General Motors announced this day that it is restructuring by closing plants and changing production to smaller cars.  I for one will certainly not miss seeing those tanks - er, Hummers - on the roads.  GM execs said that higher gas prices represented a “structural change” of the economy, not just a cyclical change.  I think it’s both. 

My husband and I’ve been betting on how long it would take the care manufacturers to respond to this gas price increase.  Like other Baby Boomers, we’ve seen it before.  We saw it in 1973 when OPEC raised gas prices, and the energy crisis of 1979. 

Nearly instantaneously the automakers got rid of the huge old “gas guzzlers,” stopped making V8 engines, and made smaller cars. 

Remember that following these “crises” there was an oil glut in the 1980s?  And slowly but surely the size of cars started getting larger, and larger, and larger….

Why is anyone surprised at all of this?  The current gas crises is, in part, a restucturing the economy to cope with the current oil situation, but it’s also cyclical. 

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  And here we go again.

Tags: baby boomers, gas prices, General Motors, smaller cars

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Now that the dust seems to have cleared in the Democratic presidential race, it’s time to focus on the path to November and the issues that are important to Baby Boomers in business.

Thursday Bram over at One Vote Matters just had a great post outlining John McCain’s business plan.  If you go to the post, you’ll see I’ve already commented on it.  I would like to know what you think, too.

Tomorrow, Barak Obama’s business plan.

Tags: baby boomers, Business Plan, john mccain, one vote matters

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Filed under: Estates

Adamsleigh is one of the largest and most famous homes in Greensboro, North Carolina. Designed by Winston-Salem based Luther Lashmit. Adamsleigh, was built for High Point textile baron John Hampton Adams and is on 13.5 acres. Italian artisans were commissioned to create the molded plaster ceiling details, hand-carved woodwork, tilework and murals. The four-story staircase is stated to be forged from one big piece of wrought iron. The den has wood-paneled walls with a secret entrance to a spiral staircase. The home has 22 rooms including 10 bedrooms. It’s a beautiful home and one obviously in need of a lot of work but I hope whoever purchases it manages to save those delicious Art Deco bathrooms and doesn’t just plop in giant jacuzzi tubs. At $4.8 million it’s the most high-priced listing in the area.
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Continue reading Adamsleigh, Estate of the Day

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PimpYourWork.com

It’s better when you do things yourself, right?

After all, you accomplish tasks better and faster than your teammates do. You can’t trust them to create the same high-quality work you do. So why not do everything yourself?

Because it’s a BAD idea, for the following reasons:

• Your team won’t learn anything.
• You automatically shut yourself off from their valuable input.
• You’ll be overworked and stressed.
• If the work quality is good, your teammates will get undeserved credit.
• If the work quality is poor, you’ll be an simple target to blame.

So what’s the solution?

Delegate.

So how do you delegate tasks to your teammates?

1. Eliminate. There are some tasks that don’t need to be delegated because they are unnecessary minutiae that isn’t part of the huge picture.
2. Know your team. What is each members strengths and weaknesses? How high is their willingness to learn?
3. Start delegating the routine tasks. Start by assigning the easy tasks such as research, typing, collecting paperwork, etc. Since these tasks are less intimidating, people will be more comfortable to take them on.
4. Be clear about the expected output from each member. Clear as in written down in black and white, so that the team has something to refer to when judging if expectations were met.
5. Check progress, but not details. Get an update on how each member is doing, but don’t tell them how to perform their tasks. Offer your help whenever they need it, but don’t intrude on their process.

So the next time you hear yourself saying…

“I can do it superior myself.” or “He/she isn’t qualified, so I’ll take on this task instead.”

Stop and delegate.

Pic Credit: Image from Vangelis Thomaidis from stock.xchng

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A neat tiny presentation I found on resume writing:

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising, FedEx Corp (FDX), Small business

News that FedEx (NYSE: FDX) is taking a huge charge of $891 million to drop the name Kinko’s marks both the end of an era, as well as a massive waste of money that’ll impact shareholders.

According to the story in MarketWatch: “The company called it a “strategic decision” to strike Kinko’s from the retail chain’s name, and the charge is broken down into a $515 million charge for the use of the trade name, $367 million in goodwill and $9 million in other expenses.”

A $515 million charge for use of the trade name? You’ve got to be kidding. The new name is going to be FedEx Office. That’s pretty catchy, huh? I’m going to run over there right now to make a photocopy, because it is such great branding. Not.

The company states that Kinko’s was primarily a photocopying and faxing service while FedEx office is an entire back-office for small and mid-sized businesses. Unfortunately, with the halting of new store openings and layoffs, it appears that small and mid-sized businesses don’t need to outsource their whole back-office to FedEx.

Bye bye Kinko’s, it was fun while it lasted.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer’s fund has has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 6/3/08

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