Memorial Day

May 29, 2023

Good morning! Only three (3) days left for No Mow May. Coming to you this morning — for the first time ever — from beautiful downtown Cordova, Alaska — in the expansive if shrinking Chugach National (Rain) Forest. Up here — or over here from the Russian perspective — to visit my daughter for a couple days. And, maybe I’ll meet my next client. People have different views about the natural environment of Planet Earth. For me, I’m mostly in awe. In the United States today it’s Memorial Day, previously celebrated always on May 30 — and called Decoration Day in the Old Confederacy. Down below you will find an inadequate poem to mark the somber occasion.

Wish I could bring some of this rain (167 inches annually) down to the lower 48 — and/or to the more than 110 forest fires in Alberta encompassing 1,000,000+ acres!
An organization will only grow when its leader grows… Do you believe that?
- Or, can an organization grow in spite of its leader?
John Deere, a talented New England blacksmith, migrated to Western Illinois early in the 19th century whereupon he invented a revolutionary steel plow.
- The John Deere logo has been in continuous use longer than any other major corporate logo.
- Having topped $17 billion in sales for the quarter just ended, the descendants and successors of John could be looking at a >$50,000,000,000 year.
- Makes a farmer proud… as that deer keeps jumping… and the rest of us get to eat.
With all variables constant except the interest rate, a person looking to purchase a $300,000 home two years ago can now only afford a $200,000 home.
- It is helpful to boil all those data down to an understandable chunk like this.
- And, don’t forget, that home prices have increased dramatically — and so you have the triple whammy effect. Is that called something?
Not every organization is without a vision, but it is the very rare organization with both a vision and a plan to execute it.
- Know what you need to get to where you want to be — and then do it; stay focused.
We haven’t visited with our friend, John Eades, CEO of LearnLoft in several weeks.
- He often features a trimmed-down summary of basic skills for leaders and wannabe leaders.
  - The better the talent, the easier it is to lead;
  - Talent is the capacity for achievement or success.
  - When team members have talent, a willingness to work to realize their capacity, and receive great leadership, success is imminent.
  - When leaders hire warm bodies to drive more revenue, the short-term gain has long-term consequences.
  - When companies make lazy hires, the responsibility of growing and developing them falls directly on front-line managers.
  - No company would say they want high turnover, wasted time, or low performance; however, they make votes every day in the way they hire that would say otherwise.
    - “Talent + Leadership = Success (Eades, 2023)
What can we learn from the Bed Bath & Beyond Bankruptcy? Pay attention, please…
- “The arc of the Bed Bath and Beyond story is a familiar one.
- An innovator enjoys spectacular market success but fails to respond adequately to subsequent changes in the competitive environment.
- This leads to flatlining growth followed by revenue declines and operating losses.
- Newly-appointed leadership relies on financial engineering to bolster the share price by cutting many of the costs involved in creating the distinctive appeal of the business.
- Ultimately, the business is acquired or fails.” (Knowles, Etc., et al., 2023)
- Bed Bath and Beyond emerged when its founders spotted the opportunity for a specialty retailer to take market share from department stores…
  - Similar shopping experiences could be found at Toys (backwards R) Us, Circuit City, and Sports Authority, for example.
- “The value proposition of Bed Bath & Beyond as a destination for things you didn’t realize you wanted was reinforced by an innovative coupon strategy.” (Knowles, Ibid.)
Australia consistently leads the world, by a wide margin, in Lithium mining and production, followed by Chile.
- Though the United States is making moves, not much has changed in the last eight (8) years;
- …demand is greater worldwide and Australia continues to respond, as does Chile. (BP Statistical Review on World Energy, 2023)
Macro level inflation beater? Return to the pre-plague operational status quo of the automobile industry from top to bottom.
- Just that one industry would do it, or so we’re told — hypothetically, of course.
- Dealers historically operating on five percent (5%) margins now routinely operate on thirty percent (30%) margins and more. (Havlin, 2023)