Fri, October 31st, 2008 - 12:00 pm - By Gordon Basichis
The stock market has proven a wild and often nerve wracking ride. One day it is up five hundred points, the next day it is down. The government announces bailout plans, but the public isn’t sure whether they will work or not. In fact, the government isn’t sure if they will work or not. Nobody knows nothing, or so it seems.
Every company from CBS to Motorola announces a reduction in projected earnings. In the media business alone, newspapers are folding. Gannet is laying off 3000 people or ten percent of its work force. The Christian Science Monitor, after 100 years of publication, is retracting to an online only position. American Express is trimming its work force. So is the publishing giant Conde Nast. And horror of horrors, Men’s Vogue will cut is distribution from ten issues a year to only two. There are four seasons, but there will only be two issues, annually. Oh well.
So with all this bad news, including consumers burrowing deep and not spending their money on anything but necessities, we have the one question to ask. Are we there yet? Has the stock market about bottomed out? When all this trimming finally stops, will we start the long, steep climb back up into economic viability.
I think we are getting close. Once this election campaign is finally over with, whoever wins, the country will be ready to get down to business. It will be new business in a lot of sectors. Much will be different. As for an economy that relies on nearly 70% consumerism, that is about to change. Reality will overtake the fantasy of living so far above our heads we can’t see the daylight.
And, once the smoke clears, companies will reset themselves. People will go back to work. Those out of work will be able to find jobs. Not everyone, but a fair amount. Not this year, maybe, and possibly not until the end of the next. But sooner than the Cassandras believe, we will start to realign ourselves. It will be a start, but a good start is better than a poor finish.
So Halloween has new meaning this year. Trick or Treat.
Check the out before you hire.
Fri, October 31st, 2008 - 5:18 am - By Gordon Basichis
The media industry was having problems enough, with the reductions in advertising revenue, the public’s unfavorable perceptions of the news outlets, and the general dilemmas as the major palyers move from the print age to the electronic era. now comes the virtual bloodbath, the slaughter and subsequent disemboweling of the work force. It’s crazy, really. Worse because few seem to feel the sympathy they would feel for the same loss, say, in the auto industry.
Time, Inc is laying off 6% of its work force or 600 people. Christian Science Monitor is closing down its paper edition and going online only. Gannet will be cutting ten percent of its newspaper jobs, and McGraw Hill will be handing out pink slips to 270 employees. the Los Angeles Times announced it was laying off some 75 more staff members. According to an article in the New York Times, the Time, Inc. layoffs will radically alter the company culture.
More layoffs are coming. This means a lot of people are out on the street. Some may make the transition to the total electronic age, and many will not. They will not be needed. As one who was once in the news industry, I know for most people this is a difficult transtiion to make. That is, if you can even find any work. Book publishing is all but dead, and there are enough freelance editors to fill a stadium.
Some will try to find public relations work, but that too is experiencing a downturn. Advertising? That has problems of its own, and news people frequently make neither good copywriters nor publicity flacks. Some are probably going to blog for awhile as they come to terms with the fact their professions have gone the way of the Age of Steam.
As a business owner, it may be a good idea to recruit some of these media people. The entertainment folk know how to hype a product, and the news folk can read, write, and spell, all the things much of the society has lamentably forgotten. Of course you would need to conduct a rigorous preemployment screening program to ascertain if your candidates can make the transtion for their old jobs to your industry. Chances are, your human resources person would not be the one qualified to determine this, but someone running your department. Or even an outside consultant.
If you can’t hire someone full time, then it may pay to hire them freelance. To get started in their new profession, these media people may offer you bargain prices that you wouldn’t get from your normal sources. It’s an idea worth thinking about.
Check them out before you hire.
Thu, October 30th, 2008 - 5:00 am - By Gordon Basichis
Hospitals have been hiring criminals. Or so the story goes, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. The article maintains that King-Harbor Hospital, right here in the City of the Angels, has been hiring anything but angels as part of the hospital staff. The hospital will fire nineteen employees and discipline another 45.
The article reports that the Department of Health didn’t exactly move like the wind in reviewing these cases or disciplining or dismissing employees. With all this one has to wonder who was doing the background checks, if anyone. Apparently Human Resources not only neglected their preemployment screening duties here but in other facilities as well.
You have to wonder who has been wheeling you or your loved ones around the hospital. Does it really matter? Well, maybe. Considering the amount of theft, where patients are relieved of cash and valuables, the criminal records of hospital employees should be factored into the mix. Theft can be pretty rampant at our hospitals.
So if there is any lesson to this, it is to run background searches on your employees. At the very least, run the criminal records background searches, so you don’t go embarrassing yourself with headlines that King-Harbor Hospital has recently enjoyed. These are tough economic times out there, and the last thing you need are desperate employees running your business into the ground.
Check them out before you hire.
Wed, October 29th, 2008 - 4:42 am - By Gordon Basichis
Pepsi just spent a ton of money redesigning its branding logo on its core product, a bottle of Pepsi Cola. According to an article by Natalie Zmuda, in AdAge, it took the designers five months to finalize the iconic logo. Five months and $1 million dollars for the design.
It is a nice logo. But five months for this? Who did they hire and where were they? Unless everybody involved was on retreat or busy serving in Iraq, that seems like an inordinate amount of time go come up with this relatively minor change. It wasn’t like they were employed to build the new series of nuclear submarines or even reconfiguring the Pepsi formula. There were no significant color changes, and they didn’t change as they are planning for Mountain Dew. To Mtn Dew, in case anyone is interested. Perhaps the Mountain Dew drinkers find it difficult to spell “mountain,” I really don’t now.
I am artistic. I have a background in the arts. I have friends in the arts. I have a son in the arts. I have been involved in advertising, marketing, and public relations. I was in the entertainment business, where we know that pizzazz sells. The point is I am not some veritable cretin who doesn’t understand either the significance of branding, design, color, etc. So when I ask–five months and a million dollars for this? I ask this with some credible background. I’m sure I am not the only one asking, this either. The poor guy at Pepsi who had to pay the bill on this, may well be asking the very same thing.
Pepsi, of course contends that the new design helps establish Pepsi as a cultural leader. There they are, right on the cutting edge and no longer the antique no one thought they were. Words like adventurous, youthful, and unique, almost flippant are bandied about by the branding experts. Sounds kind of like the ovelry effusive wine reviews we sometimes find.
The regular old Pepsi brand supposedly hints of a smile. The Diet Pepsi logo will approximate a grin. A laugh wll adorn Pepsi Max. Sounds great, if anyone get the subtle changes. Or cares.
It is a nice log change, it really is. But five months and a million bucks or more to produce? My son, the artist, produces beautiful logos, animated logs, even, in two weeks. Will people get the grin? Will people care? Will consumers say to themselves that old Pepsi drink was okay, but I felt kind of old and out of touch each time I put the bottle to my lips. But now that its is grinning at me, I feel youthful and vibrant. I am a person of the times.
Well, maybe it will go that way. Maybe after they spend hundred of millions more switching out the new logos on the trucks, vending machines, and in the venues where Pepsi is sold, it won’t be quite as effective as Pepsi had hoped. You never know.
My suggestion? Spend the few bucks extra and switch back to sugar as sweetener, instead of that high fructose corn syrup. That would work for me. Ahhh!
Tue, October 28th, 2008 - 5:07 am - By Gordon Basichis
The presidential election campaign is reaching its conclusion. We can all be thankful for small favors. Or large ones, in this case. I’m sure like the rest of you the campaign has been overhwelming and is now underwhelming. It has gone on for far too long, and, like me, you are tired of hearing the same old arguments, especially from the same old talking heads on the TV.
So where do the political pundits go, once the campaign is finally over. Are that like the circus folk and head to a special camp in Florida where they sit out the season, waiting for the next campaign? I know, realistically, some are name brands unto themselves, and they keep writing their columns, appearing on talk shows and otherwise annoy us with their often less-than-scintillating insights about life as we know it. They will discuss the progress of the newly elected president, the economy, and the political challenges both domestic and international that are lurking on the horizon.
In an article posted on GrokDotCom.Com, writer Jeff Sexton maintains that political consultants make excellent marketeers, since they are expert are moving public opinion. He writes that political consultants constantly manipulate the nuances of words to better define the audience’s perspective about a subject. they are always measuring, often in real time or as close as it gets, since in an election campaign time is not a luxury. It is a good article, one that started me thinking.
After this election, some politician consultants will return to their day jobs. But others will be out of work. Perhaps in this economic meltdown the right strategy would be to hire a political consultant as part of your marketing team and let him go to work on your target market. The prospect that they can determine quickly the more successful aspects of your campaign may be worth its weight in oil futures. Tweaking words so that your copy content and its incumbent delivery will not only prove exceptional in the true sense of the word, it will be unique when compared to your competitors. They could help improve your customer loyalty.
All good. No? But the one caveat–come another election year they may be off again to the proverbial races. They will be writing and tweaking for the candidates who hire them. They are, after all, guns for hire. And when the election year comes around again they will have their bags packed and the limousine ready to take them to the airport. Like an old racing horse who hears the trumpet beckoning to the starting gate, they will be off and running. They can’t help themselves.
Mon, October 27th, 2008 - 5:19 am - By Gordon Basichis
I was reading through the LA Weekly, what same may call an alternative paper. The LA Weekly lists everything from the investigative exposes to the best art and music venues, restaurants, as well as a plethora of strip and massage clubs. The point being that most of the advertisers in the LA Weekly are in the service industry.
So, anyway, while reading through the paper, under Opportunity Rocks n the classified section, I noticed a large ad for an up and coming job fair, in Los Angeles. The job fair catered to recruiters and applicants in the service industry. Bartenders, cooks, house keepers, managers, baristas, and retail sales personnel. Those kind of jobs.
Not long ago, the city and the world was rife with job fairs for executives. Long lines and dozens of resumes were in hand as people waited for their short, speed date interview with a prospective employer. Everyone was all dressed in their business specials, suits, dresses, all the serious power looking garb that might give you the edge on the other job candidate. But no more executive job fairs. Now it’s a job fair for the service industry.
Two things crossed my mind. The first being in this lousy economy, with restaurants hurting, and with the McDonalds and Dunkin’ Doughnuts of the world competing heavily with Starbucks, there didn’t seem much need for people in the food, home and night club service industries. Every time you turn around there is some news article about people eating home more, not going out to clubs, to entertainment venues. From the looks of it, perhaps it would be more convenient if we returned to more Puritanical times. Then at least the reduced personal budget could best reflect the lifestyle.
Apparently I was wrong about the hiring. That or recruiters were planning for the future. Or maybe the recruiters are out there fishing for a better degree of service personnel, as in former executives who have fallen out of their jobs and onto hard times. That would make the background checking and the preemployment screening very interesting, indeed.
“Where did you go to school?”
“Harvard.”
“So why are you applying for a job as a barista?”
“I was born to pour espresso.”
Another thing I did notice about this particular job fair. Where the executive job fairs where usually in a convention center or the whatever large room at some hotel, this services industry job fair was on the roof of a commercial parking garage. Under a tent.
It is just one more indicator of how much and how quickly times have change.
Check them out before you hire.
Fri, October 24th, 2008 - 5:08 am - By Gordon Basichis
Viacom has its problems. As reported in the New York Post, among other places, as owner of Viacom, Sumner Redstone encounters more personal problems, the rivalries grow within. This is never good news and in this case a media giant may soon falter and find itself on the sales block.
While it took a bit of genuis by the original executives to take a less significant Viacom and make it what it is today, the company faces an uncertain future. Not only is the sales block a possibility, but so is the possibility of it breaking into smaller pieces. Viacom gained through selective aquistion of other companies. It may find itself breaking up into smaller blocks.
Viacom could start to sell off pieces of itself to satisfy debt. While executives claim they were taken by surprise by the debt load, It is difficult to take at face value that executives had absolutely no idea of the harsh realities of the company’s failure to make payments on its debt. But who know?
The main thing is once the company starts to split on the inside, the serious fighting starts. There are power grabs internally, and then there are battles externally to wrest the more valuable assets away from the company. Fighting is so bitter, usually, it makes the mixed martial arts contests look like a cakewalk.
Senior executives and promising new persons will often get fed up and start looking around for a new place to work. If you are a company aware of this type of struggle within your industry or where people possess the skill sets that you can use, you may consider recruiting some of the talent. Often highly skilled professionals could be had for bargain rates, just so they have a place to go a few weeks after their former company crumples all around them.
As part of your preemployment screening program, discuss with your human resources executives the viability of poaching on the failing giants. It may indeed prove to be a good business practice for your company.
Thu, October 23rd, 2008 - 10:09 am - By Nick Gustavson
The public and civil access computer system at the DC Superior Court has been down since yesterday, October 21st, and is still not operational. There will be a delay in processing criminal and civil searches. We will assign extra court resarchers to the courts when the computers are functioning so requests can be processed as quickly as possible.