody messed with it and some people were killed outside of Chicago. They had a board meeting. The first thing it says, well, let's take it off the market in Chicago. Then a guy on the board says, let me just review our operating values. Number one is the health and safety of our patients. Number two is the wellbeing of our people. Number three is our relationships with our community. And number four is the satisfaction of our stockholders. And if they can tamper in Chicago, why are we going to wait until somebody gets killed in San Diego? You know, we should take it off the total market. I mean, that cost a lot of money. And they're all, why? Because that's a set of operating values. And I think if you don't have any, then it's expediency and all those kind of things and so I've done a lot of work with Southwest Airlines, you know, and I was down there last summer when the gas issue price was a problem before the economy. But, you know, they have a set of operating values, you know, that says, you know, we are warrior spirits. You know, want people to do everything they can but we want a servant heart and a fun-loving attitude. But here's the business we're in, you know, and here's what we're trying to do so that we don't start doing crazy stuff.

CAVANAUGH: I'm speaking with author and business consultant Ken Blanchard. He's the alter – author, that is, of the bestseller, "The One Minute Manager" and co-author of the new book called "Who Killed Change?" We're taking your calls at 1-888-895-5727, and right now we'd like to go to Patrick in Encinitas. Good morning, Patrick, and welcome to These Days.

PATRICK (Caller, Encinitas): Oh, thank you very much.

CAVANAUGH: Yes, how can we help you?

PATRICK: Well, I work in an industry, I'm in the automotive industry. And, let's see, it's run the exact same way that it was run back when it was horse trading, years and years ago. It has the same lingo. It's kind of immune to change. It's – oh, I don't know…

CAVANAUGH: Do you work at an established car dealership? Or…

PATRICK: Yeah.

CAVANAUGH: …a parts…

PATRICK: Yes. Yeah, a car dealership.

CAVANAUGH: Okay, so Patrick is talking about the auto industry and we know that's one of the most troubled industries in America today. What Patrick's saying is, they just don't change.

BLANCHARD: Well, that's why they're in trouble. I mean, how long did we know that the Japanese and all these other foreign companies were beating us to the punch? And what were they doing? And so you have to have four things in mind and we talk a little bit on this, in "Who Killed Change?" If you want to be an organization that wins, you got to be customer focused, you know. What does the customer want? What do they need? You got to be cost effective. You know, you can't be spending money you don't have. But you've got to be fast and flexible, you know, and quickly moving and you got to be learning. And I think that's the problem, you know, is when you operate the way you have for a long time, you become a dinosaur and then you get into a rapid-changing time and you're supposed to be a gazelle but it's pretty tough for a dinosaur to be a gazelle unless they have some leadership that says they really are. But, I mean, look what Saturn did at one time when they were separated. At least nobody knew they were part of General Motors. You know, they really created something that was really kind of special and so Tom Peters called those skunkworks, you know, where you get small groups of people, and I think that's in every industry. We can't sit around. The only people that like change are, you know, babies with a wet diaper, you know, and so we don't like it but we need to be ready for it because the only thing you can count on today is death, taxes and change.

CAVANAUGH: That's so true. And I want to go back to something that you said before because I think this is so interesting, the idea that so many people can be responsible for the success of a company but all you need is one really lousy leader and you can have a company really sort of go into the tank. And I'm wondering, is there something wrong or – or let me put it this way, is it possible that we could do a better job in companies and corporations in choosing leaders? How is it that people rise to a leadership position that don't really know how to lead?

BLANCHARD: Well, it's interesting because when they do that, you know, sometimes people really wonder, you know, and you really – The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and, you know, that ought to be really checked well. But sometimes, you know, in a financial deal, you know, they'll come in and then they'll bring a leader in from outside that doesn't know the organization, doesn't know the people, and has a big ego and thinks it's all about them. They're usually people from the outside that the people inside didn't have too much to say or to take a look at them.

CAVANAUGH: How important is it for a leader or a management team when they sort of really make a mistake to just say I'm sorry, acknowledge that mistake. How important is that for the company to recover and move on?

BLANCHARD: It's very important. I wrote a book with Margaret McBride called "The Fourth Secret of The One Minute Manager," which is the one minute apology.

CAVANAUGH: Oh, yeah.

BLANCHARD: And we wrote that really when, you know, Clinton was going through his whole thing with Monica Lewinsky, and just sad that the guys like Clinton, Pete Rose in baseball, you know, some of these steroid guys and Richard Nixon and all, when you make a mistake, you know, 'fess up, you know, I really goofed up. I knew Ken Lay for over 20 years, you know, from Enron and called him immediately and said, Ken, what a great opportunity this is for you to have a ministry, you know, I mean, because I knew him well enough that he didn't know what was going on. He was kind of an abdicator rather than a delegator. And he just needed to come forward and say, you know, I really screwed up, it was on my watch, and we'll do everything he can. But his lawyers were telling him this and that.

CAVANAUGH: Umm.

BLANCHARD: And so, I mean, one of the things I like about Obama, you know, and I, you know, have, you know, like everything but is when he makes a mistake, he doesn't blame somebody on his staff. He steps up and takes the hit, you know, I made a mistake, you know, on that, we should've looked at these people a little closer. And – But I'm in charge, you know. And I think – And then it's over with. Remember Shaq, the basketball player, made some comment about Yao Ming, the Chinese player, and he was kidding but some people were offended. He came right out and said, my sense of humor sometimes gets me in trouble but I want to apologize for anything and, boom, everybody forgot about it or at least he can get by it. So when you make a mistake, admit it and then people will rally around. Okay, what are we going to do about that mistake? At WD-40, they call a mistake a learning opportunity.

CAVANAUGH: That's a good way to look at it. I'm speaking with business management consultant and author Ken Blanchard. We're taking your calls at 1-888-895-5727. And we have a caller from Canada on the line. Harry is calling us from Newfoundland, Canada. Good morning, Harry. Welcome to These Days.

HARRY (Caller, Newfoundland): Good morning. Thank you very much. Good morning, Ken.

BLANCHARD: How are you, Harry?

HARRY: Doing well, thank you. How are you?

BLANCHARD: Good.

HARRY: My question, Ken, is in a lot of the work that I do, a lot organizations have the need for change but fear of change has gripped the organization. How can we help leaders overcome the fear of effecting change?

BLANCHARD: Well, I think that what the leadership first has to do when they're talking about change – it's so interesting. Most people want to announce a change and then they want to talk about the benefits. Some interesting research has been done to show that people actually have six concerns around change and three happen before you get to impact. And one is, tell me what you got in mind, and I think people won't be as fearful if they know what you got in mind. You know, where are we now, where do we want to go, what's the situation? And even involve people in setting up the business case. We talk about this in "Who Killed Change?" The second thing they have is, once they know about it, they have personal concerns. You know, how will I survive and all. And you need to create an avenue where they can get those concerns out. It doesn't mean you can solve all of them but, you know, what you resist persists. And if people have no avenue to share their concerns, they're going to gunny sack them and keep them and dump them on later. Third, they're interested in impact concerns. One, how's this going to be done? What's going to go – be first, second, third and all? And all of those, the more you involve people, the better you are. And as I said earlier, that I think people resist change that's done to them, not with them. And I think the biggest thing we say is, you have to increase the amount of involvement in the change process rather than thinking that all your people around you are dumb. And I think that's what they fear is that somebody above is going to act like they know more about your business than you do and you're right there in the action.

CAVANAUGH: Ron is in Alpine and he's on the line. Good morning, Ron. Welcome to These Days.

RON (Caller, Alpine): Thank you for having me. Good morning, Ken.

BLANCHARD: How are you, Ron?

RON: Good. I'm currently – I've taken over the management of a division of a company that's had a long history of failure and we're trying to move from that culture of failure to a culture of success and, frankly, having some difficulty doing that. So, you know, I've looked at a number of issues like systemic dysfunction and learned helplessness. Could you give me some ideas on how you make that – what I guess I will call a quantum leap from failure to success.

BLANCHARD: Well, I think, of course, you know, your first aspect is diagnosis. What's the problem? And a problem exists when there's a difference between what's actually happening and what you'd like to be happening. And identifying those problems would be good to, you know, talk to as many people as you can, you know, because if they know the information, they know that it's – the company's not being successful or hasn't been and people certainly would like to win so, you know, how do you really set up, you know, so that everybody understands, you know, where the gap is between the actual and the ideal. And then, you know, one of the things you need to look at is find out who are the people who are excited about change—we call them early adopters—and see if they can – you can create a kind of a change leadership team with people who are excited about it. But, also, put some of the resistors on the team, the people who are dragging their feet, you know, so that they can be heard so people feel that there's a good cross section of people. Don't try to do it all by yourself. And I think if you, you know, get a good sense of what the problem is, get a good cross-section leadership team that can sort of say, okay, how are we going to kind of do this, and involve people as much as you can, but, you know, sometimes, you know, you got people that are just going to have their feet in the mud all the time and it's going to, you know, you're going to eventually be out of business. With those people, as WD-40 says, you have to share them with the competition, you know, so, you know, don't feel you can save everybody. But I think you need to share the present reality of the situation and that we have to change and I want you with me not against me and how can we do this thing together?

CAVANAUGH: Another caller is on the line from Encinitas. Bijan is on the line with us. Good morning, Bijan, and welcome to These Days.

BIJAN (Caller, Encinitas): Good morning, Ken. Bijan Zhe (sp) from Encinitas.

BLANCHARD: Hi, Bijan, how have you been?

BIJAN: Fine.

BLANCHARD: I feel badly I haven't talked to you in a while.

BIJAN: I'm terrific, thank you. It's a pleasure to hear your voice, definitely, a voice that is familiar to all the world. And the question I have, Ken, that now that we have all these problems and Wall Street and our economy, how can we gung-ho these organizations to path of success? That we can turn the corner and become successful and empower organizations to be successful and our government to be successful?

BLANCHARD: Well, that's an interesting challenge that Obama and a lot of people have but, you know, Bijan, I always say that effective leadership first starts with a clear vision, you know, and kind of maybe with some of these businesses redefine what business they're in in relation to customers. You know, I was working with a big bank recently and they sent me their mission statement and I got in front of the president and all I said, I'm so glad you sent me your mission statement, I've slept so much better since I've gotten it. You know, if I can't sleep, I pick it up and read it. Uh, you know… It couldn't motivate anybody, you know. I said, I think you better consider yourself in the peace of mind business, you know, that if I gave you money I would have the peace of mind that you would try to protect it, maybe even grow it and all. And I think we have to define the business we're in. What's our picture of the future? If we do what we're doing, what would happen there? And then what are our operating values? I think the whole thing starts with a compelling vision that says, people, this is where we're going. Because leadership, Bijan, as you know, is, you know, about going somewheres and if people don't know where you're going – so I think a lot of these organizations just need a redefining of a vision and where they are. And one that he's talking about "Gung Ho," really says that what people are doing is really worthwhile work.

CAVANAUGH: You know, Ken, you talk a lot about management and leaders and how important they are. In my final question to you—we only have a couple of minutes—I wonder, though, it seems to me that the people on the front lines, workers, these days really sort of feel very nervous and not very gung ho because they don't know whether or not this company is going to say goodbye to them or they're going to have to look for a new job or – What do you find employee morale is like now and how do you improve that?

BLANCHARD: Well, you know, I think employee morale is down in places where, you know, the top management doesn't share information and do things behind closed doors. But it's not, you know, unrealistic at this time to have a few worries but you can't let it dominate you, you know. Pain is inevitable and happiness is a choice, I think the Dalai Lama said that. And so I think you got to take a look at, well, what are the skills I have, what could I do? Suppose my job ended here, how am I going to rebound? What can we do as a family and all, and start being proactive in terms of what you're – what you can do and what are some of the options and all and so don't wait for things to happen to you, start thinking things through, gather the family, share the facts with them, you know, and what are some of the options that we might have to do? So be proactive rather than reactive.

CAVANAUGH: It's hard when a company comes with you with a change plan though if you're feeling nervous that way. It would be your advice to just go for it?

BLANCHARD: Well, you know, I think nothing's guaranteed nowadays and so – I wrote a book with Don Shula, the old Miami Dolphins coach, and he said, success is not forever and failure isn't fatal. And he only gave his players 24 hours to bemoan a defeat or celebrate a victory, and then they would, you know, go right on to the next game. And I think that you can't, you know, live in the past and you can't live in negativity, you have to sort of say, okay, what…

CAVANAUGH: What's next?

BLANCHARD: What's next? What am I grateful for? What are the skills I have? Is this the time to maybe go back to school?

CAVANAUGH: Ken Blanchard, I want to thank you so much for being with us.

BLANCHARD: Yeah, thank you so much, Maureen.

CAVANAUGH: Ken Blanchard, the author of "The One Minute Manager" and co-author of the new book called "Who Killed Change?" You can hear this segment again online at KPBS.org/TheseDays.

http://www.kpbs.org/audioclips/7215/

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/jun/30/business-guru-ken-blanchard-talks-about-environmen/

 

Tagged photos and videos
Friends love to tag friends photos, especially when the photos are embarrassing. They think it's funny, you don't since the tagged photos become public.
Solution: Click on "settings", "privacy settings", "profile", "photos tagged of you" and set the settings on "friends only"
The same procedure applies to videos since videos can also be tagged and can be much more embarrassing.
They can still have fun, but you control who sees the photos, you control your image, you control your brand

Amazing how technology works, who would have known in 1981 when very few had home computers. In business school, I did a thesis on communication, that was at the beginning of the fax machines era  and teleconferencing was a brand new idea affordable to only large corporations, who would have imagined that Fax machines would invade our  homes and be obsolete as fast as they did and that we would be teleconferencing from home or the road on portable computers for free. Now think about how that applies to social media... the potential of social media already is amazing us and we are only in the equivalent of the 1981 era of online news media...

Smith Business interview with  University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business, Kevin Fallon, who heads up the Office of Career Management, provides tips for job seekers. He encourages those in the market for a job to follow through on leads, take advantage of networking opportunities, and leverage social networks.

 

Willy Ronis was an icon of French photography, with Cartier Bresson, Doisneau and Brassai, he was part of a movement in photography called 'Humanist". They used their talent to depict everyday life in France, after the war, through beautiful images. They were artists and reporters, painters of life and light