The Daily Show - Hypocrisy in the Labor Ranks

Well I'm back after another surgery and while I still feel like I'm peeing razor blades all is well. My son passed this clip along from last nights Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Seems the unions protesting Wal-Mart and their wages are actually hiring protesters and paying them minimum wage. You gotta love those leaders in the Union.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Working Stiffed
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Unions and Obamanation: Coming to a Business Near You

In my career I've had more than a few dealings with unions. And I might add I believe that there was certainly a time where they were needed. That time has passed in most cases. And if a company is going to have a union then there needs to be a secret ballot, just like there is for every other election we have in this country.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. I got an email the other day from a friend out west who told me he was being laid off, along with eighteen co-workers, all who were contractors with the US government. Now that in itself isn't surprising in this economy. What is surprising is the reason for his layoff. He was laid off along with eighteen others because they were non-union contractors and the government no longer wants to use 'non-union contractors'.

Now that makes me feel lots better about Obamanation's leadership and direction for our country. First he says we have to have open ballot union elections then he begins laying off non-union contractors. Ahh - to live in a free country. Remember this in November!

Where is Charlie Urgen when I Need Him? DISH Service Sucks

Probably like many of you, you sit back in the evening watching a little of the boob tube. And just like a bad penny CEO and Co-Founder of DISH Network is on there sounding homey, down to earth (he does seem like a nice fellow) and our buddy is on there extolling the virtues of his great service. Well ... I beg to differ.

Since I travel a bit I have a need to turn my actual programming off at one place and on at another. The actual process I've found doesn't take that long and two months ago the switch went like clockwork. The only thing consistent however in talking with DISH 'Customer Service' (I use the term loosely) is that they are completely inconsistent in their advice.

Let me give you my last four days, the short version:

1. I arrive in UT and call in to have my zip code changed and a new address given. All goes well, the young lady spoke English and I could understand and I thought I'd won the DISH lottery.

2. My DISH dish won't lock in on either of the two satellites my service uses. I call Tech Support. We go through the drill with an English speaking gentlemen, he is quite nice, I am led through steps I could now teach I have done this so much and ... nothing works. I am told that after the tests the two 'pointers' on my satellite dish are bad and need replaced. I say I doubt it since it works all the time. I hang up.

3. Day 3 arrives I finally call that evening, go through the exact same trouble shooting since of course it is on their computer screens they are reading from. We end at the exact same spot, I am not locked on a satellite and don't have service. However this time, after all the tests my crack representative that Charlie talks about in his nightly commercial says ... the problem is with your receiver - we will send you a new one. I said look this receiver is one year old, never gave me trouble - that is not it. I hang up.

4. Day Four, for reasons God may only know, my dish locked in on one of my satellites so we say what the hey - we'll go with it. We of course have to go through the entire debunking process once again which takes about 30 minutes. We download the programming and have everything but local channels. No problemo - I call DISH back and get a kind of English speaker who says it is not a problem and he works his magic on the computer and says, success! But I didn't have local channels or much patience with Charlie's crack support staff either. I called it a night.

5. Day Five has to be better, right? Not so my friends. I get an English speaker at least and of course he tells me, you're right, no problemo - not so. We go through the entire computer screen of prompts, and God forbid that you ask them to skip one because you have learned how to do it yourself the previous half dozen times ... no, no, each step and one half of an hour. The result ... no local programming. The problem - must be on your end he says, maybe a connection? Umm? I am viewing thirty of their package channels but my connection is preventing me from getting the locals. I hang up.

6. I am determined this time because I know in the end it is an easy problem if only I could get the right person I talked with last time a couple months back. I call right back and this time I get a barely English speaker who I can barely understand. It took my 15 minutes to just get him to understand I 'wanted' the local channels. He keep saying, "I unnerstan. You wan me to take off your other channels an just leave locals" NO. After we solved that we went through, yes, the full Monty of computer screens tests, 30 minutes and, well, same result. He says he is sure it is my receiver. I hang up.

7. Still Day 5 I call right back. I get an even worse English speaker than the last time. He insists I go through the tests. I do with my wife getting just a tad out of control in the background. We get the same result and he tells me it is my receiver and he will send me one. So I take the bait and I say well then send it, 'it won't cost anything will it?' He says, which was after every single question 'please let me check my resources' which I know to mean is another computer screen of prompts.

The bottom line is it will cost me $15 shipping which of course is a good deal on a $150 receiver, that is of course IF I NEEDED ONE. I knew it wasn't the receiver and told him so. Reading I am sure from a prompt - he tells me what I need is a service contract and then I wouldn't pay for the shipping ever again. I say, "Well, how much does that cost?" A mere $6 a month, You do the math. I tell him I want to talk to his Supervisor.

8. After a ten minute hold waiting for his Supervisor a nervous young lady got on the line and asked how she could help. I told her she was my 8th person to talk with on this simple problem. She spoke with an island accent but was understandable and polite, but not all that helpful. Yes you guessed it, for the 7th time I unplugged my receiver, rebooted, ran through all the test screens in spite of my pleas for my sanity. And in this process she happened to say, " Well I am looking at your account and the previous reps said you needed a receiver? I ended that and asked he 'what else might we try?'.

She wasn't sure but said, 'I am looking at your account now and it allows all local channels in Salt Lake where you are so I don't know why you aren't getting them, it must be your equipment. I explained that I've been watching their programming for three days with no locals - yada yada yada. Now keep in mind here on the ending, that part of all those tests I did is keyed on getting a satellite signal from a particular satellite in my case 119. Every rep knew that.

Drum roll please ... she says again, "Well I am looking at it right now and is it streaming down from 110 and ... " I interrupt with 'did you say 110" Well yessir. I said as calmly as I could ... "Don't you think that would be a problem since I am on 119?" She said that 'may be it'.

So I asked her if she might give me 15 minutes to site in 110 and call me back to make sure at this point that this 10 year plus customer had the service he contracted for. She kindly said she was not authorized to make outbound calls. I asked if I might call her directly since I had at least made it into management? She kindly replied that no, I could not call her directly but she would put a note in my account in case it didn't work. It was the same answer for email. No contact with the customers ...

Well, I hung up and pointed my DISH to satellite 110 and there they were all along, my elusive local channels. That led me to think ... maybe CEO Charlie Urgen should spend a tad more time in the office, ensuring that his Customer Service department is actually performing the way he is reporting on TV. Charlie, a little less camera time.

But now that I think about it ... our entire business world is on tilt.

Government Job Growth and the Inc 500

If you look beneath the news the biggest increase in employment in the last two years belongs to government. Now the alarming thing about that is the only way they can get money is from, you guessed it, US. So growing government is the same thing as growing your headquarters if you are a corporation ... they're not selling anything.

Of course the government is selling anything either (unless of course you count bullshit). But they continue to grow and if the healthcare bill goes through as the maniacs plan government employment is going to skyrocket even more.

So you'll see my surprise and concern when I was reading through Inc Magazines recent publication of the Inc 500. the 500 fastest growing companies in America. I was reading through the list and for each business on the list they tell you what industry they represent. The surprise was that so many of the business's obtained their entire sales volume, companies from a $1,000,000 in sales to over $400,000,000 in sales, from what they called 'Government Services". Think about that ... they provide services to the US Government and in one year became one of the 500 fastest growing companies in America.

The Inc 500 employ 45,324 people. That's nice. The single largest group of employees in one segment, Government Services, employ over 7,000 people or 15% of all employees although they represent 12% of the revenue. What is concerning is that our government employees are growing at an astronomical rate, and here we see private enterprise supporting the government is growing as fast or faster.

An interesting fact about these fast growing companies sucked on to the side of the Mother Ship produce income per employee of %18,571 per person; while the rest of the Inc 500 produced income of $29,228 per person. Umm?

Its time for a heads up. We need to pay attention to the important and do something about it.

Visited My Favorite Chevy er Chevrolet Dealer Today

I've been gone from the area for two months with health problems and just got around to visiting my Chevy, lest we forget the 'New' General Motors issued a directive that they are not 'Chevy's' the are now Chevrolet; but anyway it is a moot point for me, she is no longer a Chevy Dealer.

Here we sit in a town of 6,000 and our dealership who is a second generation dealer is now in the used car business and happy. You see when the vaunted government task force took over our auto industry you all remember all the closings going on. Not for any particular reason other than the Task Force said it 'would save money'. What they didn't understand is that the dealers were Sales dealers and created sales, not expense.

You see they couldn't get away with closing my dealer because she is a woman number one, and she is Native American number two ... but of course they couldn't do it with a frontal assault to they found other ways to drive a long time dealer out of the market. There next ploy was to 'require' (they're doing it all over the nation) the dealers remaining to in her case build a completely new building and shop. A cost to her of about $3 million. In this economy?

So they got what they wanted - she sold it to another dealer locally who handles Chrysler (the bullets been fired there just not dead yet) and he is building the building. But my friend told me it was such a relief to be out from under GM's heavy hand that she couldn't be happier.

Her and her partners have morphed their business into a mini-CarMax of sorts. They are creative and resourceful about finding good quality used cars at the price point of our local market and they cut inventory, which GM wouldn't let them do and things are better for them.

And I learned a few things about GM dealership 'franchising' as they loosely call it. She pointed out to her sign out front, a single GM dealership sign and said, "I no longer have to pay GM $3,000 a month for the 'lease' on that sign. She told me earlier about GM requiring Starbucks carts in every showroom - a mere $5,000 charge. And then there are the computer systems required by GM that comes with thousands of dollars in costs.

I said, "You know McDonald's and the like only charges probably 7% to 10% franchise fee. She said, "Well, we figured up all our GM costs just for the 'privilege' of being a GM Dealer and it comes to over 30%?" Unbelievable! It is sad but I am now happy for them that they are out from under the company with no leadership.

When it comes to investing in that new GM that the CEO is bragging has paid the government back when they really haven't (that's another story), think twice, long term they aren't in a position to win ... blu, blub, blub.

Corporate Rip Offs from the Phone Industry?

All over the country you read and hear how tough business has become. I'm sure that is true. But just how much of it is a self-inflicted wound? Check out my recent experience with my only land line and Internet provider here in Big Arm, Montana - Century Link.

You do know of course that they were Century Tel and in the past year merged with Embarq (whoever they were) to provide me with a better level of customer service. Well that's what their ad's said anyway.

So last January when I went south for medical reasons and to get away from the cold, we were paying $160 a month for two land lines and hi-speed Internet. Now that is outrageous and we contacted them and suddenly the bill was $130. Then we had the idea of turning them off while we were gone and maybe not turning them back on. So around the end of the first week in January I called and asked them to turn the phones off and leave the Internet on. They said they could do that and it would be a $3 a month maintenance fee. Good to go.

I returned here in April and May, didn't turn the phones on but the Internet was working fine. No worries - then I had to go back to the hospital in June so we were gone until the first of August. We came home and the Internet worked so again, no worries and I just went to work. Then it happened. I was working on a Tuesday a couple weeks ago when my Internet just quit.

I tried the usual stuff and then called Century Link Tech Support who ran me through the usual unplug the router, reboot etc. Nada. So the kind lady says I will put a support order in to get someone out to check it out but it won't be until tomorrow. Okay, I can live with that.

Tomorrow comes and goes and Thursday morning I call in once again to Tech Support. The guy says, "Sir you turned all your services off on Jan 6th and that is your problem." I said, "That's cool except it didn't go off until first week of August. Umm? He says they shouldn't have put in a work order because the problem is your service is cancelled.

He does some more checking and finds out they gave my 'switch' to someone else since I left if off so long. I asked, "Why would you do that if I am paying you a $3 fee to hold the line?" That is one of those questions no one has answers to. He told me he'd transfer me to a sales agent who could take care of the problem. I was on hold for 50 minutes and my cell phone is dead. It was Thursday, third day with no Internet.

Friday I call early and get a nice young lady who tells me that there is a 3 business day period to get something turned back on. I ask, "But I write and sell and am quite involved on the Internet, is there no way that I can get it sooner? Isn't it just a switch you turn on?" Well, like I said earlier, the question of the switch is, well, they gave it to someone else. Now I don't know what on earth that means other than I don't have Internet.

After 45 minutes on the phone she can't answer for where my switch is but she does affirm that indeed it will take them 3 days to 'get a switch' from 'someone' and get my Internet back on. So the bottom line is it was turned on the next Wednesday, eight days without service, but that's not all.

She informed me that if I didn't turn the land lines back on it would cost me more for Internet since the services were bundled. Now I started out at this point paying $130 a month and she has a 'special' for me for two phone lines and Internet for $88 a month. Well, quite frankly that is the cheapest I've seen in 10 years here so I only ask, "What if I just get 1 line since that is all I need anymore?" She says, "That will be $94 with Internet." There was some corporate nonsense behind this reason so I gave up and said, "Okay lets go with the $88."

Service restored, all is well until we drive an hour north to visit my son and his daughter. I'm telling him my latest tale of corporate America being on tilt and he says, laughing', "Dad, why on earth would you pay $88, when I am only paying $29?" Now that was a good damn question.

He showed me his bill and he did come in a year ago as a new customer at $19.95 for six months and then it went up to $29.95. When his year was up a month or so ago he gets his new bill and they are charging him $49.95 a month, still much lower than my $88.

He calls and threatens to go back to Bresnan and a Supervisor gets on the phone and tells him she will give him a $20 credit for the next month for being a 'good customer'. Thus for the next year he is paying $29.95 and get this ... she tells him that at each year anniversary if you call us we will 'reapply' the $20 discount.

Dealing with the phone companies, cell phones included, is like going to a swap meet out in Sturgis. But then that would give bikers a bad name and they don't compare to the deceptions of the phone companies.

Armed with my son's bill from Century Link this week I tried calling customer service at Century Link on two different days to no avail. The first day I was on hold for an hour and fifteen minutes listening to their nonsense about how they are here to serve us and are building the number one customer service company in the world, I put my cell on speaker phone and just worked (now that I had Internet) and the phone once again died. The next day I tried using Skype and after 45 minutes on hold I just hung up.

But I will keep trying and will prevail in getting my sons rate ... if I ever get a human being on the phone that is. We live in sad times when companies are so cut back, leaders are so out of touch and yet, they lie to Wall Street with slick presentations and often bogus numbers. There is a day coming when these dinosaurs of the past, land line phone companies, will be gone. They are too expensive.

Of course then we'll be dealing with the cut throats from the big cell companies ... business is on tilt, lacking good leadership and they don't even know it.

Update on Barclay Bank Post Below

My wife just called to cancel her account, got someone from India and they just issued her a credit, closed the account and gave her a confirmation number. Perhaps she's more persuasive than me or perhaps they are just screwed up!

Frontier Airlines and Barclay Bank - Do Not Sign Up for their Credit Card

I am online right now with Barclay Bank who has the credit card I applied for back in February while traveling back from Costa Rica. I actually had a great time on Frontier, positive experience and while waiting in Denver on the return they were having this 'special' to sign up for their credit card and get immediate points for your most recent trip.

So I signed up and asked for a card for my wife, filled out one application and was immediately told I got a free travel pillow and two free magazine subscriptions. I didn't want the magazines and started walking away but the lady said someone in our house must have use for some so I finally chose Sports Illustrated, thinking my son-in-law or son might want and Entertainment Weekly figuring my daughters would be interested.

Fast forward to my first bill the end of March, keep in mind I haven't ever used these cards and to our surprise my wife has her own card and her own account, thus we received two bills and on one is a $24.95 charge for Sports Illustrated and the other, my wifes, a $19.95 charge for Entertainment Weekly.

Now we were gone, I was having medical issues, our mail catches up with us in May and of course we have finance charges. I call Barclay Bank who really has the card and am told on both accounts that we must call the magazines and work it out. We discuss this for awhile and I give in and call Sports Illustrated and of course no argument and they reverse the charge as did Entertainment Weekly.

We've been going back and forth and just got off the phone with a nice lade from Barclay who informed me my bill was now $125.85 - imagine that for a $24.95 magazine! We went back and forth for awhile and I informed her she needed to cancel the account and all the charges. After checking with her Supervisor she was told I would have to pay $4 to have to charges remediated? I said no, it was the principle of the thing. She went back to her Supervisor who now told her the lowest they could go was $2 and I said nothing.

She was quite nice and explained to me that it wasn't their problem that I was told the magazine were free. At which I told her quite frankly if they were an up and up bank, with all the problems going on with banks today, they wouldn't be trying to stick me for two bucks!

She agreed to put it through as zero but doubted it would pass the higher ups.

So beware of this fraud ... and this bank ... $24.95 to $125.85 in a matter of 6 months. Not bad if you can get away with it. Now I have to take them on on my wifes card ... it's only up to $105 from 19.95 - I am sure happy about those new Obama credit card laws the Congress enacted, they have really made things better.

See Unemployment Changes live on US Map

Check out how unemployment changed since 2007 by US county

multimediafinal

Our Stimulus Dollars at Work Providing Jobs

There was a recent report in Newsmax outlining a few projects where our stimulus dollars provided jobs,er, well they were supposed to provide jobs. Think about the Hormel Company, producers of many things but I didn't know they produced the Jennie-O line of crappy turkey and chicken products. Them are just parts!

Any way this great company received a mere $7.12 million for their turkey store in MN. The purpose was to produce and delivery "small cooked deli breasts". The "deli breasts' were part of a larger $100 million package of grants for canned fruits, canned pork and sliced ham to stock food pantries for the need and jobless. Jennie-O said the project would create or help retain 384 jobs.

Those employees worked just one week to fill the orders created by the grant ... after all, aren't these companies in the business of making these things everyday? Perhaps placing the order is a good thing if perhaps the goods went to the right place? But counting these jobs as 'stimulus' jobs ... umm, something funny going on here.

One more reason to have a Go Green November and vote all the bums out.

A Response from the UK on Cell Phones

The below was posted as a response to my writing on cell phones ... I talked with Jif and he said okay to repost ... enjoy!

"Hey Ed, I read that piece on the use or mis-use of the cell phones in stores , churches and while walking in the street. Let me tell you , this problem is international. While standing in a line in a grocery store over here in the UK , the checkout girl was talking on the phone and not paying attention to what she was paid to do .By the look on the faces of the customers in the line they were all a little bit fed up of this behaviour. One of the customers near the back of the line pushed forward and grabbed the phone out of her hand and threw it against the wall , smashing it into a couple of pieces . Turns out this pissed off customer was the girls mother ! Just thought I'd let you know it's not just an American problem" . JIF

Check Out a New House In Utah - Young Couple Who Got Screwed on a New Energy Efficient House

There's A Lot of Money in here Somewhere

My home mortgage was with WaMu, Washington Mutual and of course they went belly up this past year. We got notice that Chase took them over and well whatever I guess. Then last fall we got a mailer from Chase offering us 'big' discounts on closing if we wanted to convert or mortgage to one with Chase.

Now I have several credit cards with Chase and I like them, they're pretty impressive with their computer programs to catch people messing with your cards so my relationship with them has always been good. So I took the bait and called the 800 number and it was not connected which surprised me since it was from their own flier.

So I was intrigued by the offer so I persisted and called another number with my 'offer' and got a perky young lady who said she could help and told me all about the program and asked if I wanted to sign up? I said, "Well, you haven't told me the interest rate or closing costs yet". She smiled, I know I couldn't see her but you could tell over the phone, she was happy to transfer me to someone who could help.

You might be as surprised as was when a guy from Quicken Loans arrived on the phone to help. Taken aback I said, "Pardon me, but I was calling Chase". He explained that Quicken Loans was a partner of Chase and they must be 'backed up' with new customers. Ummm?

Now I have to tell you my experience with Quicken Loans was outstanding. My guy worked hard, explained everything, and their online loan process was seriously impressive. I've lived a couple dozen places in my life and bought and sold several houses and this was by far the simplest process and closing I've ever experienced. So all that was great.

Now my understanding was I was dealing with Quicken who quite frankly started out producing some impressive products before getting in this business, so I was happy to do business with them albeit a little confused over the bait and switch by Chase. So Quicken it was and come first of the year we were Quicken customers.

So you'll probably be surprised as I am when this week I get a notice in the mail from Quicken advising me that I will now be doing business with some set of initials out in California. Seems they have sold my mortgage to some one else, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

I've been traveling so my mail just caught up with me and when I open a letter a couple down in the stack I open a letter from Bank of America. Seems that the 'initials' have something to do with Bank of America, which is certainly a fine institution as we all know. And the kicker on the end of this story is that I am a strange guy I guess but I wouldn't do business with any of these crooks especially Bank of America.

But through no fault of mine I know am a customer of these crooks, which of course most of the banks are, but I always felt I had a right to choose who I do business with. Nonetheless, I am one of theirs now ... but here is the real kicker.

Think about the profit built into just my case that I have to pay. Chase directs me to Quicken and they certainly pay Chase for the referral. Just a question of how much. Then Quicken is 'quick' and handles my closing fast and good. They get the 'closing costs' which by the way weren't cheaper than any others but the interest rate was good. Now a month later Bank of America apparently buys my mortgage from Quicken and Quicken makes some more money on the deal and now Bank of America will continue to make money on me.

I guess its the American way and it sucks. They should wear the masks not the robbers.

Okay maybe I got the video right this time?

http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tbws/23088/1076783

Check out the Math these Guys Do on our Financial Crisis - Excellent Video

http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tbws/23088/1076783

A Funny Sad Side of Business in America

A few years back a partner and I lead a turnaround back east for a large retail chain of stores. There supply chain left a lot to be desired and we were hired to turn around their 'underperforming east coast warehouse operations. The warehouse was 600,000 square feet 270 employees handling everything from small items to large crated items.

When we arrived and did individual interviews with all managment it was evident that one of the problems was at the top. They guy was just over his head. We worked with him and on the second day on the job I had to fire two young 19 year olds in the warehouse for turning tricks, on first shift by the way. Seems some of the brothers in the warehouse had built 'caves' out of the crates and were playing cards and pimping the young ladies out.

For the next six months every week like clockwork the local police showed up with a warrant one of our workers had violated parole. My partner called it our 'reverse work release program'. It took the better part of a year to weed out the drug dealers, pimps and users and we wondered how could a company let this happen? Now dont get me wrong, when I was consulting operations like this kept me in business but my partner and I marveled.

It was our first gig that we were bailing people out of jail to get them to work, this guy was actually a good one and we needed him. But you had the GM heaving a Coke at the wall during Staff Meeting, landing above one of his Manager's heads. The GM had been transferred in from the West Coast and had never led such operations.

We had the culture of inner city east coast clashing with the laid back California culture and unfortunately the CEO wasnt interested in finding a way in the end to merge the two. His attitude was that 'they' need to be part of us not the other way around. That wasnt the issue.

In a year we got the workforce pared down to 130 from the beginning of 270 and we found good people needing a job and wanting one. It wasnt about 'them' and 'us' it was about leadership and doing right. The union had organized them, understandably, when we arrived there was no hot water in the bathrooms and the place looked like Dunkirk. We remodeled the place and before we left had an election and voted the union out of town ... but in the end, when we left, nothing changed.

The company has gone through many financial hard times, turnover and if you're in the place we were, well, you had a good year a few years back but the beat goes on. In every consulting turnaround we've been involved in one common them emerges today ... its the leadership stupid.

Ring Side Seat to the Destruction of Corporate America

I didnt go to college and went straight to the Marine Corps and Parris Island two weeks out of high school. After four years in the Corps with two tours in Nam I came home to a changed world. My intention at the time was to get out of the Corp, spend a summer partying and head to Africa for some mercenary work.

Well, love happens, I met my wife (we're closing in on 41 years married)and decided against my original stupidity. Only problem was my wife wouldnt marry me unless I worked, as in a regular job. If any of you are old enough to remember the Dobie Gillis Show, I was like Maynard G Krebs "Work?!"

But work I did. Spent ten years going from mechanic, truck driver and General Manager of a small trucking company. I left to join Frito Lay in Detroit in their trucking operations and was promoted five times the first six years. I spent 13 years with them moving around the country and a stint in headquarters.

What I experienced and learned at Frito was invaluable. I learned about accountability, leadership and pay for performance. Back in the late 70's they had information coming out on the old wide computer printouts with the holes on the edge that put to shame every company I've worked for since, up to a couple years ago.

The thing that stood out was how close the leaders were to the operations on the ground. I remember how the President and the head of Operations and all the Logistics leaders would visit every plant twice a year, think 46 plants at the time, and we would have to present the state of our operations. Twice a year we had big get togethers where the whole company had to account for our performance in front of our peers.

When the Frito President was coming and the Sr VP op Operations I would spend a month prepping for my presentation because I knew they could and did hand me my head if I wasnt on top of my game. It was a little like the accountability in the Marine Corps that kept you alive when it all hit the fan. It felt good.

I left Frito after 13 years and went to Pepsi Cola. My first position was on a team to integrate the purchase of several franchises they were buying back. Pepsi was more fun and less accountable. This was in the early 90's and I began to see the gap between top and bottom growing. I saw it first at Frito in the late 80's but it was big time at Pepsi.

I enjoyed Pepsi but accountability was lacking. Performance was based more on looking what they called 'Pepsi Pretty' than it was the bottom line. As for the people in the field doing the work ... a necessary evil to the profit machine. It was a fun place actually but as for presenting to the President ... I'd got present to him with a day or twos notice. Not because he was a bad guy, he was a great person and knew the business from the sales and marketing side but as for operations, it was easy to cover.

Then I was told after three years, after getting a great annual review, (I was a Director level at the time) that I would always have a job at Pepsi but never be a VP. The reason was that without a college degree and at my age (46) I would never be a VP in a PepsiCo company. My boss at the time was a great guy and I appreciate to this day his honesty. I was gone within two months...to Compaq.

At the time I left there were four of us Directors working in operations. I was the first to leave, another who wasnt ready for VP left and became VP elsewhere and eventually President of one of that company's acquisitions. Another of the guys left in six months for the same reason and is today President of one of the nations top home builders. The fourth guy got promoted to keep him with the company. For me it began the age of the demise of once great companies.

I was at Compaq for three years in the mid-nineties when they were Houston's other Rocket. I was VP of Worldwide Logistics. I knew without a college degree I wouldnt be President of a Fortune 50 company but my goal was VP. I'd reached my goal and was never more disillusioned. When I write this it isnt about bad people it is about good people selling out for bad things. It was all about as our CEO would always remind us every quarter "We must be bigger!"

Bigger came to mean at all costs. It was all about stock options and how much everyone could make, sometimes laws be damned. It wasnt about the workers it was about the money. Great people sold out for the stock options that would bring them instant wealth. I learned in trucking and Vietnam that it is about 'the people' and this was the height, at least for me, of selling out. When I was called to present to the CEO of Compaq I'd go on a minutes notice. He didnt have a clue about our $2 billion budget. Just "We must be bigger1"

I left after a big fight after three years. I left to get my life back and went on my own consulting for large businesses. Over the next few years I would see the deterioration everywhere I went. Some of our marquee companies flying blind for the sake of bonuses and options. Think AIG, again, giving unreal bonuses. The top has no idea today how the work gets done on the bottom. Why do you think GM is a pittance of itself today.

I'm not preaching doomsday but we're not going to see the great economy of this country again anytime soon. It is going to take some serious awakening to turn this around. We live in the 'me' generation. Make my money now. Get my big house now. I never thought I'd see it but its here. And that same generation is leading us in DC and has been for some time ... and we're in the toilet, swirling. Unless something drastically changes our current 'me-me-me' culture America for our grandkids will disappear down the drain.

Political Correctness in Business

A few years back I was doing some work for a large manufacturer with a 150 acre campus as they called it. Major worldwide corporation and a good one. One day the HR department, at the behest of Division headquarters, announced to the 4,000 or so workers, industrial workers, that the entire facility would soon become 'no smoking'. That meant you had to walk off corporate property, no easy task, and stand along the street to smoke, ala 'off campus'.

Now I'm not a smoker and am not a supporter of smoking and I'm not a rocket scientist either - but I did know this was going to be a problem. It is the fashionable thing to do these days, ban smoking, but in a large plant of 4,000 workers? Seemed a little too political correct to me.

There were three or four nearby plants and the ban lasted maybe a week or two when the plant I was working at announced a 'change' to their ban. You would only be aloud to smoke off campus as in the beginning ... but with a new twist. They had a very large tent between two of the three or four buildings and HR used their considerable power (and stupidity) to declare this area, under the tent, 'off campus'.

So although it was in the middle of the 150 acres it was 'off campus' and you can imagine how the cynacism and respect of the workforce for management tumbled yet further after this debacle. Where have all the leaders gone?

United Airlines Deserving of the Attention Below

Actually all the airlines (probably the exception is Southwest) deserve all the negative publicity they get so my hat goes off to Dave Carroll and his outstanding band for calling them out on the Internet. It sure levels the playing field.

Any respect or loyalty I had for United (I was once in their million mile club) went out the window when they filed for bankruptcy, took a bail out and then screwed their employees with losing all or most of their retirement. I have a good friend in Montana who flew for them for thirty years, a Nam fighter pilot, and when they went down he went with them, yet our laws allow them to remain in business after screwing the people.

I hadnt see him for a few months and when I did he was all tanned but not looking all the happy about life. When I asked if he was in the sun and in retirement he told me he was driving a dozer because he got cut and lost his retirement. The airlines problems are self-inflicted. Our government had no business bailing them out. The free market will take care of all of that. There are so many airlines today that none of them make money, unless of course they nickle and dime us to death like they'r doing today. No service, just a bus with wings.

When I was living in Houston a few years back I spent a lot of time flying Continental Airlines, at the time a pretty good outfit. My wife and I were at the airport one evening picking up our son and while waiting on bags I noticed a foreign couple, turned out to be from Holland. She was crying and he was taking two bicycles off the carousel and one was smashed into a V.

I went over and talked with them. They were changing planes and heading to Mexico where they were going to bike across Mexico for six weeks. I asked what they were going to do now. he told me he had talked with claims and they said, no way, bicycles are moved at your own risk. Well, that's BS!

He said he would just spend the night and have to buy another one. I explained to him that the airport was not near anything but he just said he'd ride, he had biked across South America the year before so I am sure he could have done it. My wife and I convinced them to come home with us. For me it was a matter of 'Welcome to America' folks. It was just wrong to strand them and deny an obvious claim.

We went down to a serious bike shop the next morning and he bought a $1500 bike and this was in the late 90's. We had a great day with them, went to Papasito's and when I told the Manager about them the lunch was free. They discounted the bike, all good stuff. So I decided that Continental needed to pony up.

At first I was stonewalled. The plan was that we would meet the couple on their way home to Holland as they changed planes in Mexico. Continental was professional but giving a response like in the video below. Then I thought about our neighborhood on the northwest side, somebody must work for Continental headquartered in Houston.

Sure enough after about three weeks of searching we located a nice lady nearby who was one of the heads of claims for Continental. We met and talked at her home and i supplied the documentation on the new bike and voila' - they eventually cut a check in time for me to deliver it to Carlos at the airport, his wife was in tears.

But its a shame you have to go through all theat to make them do right.

Check out the video below it is outstanding - and its payback.

Deserved Payback to the Airlines and a Great Singer