Marty the Economic Developer

Moving to New Real Estate!

2009-08-18T16:05:00.008-05:00

So you came here looking for the next greatest thing I have written, right. Well you won't find it here...you will have to go to my new home. I've also dropped the "Marty the Economic Developer" moniker. It was too long and frankly who really understands what an economic developer really is. So from now on you can find me at:

www.martyvanags.com

P. S. I also have a prettier more recent picture of me on the site.

Can We Copy Nature?

2009-08-17T07:18:00.007-05:00

Almost every morning lately I have been taking a walk. Often the sun is just peeking out of the eastern sky and providing dappled light through the numerous trees that dominate the landscape in my neighborhood. Those crisp clear morning's are so inspiring. Taking my morning walk sets the day straight and get my juices going.

Along the way, I find it amazing the amount of nature I encounter. I don't the difference between slugs and snails, or when snails get their shell, but I keep seeing these big speckled slug like creatures crawling across the sidewalk. There is always the usual amount of birds plying the sky making a racket, Blue-jays, and Crows, the loudest among them. I don't think I have seen as many rabbits as I have seen this year. Is the increase in the number of rabbits some type of biological marker or sign?

Evey morning I cross a bridge over a small stream called Sugar Creek. The bridge has a chain link fence on the creek side and concrete barrier on the street side. Every morning, I walk through a phalanx of spider web strings that had been shot across the sidewalk between the fence and the concrete overnight. Every morning I ruin the hard work of perhaps dozen spiders. They will have to build a stronger set of Gulliverian type webs to hold my huge body of inertia back.

The other morning, after a thick fog had lain in, I noticed the fence which rises to height of about 6 feet, was decorated like a Christmas tree with round geometrically perfect webs. There had to be at least fifty of them. The looked like ornaments as they had captured the moisture of the fog as it was lifting and the each web glistened in the morning light as if light up by electricity.

Nature is amazing. I had heard of scientists working to develop a string, fiber or chord as strong as a spider web, and of other experiments. This process is called Biomimicry . In other words copying what we see (that works) in nature. One of the leading proponents of this field is Janine Benyus. Benyus is the president of the Biomimicry Institute and thinking like hers can open whole new economies and industries that can help our environment and the way we live. Watch this TED video of Janine Benyus:

What do you think? Is this an economic development strategy?

Across the Fruited Plain

2009-08-14T10:02:00.004-05:00

In an earlier post I mentioned I had met a woman earlier this year whose goal was to go to all fifty states at some point in her life. I have had the same goal. It never really materialized until I counted some years back, how many states I had visited, and thought maybe this might be fun goal to have. So I put it on my list of things to do.
I don’t call my list, a “bucket list” like in the recent movie. It’s just a bunch of things that are of interest to me. Things I would like to do. I like to keep lists like that. I recently started one called, “Things never to wear in public” or privately to be honest. Back to the states. As of today, I have to visit only six more states to finish the list. They are North Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Virginia, Alaska, and Hawaii.

At the end of August plan to reduce the number by three. I have planned an exciting trip to North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Yes, this road trip will cover these three states in six days. It will consist of a lot of driving, not much sightseeing, and plenty of sleep. I have planned stops in Barron Wisconsin, Fargo, Omaha, Tulsa, and Springfield, Missouri.

I don’t take many vacations, and if I do they are usually planned around work or conferences. This trip will be just me and my car, and my computer. I will be blogging as I go, giving some astute observations about these romantic, exciting locations. I hope to provide pictures, use our flip camera and give you my thoughts on each of these locations, and my view of the upper Midwest and Plains states as I go.

I know I should rent a cabin and take it easy, but I am finding it difficult to imagine when I will be in any of these states in the near future. I need to take some time, so I thought that last week of August would be great time. September always seems to be busy and this is the perfect week to squeeze it in.

The rest of my schedule is up in the air. I am thinking Fall would be a good time to cut through Indiana, Ohio and hit West Virginia on some cool weekend. That would be an easy three days. Then I would be substantially finished. I could say I have been in the 48 continental states. Hawaii and Alaska would be last and I haven’t made a plan for that.

If you read this and you live in any of the states I plan to visit at the end of this month, contact me by commenting on this blog, email me (mvanags@bnbiz.org), or direct message me on Twitter. My handle is @bnedguy.

230 Miles to the Gallon!

2009-08-14T07:18:00.007-05:00

So we are walking out of a restaurant today and I see a Chevy/GEO Metro. A little two-door car and one of the finest ever built. I am not a car manufacturing historian, however as I recall this was a joint project between GM and Toyota. I am probably wrong and someone can correct me. The point is these little cars seem to never fail. I drove one for a couple months several years ago. I borrowed it from my sister and it was a tough little car that lasted them well over 100,000 miles. My older daughter just got rid of one that she drove for a long long time. They always need little repairs but they seem to be little tanks.

Right away our discussion went to the new Chevy Volt that is being touted and promoted with great fanfare in just the past several days. I mentioned the claim that the care gets 230 miles to the gallon. Of course, I should have known that co-worker Ken has already looked into this claim and was ready to deconstruct it. Ken is a car industry watcher and follows many of the changes going on. This is helpful, as w e have our own car manufacturing facility here in BN, Mitsubishi. Later, Ken sent me this to confirm his parking lot argument that the 230 miles per gallon is advertising spin:

“EPA has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM. EPA does applaud GM’s commitment to designing and building the car of the future—an American-made car that will save families… [blah blah blah]”
The real beauty is how GM came up with its ludicrous mileage estimate:
1) According to GM, the average person drives about 30-40 miles per day.
2) According to GM, the volt can go 40 miles on a full-charge before it activates the ICE (internal combustion engine).
3) Therefore, the average person will only rarely use the ICE in their volt. With the minimal gas used for occasional trips that push the volt past the 40-mile electric-only range, a person can expect to drive 230 city miles [with nightly battery re-charges] only burning a single gallon of gas. Thus, the volt gets 230 miles to a gallon.

You know what? My car gets 380,000 miles to the gallon. All I have to do is hitch my vehicle to a Saturn rocket and have it launched to the moon. Then, carefully aiming, I point my Mazda towards the earth and let gravity do the work. As my vehicle becomes superheated during re-entry, I turn on my A/C and burn exactly one gallon of gas keeping myself from burning to a crisp, high in Earth’s upper-atmosphere. According to GM’s logic, my car has traveled 380,000 miles using only one gallon of gas and therefore gets 380,000 miles to the gallon.”

I love it when Ken gets on a role. Your thoughts?

A Little Customer Service would be Nice.

2009-08-12T22:56:00.005-05:00

I really think about how I am treated in the places I shop these days. There are so many choices when it comes to shopping, eating or getting services, that when I go, I want to be treated right. A local restaurant I like to frequent recently had a new hostess working the front who did everything she could to make my seating arrangement for me and my guest difficult. We just wanted to sit outside on a beautiful night. How hard was that to accommodate? Yet, it is likely this young lady was following some directions somebody gave her without thinking about how she might have some flexibility in letting the customer make a choice.

She probably had no idea that I would get on the internet and blog about this. And that is the point, isn't it. With today's technology, crappy customer service can spread like wildfire, and wreak havoc with what might otherwise be a nice place. I won't mention the name today, because I keep going to this restaurant, and I don't know why. I guess I like the bartenders and their beer selection, but they have a long way to go on making the customer feel good.

On my radio show, were we feature local business people and entrepreneurs (it's not really my radio show, it is Beth Whisman's radio show on WJBC, she just lets me sit there for an hour and tag along), almost everyone has talked about customer service as a way to survive the recession. The smart ones understand that if you can keep your customers happy, they will keep coming back. I am very loyal to the places that treat me right. I will always go back even if they charge a little more.

So, if you are struggling in this recession to make a go of it, have you zeroed in on your best customers? Have you called them, emailed them, sent them a letter asking them to stop by and buy something? Why don't you call them and merely thank them. When they do come in, treat them like kings and queens. That is why they like you in the first place. Like them back, in a big way.

This is authentic strategy and it provides the greatest return for your investment. Try it and let me know how it went.

Defining Economic Development

2009-08-12T06:00:00.001-05:00

Every small town, burg or village pays attention to economic development. What truly is economic development? Long ago, someone defined it for me as bringing new dollars into the community. In other words, if a local business creates something, a widget or provides a service and some new dollars come into the community as a result of the creation and sale of the widget or service, then we have economic development.
This definition doesn’t work with retail, because, let’s say a big box store enters your town or market area. Are they making something or providing a service that someone from outside the market area is purchasing and thus bringing new dollars into the community? Not likely. However one could might argue that in the case of the very big retailers, you do attract a regional audience, but then again it depends upon how you define your economic region.

So sorry Mayor Bluster, the new Target or WalMart is not economic development. What is it then? There is a lot of money exchanging hands, isn’t there? The City is getting a truckload of sales tax revenue. If it is not economic development, what is it? I would call it “economic activity”. Doesn’t sound sexy, but really that is what it is. Let’s give it a different name. How about “Economic Indicator”.
Retailers, (at least national retailers, not local mom and pops) follow a fairly simple formula for locating in a given area. There are several items on their checklist they follow. First, do the demographics of your community meet their criteria? A “dollar” type low discount retailer may not consider Winnetka (an affluent Chicago suburb) their best location. However, it may be great for some other high end retailer.

Next, a retailer needs to reconcile their expansion business plans with your community. Again using Chicago as an example, Starbucks came into the marketplace, and working from the inner portion of the City and expanding out to the suburbs they grew and added more and more locations. Once they saturated the market, they went into the suburbs, and finally into second tier cities. It is unlikely you will ever find them in Boogerville, Illinois because their demographics and business plan can’t match up.

Lastly, retailers will look at where their existing stores and likely competition are located. Are they nearby, will the new location merely draw from these stores and hurt existing established sales? Where is the competition located? These are the primary criteria, and there may be others, but these are fairly basic.

So a sound demographic base of willing and able purchasers of retail goods will attract a good retail mix. How does a City get there? If a city wants to grow, prosper and sustain itself, it must have balance and must have jobs. These jobs, particularly jobs from companies that create widgets or services that bring NEW MONEY and income into the community, go to the employees who do the work, the suppliers that provide the raw material for these businesses and the B2B services these producers require. This new income is used to buy cars, and thousands of other items in the retail stores.

So economic development is really a verb versus a noun. It is a process versus an outcome. It is ever changing, ever moving. Economic Development is really the process of helping your community grow wealth among its residents and citizens so they can buy stuff, live the lives they want and leave something behind for their children. It is about creating prosperity and creating a life.

Having defined Economic Development, next week I will talk more about how the economic development industry often, and mistakenly relies too much on “Attraction” for defining success. Attraction is really a losing game for everyone. Attraction is attractive because it is often the subject of big headlines and it seems like a quick antidote for seems to be ailing a community that has lost and lost for a long time.

Transportation Policy

2009-08-11T08:47:00.000-05:00

I am in Atlanta's spacious airport waiting for my flight from Atlanta back to BN. In central Illinois we are so very fortunate to have an airport (BMI) that provides direct connection to Atlanta and other locations. We are a community of about 130,000 people and yet we have direct connections to Atlanta (Airtran and Delta), Detroit and Minneapolis (Northwest), Chicago and Dallas (American). We have had connections to Las Vegas and Denver in the past as well. Over 500,000 passengers move through our small but very modern airport.

People in major metro areas take their Airports for granted. We can't. An airport that provides services to the two busiest airport in the US, if not the world (ATL, ORD) and transport to the major hubs for two others (Detroit and Dallas) can't go wrong. One can travel from Bloomington Normal or anywhere in Central Illinois to anywhere in the world with great convenience.

I was thinking over the weekend about how we travel in the United States. The first big transportation revolution in the United States was the passenger train. It took from the mid 19th Century to the beginning of the 20th century for the next big thing: automobiles. Then, in the mid 20th century,aviation came into play. In America, if we want to get somewhere fast we use air travel.

I was in Boston this past weekend and I needed to get from downtown to the University of Massachusetts, Boston campus. I was able to take a subway and link onto a quick bus ride that took me right to the campus front door. Big cities have convenient subways, and commuter options, but smaller communities don't. There aren't even convenient, effective and cost efficient transportation options that most people can use to get from one city to another. Intra-city buses don't really fulfill the niche, because they are none of the above.

As a society we really need to look at the value of rail, and the ability of rail to move many people quickly and efficiently. Wouldn't it be great if we could travel to central Illinois communities quickly and easily? Perhaps travel to Peoria, Champaign, Springfield, or other locations. There was once service between these communities. Today, we must drive our cars.

But implementing a train system whether it is between communities or high speed rail system between major metropolitan areas is expensive.One might even argue that Amtrak, our only passenger rail system in the US can't even operate without a subsidy, how could we promote rail for the entire country, or even between cities? True, but all of our transportation is "subsidized" in some way. One could not drive from Chicago to St. Louis without using a subsidized interstate system (Interstate 55). The air system I use is subsidized. The Federal Aviation Administration spends huge amounts of money making sure we travel safely between airports also funded by federal dollars.

So you see, it is really about policy choices. Our policy choices, thus far, have been to provide a subsidy to one sector (automobiles and airlines) and not to another. In fact, in one President G.W. Bush budget, eliminating Amtrak was proposed, thereby eliminating any train passenger traffic in the US.

I believe economic development would be well served by a robust rail passenger industry in the United States. People could more easily travel between cities, pollution and carbon emission from the removal of cars from the highways would be eliminated and a whole host of other benefits would befall us. And, I would never have to sit in a traffic jam on the Stevenson Expressway again.

More on high speed rail next week.

Car 2.0

2009-08-10T08:05:00.002-05:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that on Monday's I like to provide the readers with a TED video to start your week. The one I present today was very extremely interesting. Consider the idea that a country, yes a country might operate without any use of fossil fuels to power domestic vehicles. That is Shai Agassi's dream. Agassi is the CEO of a company called Better Place. The company has a vision for electric cars that provides new industry opportunities and a cleaner planet. Agassi presents his case with empirical and moral evidence. There is not much I can add to this but stick with it to the end, for he presents a very compelling moral argument.

What do you thnk? Can it be done? Discuss among yourselves.

Incubator as a Community Center

2009-08-09T06:05:00.000-05:00

A business incubator is being proposed for the Bloomington-Normal Area. The concept of a business incubator is that it is a place to help nurture and grow business in their formidable years (or months) before they are able to go out into the real world. An incubator primarily provides physical space for an entrepreneur to locate for a short period of time but also provides all types of other ancillary and complimentary services for an entrepreneur and we hope we are the position to do the same in BN in the near future.

I imagine that the business incubator will be more than merely a place for people to grow their business. I have often described the BN business incubator as a community center. This incubator could serve as a "Financial Center" or more appropriately a place where people who need to learn about building prosperity and wealth can go and accomplish that goal. There are many great examples of successful businesses in BN and no doubt these business owners could serve as examples and mentors at this community financial center, as well as teach and pass on their wisdom. Already our Circles of 7 mentoring program has proven this to be true.

Vey often I receive phone calls or meet people who want to start a business but really have no idea regarding the basics of money and finance. In fact, the conversation usually starts with the client asking me if they can get a grant to start or finance a business. Money, capital, cash flow, and the lack of it is the primary issue when it comes to starting a business. Everybody needs capital to start a business and they need capital to grow. The lack of sufficient capital is the single largest reason why businesses fail, and frankly it’s the reason people start businesses, right? They dream of making money and being financially self-sufficient.

Without a basic understanding of money and how it works within our system, one cannot expect to succeed, or at least succeed without a lot of pain. I have actually counseled people who wanted to start a business that had no checking account or even understood the "magic" of compound interest. Sometimes it is a mistrust of financial institutions that has been drilled into their head by their environment, or in other cases it might be a fear of looking "stupid" if they have had little experience with institutions.

A basic knowledge of money, and more appropriately “cash flow” and how it is the king of business success is needed. A business incubator can be the first step in helping people. I have a vision that people who need help would come to classes on understanding financial principles, banking and compound interest, then they could graduate to business finance, then they would proceed to understand business accounting, collection, credit and so forth. As they are taking these classes new entrepreneurs can be learning about other business issues such as marketing, advertising, human resources, and other issues more pertinent to their specific business.

So the business incubator is more than small start-ups and others leasing space and growing before they go out into the world. It is about interaction, about learning, and getting the confidence one needs to grow and contribute to their own financial self-worth and ultimately the community's.

You will hear more from me about the business incubator as time goes on. Are you a candidate to learn? Will you be the next growth story in BN? Do you know somebody who needs help? Tell me your thoughts or send me your ideas.

Confession Time

2009-08-03T21:10:00.010-05:00

The Tuesday post is supposed to be about personal and professional development. Today I write about a very personal development. This is difficult to talk about publicly, but those who know me or observe me can and will agree with me. I will try not to be judgmental. Only observe.

I recently took up exercise. All the kids are doing it. They tell me it's highly beneficial. Lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, reduced weight and by association lower BMI. This is all good for me, right? Why am I doing this? Have you seen me lately? Well I have maintained my general good looks the double chin has arrived, I look jowly, and I have a formidable tummy. On my walk this evening, I made a few calculations, I have gained 52 lbs. since 2002 (a year of major life change for me), and a full 110 lbs. since I married in 1984. I have gained almost half of that weight in just seven years! It is almost hard to believe. I have basically added the weight of one full female Olympic gymnast to my frame without the ability to do a back flip.

Things have to change, right? I have hired a personal coach. OK, I confess, I didn't know what else to do, as I have seemingly tried everything else. He is a great guy, but more than anything he has helped me understand the very specific thoughts I have that have helped me from being successful. I read on Twitter today that one of the local chaps I follow is on day 2 of a 21 day quest to exercise and thus create a new habit. I have done that, and now every morning, I get up for my walk. Pretty soon I will intensify that walk into a run. Then we add more exercise, followed by additional activities, followed by success. Adding good dietary habits into the mix and detailed monitoring of the metrics should result in success.

I don't need to have washboard abs, but I do want to be active into my old age. And I can only reach old age if I stay in shape. I owe it to my family, my friends,my workmates, and particularly I owe it to myself.

As I go through this I will check in with you every once in a while and let you know how I am doing. By letting everyone know, I am holding myself accountable, so if your read this and see me loading up on sesame chicken at Ming's Buffet, go ahead and call me out. My big goal is to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back at the end of January with my best friend.

I have posted a couple pictures of me. See, I told you am still incredibly good looking at a robust 321 lbs, have a sharp and witty personality, like long walks on the beach, oops wrong forum. Anyway, look quick because I will be gradually disappearing. Bye-bye.

Sustainable Opportunity?

2009-08-03T11:38:00.005-05:00

The question that often arises when the discussion of sustainable practices occurs is, "What is the impact on business?" Frankly it boils down to a discussion of business costs and the impact on the bottom line. There are those who work from the unlimited resource mentality, which goes something like this: "We have enough resources for the world we live in and many generations after that, the idea of sustainable practices merely limits my profit today, and thus my ability to compete and prosper." The competing thought is, "We are running out of resources, and we are using these resources in a wasteful manner, destroying the thing that sustains us, and if we don't change right now, we will have nothing left for our children and grandchildren."

Which side do you fall on? Or maybe its something in-between. An entrepreneur's mind may not fall on one side or the other. An entrepreneur will look at something like sustainable business practices and ask themselves, what is the opportunity that exists? What can I do to take advantage of the situation, regardless of my deep seated political beliefs of worldview. In the following video Ken Surace of Serious Materials talks about how they invented a wallboard that generates far fewer Co2 emissions than the regular process. In fact Surace who holds a degree in electrical engineering technology from Rochester Institute of Technology and holds several patents is definitely a believer in climate change. But beyond that he recognizes that the marketplace is changing, people are changing, and this represents opportunity. Check out this TED video:

What side do you fall on? Even if you don't beleive climate change isn't real, does saving money on energy and driving down long term costs make sense for your company or business? Are there opportunities for you? I want to hear what you have to say.

Food

2009-08-02T10:00:00.002-05:00

I went to see the movie Food, Inc. on Saturday night. In our community we are fortunate enough to have a restored older theater that is owned by the Town of Normal. We get to see documentaries, foreign films and classics. One of my favorite things to do is to go at Christmas to see "It's a Wonderful Life". Watching that movie in a theater with 300 other people is different than watching it home.

Food,Inc. is not a heartwarming classic, but it is very interesting. The whole time I was watching the movie I was wondering if any of our friends from the Farm Bureau were in attendance or a local Monsanto representative, and what they might think about the movie. Parts of the movie are not flattering to either. However at the end of the movie one farmer says "farmers are ingenious and can deliver whatever the public wants"

I have read Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and was careful in my judgment of the food industry. However after watching this movie, I am even more committed to changing my eating habits. I've got a pile of veggies I bought at the farmer market this morning, and am going to try to eat veggies in season. In addition, I plan to try as much as possible to eat meat that I know came from a reliable source. That, I know is a very difficult thing to do, especially when dining out.

Can the local food movement really flourish? Is it economically sustainable? Are people willing to pay the extra money for the food we enjoy? There is no doubt that demand, the basis for a market economy will always dictate how and what is produced as food. Companies do listen to what their customers want. If start demanding healthier, safe food we can all live better.

I have a lot to learn about this, but want to do what is right for me, my community, local food growers, the environment and ultimately my children and grandchildren.

Comments?

Art and Social Media

2009-07-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

One of the neat things about social media or social networking is that you end meeting people that you would likely never meet unless for the deployment of said social media. I just cam back from a little social media event in Bloomington. It was a tweetup hosted by a local photographer and it was a nice little event. I got to meet some folks that I would have never met before and probably people I would never meet in any other situation. Twitter brings together for common discussion and sharing of ideas.

I also had an opportunity to talk to two very diverse businesses this week about social media and its use. One was an artist and gallery, and the other was a doctor's practice. Both had attended our social media seminar and wanted to delve a little deeper into its use. Both have different reasons for using the media, and it was fun to explore their business issues, their goals and the best ways to exploit the medium.

Artist Gallery -- So how does an artist use social media to grow it s business? First of all what is the business model. In this case the artist operates his own gallery and sells almost all of his art through his gallery. He said tha most of his art can be found within a 50 mile radius of his gallery. He and his business partner/spouse work very hard on promoting their gallery and the art scene in Bloomington Normal. My advice to them was to establish their Twitter account (they already have a Facebook page) and begin slowly to build up a following of friends and followers in Twitter. Here is some other advice I gave them and that other artists might consider:

1. Post tweets about other local artists. Send information about shows and new work by local artists in the area.
2. Re-tweet their tweets. Be kind and tell your followers about the work other artists are doing. Hopefully they will do the same in return.
3. Tweet about thoughts or inspiration you are having about new art you might create. Use twitter as a tool to inform your art.
4. Obviously tell people about events you are having in the studio.
5. Follow other artists.
6. Send pics of your own art...not to often though. Although a simple landscape with no words attached can be a powerful message.
7. Encourage others to follow by using other SM sites.

Are there other suggestions for artists? The Creative class, particularly artists are often overlooked as business people. However they add a lot to the community. They bring new money to the community yet their footprint is usually fairly small. A concentration of artists can contribute large levels of economic impact.

Visit a local artist. Buy some original art. You will be happy you did.

A Caring Economic Development Program

2009-07-29T09:37:00.005-05:00

Last week I talked about the use of business plans when starting a business. Some feedback I have received indicates that more people think about a business plan than actually write one. "I've got it in my head" say many. Whether you have it in your head or you are meticulously putting down every detail, your success will depend a lot on how open you are to receiving advise and modifying the plan when you need to.

Many entrepreneurs I meet do not want to hear what they need to do to improve their business. The have got it all figured out. They are not interested in learning what they perceive might be the truth. And the truth is that much of their ideas and business plans are no good. A colleague refers to this as "dream-smashing". I would rather not do any dream-smashing and instead take every idea I hear and help people get to the point where the idea they originally came up with has been modified enough so it is now valid. It may not be the original idea they had, it may be completely different, but it at least is workable.

Sometimes it is not the idea but the would-be entrepreneur themselves. They need modification. Not everyone has the make-up to be a business person. But they can change. Yes they can. With work, a change in how they think, anything can be accomplished. Sometimes it takes years, sometimes months.

Everyone should get a chance to fulfill their human and business potential. If, as an economic developer I can help someone take even an infinitesimal step in that direction I feel I have done my job.

When, as an economic development group we create mentoring programs, access to capital and loan programs, or develop a business incubator, we are helping people. We are caring about people.

When, as an economic development professional and or group we are "recruiting" new businesses to our location enticing them with incentives we are playing a cruel game of shakedown and blackmail with our community and merely appeasing short term political goals rather than growing a community. Who agrees? Who disagrees?

Lovely Daughters

2009-07-28T16:21:00.013-05:00

My Blog schedule tells me that today I am to write about personal development and professional improvement. But today, I must digress just a little and talk about the personal development of other people. These people are my daughters. Let's start young and move up.

Sarah is my youngest.(she is the second from the left, next to Senator Brady). At age 17 she possesses the poise and charm of someone much older. She is interested in a lot of different things. Always a reader, it was during the last presidential election that I became much more acutely aware of her interest in government, politics, and justice. Over the past month, she has been living with me in BloNo and serving as an intern for State Senator Bill Brady (who is also announced he is running for Governor in the State of Illinois). She did the usual things that an intern did, but more importantly she was exposed (good or bad) to how a state senator operates an office, the calls he receives and the important work they do on behalf of constituents. Everyone tells me she is doing great and of course I believe it and am happy to hear it.

I have coached her over the past year to believe in something to have a passion for something, and exhibit her leadership and organizational skills. Do this I say by taking on a cause. Any cause will do as long as you believe in it and work towards making change. This experience alone will make you more aware of how our world works, how a person can have impact and have fun watching positive change unfold. Many have gone before her and many others will. Next year, her summer after her high school senior year, she wants to go to Washington DC and work. I think she is on the right track. Hey Sarah, persevere, don't give up and make your voice heard. Most people follow and you are a born leader!

Lauren is my eldest daughter. She is 21 and is an amazing artist and entrepreneur among other things. She can write well and has a passionate yearning for justice when she looks out into the world. I have always loved her writing. When I first started this blog she wrote a great piece on local business and how consumers should support them. Lauren and her boyfriend have a great little business going in Rockford, Illinois. Culture Shock is a great eclectic store that you usually don't find in cities like Rockford. Chicago, New York, L.A. and Seattle no doubt have probably several stores like this but Culture Shock in Rockford is the place to get t-shirts, apparel, pins, vinyl records, jewelry, purses, hats, horror movie stuff, you name it. I love watching them learn about how to grow a business. Lauren is also an excellent artist and is growing a little design firm that compliments their retail endeavor. She has recently immersed herself in the world of social media and is beginning to see how that might help her in her work. A true "chip" off the old block.

OK, big deal you might think. They haven't solve the mysteries of the universe, achieved Tiger Woods greatness in sports, or received a super high ACT or SAT score. That's alright.

What I am trying to convey here is not that they are super-achievers. But merely they are comfortable in their own skin, learning new things, trying new things, building their confidence, contributing to their world as best they know how. Both girls are different, and it is fun to watch the difference from afar (they both live two hours away from me), yet at the same time seeing a little bit of me in each of them. Sometimes its the bad part of me, and sometimes its the best parts, but in either case they are connected to me in thought, personality and flesh. The greatest joy of parenthood is to watch your children choose their own way. It is watching them go down the path you might have chosen for them if given that opportunity, but in truth, watching them make those decisions on their own.

Dear Lauren and Sarah: Keep doing the things you are doing, seek justice, love the best way you know how, and know that your Dad is very very proud of you and loves you dearly.

Love

P-Daddy
(They hate it when I sign things that way, but what kind of Dad would I be if I didn't try to irritate them just a little bit?)

Philanthrocapitalism

2009-07-27T06:05:00.000-05:00

This is a new word to me. What is Philanthrocapitalism? A number of years ago, in another community in which I lived, the City was arguing about the former Library building and what to do about it. They had built a new one and the former Library was sitting empty. Everyone kept referring to it as a "Carnegie Library". I had no idea what this meant, but soon learned the great Andrew Carnegie of Pittsburgh wanted to make sure he was thought of well throughout the country when he died and provided funding to builds thousands of libraries. Carnegie funded 2,509 libraries between 1883 and 1929. Approximately 1,689 were built in the United States. The last grant for construction of a Carnegie Library was provided in 1919.

This is a great example of early 20th Century Philanthrocapatilism. Undertaking social change through the power of dollars by leading business people. Today we see it with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros and others. They are attempting to create social change in singular areas through the use of the riches they accumulated while growing their businesses.

In this TED video, Katherine Fulton talks about this trend, yet shows us and tells us that we have something to offer. I am assuming Bill, Warren, or George are not reading this Blog, therefore it is YOU that can affect change. The end is very moving as Fulton talks about her ancestors:

What are your plans? Social Media can impact your plans to change the world one cause at a time. As Fulton says, the "our ability to create problems as humans exceeds our ability to solve them". But perhaps we can solve them working together and collaborating. And maybe that collaborating occurs through the use of new social constructs and mediums. Time will tell.

Follow me @bnedguy

P.S. New exciting changes are coming to this blog. Stay tuned!

Let's not Argue! No Let's!

2009-07-25T15:06:00.007-05:00

Something I was thinking about on this breezy summer late Saturday afternoon:

My family thinks I am argumentative. My Mother, sisters, daughters, and ex-wife would all agree that I like to have a good argument with them...often. I don't see it that way. In fact, I would argue (please just bear with me on this), that I am really just trying to explore all positions of an issue. If someone says something is black, I just want to make sure their information is right, that they received it from a good source, and that we have explored all options. Perhaps it is white, or more certainly grey.

I like to think of myself is easy to get along with. However I am divorced and my family won't talk to me. Just kidding, they all talk to me, including the ex-wife. But some explanation is needed to justify this characteristic of mine.

When I was in my first class on my first day in graduate school, the director of the public administration program (training to be a city manager) had all the students take out a sheet of paper or two and he instructed us to write for the next fifteen minutes about something we believed passionately about. It could be social cause, a governmental policy, write about anything he told us. We were to make an argument for the position we held. Not wanting to scare my professor, and not sure how carefully he was going to read it, I wrote about something, I am sure, that was not very controversial. I didn't know how he was going to use this information. I also didn't know how careful he wanted us to be with punctuation (mine is usually bad), grammar, penmanship (there is a word one no longer hears anymore) and other various issues surrounding a written piece.

After writing non-stop for fifteen minutes he had us stop and he asked us to put our names on the paper and hand them in. He still hadn't told us what this exercise is about. Was he checking our writing skills, or our ability to synthesize a difficult issue?

"Now, I want you to take out a few more sheets of paper, and using the position you just wrote about I want you to take the exact opposite position and write another fifteen minutes" said the exalted and esteemed professor. A murmur went over the assembled class. The opposite viewpoint? The pencils and pens didn't hit the paper as fast as before, because frankly we all had to sit and think for a few minutes about what we were going to write, but write we did.

Upon completion, we handed in our papers, and the Professor proceeded to tell us that this, in essence was what our next two years and what public service is all about. Know your position, make your point, but then anticipate and know the other person's position and understand their point of view. If you can do this with success, you can go a long way. It can reap numerous benefits repeatedly.

Doesn't that exercise help in life too. Wouldn't we all get along better? Imagine if automatically we tried to view a position from some other person's shoes? Maybe your moral or religious makeup won't allow you to agree with the opposite position, but at least you can have some empathy for their position, and if anything have a decent discussion about the topic.

Too much acrimony in today's world. As people we are labeled constantly. Right, left, fundamentalist, athiest, it goes on and on. Remember, we are all just people. Don't give up your beliefs, but try to consider the other person's position, viewpoint and background before launching into labeling, or judging their human-ness.

Let's hug!

Is it Worth theTime?

2009-07-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

I hear from a lot of business people who ask me if spending time on social media is worth the time. The people who say, "I don't care if someone I know just took a shower or what they ate for breakfast," are the folks who haven't spent much time trying to figure out what the buzz about social media is all about, and deep down it is much deeper than understanding what your office mate had for breakfast. Others indicate that they have too little time to be screwing around with social media. Their day is as busy as it can be without adding something else to it. Too busy with email perhaps? that ubiquitous looming monster that resides in your desktop or laptop computer that you had not time for until you had time for it and now it makes up the greater part of your day?

Social Media is an expansive term that has many parts. What you do with social media largely has to do with your view of how the world works. There are still people who communicate using the postal system. For some types of communication this method works very well. My mother still sends letters and cards. I have to admit that a card or letter does have some function for certain types of communication, even for me...like sending a letter to my mother.

But social media, to me is merely a progression in the evolutionary life of communication. I think at some point we will be communicating through these trusted networks of people. my networks will talk to your network and we will spread news far and wide. If I am interested in College Football, I will follow, network or socialize with people who like the same thing I do. We either do it in person or via a network. Critics will say how terrible it is that you loose face-to-face time by networking only on the computer. But it is the only way to communicate and develop a relationship (albeit a cyber one) with someone that perhaps you didn't previously know.

So if you are the person who says you don't have time, it's not for you, or it's just a trend, I invite you to open your mind. Here is your assignment:

1. Ask someone you know that is in the business world how they are using social media. Have them show you your Facebook page or Twitter profile or other social media tool.

2. Sign up for Facebook, develop a profile and "friend" a few people. Scare the crap out of your teenage kids and "friend" them on Facebook. You will be entertained by how they act when they know you can eavesdrop on their world. If you don't do anything else with social media, this will create new dynamics in the household.

3. Find someone you know who twitters effectively. Sign up for twitter, and then check out what they are doing. You will be amazed. Signing up only takes a few minutes. Also check out twitters new guide for business. This 101 site will help you an it just launched yesterday.

Good Luck. You can follow me on Twitter at @bnedguy

Either Method is Fine

2009-07-23T06:05:00.003-05:00

Om Tuesday we heard about the feasibility of starting a business incubator in Bloomington-Normal. The EDC along with Illinois State University has been working on developing a business incubator in McLean County for the past several years. An incubator is a place people can go to and learn how to start and grow a business. They receive a physical location to work, services, counseling and other types of services.

Our consultant, Jim Greenwood has developed a number of incubators throughout the country. He has developed a system for making sure that a real measurement of a communities chances for success can be determined. On a scale of 1-100 with 50 being average we scored a 73. So we are halfway between average and excellent. Our strongest score came in the area of demand and market, having a local champion and several choices of available buildings. Our weakness was that we aren't a distressed community therefore we cannot get EDA (Economic Development Administration, a part of the Commerce Department) funding. They fund incubators, but usually for communities that have real distress.

Once we get the incubator built, we will be able provide all types of assistance to small businesses, entrepreneurs and people interested in being part of the world of commerce.

Tuesday was also our weekly radio show. We interviewed Brian Simpson of Babbitt's Books. I love his story. He started his first business, a used clothing store (vintage, I believe), in 1985 after he raised his initial equity by making $500 in a garage sale. He didn't have a mentor, the luxury of an incubator or any other assistance. He merely had the willingness to take a chance and to live simply. He said he didn't go out to lunch for five years until he hired his first employee. He got tired of eating in the store.

There is no best way to start a business. In both cases, being the recipient of counseling and services at an incubator or bootstrapping with $500 of garage sale equity, if you have a passion for something, the willingness to FAIL, and don't know any better, then you might succeed. I wish you luck.

2009-07-22T07:02:00.003-05:00

About a month ago I was in Southwest Michigan at a retreat with other economic development professionals. We were talking about the future of the profession and what is happening in the ED world. What are our challenges, how was the recession impacting our budgets, what we needed to do to improve our own abilities were among the topics. One topic that came up was the changing nature of economic development from a transaction based activity to one that is systems based. Let me explain

For a long time many economic development programs and practices were based upon the the client. Everyone was busy helping a specific client with a specific project. Most of these projects were usually based upon some type of expansion of an existing facility, with its inherent threat to move elsewhere if local help was not forthcoming, or an expansion or movement of operations from one locale to another. A "win" for one community and a "loss" for another; job losses in Boogerville because the XYZ corp. moved to Bugtussle.

Part of my frustration with the profession was this issue with smokestack chasing as it is often called. I could never see how in the big picture of things that it was sustainable. Attracting a company from one location with incentives to another location seems to be a perverted form of community competitiveness. I know this has been the case for hundreds of years; people (companies) always move to wherever they feel they can best be served, produce profits and succeed. But it created an industry of people who would sit in their offices and dream up marketing campaigns and advertisements, and creative ways to destroy each others communities by ravaging the economic foundations of those communities. It created competition between states as they created new incentive programs, landed companies and touted how great their state was because someone moved there and created 1,000 jobs.

Granted some of these projects were new operations, not moves, but nonetheless we, as ED professionals would promote ourselves and our organizations in front of our boards and community leaders with stories of grand acquisitions, and they loved it. Pride, is an industry we all understand.

So is there a change in afoot in the Economic Development industry? I think so. In Bloomington-Normal we are living it. Generational shifts are causing it, climate change is changing the profession, recession, globalization, social media, is all having an impact on how we "do" economic development.

Follow me over the next couple weeks as I explore this idea here in my blog.

Note: I write about economic development issues on Wednesdays.

Tribes

2009-07-20T08:47:00.008-05:00

Recently, I picked up the book Tribes by Seth Godin. I have seen his name before was vaguely aware of his writing and had even probably even heard him talk, but I had never paid specific attention to him. Tribes is not a hard book to read, in fact it is written in the style of a blog. If you like reading blogs, you can read this book.

Godin is saying that the new age of communication is conducted through "tribes". Tribes are leading and connecting people and ideas. He urges us to step up and lead. The Beatles didn't create teenagers, they merely lead them. Tribes are created by Heretics who have a passion. Mostly they have a passion that the status quo cannot stand. Check out the TED video of Seth describing Tribes. It is informative, enlightening and funny:

Are you in a tribe? What idea or passion do you have that inspires you to lead?

Visting States

2009-07-04T15:53:00.005-05:00

There was a recent movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman called the Bucket List. It was about two old guys want wanted to finish off a list of things before they die. Do you keep a list like that? I do. Most of the things are items that many people might not find very challenging, but are things I want to say I did once, nonetheless. Here is what some of the things are on my list:

-- Learn to Scuba dive, and go scuba diving (duh, right?);
-- Climb a BIG Mountain; The kind one needs a hire guide to do;
-- Go Para-gilding, Sky-diving, or Hang-gliding;
-- Learn to juggle
-- Go Whitewater rafting ( a week long expedition preferably)
-- Run with the Bulls (not talking about the kind in Chicago, although that would also be interesting. I'm thinking the kind in Pamplona. I think I like the white outfits and red kerchiefs more than anything); and
-- Visit all fifty states.

There are several more bnut are somewhat personal. I don't think anyone would care.

The last one, visit all fifty states is fairly close to reality. I have six states to go, And my goal is to get them within the next two years. The state I have yet to visit are Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota, West Virginia, Alaska and Hawaii.

Seems easy enough. I always wondered if anyone else had that goal until a couple weeks ago, when, at the bed and breakfast at which I stayed in Michigan, I ran into a couple who was in Michigan for that sole purpose. Actually it was the women in the couple who had the goal. I think the husband was along for the ride.

On her trip to Michigan, she was able to knockout Indiana as well. She was from Long Island and she and her husband flew from LaGuardia to O'Hare and then drove to Michigan. She was impressed how friendly Midwesterners were and was surprised when I told her that when I was in New York City, how I thought that the people there were very friendly to me. I said perhaps that New Yorkers think they are sometimes rude because they are rude to each other and not to visitors.

I like my "bucket list" and I think it is fun to have non-career oriented goals. Do you have any goals that are fun rather than serious. What are they? Do we share any?

"Being" in St. Joseph, Michigan

2009-06-29T09:27:00.008-05:00

I write this post from the very beautiful and peaceful porch of the Chestnut House Inn Bed and Breakfast in St. Joe's Michigan. I just finished several pieces of quiche, some fresh Michigan picked fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice, hazelnut coffee maple sausage and strawberry muffins. Yes I ate all that, much to the chagrin of my stomach.
At this point I was going to make an excuse about eating all of that food, but I'll just save it.

But this isn't about my guilt. It is about this little vacation I have taken. taken on the tail end of the business retreat at the Lowe's foundation. I did it because I believe everyone should slow down once in a while. I look at all the celebrity deaths this past week and with the exception of Farrah Fawcett, my guess that everyone lived in excess in some way. Excess food, work, stress, drugs, alcohol, money, the list goes on. But never do we live in excess "being there". I had a friend once ask me, after I told him of all the things I needed to achieve that had yet to be achieved, the money that had to be made that hadn't been made, the relationships with my family that had to be improved, can't you just "be"? Wow, my first thought was, "what medication is he taking; was he raised by a Tibetan monk; is he crazy?"

Taking time, even if its a day to just "be" has become really important to me and I find it even more so today. We are constantly bombarded by bad news, we are stressed by the economy, by global issues, by terrorism, wars, the list goes on and on. But if you can just be in the moment you can ease up on your stress. Whether it is zen inspired meditation, Christian prayer, or Islamic devotion; Or whether it is just mindless sitting on your front porch watching the world go buy and wondering how birds fly and grass grows, just be there.

I was peaceful and relaxing to just "be" in St. Joseph, Michigan this weekend. Time to go back to work tomorrow. Talk to you soon.

A Business Retreat

2009-06-27T15:22:00.010-05:00

I just finished a business retreat with 14 other economic development professionals. Talk about alpha dogs. Everyone in the room is a natural leader and everyone wants to say something and everyone wants to be the boss. It was interesting to see how it all fleshed out. I am happy to say, we all left as friends, and we left with actually accomplishing quite a bit of work.

The retreat was held at the Edward Lowe Foundation facility in Cassopolis Michigan. Just north of South Bend, Indiana, and Southwest of Kalamazoo, Michigan, this 2,600 acre slice of heaven is a beautiful place. Mr. Lowe is most famous for inventing the indoor cat. More specifically he invented Kitty Litter. He took his fortune and developed this property in southwest Michigan, ultimately building and developing a sanctuary for entrepreneurs. You can read about what the foundation does and who they serve on their website.

So why was I there? the EDC belongs to a group within the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) called Economic Development Research Partners (EDRP). The EDRP is composed of about 30 communities and economic development organizations that are interested in influencing and developing primary research and providing peer-to-peer learning opportunities for themselves. The problem was, even though after a couple years, and one research project (globalization) under our belt, the group seemed to be floundering. We had no agenda, we had no rules, and no model for conducting research. To be sure, the IEDC research team led by a very able Shari Garmise actually does the in-depth research. The group however must tell her and the IEDC staff what we want to know, what research is important to us and how do we implement the findings.

A well facilitated program by skilled people who understand how to get entrepreneurs to work together can surely tame a group of very smart and able economic developers, right? Well, that's absolutely true. Gino Signore and his team from the Edward Lowe Foundation skillfully helped us get through our very strong opinions and disagreements, and even an activity called "The River Tweed", that just about had us ready to kill poor Dino and each other. Knowing that beer, wine, s'mores and a campfire were waiting on the other side of this activity probably prevented us from a more tragic evening.

I've been through a lot of retreats, facilitated programs and brainstorming sessions, but this one was probably one of the best. I truly enjoyed myself, getting to know other economic development professionals, taking walks through the pristine woods and meadows the foundation has preserved and sleeping in converted railroad boxcars (honestly, it is not as bad as you would think). I am looking forward to next year. Pick a date Jeff Finkle, fast.

Pushing Forward

2009-06-22T07:41:00.005-05:00

I feel bad for the City of Bloomington, Illinois (one of the communities I work with). They are in a real pickle. They have a gaping budget deficit and it doesn't look like it is going away anytime soon. Many communities are going to continue to see and feel the impact of the recession for the next couple years. Prudent spending and smart budget decisions will have to be made, not only in Bloomington, but also other communities. So what is a smart budget decision?

A community can only make decisions that are "smart" if they have a strong sense of the values of the community. That's a tough one. Every aldermen or representative on a board, and in particular if you are organized in a ward system, like Bloomington is, must determine what the values of the their little corner of the world are. What's more important, physical issues like streets and roads or social justice for their poor. Or is it the same? I'm not sure how each alderman measures it, but I'm sure they have some sense of it whether they are polling their constituents or just taking phone calls.

Tonight the City of Bloomington has to decide whether they should continue to spend $80,000 annually for their investment in the EDC. It isn't as simple as, "Wow, 80 grand is a lot of money, shouldn't we patch a pot-hole or fill in that vacant position at the library or fire department or public works? Sure, those are sound logical choices. But I would argue the $80,000 invested in the EDC is highly leveraged, and thus will provide for much more than those positions or choices could ever fill or do.

The EDC can and does help business grow and expand. That adds to the bottom line of the community. What we do helps add dollars to the company payrolls, which means people spend money in the community for basic sundries as well as entertainment and their homes. This all adds to tax revenue which means the City can provide for the services they feel the community wants, which means the quality of life improves and people end up enjoying the community they live in.

For those aldermen who say that we must cut everything, consider the strategic implications of your cuts. Cutting services or employees are different than cutting one of the mechanisms that helps your community grow. When your major industries and employers are either stagnant or cutting back what else do you have to fall back on? What sounding too pompous, we are the golden goose. Plucking feathers doesn't hurt us, it hurts you, and your ability to deliver your promise.

If you live in the City of Bloomington, and believe in what we do, come to the City Council meeting tonight and support the EDC. Better yet, call your alderman or any alderman for that matter, and ask them to support and carry through on their promise and pledge. You can find their email and contact information at their website.

Housing in BN

2009-06-19T15:29:00.002-05:00

The May numbers are just out on the sales of homes from the Bloomington Normal Association of Realtors. Some may recall in this blog news of the BN area having the best housing market in the US and that we would, over the year, have an increase of 3% or so.

Current numbers indicate we have a way to go. The good news is that the bad news isn't so bad. The average price of a home sold in BN has decreased 8% over last year when counting new construction and existing homes. You are better off if you are selling the home you have lived in for a while rather than being a home builder. The average decrease in value of existing homes is only 2.5% as compared to a year ago in May. The average decrease in new construction is 13%. That is good news for buyers, but bad news for the builders.

In addition, volume is down double-digits in both categories. New construction is down with a 49 home decrease or 31% under last year's numbers. Existing homes show 12% decrease or a total of 85 fewer homes sold over May of last year.

If the Bloomington Normal area is going to reach that increase reported earlier, we have a long way to go.

The Internet and Journalism.

2009-06-19T14:10:00.009-05:00

I am impressed by our local paper's move into social media. The Pantagraph is a Lee Enterprise's paper and has recently developed a social media site called MyPantagraph.com. The site looks and feels very much like a Facebook or other social media site however it is yet to be tested. Reading some of my fellow local Tweet posts about the new site, I hear some people are not impressed, however, like many new technology initiatives, it may take some time. Will it save the Pantagraph from the same fate other local newspapers have undergone. Only time will tell. But kudos to the local paper for trying.

A good friend works for the New York Times and is involved in their dot-com effort on the business side of the paper. I also know a number of local journalists, and we have had discussions about the future of the newspaper. Most of what I hear tells me that we are in an era of major change. I think in ten years (probably less, but I'm hedging my bet) we will not be reading newsprint-based newspapers. We will either look at them online, or on our Kindle or its progeny. I know I am late in this prognostication. It once made me sad to think of this, but I am getting over it.

Check out the video below. Thomas Crampton was a former journalist for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. I like his explanation of how the internet has impacted journalism and even his own career. I also love the fact that he records this from what is obviously a small format camera while walking through the Hong Kong Airport. Watch this and tell me what you think?

Also, check out Thomacrampton.com for more insights.

Unemployment mixed around Illinois

2009-06-05T09:59:00.005-05:00

Ken, Springer of the Bloomington Normal EDC reports this morning that unemployment rates are mixed in April. Several communities showed improvement, however the question is, are we seeing a trend? Hard to say, but if these small improvements here in Illinois and elsewhere in the US keep happening what you will see will be continued improvements in consumer confidence, and that will be significant.

The April unemployment numbers are out, and Illinois metro areas seem to be mixed in their performance. Here are a list of metros in Illinois and their March to April unemployment rates:

Bloomington-Normal DOWN 6.3% to 5.9%
Champaign DOWN 6.9% to 6.2%
Chicago UP 9.4% to 9.8%
Decatur FLAT 9.8%
Peoria UP 8.9% to 9.2%
Rockford DOWN 13.5% to 12.1%
Springfield DOWN 6.8% to 6.0%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

How are you doing? Laying off or adding on?

Social (Media) Manners

2009-06-04T16:47:00.005-05:00

Recently several people I know have started using Twitter for their business. It is important to understand the nature of Twitter and the self-regulation that occurs among Twitter users. It's kinda like burping in public or sneezing. There are certain protocols you use, and for the most part most people abide by them. In meetings, seminars and conferences on social media that I have attended and from reading the Tweets of those I follow I quickly came up with a few rules for my business friends to follow. Of course there will be more at our social media seminar on June 10, and July 11. Here are some simple guidelines:

1. For your commercial Twitter account, don't be too crass with direct pitches for your business in your tweets. People will turn you off.

2. Be personal. Even thought it is about your company, personify your tweets. Make sure your tweets have a personal "voice".

3. Promote your clients and the work you did for them, and not yourself directly; It's obvious who did the work; Promote your clients and other offerings, not just the work you did for them. Consider a client a week, and promote them in your tweets.

4. Tweet about your professional area or promote some allied vendor you work with. Also promote things you are interested in and has something associated with your business.

All this will provide you credibility with your followers. The lack of direct selling is why Twitter works well for most people. Twitter is about being in a community. A community of people who like each other and want to help each other. Having direct "advertising" pitches in your face doesn't work too well in Twitter. Other places are more acceptable (FB fan pages).

If there are other tips, comment here.

Rejoice!

2009-06-04T08:49:00.006-05:00

Good news from the Prairie. Our Unemployment rate is down. Should we all rejoice and throw a big shindig. Hooray the recession is over! Hardly. There will still be some pain, but there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Ken Springer, project analyst at the Bloomington-Normal EDC reports:

The unemployment rates for April have been released. BN dropped .4% to 5.9%, which is the second straight month of decline and a further sign that the recession may be finally abating in our community.

Statewide, the unemployment rate went up .3% to 9.4% and nationally, it went up .4% to 8.9%.

Not earth-shattering, but good news anyway. How has the recession affected you or your company. Have you been laid-off or had to let some people go? Tell us your story.

Too Legit to Quit!

2009-05-31T13:45:00.004-05:00

I am sitting at the TWTRCON SF09 conference. This is the second Social Media Conference I have been to in the past several months. These types of conferences are truly something to behold. Meeting people in this atmosphere is really cool, because everyone has one big goal: to succeed in this new era of communication. What does that mean? Sitting here writing this I will come up with just a few quick observations that I think are interesting:

1. Social Media conferences are the only place sitting at a table pounding away at your computer or being on your blackberry texting is OK. In fact, it is encouraged. Almost everyone here has got a computer open, there are power strips at each table so everyone can plug in, and two large screens are posting the conference twitter feed.

2. You have to be caffeinated in order to soak it all in. If you are a passive person who wants to learn from long speeches or presentations or even powerpoint presentations, you are in the wrong place. Your attention span has to be on high alert and having superior typing skills (or agile thumbs).

3. Even though the presenters won't say it and everyone pretends they don't care about it, everyone wants more followers. It is one of the few easy ways to show progress. It may not signify success for your social media strategy, but face it more eyes on your account eventually means more people have a chance of understanding your business.

4. Where else do you get to see MCHammer talking about personal branding, revenue sharing, and building a business. What a great story. From huge fame to bankruptcy, to having hundreds of thousands of followers!

Get with this program friends...

Planned Shrinkage

2009-05-31T07:49:00.009-05:00

The challenge many communities face is how to sustain their post-manufacturing economy. I know that is the problem they have in my hometown, where they have been trying to do it since the 1980s'. Even communities that want to rebuild their downtown have the same idea. If we can merely rebuild and reconstitute, recreate, do something to bring people back to the downtown, we could have a more vibrant city. But is this the best thing to do? Several communities having faced very severe deterioration in their downtown or in former working class neighborhoods. Instead of spending millions of dollars trying to create something that can't survive the have gone the other way. Here are some articles about this strategy that has reared its head in the current financial dilemma:

Youngstown, Ohio

Buffalo, NY
Buffalo Neighborhoods
More Buffalo

Flint Michigan

Is planned shrinkage a viable strategy? Let me know what you think? How about for communities that are doing well, yet have micro-neighborhoods or areas that are suffering? Pull services, and save money?

The Cause of the Financial Crises!

2009-05-18T22:05:00.010-05:00

What is your take on the financial crises or recession or the current state we are in? Have you pointed your finger at someone to asses blame? An excellent article in the current issue of the New Yorker attempts to explain the current financial crisis. In the article, "The Death of Kings", Nick Paumgarten describes the meltdown from the viewpoint of hedge fund managers and others who were there. Here is an excerpt from the article and it is all you will ever need to know:

"This crises is a culmination of events and trends reaching back, depending upon your perspective, four, seven, seventeen, thirty-eight, sixty-five, or a hundred and two years...The causes are technological, mathematical, cultural, demographic, financial, economic, behavioral,legal, and political. Among dozens of contributors and culprits are the personal computer, the abandonment of the gold standard, the abandonment of Glass-Steagll, the end of fixed commissions, the rating agencies, mortagages-backed securities, securitization in general, credit derivatives, credit-default swaps, Wall Street partnerships going public, the League of Nations, Bretton Woods, Basel II, CNBC, the S.E.C. disintermediation, overcompensation, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, Phil Gramm and Jim Leach, Alan Greenspan, black swans, red tape, deregulation, outdated regulation, lax enforcement, government pressure to lower lending standards, predatory lending, mark-to-market accounting, hedge funds, private equity firms, modern finance theory, risk models, "quants", corporate boards, the baby boomers, flat screen televisions, and an indulgent, undereducated populace... Much abridged, a few familiar words will do: debt, greed, hubris".

Enough said. Your thoughts?

Help for your Brain

2009-05-12T07:22:00.008-05:00

Is your mind wasting away? There was a commercial a number of years ago, I believe for the United College Negro Fund that had the line, "The mind is a terrible thing to waste". It was true then, for the fund, and it is true now for anyone. Is your mind wasting away? With the onslaught of information and data coming to us from all directions it is easy to get forgetful and muddled these days.

Let me suggest two things that are in my bag of resources whenever someone asks me for recommendations for staying organized. First to clarify your thinking, particularly for big projects and complex issues I like to use a technique called mind mapping. This is merely an enhanced level of diagramming and doodling. There are a number of books written about the technique. When I adopted it I used a book written by Tony Buzan, who claims to be the originator of the modern concept. I've been using the mind mapping technique since 1991. I also use a mind mapping software called Mindjet, which is very powerful and comes with all types of tools.

More recently I have enjoyed David Allen's techniques outlined in Getting Things Done. This book gives you the lessons one needs to de-clutter your brain and develop skills that will leave your "mind like water", or on other words like a pond, clam and still ready to accept a pebble or a huge rock, whatever might come it's way. By the way, David Allen is a fan of mind mapping.

Check into these two unique resources, and tell me if they helped you.

Creating a Movement

2009-05-11T13:22:00.007-05:00

Are you a leader of something? Why should someone, anyone follow you? What has the internet and social media done for leadership. It seems anyone can get connected just by blogging or posting a tweet. Along with the 6 employees I have, I have at least 225 followers last count who follow me for some reason or another on Twitter. Maybe we have a connection.

Many of the people who read this blog I would think are leaders. Many members of the Board of Directors of the organization I lead are leaders. They wouldn't be on my board if they weren't. So who gets to lead, and who has to follow. Seth Godin in the TED video below talks about leadership, the tribe and creating a movement. Check it out:

Are you ready to create a movement? Let me know what movement you are ready to start by commenting here.

City Hum

2009-05-09T05:00:00.005-05:00

Have you ever stopped and really listened? What do your hear? Really, what do hear specifically. Concentrate and try to see what you can pick out, or is it just a bunch of sound making things mashed together?

I wrote most of this in September of 2005 while in New York City at a professional conference and while visiting a friend in Brooklyn. Ever since going out into the still morning as a teenager with my Father on hunting trips I've always been intrigued by the question of whether there is any place on earth where you can hear "nothing". Sitting in the cold woods of Northwest Illinois, waiting for a deer to show him or herself I had time to think about these things. Today, I still broach the subject some of the time, like in 2005 (with recent edits and additions). This post has nothing to do with anything I usually write about but I hope you enjoy my foray into another realm:

City Hum

I’ve noticed it before. In other places, but it was more apparent to me now. A hum, a constant amalgamation of thousands maybe millions of cars, buses, trucks, generators, taxis, compressors, subways, jackhammers, garbage cans, sidewalk vendors, footsteps, all in a congruent symphony of noise. In New York, Chicago, and other big cities it is always the same, and the hum is always there.

This time I noticed it standing atop the Empire State Building, the grand lady of the city and once again can be claimed as New York’s tallest. Brooke, my assistant insisted that we go and see it, even though the free champaign at the post-awards ceremony we were attending as part of a professional conference beckoned my strongly and fought for my attention. I grew up on a family of champaign drinkers and when it was free, it was pretty attractive. Allowing a young, inexperienced (at least in my mind) employee wander around the frightening Times Square did not seem prudent. Yet she seemed brave and could have done it without me on her own. Feeling like her paternal protector prevented me from letting her wander in the biggest of big cities. I needed and wanted to protect and advice her, although there was no doubt, hundreds and thousands of “Brookes” were wandering and fending for themselves in what is an ubiquitous and endless sea of people, buildings, cars, subways systems and people.

The generators of noise all blended together on one sound. Standing atop the Empire State Building, you can hear it all. The sound arises from the subways, the streets and makes its way 86 stories to the observation deck. The last three times I have been in New York City the Empire State Building has been the tallest building…2002, 2005 and today September 2006. All my recent visits have post 9/11.

I don’t believe residents of New York notice the hum. I’ve never asked my good friend who lives in Brooklyn. I don’t know if they ever stop to think about it. I have always thought about noise and sound. Every once in awhile I like to stop right where I am and listen to the the “noise” or the confluence of sound right here, right now. Is there ever a place where one cannot hear something? Is the lack of sound created by human or nature sound itself? The quietest place I’ve ever been was the Grand Canyon. I was there in January standing at night, at the edge of the South Rim, and frankly could not hear one bit of noise.

New Yorkers are all very busy coping and managing their existence, I believe to hear the sound around them. Catching the subway, it with its subterranean existence and deeply resounding vibrations, one line crossing another over and under another and amazingly efficient in moving people through the city, faces saddened and glum by their plight having to move through the city, having to live in outer suburban neighborhood and having to travel underground at high rate of speeds, waling walking walking through the maze of tunnels and stairs and broken sidewalks people don’t think about the sound around them. The move quickly to get to the location they will occupy first, and by themselves. They are only bothered or removed from this world through the trance-like interruption of their ipod’s and other devices that forces them into some catatonic netherworld.

The vibration translates into a sound that becomes part of the dissonant symphony that works its way through the thin layer of asphalt and metal steel panels covering what I assume to be large gaping holes in the streets. Looking at street corners and other areas these monolithic yet sheer pieces of steel cover temporary holes in the endless miles of asphalt, I imagine the holes to possess some strange unearthly creature that live in the caverns and places below New York. Maybe they are the ones making all this noise. Enough books, stories and imaginations of writers, and fantasy purveyors undoubtedly have created wild and creative stories about this world, so I won’t delve into it here. It is sufficed to say that these holes exists everywhere.

If one were to assume the subway below and the cars, taxi’s trucks and buses above are the progenitors of noise your assumption is misguided as the vehicles above and subways below while making their own noise, play the steel plates, asphalt, light towers and traffic signals like their very own reed on an alto sax or other instrument. It’s a combination of human action and infrastructure that combine to create the urban music.

Where I live, when walking down the street, and one hears a horn, one assumes the driver is getting your attention because they know you. When you hear a horn you look up to wave, because the driver has been kind enough to recognize you and require your acknowledgement of that recognition. It is a nice way to say, “I hope you see me!” Very rarely and sparingly so, does one use the horn to move someone along. In New York City if you don’t use your horn while driving I imagine it is because you really don’t know how to drive. Here in the Midwest if you use your horn, you usually get an angry response from the other drive that you used that horn against. They give you an angry look, throw their hands up in disgust or in the very worst of circumstances they throw you the one finger salute. It is enough to ruin the next few minutes, morning or afternoon whatever time of day it may be. In the big city, if one does not use their horn they are looked upon as a rube or unknowing tourist caught up in traffic.

Upon visiting New York the use of the horn became very immediately apparent. The clear and present danger of taxicabs speeding along popping their horn is ubiquitous. The horn as used in this city is a device that says, “Move it, get along, get going, or wake up.” Or, in another function, it says, “here I come so you better get moving, (to a pedestrian) cross the street faster, or better step back up on the curb mister.” The initial inclination is to think the horn is somehow rude or obnoxious, rather it is really a polite and New York way to provide a measure of safety in a swiftly moving community.

Sitting in a coffee shop called Ozzies’s on the corner of Garfield and 5th Ave. in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn I have heard the sound of horns at least a dozen times. There have been more horns blasted, but perhaps after nearly a week of being here I have become accustomed to them. I can count a horn blast at least a dozen times while writing this narrative.

Imagine a horn being suppressed somewhere in this community of 8 million people every moment in time. Somewhere in these five boroughs a horn is being blown at someone or something. As sound of these horns no doubt is contributing to my city hum. There is one long constant ongoing cacophony of music rising to the heavens, along with the vibrations and timbre of cars, trucks, subways and steel plates.

On top of the Empire State Building I remember leaning over the rail to the extent that one can… I noticed the hum. At the top of the City’s tallest building the city hum is constant. It doesn’t really go away. No matter which direction you face, north south, east or west you can hear it and doesn’t sound too different. I don’t imagine that it changes much during the night or day. Perhaps the volume is lower at night.

The city hum is not necessarily obnoxious or pleasing to the ear. It is just there, always there, like the constant breathing of your dog lying at your feet. It’s the canary in the coal mine…Without it, you would know something is wrong. It is always there like the air we breathe, the sky, clouds, and oceans. One always expects the city hum to exist.

Un-conference

2009-05-08T22:34:00.004-05:00

So why should I , Mr./Ms. Business Person bother with social media? This is just a passing trend and fad. "My Customers prefer I pick up the phone and talk to them", you might say. That's ok today, but when your customer passes on his company to their twenty something kids, how will you reach them with your phone call? They won't be near a phone, they will be texting there new vendor telling them how lame you are for trying to call them on the phone and sell you their services.

Should you bother with Twitter, Facebook, and any number of other social media programs? What is your opinion?

I attended an "unconference" today, which is just a cute name for a really large discussion group. Sponsored by Ragan Communications, a leading Chicago based publisher of public relations newsletters and promoter of educational events and conferences, this specific event was targeted towards people using social media.

Whether used for internal or external communication, the topic was all about how social media can best be used for business purposes. It was a great event and I made a lot of new friends. I was the ONLY economic development professional in the crowd, and I am convinced that the Bloomington Normal EDC is ahead of the game when it comes to using best practices in the realm of social media for economic development.

Here are some questions and answers I heard:

1. What is the ROI or "return on investment" for delving into social media?
Answer: What is the return on investment to talking a client to lunch, a golf outing, or ball game. Can you measure that? Then what is the ROI on ignoring all this social media crap? Ask yourself this question and the answer will be clear to you. Challenge me with your response.

2. Is this a fad, a passing trend? There will always be something else.
Answer: Fad, no. Trend, yes. Passing, no. Yes, there will always be something else, but that is the job of business...to adopt to change in the marketplace and find new ways to make money. Social Media is how business and individuals are communicating into the future. Just look at the trends for the loss of advertising in traditional media like newspapers, magazines, television and radio. If these traditional media and advertising sources don't change they too will be caught looking like a deer in headlights.

3. What about email?
Answer: Dude, email is so 2006!

4. How do sell to people with a 140 character Twitter post?
Answer: You don't. You use it to build a relationship and use all the tools in the social media toolbox to bring them to you website, store or service.

5. What are the four "C's" of Social Media?
Answer: Community, Content, Conversation, and Constantly Changing.

Consider attending any number of online webinars, or programs on social media. Or consider attending the EDC's Social Media Workshop on June 10th form 11:30 to 1:00 in the Bank of Illinois Community Room on the 4th floor. The cost is a mere $10.00 to hear local and regional experts talk about social media and how it impacts your business.

If you can't make it the workshop, there will be a special BNBIZ Radio show on June 9th from Noon to 1:00 on WJBC 1230 am or WJBC.com. Co-host Beth Whisman and I will be talking to experts about how to small business can use social media for their business.

Finally, if you are signed up for Twitter, come to a Tweetup (a social gathering for Tweeple, i.e. Twitter users) at Medici on June 11th at 5:30. Local users of the popular social media tool will gather to share stories, strategy and have a good time.

It is unofficially social media week in Bloomington-Normal the week of June 8-12!
One more thing, if you want to follow me on Twitter my handle is "bnedguy".

Stressssss!

2009-05-08T05:00:00.001-05:00

Are you stressed? Well I guess not all the banks are either.I like the way the the Treasury has handled this portion of our banking dilemma. It seems logical and methodical. How did the banks do?

It looks as thought there are some banks that will need to raise capital, but the Treasury doesn't seem to think that the banks are in trouble. They have enough capital and aren't at risk to fail, unless...unless the economy continues to take a dive down farther than it has. But many signs are pointing up. See my previous blog and you will see the signals are mixed and while there is bleeding the bleeding is not that bad. This apparently is a good sign.

Banks with over $100 billion in assets were tested. A list of the banks tested and the results shows PNC who recently purchased National City($600 million); Regions Financial ($2.5 billion); JPMorgan Chase (nothing); US Bancorp (nothing) We will still see smaller banks failing, but the FDIC has got them covered.

In total all of the largest banks need to go to the capital markets and raise $75 billion. After all we've neen through I can't remember if $75 billion is a lot of money? Is it?

Trade Show Blues

2009-05-07T08:26:00.008-05:00

I have been going to all types of trade show most of my professional career. I remember one of the first ones I went to was a teenager with my dad to what was then called the “International Machine Tool Show” or IMTS. The show was in Chicago at McCormick Hall. The show was so big, that they only held every two years. What was fascinating was the size of the show. Vendors would truck in giant metal cutting machines that stamped out sheet metal, I-beams, cut our widgets from blocks of steel and aluminum. One company in Rockford, 90 miles away had machines so big they couldn’t justify setting them up at the show so they bused interested participants all the way back to the factory in Rockford. In later years I went to IMTS as a vendor with a small Rockford software company and later still in my role as an economic developer.

The other interesting trade show I’ve spent a lot of time at is the International Council of Shopping Centers held every year in Las Vegas. Attended by shopping center owners, developers, real estate brokers, financiers, and end users (retail stores), this show is the hardest working store I have ever been too. These folks work hard all day putting together real estate deals and party hard at night obviously celebrating their success during the day.

The size and scope of the trade show industry is huge in the United States as well as globally. The business and tourism economy in Chicago relies on trade shows for as a big part of their economy. Thousands of people using hotel rooms, buying food, drinks, parking, etc. are the basis for a lot of tax revenue, salaries and jobs. Even smaller communities like Bloomington-Normal generates a fair amount of revenue from smaller regional conferences and meetings. A large part of our local Convention and Visitors Bureau effort is trying to get these people to visit the community.

I can’t help thinking while I attend trade shows, and I write this while I am here in Chicago being part of a booth with the Illinois Development Council at the Wind Energy show (big), that there is some level of futility at these shows. Why? How could anyone get any business done a t a show like this. There are literally hundreds of vendors selling everything from rebar to electrical equipment, to windmill blades, to measurement devices to software. They have to make an impression on people walking by and hope that they can make some type of future sale or impact on their business. I wonder, can they really make an impression, or is this to some degree a bit of mob mentality. In other words, do vendors feel if they don’t show they will they be noted for their absence? Is there an industry out there that has decided that a trade show is no longer the way to highlight their industry?

I feel sorry for the small businesses that show up for these conferences and meetings and have to sit for hours on end on a trade show floor. It is clear to me that many don’t want to be there, which is demonstrated by their total disregard for a proper “sales posture”. Instead they sit in the corner of their booth looking totally bored, reading the paper, nearly falling asleep. They won’t sell anything, they will talk to a few people, get a few leads, and in the end be happy only because of the great steak they had at Morton’s or some other great Chicago steak house.

Maybe a new form of virtual trade show will eventually be created. Or perhaps one already exists.

Mixed News--but things are looking better

2009-05-07T08:22:00.009-05:00

The news this morning is mixed. But the good news is "bad news' is on the wane. I have often thought that this recession and many other economic downturns are a matter of confidence. Once confidence about our economy and future improves, our actual economy will improve. Let's look a the mixed information:

1. Jobless claims on a weekly basis are down. Yet some jobs go wanting.

2. Sales are up at Wal-Mart. Is this a good thing, or does it show that people, hurting from the downturn, are shopping at places like Wal-Mart?

3. Is the banking industry out of hot water. Stress test results are due today and Banks have 30 days to come up with plans to generate additional capital.

How is the Bloomington-Normal area doing? Check out this report from PBS's Nightly Business Report. The Bloomington Normal is doing OK, but we not recession proof as many people like to say. We are, however highly immune.

How is your business doing? Are suffering from a recession in your business?

A Smal Light in the Tunnel

2009-04-29T14:09:00.006-05:00

Ken Springer of our staff reported this to me today:

Tiny bit of good news – our unemployment rate dropped by .1% in March from 6.4% in February to 6.3%. Peoria and Champaign also saw a small drop in unemployment, but their rates are still much higher than Bloomington-Normal’s at 8.9% and 6.9% respectively.

The BLS reports that there were a total of 5,627 unemployed people in BN in March compared to 5,793 unemployed people in February – a difference of 166. This could mean that some of those folks either found jobs, left the area or stopped looking for work altogether.

I will look forward to seeing what next months numbers are. If we continue to move in the right direction the light will have seemed to get bigger.

Note to Eldest Daughter

2009-04-28T18:44:00.005-05:00

(This is an email I sent my daughter the other day. Please read and feel free to respond)

Dear Eldest Daughter:

I need you opinion on something. You are 21 and smart and energetic, entrepreneurial, and a seeker of the truth. I need your help. Please keep reading.
I have read a book by Donald Tapscott. He is a very well read author in the area of digital commerce and is a noted researcher and professor. I once saw him speak and have read some of his other books, but not in a long time. I came across "Grown Up Digital" and decided to read it. Partly because I wanted to see how and if I could understand my employees work habits better and also to see what insight I might have into the younger generation and how they think, what motivates them and how their world growing up was different from mine. Tapscott has eight "norms" of the NetGen as he calls them. One of them is the following:

"Norm #1: They want freedom in everything they do, from freedom of choice to freedom of expression: An example is their desires for the workforce. Our own NLB has indicated in their preliminary research that NetGen wants the ability to work from home or other remote places and not be a slave to the traditional corporate policies and rules most of us have grown up with. This is hard to break through in traditional companies, but more and more you see this desire having an impact. With the ability to access work with virtual private networks, Skype video phoning and the cost of travel, they may have a point, and they may be getting their wish in the long run."

What strikes me here are the desires of "freedom of choice and freedom of expression". What does that mean to you? Do you feel like you have this in your life? Do you even think about this in some way? Here are some additional questions. You don't have to answer all of them, only some that you have a thought on.

1. How much time do you spend watching TV each day/week?

2. What does freedom of expression mean to you?

3. Do you feel like you can express yourself in school, society, among friends freely and openly? Is that important?

4. What or who limits your ability to express yourself?

5. Do you feel social media, or the internet in general helps you express yourself?

6. Do you have the ability to do anything, go anywhere, or be anyone you want to be?

7. Who or what limits that? Parents, Government, friends, social mores?

This is a pure intellectual exercise. Don't think about giving me the right "daughter-dad" answer, even if one exists.

Love,Dad

Freedom of Expression

2009-04-28T18:32:00.002-05:00

NetGeners want freedom in everything they do, from freedom of choice to freedom of expression.

This is the first norm of eight norms that Donald Tapscott, author of the book Grown up Digital says are critical to understanding and working with the NetGeneration. So what exactly does this mean? "Freedom in everything they do? Freedom of expression?” On the surface this seems slightly ludicrous. Who hasn't has this freedom over the past, say 30 to 40 years. Doesn’t our own constitution guarantee us this? It seems as though true freedom of expression came about in the sixties with cultural revolutions related to sex, the arts and ant-war protests. The "summer of love" was truly an exercise of freedom of expression, but had few legs and somehow turned ugly by the time scandalous 70s' came into fore.

Freedom of expression, one would assume requires some suppression of freedom. Is this true? The current availability of information and data on the internet would lead one to believe that the freedom of expression and the freedom of choice are on steroids. Never before in the world have people had the ability to express themselves share information and have the freedom to create. This freedom reaches into not only creative arts ventures, but also in the area of politics and civic engagement.

I have recently embraced the social media. I am truly fascinated, mesmerized and taken by its potential and allure. I wonder sometimes if I am wrong for doing so, yet I just heard someone in a focus group, describe the workers of tomorrow as being wired different than workers today. Their love for video games and other non-television activities consume them and require a different type of brain wiring. In fact, some say that the younger generation’s brains have been impacted by their environment and process information differently than we (baby boomers do). Social Media is an outcome of this change in thinking and view of information.

For the past several years I was always shocked and surprised at how few people picked up and read a newspaper. But NetGens get their news in a different way. The read it online. They view news from a wide variety of sources than ever before. I was despondent when people started saying that the local paper would not be in printed form in a few years. Yet, perhaps I was felt more sorry for my mother who clings to the promise that some stranger will throw a rolled wad of paper on her doorstep every morning. It is a tradition and practice she has enjoyed for almost her entire life. Will she be able to get over the fact that she will have to read her paper on-line? I’m not sure, but she smart and hip and has always embraced change all her life.

This is an era of change. A recent presidential election was won using social media, and I believe the people who lost still don’t understand what happened to them. They are on television, using old school media trying to get their ideas across and the people who affected the change, who are making change, and who are in the process of changing our world are on their computers, checking out news on YouTube, communicating to each other on Facebook, and twittering each other.

At a recent meeting a fellow economic development professional was sitting next to me and announced that “he is sick and tired of Twitter” furthermore he added, “who cares if you just took a shower”. He said “ I guess I am old fashioned and would rather talk to someone on the phone rather than Twittering them or using
Facebook.” I was in a situation where it would be impolite to let him know, that , yes he is old fashioned, and unfortunately that may cost him in the future. His reaction to Twitter was typical of many people who haven’t spent any time looking at it and understanding the value of it, particularly from a business perspective. In addition, his reaction is exactly what mainstream media, particularly television and some printed news want you to believe, that Twitter is mainly for describing your hygiene habits, what you had for breakfast, or that your plane has landed.

So if you are in business today, and you expect a younger generation to respond to your product, what do you have to do? How do you appeal to them? As a manager of a nonprofit, how do you appeal to the younger generation and get them to respond t your offerings? If you are the chairman of the board of the symphony, do you think a mailer and a nice glossy brochure is going to appeal to a new generation of classical music consumers? From what I have seen, I don’t think so.

Freedom of expression is the greatest thing our Constitution provides us. Never before have we had some many people expressing themselves on social media and the internet in general. Teens and college kids all have cameras on their phones or carry digital pocket cameras and take pictures constantly. Videos of lip-snyching kids sitting in their rooms become world-wide phenomena and are copied and mocked by millions. When people can telecast their own television shows on the internet who needs network television. Freedom of speech is on hyperdrive, even though some kids or adults may have no idea what they are doing. It is entertaining and compelling all at the same time.

2009-04-20T20:12:00.004-05:00

Several years ago I saw the documentary on Louis Kahn created by his son Nathaniel Kahn and I remember it still. In particular, I was moved by Nathaniel Kahn's need to learn about his father through people who new him or through his buildings. I recall near the end of the movie, and Nathaniel shows it again in on excerpt at this week's featured TED talk, the Bangladeshi architect welling up with tears in describing what the building meant to his country. Nathaniel no doubt was proud of his father, but perhaps was about to break down for another reason. Unless you have seen the whole movie, you don't know that Nathaniel was the product of an affair and Louis Kahn rarely if ever saw his son. The documentary is his son's quest to know his father through his work. Watch:

Are you caught up in your work? Do you have time for your family? Are you gong to have to have your family look at a building or some other piece of your work to figure out who you were?

Social Media is the Real Thing!

2009-04-18T09:51:00.017-05:00

So many of you are sitting in your office or at home wondering what Twitter is all about. Yesterday, Oprah opened her twitter account and will probably have over a million followers very shortly. She will probably get to one million followers faster than any Twitter user out there. If Oprah is doing it it must be right.

Seriously, is this hype about Twitter worth it? What is the business case for Twitter or and other social media tools? Is it worth the time and effort for business, large or small to have a presence in the world of social media? If you know me or work with me in any way, you will know that I have embraced this world of social media, because I think I see something compelling and interesting coming down the track. Are you convinced yet?

I am convinced. I am convinced that social media and the many forms of interactive communication we have yet to see or conceive is one way, perhaps the dominant way people will get information in the future. There are many trends and cultural reasons why this will occur. Many of them are outlined in the book I recently read, Grown Up Digital, by Donald Tapscott (and is reviewed here). The NetGeneration is different. If you have teenage and young adult children like I do, I don't have to tell you that your children are different, and every generation is, however the way our children have grown up is different than the way Baby Boomers or even GenXers have been impacted by technology or media. The world is different and changing fast... very fast.

It would be easy to dismiss it with a hmph, and say, "this isn't for me", but if you are in business, and you expect to grow and attract new customers, assuming your new customers are under the age of 40, then you need to wake up to the changing landscape. Throw away the assumptions of marketing, communication and how to reach your customer. Yes, some of the old ways will still work and reach customers, but I am going to place my bets on a younger generation that will hopefully "buy" my authenticity and willingness to embrace their generation and their ideas. Maybe this is my way of avoiding growing old.

Over my next few blog posts, I will spend time looking at Tapscott's eight norms of the net generation and see how they impact business. I hope you learn from my research and curiosity. For a preview, here they are:

1. NetGeners want freedom in everything they do, from freedom of choice to freedom of expression.

2. NetGeners love to customize and personalize: NetGeners want to be able to customize all their "stuff." After all, that is what NetGeners have grown up with.

3. NetGeners are the new scrutinizers: NetGeners are, perhaps, the most skeptical generation ever. When they can look up anything on the Internet, they will. There is little you can put past them. NetGeners are only harnessed by their desire.

4. NetGeners look for corporate integrity and openness when deciding what to buy and where to work.

5. NetGeners want entertainment and play in their work, education and social life: NetGen wants their lives to be entertaining and fun, not only when they are home, but also in the workplace and everywhere else they go.

6. NetGeners are a collaboration and relationship generation: The NetGeners want to collaborate on everything. Think of their participation in texting, communicating, gaming and all things Internet. Social sites are all about generating cooperation and teaming up.

7. NetGeners have a need for speed, in everything: Again, re-telling stories about dial-up service and other inconveniences of the early net age are not interesting to the NetGen group.

8. NetGeners are innovators: NetGeners want the latest and greatest innovations. NetGeners want to work for companies that are interested in innovation and can deliver.

Watch for my analysis of each of these norms over the next few months. If any of you have an opinion about this topic, please provide a comment or get a hold of me directly.

On-line Help

2009-04-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

There are obviously dozens of sites on the blogosphere about entrepreneurship and other small business tips and solutions. One that I have found and really like is Blogtrepeneur. The site is chock full of all types of good information about entrepreneurship and other small business tips. In fact a recent blog has 101 resources for entrepreneurs. This is one of the best compilation lists I have seen.

In addition there are a number of blogs for women entrepreneurs. One I recently looked at and thought useful was Savor the Success.

Another general site is the Kauffman Foundation site. The Kauffman Foundation is one of the largest foundations in the United States dedicated to the growth and development of entrepreneurs.

Finally, if social networks are your thing, here is a list on Mashable, the blog that is all things social media, of the top ten social media sites for business.

2009-04-10T12:28:00.001-05:00

TED is a great website to learn about new ideas in video format. Check out their newly redesigned website: http://www.ted.com/

Are the Retired our Future?

2009-04-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

Several posts ago I talked about social media websites and other trends that younger generations are creating and pushing into our economy, lifestyle and society. The other end of the spectrum deserves some attention as well. What are baby boomers contributing to social change? Right now many are just worried about their 401(k) and other retirement issues related to the economy.

Check out the book Age Power by Ken Dychtwald. He has a lot to say how the 21st Century will be impacted by the millions of baby boomers that are out there waiting to contribute n one way or another. I have reviewed the book in a previous EDC newsletter.

A recent study by entrepreneur expert Erik Pages based in Washington D. C. points out the economic development opportunity. Pages says, "The real strength that these retirees bring comes from their knowledge, career experiences, connections,and networks. Yet, economic developers often fail to tap into this important resource. We must stop simply viewing as migrating retirees as a cash machine that spends money and pays taxes. We must instead find a way to integrate new residents into the center of a community’s economic life".

What about your community? Can you grow and expand your community and your economic prosperity taking into account the Baby boomers and their needs?

BNBIZ Radio

2009-04-05T21:39:00.006-05:00

If you haven't heard the BNBIZ Show, I am here to tell you that you are missing the BN area's best ongoing discussion about how local entrepreneurs have come been coping, growing and surviving the business climate. But this is more than a show about the recession. This is a show about inspiration and dreams. Each guest on the show (so far) has provided the listener with great detail about how they started, the strengths and weaknesses of their business, mistakes they have made, and how to survive any business climate, good or bad.

We are honored to to have WJBC am 1230 host this show. My co-host, or rather I should say I am her co-host, Beth Whisman is a great interviewer and is learning about how small business operates in McLean County. We have a good time talking about business and about how the EDC can find resources to help small business.

This Tuesday we will move off our regular menu of small business owners and have Jim Greenwood, a consultant currently developing a feasibility plan for the Bloomington Normal's business incubator. This joint project of the EDC and Illinois State University is funded by a $250,000 grant from the SBA. Jim has years of experience in business start-up, tech transfer and business incubation. We are looking forward to you tuning into our show.

If you can't sit next to the radio and listen, then you can do it on line. Or, you can catch it later from podcasts available at the WJBC or EDC websites. Give it a try and see if you don't recognize or learn from one of our many businesses.

Follow me on Twitter

2009-04-01T08:06:00.006-05:00

If you want to learn what is going on in the world of social networking media, economic development, banking, the local and national economy, entrepreneurship this blog is a great place to start, however I provide up to date ideas and articles at my Twitter page.

To follow me on Twitter go to: http://twitter.com/home. My handle "bnedguy". If you are signed up on twitter, I will follow you too. See you in the "twitterverse".

Rooftop Gardening

2009-03-31T07:15:00.002-05:00

Since we are talking about sustainability here is one more video about rooftop gardening from Obsessed:

http://obsessedtv.com/

Sustainability Effort

2009-03-31T07:06:00.000-05:00

The Bloomington Normal area has many sustainability efforts underway in the community. The Town of Normal leads the way with LEED oriented ordinances for commercial buildings, a community sustainability plan in the works, and employee green team, and the recent purchase of a home adjacent to a park and it's transformation into sustainable model for home building. The building our offices (Bank of Illinois Building above) are in was built under LEED guidelines.

Recently on their trip to Washington, D.C. the One Voice delegation met and brainstormed some ideas on sustainability under the context of economic development. What type of companies can we grow or attract to the area based on the many assets we have are some of the questions we will continue to ask ourselves as we move forward. The Sustainability task force has been created to form our strategy.

What are other communities doing? San Fransisco is moving forward with a residential loan program.

Here is a blog on The Green Workplace that is interesting and worth a read.

Here are some other blogs that address sustainability and cities from a variety of political perspectives:

World Changing: http://www.worldchanging.com/
Project for Public Spaces : http://www.pps.org/

Coach John Wooden

2009-03-29T18:50:00.007-05:00

We are near the end of March Madness. Our hometown Illinois State University team had a terrific year, but didn't quite make it to the big tournament. The ISU women are in the final four of the NIT, so we are hoping for their success.

So in honor of the sport that captures the attention of so many, I feature a talk by Coach John Wooden. Known for coaching UCLA in the seventies to some fantastic, dynastic years, he is also revered for his wisdom and knowledge. I love listening to him, as he reels off poetry and quotes, that would take me years to memorize. I always admire that in a person. Here is my TED video of the week:

Can you believe he his 99 years old? I admire him more than ever.

Obsessed

2009-03-28T11:25:00.011-05:00

Here is a cool new website for those who have nothing to do on the weekend: Obsessed. While I had never heard of Samantha Ettus, she has apparently done well. I like the idea of web television. Check her out:

By the way, John McEnroe has (had) a TV show? Is it still on?

One Voice

2009-03-28T09:19:00.009-05:00

I am very proud of our community. We have a great group of leaders. If you are reading this from outside Bloomington Normal, Illinois, I am sorry. If you want to experience what I do every day, which is working with a group of people who know and understand how to work together for the common good, then you will have to move here.

Check out our website if you wan to see what our trip was about. Click on the 2009 video. Thanks to all the One Voice participants and everyone who was part of the trip.

Special thanks to Brad Barth at Trace Design Media for putting together the video (once again). Also, thanks to Beth Whisman from WJBC who came with us and reported our work. You can find her interviews on our website or at her page on the WJBC website.

Social Media Networking & Marketing

2009-03-24T15:23:00.009-05:00

Social Media marketing is a new phenomena for me. My daughter has been doing it for her store for quite some time and when she first told me what she was doing, frankly, I was skeptical. Now of course, I am a recent convert, having recently started working with Twitter, Facebook and this blog. I believe that younger generations, the people that will be our future are guiding our media consumption. I feel it is the way to go. In addition, the book I recently read, Grown up Digital, by Don Tapscott makes me think in different ways.

Another interesting piece I found (via a tweet, thanks @mashable) is the report "Social Media Marketing Industry Report" by Michael Stelzner. Give it a read, and listen.

Don't forget the blog Mashable. They provide all types of information on people interested in learning more about Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.

Are you using Social Networking Media for your business? Should you? Respond to me here.

Free Seminars

2009-03-23T16:44:00.003-05:00

Financing Small Businesses in Uncertain Times

It’s always a challenge for entrepreneurs and small business owners to find the funds they need to start and grow their firms, but it is even more challenging in the current economic and financial situation. The Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area (EDC) is cosponsoring a seminar, along with the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University and the McLean County Chamber of Commerce on how to finance your small or start up business. The seminar will be held from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7th at Illinois State University’s Alumni Center (1101 N. Main St, Normal), Room 118. There is no charge to attend this seminar, but space is limited so please register in advance by contacting Cathy at the EDC office at (309) 452-8437 or cathy@bnbiz.org

Free Seminar: Challenges of Starting and Operating a Home Based Business

There are some real advantages to starting and running a small business out of your home, but there also are some challenges. If you are not careful, you may compromise your chance to launch, sustain and grow your home based businesses. This seminar will focus on some of the most common mistakes made by home based business owners. The seminar, which is cosponsored by the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area (EDC) along with the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University and the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, will be held from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8th at Illinois State University’s Alumni Center (1101 N. Main St, Normal), Room 117. There is no charge to attend, but space is limited so please register in advance with Cathy at the EDC office, (309) 452-8437 or cathy@bnbiz.org

Obsession

2009-03-22T18:04:00.006-05:00

I really enjoy the television show Mythbusters. I was very pleased to see Adam Savage one of the two main creative hosts on Mythbusters be highlighted in a TED talk. Savage is very entertaining on the show and seems like the more gregarious of the two primary hosts. He's the kind of guy you would love as a next door neighbor. You could go over to his garage on the weekend and each time he would be building something or creating some new gadget. Better yet you could call him and he could probably fix anything you had that needed repairing. I bet he could connect my sound system to my TV which I still haven't figured out since I moved my TV to the other side of the room.

Anyway, Savage is one the fastest talking people I've ever heard. He is also has an obsession. You'll understand what I mean when you watch the video:

Don't you wish that sometimes you could be obsessed about a project, object, or activity like Savage is? Are you obsessed?

What are you doing?

2009-03-18T16:42:00.004-05:00

The EDC staff and I were preparing for our March Board meeting. It's a big deal, because we only have four a year. Therefore we have a very specific topic and we want to carefully craft our message. Our first topic of the the year will be, guess...the economy. Wow, I know the topic was hard to come up with, but truthfully most communities don't know how to measure their local economy, how to report on it and what they are doing about it. Frankly our economy is doing well. At our meeting we will be presenting what the EDC is doing to deal with the recession.

But what about you? What are individual business people doing to weather the storm or develop strategies to come out of the recession? Michael Snyder is principal of The MEK Group, a marketing and business development consulting firm writes in the latest issue of MidwestBusinesss.com that a recession offer an opportunity for companies to reposition themselves and implement longer term strategies.

What are some of your long term strategies? What have you been doing to manage your business in this downturn?

Getting things Done

2009-03-16T19:52:00.008-05:00

While I was in Washington D.C. this past week, I missed a very important event in San Fransisco. The GTD Summit. For those who don't know what GTD means, it is an acronym for "Getting Things Done" and is the title of a book by David Allen.

David Allen has turned into an organizational guru for millions of people around the world. I love his work, and enjoy hearing what he has to say about organizing. The summit was for all the GTD geeks in the world, and had I not been on DC pining for money from our congressional delegation, I would have been in San Fransisco with all the other organizational geeks hearing what our master had to say about "next steps", "mind like water" and "weekly reviews"

Several months ago I wrote a review of his book for our website. You can read the review, but better yet pick up the book.

Energy Renewal

2009-03-15T13:03:00.003-05:00

On the One Voice trip, the group was inspired to think about what we can do in the future to make the community more sustainable. Not only sustainable as a community but in the more common usage of the word today; more environmentally sound.

After a full day of Capitol Hill visits with our congressional delegation, a majority of the group got together to discuss the issue. In one hour we made great progress in defining our assets, and talking through some definition. Mind you this is a group of people, who are diverse in their outlook on the world. However the entire group sees the economic business case for sustainability. You'll hear more as we go along, I promise.

To go along with the idea of sustainability Bill Gross,CEO of Idealab,a hyperactive, fast talking, but totally understandable inventor discusses solar energy. You don't have to be a techno-geek to understand his talk. It describes some work he has done on putting together cheap solar energy by revisiting older ideas.

His idea for solar energy is so fantastic and it makes so much sense. It is one of those ideas that makes one wonder why haven't we already made this type of technology available? It has to do with economic incentive, but that is another blog entry. Check out this weeks TED video:

What do you think? Give me some feedback.

Earmarks

2009-03-13T17:22:00.007-05:00

Like many issues in our country, the subject of earmarks gets a lot of attention by the media. Some people like Senator McCain who has never requested an earmark makes sure that he highlights some of the "pork" as he refers to it each year. Politicians like to lambaste the idea, pundits love telling stories about what is being funded and what a waste these projects are. There have always been earmarks and I believe there always will be. After all, Congress is responsible for spending. Not only spending but directing spending, and earmarks are nothing but "congressionally directed spending".

Having just completed our communities "One Voice" trip I am concerned about all this talk of earmarks and what a crime they are. Let's examine the facts. First let me provide full disclosure and tell you that our trip to Washington D.C. is designed to support 3 to 6 projects that are requesting public funding (at least partially) or earmarks. All the projects we propose can stand the "light of day" are transparent and I would challenge ANYONE to tell me they are not good projects worthy of federal funding.

In fact we are so confident of our requests we list them on our website. Any one can read the list and understand the projects if someone takes the time to do so. Senator Durbin, Congresswomen Halvorson, and Congressman Johnson are all knowledgeable about the requests we have made, support the concept of earmarking and are willing to tell you that. But let's really understand what an earmark is and is not.

An earmark is a request by a congressional member to "set aside" or provide specific funding for a project in the member's state or district. It is funding that would likely be provided at some point, but instead of having a federal agency bureaucrat determine whether McLean County gets the money or not, a congressional member has made that choice and is requesting the dollars be devoted to a specific project. In addition, all earmarks are within the confines of the budget. Earmarks are not budget busters. They are not expenditures designed to be above and beyond the federal budget.

Of course there has been abuse of the process, and that is actually what most people are opposed to. There are projects that sound funny or seem wasteful, but I can guarantee you they make perfect sense if the person or organization requesting those dollars could sit down and explain it to you. The now infamous "bridge to nowhere" that people love to point to as the poster child for earmark abuse was actually a good project that someone misrepresented in a news story and was forever repeated like a bad rumor. The bridge was designed to provide a link to a town and their airport on the island across the bay. Currently the only way to get to the airport is by ferry, and this poses all types of problems for emergency vehicles, public safety and simple travel.

I hope President Obama looks at this whole issue clearly as he has reluctantly signed the fiscal year 2009 omnibus budget which has 9,000 earmarks listed. He has indicated that the issue of curbing earmarks will be on his mind in the next budget. Notice he didn't say, do away with them.

I often tell people the reason we got to Washington D.C. each year and request our earmarks is because we have a constitutional right to do so. The first amendment to the constitution tells us among other things, that we have the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". Our grievance is that we in McLean County do not receive enough of our tax dollars coming back to our community. Remember we send the federal government a potful of dollars every year. It is our money, it's our right to ask for it, it is the Congress right to direct spending section 8), and therefore we do it.

I've struggled with the idea that perhaps we shouldn't be asking for earmarks because it doesn't stand a moral test of some type. But I've reconciled that thinking buy remembering every year the Congress passes a budget, every year funding is provided to states and local government and other institutions for worthy projects and darned if we shouldn't make a strong effort to be in the front of the line. To do anything less would be the ultimate show of a lack of leadership.

P. S. When we know what we have received in earmarks, I will post here.

Be an Entrepreneur!

2009-03-13T07:41:00.010-05:00

There are many opportunities for Entrepreneurs (I will call them "E's" from here on because I am tired of typing the full word) in a recession. Richard Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine reminded us of the fact that many companies we know today and call successful were born out of the recession of the late 70s' and early 80s'.

As an example, Southwest Airlines has survived practically every downturn, not only in the economy, but has stayed away from the economic roller-coaster rides legacy airlines like United, Delta, Northwest, US Air and others have had during the same time period. Apple is another highly successful company that came out of that era that is an admired company today. Undoubtedly some of these companies and others have had layoffs and slower growth and profits during this time, but they have managed to survive and thrive. Perhaps it is because of their E mentality and early struggles that caused these types of companies to never loose their "edge".

The question to day is what can E's do to help stimulate our economy? In my discussions with E's and business owners in McLean County I find that many of them are "working within themselves" as Vickie Tilton said in our BNBIZ radio show (every Tuesday at noon on WJBC 1230 am) a couple weeks ago. She said that she does not pay attention to the news and works with her customers to make sure that they receive the best customer service and care she can possibly give them. In fact, she says this year her business is up. Vickie owns Fox 'n Hounds, a Hair Salon and Spa in Bloomington and has been in business for over 20 years. In fact she is one of the few businesses of her type that offer her employees good benefits.

The stimulus plan has had very little to say about E's directly. Although like all things having to do with our government, it is easy to pick holes at this huge program designed to to try to be all tings to all people.

There are issues the federal government and the state government could do to further enhance the ability of E's to grow and gain access to capital, one of their greatest needs. Sramana Mitra, an E and consultant who has started several of her own companies thinks President Obama has not listened to the E and done enough to help them gain access to capital. She thinks that tax credits for angel investor and others who put money into angel funds and start-ups could be a good way to grow the economy and help early state E's. In Arizona, the state gives a 20% tax credit for angel investors. Oklahoma and Indiana has similar programs.

Check out Mitra's blog to hear what else she has to say about E's their role in the economy and great ideas on how to generate strategic growth in your small company. She even has an idea for a bootstrapping business just about any unemployed (ok, not any, but many) person could start and make a good income.

Suffering Genius

2009-03-08T16:47:00.008-05:00

In our society it is a practice to create heroes and villains. As soon as we recognize someone for their achievement, place them on the proverbial pedestal and award them medals and honors it seems as though we seek opportunity to tear them down. We all have people we admire. People who have done great things, or are the best in their field. How did they get to that point? What skills did they use to become so good? Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers (reviewed on our website) says greatness comes form 10,000 hours of practice, or the time of year one was born among other things. Many people admire our new President, Barack Obama for many of his skills, and there is no question people are seeking to tear him down.

There are many people in our world who are very smart, very good, excellent at what they do. Yet they are torn inside by their genius. Perhaps they don't recognize their ability or knowledge, or perhaps their low self-esteem doesn't allow them to appreciate their contribution. Society's quest for building up then tearing down undoubtedly wreaks havoc on their emotional psyche. What is it about geniuses and other "great" people that causes them to suffer?

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the recent bestseller, Eat,Pray, Love has a thoughtful and beautiful presentation on TED that every one should listen to. It is a heartfelt discussion on the struggle of coping with genius and why creative people suffer to the point of suicide. Think about what we do to our creative artists and people in our world. Success is wonderful, but separating the "genius" of an individual to the muse of borrowed talent may be advantageous. It is about 20 minutes long but worth every minute. Check out my weekly TED video:

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

Banking and Government

2009-03-07T10:39:00.008-06:00

There has been much talk about the “nationalization” of the banks that are in the brink of insolvency. Nouriel Roubini is one of the biggest advocates of this strategy. He believes that there must be a triage operation undertook that will sort out banks that are illiquid and under-capitalized but solvent from the mere insolvent. Then you shut the insolvent down, take them over, fix them, and then throw them back into the private sector. Often called the “doctor of doom”, Roubini believes governments across the globe need to do six things to fix the global economy along with the bank triage operation:

1.Central banks need to loosen monetary policy far more drastically, for example buying more types of securities.
2.Governments in Europe need to ramp up fiscal spending to boost demand.
3.Governments need to do what it takes, including full nationalization to clean up their banking systems or risk facing a lost decade
4.Collective inaction by banks will require government to force banks to re-lend.
5.Governments hit by property slumps should introduce across-the-board reduction in the principal value of mortgage debts to relieve pressure on insolvent households.
6.Major shareholders should sanction the doubling of the IMF’s capital base so it can extend effective assistance to emerging markets facing liquidity problems (Easter Europe).

A full copy of this interview can be found at Roubini’s RGE Monitor.
More commentary about how troubled assets plague the recovery effort of TARP was written by Alex Pollock a fellow at American Enterprise Institute. Pollock looks at history to solve our problems in his article called “Bank to the Future” Lucian Bebchuk, a professor of law, and economics at Harvard writes about jump-starting the market for troubled assets. He believes an effective plan for a public-private partnership to buy troubled assets can be designed that will protect taxpayers and have the characteristics of market competition. Both of these are very good articles and if you have time read them.

Finally is these are too heavy for you, go to the NPR show “This American Life” website and listen to last weeks show Bad Bank. It is a humorous and simple explanation of the banking crises. Ira Glass always is interesting and he has hit a homerun for those folks whose heads are spinning.

I am interested in knowing what YOU think. Post your thoughts here.

Annual Report

2009-03-07T09:54:00.008-06:00

Recently several EDC Board members were featured in the Pantagraph's Annual Report. It was interesting that the local paper recruited local business people to write columns rather than have news staff do the work. In addition, it was difficult to find the some of the articles I read in the paper version on the electronic version. I'm pretty sure not all of the articles were in the online version. If you pick up the paper version today, there is also an article about banking by EDC Board Chair Larry Maschhoff (President of Bank of Illinois)that you can't find on the electronic version. At least I couldn't.

One column about what small business can do to ride out the recession is written by Commerce Bank President Bob Lakin.

Another article is written by Heartland Community College President Jon Astroth about the progress of the community college.

My only question is why an annual report about the community the first weekend of March? Shouldn't this be at the beginning of the year, end of the year, or some other significant date, if there is one?

The BNBIZ Show features Mary Strack/Jimmy John's

2009-03-03T16:34:00.011-06:00

Today I interviewed Mary Strack, owner of the Bloomington Normal Jimmy John's franchise. That is Mary on the left, me, and my co-host, Beth Whisman of WJBC seated on the right. The good news: Business is up 2% Year over year comparison for January. However with the reconstruction of North Street in front of her Uptown Normal location sales there will suffer. But she said she is prepared for it and is excited to for all the new construction in Uptown Normal.

Mary is a positive, smart and hard-working entrepreneur. She has spent most of her working life in the hospitality industry and has an MBA from the University of Illinois. Having eaten and the Jimmy John's in Champaign she became one of the first franchise owners in this growing chain.

Mary, like others we have interviewed on our BNBIZ Radio show is happy she is an entrepreneur, and would probably not like to work for someone else. And like others she has trouble keeping employees, dealing with suppliers and all the other aspects of owning a business.

We hope through the show that we continue to highlight the tough but rewarding work, owning a business and being an entrepreneur is all about. If you missed the show, you can hear it at the WJBC website, and the EDC website.

Mind Mapping

2009-03-02T21:01:00.010-06:00

In 1991 I attended a seminar right here in Bloomington-Normal on "manufacturing networks." Before talking about how manufacturers can work together to develop projects (I was working in economic development in the Rockford area, a strong manufacturing area), the presenters wanted us to understand the idea of "mind mapping".

Mind mapping was claimed to have been created by Tony Buzan, or at least popularized by him in the 1960s'. I still have his original book which I purchased right after the seminar because the idea of mapping out complex ideas in a what amounts to a sophisticated doodle spoke to me. You see, Buzan believed that since all of nature was developed as referential networks, that must be how we learn and understand things as well. Buzan also wrote a series of books about memorization techniques and presumably could memorize long lists of obituaries and numbers in feats of memory.

Min Mapping stuck with me. I have dozens of maps I have created to deal with all types of issues, ideas and others activities in my life. With the advent of the internet a google search will result in a wide variety of resources for mindmapping.
Everything from software (I use Mindjet) to images. There is even a video of Tony Buzan that I included here:

Now MindJet has come up with a mind map showing how one can twitter more efficiently. The Twitter map shows how a mindmap can help you organize your Twitter world.

Check out mind mapping as a personal productivity tool or ask me about it via this blog or the next time you see me.

The Ultimate Reboot

2009-03-02T19:48:00.008-06:00

One of my favorite websites is TED.com. This is the site of an annual conference that started in 1984 in California that celebrates Technology Entertainment and Design (get it, TED). It is filled with 18 minute videos of the most fascinating thinkers and doers of the modern century. One of the reason's I like it is the mere esoteric nature of the subject matter. One can sign up for the weekly email of TED video.

Recently the TED folks had their 2009 conference and I came across this really compelling, scary, and at the same time entertaining talk by Juan Enriquez. Mr. Enriquez is the founder of the Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project and is involved in a wide variety of ventures. He also served as the CEO of Mexico City's Urban Development Corporation and chief of staff for Mexico's secretary of state, Enriquez played a role in reforming Mexico's domestic policy and helped negotiate a cease-fire with Zapatista rebels.

I knew nothing about Enriquez until I came across this video. He comes across a little dry at first but stick with it. What is interesting is how he segues from talking about the economy to moving right into the cell biology and robots. Here is his video presentation. It is only 18 minutes but worth the time spent:

More Blago Leftovers

2009-02-16T17:06:00.008-06:00

Today we find the news media enamored with what Senator Roland Burris said or didn't say to the Blago impeachment committee last month. Republicans in Illinois are asking for his resignation, and Senator Burris finds himself in a similar position as former President Clinton, defending simple words. Unfortunately for Burris, the problem with alleged perjury are the use of words, specific words and their either specific or broad interpretation. I suppose it also depends upon how and what question was asked. Eric Zorn of the Tribune says, he is not likely to be found guilty of perjury but certainly dishonesty.

In some respect we have to ask ourselves, what did we expect? A Senator tainted by a tainted selection process trying so hard to become Senator, it was likely he was going to stumble over a few words.

Blago on the other hand has become more famous than he had ever hope to achieve. His notoriety has been chronicled by Michael Muth who writes in MidwestBusiness.com.

I hope Governor Pat Quinn can become famous for being a good governor and turning the State around. What do you think?

Creative TARP

2009-02-14T11:27:00.005-06:00

I enjoyed Stephen Levitt's book of several years ago, Freakonmics. Ken Springer of the EDC staff reviews it on our website. Levitt and his co-author Stephen Dubner have a blog hosted on the New York Times website. Check out this interesting piece on the TARP plan and a North Carolina Bank called, "A Happy Banking Tale, and Faint Praise We Can Live With"

Love the Swedes!

2009-02-14T09:32:00.003-06:00

You gotta love the Swedes. Ever run into a someone from Sweden who caused you to say, " I just hate that guy/girl". Probably not. My experience with Swedish people comes from living with them in Rockford, IL. Rockford is home of the Stockholm Inn (the best breakfast place in the world, and makers of the best Swedish pancakes this side of, well, you know where), Nicholson Hardware, Lundstrom-Peterson Paints, Forsberg's Bakery, Swedish American Hospital and thousands of people named Anderson, Peterson, Lindstrom, and other various Scandinavian derivatives. I've also been to visit Sweden. Lovely place, lovely people, and above all people who are calm, cool and not prone to overreacting. A Swedish business owner visiting the United States once told me, "We make decisions in Sweden, we just make them slow".

Apparently, they, being Sweden, have had a problem with their banking system in the past, and managed to fix it. Noureil Ruobini and have recently been promoting an idea that may have some merit and is based on the expereince of the Swedes a number of years ago. Roubini thinks a temporary nationalization or "receivership" of some of our banks that are "too big to fail, too big to save" might be a sound idea.

What do you think? Their nationalization idea has some merit. Don't get to worried, I am only going along with the idea that the program would be temporary. I am not a socialist or communist, and frankly people are throwing those terms around a lot these days with fully understanding their full definition or implication. Instead I would like to think of myself as a "PragmaRationalist".

This plan would kill the downward spiral we are in, and preempt the issues we are going to have (it's coming!) with commercial real estate, consumer card credit, and other parts of our economic system.

Give it a read and let me know what you think.

New Day

2009-01-20T17:48:00.003-06:00

No matter what your political colors are one cannot help but be impressed by today's activities in Washington DC. In case you have been sleeping in a hollowed tree stump the past three months, today we transferred power from one president to another. The size of the crowd and their spirit could be felt just by watching it on television.

If you think by reading this that I am going to launch into some type of soliloquy about the new President you will be disappointed. What was most impressive about the day was that way the United States changes our leadership. The real story is about how we as a country can change leadership without a coup, or revolution, or other type of upheaval.

Whether you like President Obama or not one has to be impressed by the way we treat the institution of the executive office and the way in which we move from one leader to another. The ceremony, the crowds, the parade, the news coverage and the entire day, was electric and deeply satisfying.

The way we do this makes me very proud of our country, and bodes well for the future.

Riots in Riga

2009-01-14T15:23:00.008-06:00

Unfortunately someone got into the surplus vodka in the old town garrison in the ol' mother country. Reports today indicate that the folks in Lettland got a little out of hand in the capital city Riga. Rioting took place after what was an apparent peaceful rally protesting the current government's handling of the recession that is impacting Latvia hard these days. an official said he was surprised, that they didn't know who the instigators were.

Here is some video. Originally I was going to use another one,but I like the anchor. Ron Burgundy he his not, but a pretty snappy haircut. I believe the coverage is from an Estonian station. I didn't recognize it as Latvian. Also 3/4 of the way through they interview a Latvian official and he answers in near perfect English, which I find a bit odd.

The video and others I found seem to have a lot of people out in the street protesting something in earnest, followed by liquor induced shenanigan's. The demeanor and hooting and howling one hears reminds me of some post World Series or Super Bowl celebration, or since it is Europe, a soccer party about to ensue. Riot, I am not so sure.

A good analysis of their economic situation can be found in the RGE Monitor by Nouriel Roubini.

OK, I understand that most of you don't care about Latvia, but the point is that I do and I am writing this blog. Seriously, it shows how deep and far this recession has had impact.

A Word about Weather

2009-01-14T08:44:00.003-06:00

I woke up this morning to a fresh 4 inches of snow. Looking out the window at 6:00 am I was welcomed by the clean white freshness of crystallized frozen water glowing and lending light to the still early morning. My neighbor across the street was already outside using his snow-blower on his own driveway his neighbors, and the sidewalk leading up to the grade school. Oh, how I wished he would come across the street and do my driveway!

When I lived in Freeport back in 2002, I wrote an occasional column for the alternative paper. The column follows. Anyone who knows me well will recognize this rant. Please take in the good humor it was meant to be provided:

What have we become? Cold weather has a lot to say about what kind of society we have become. As I go from store to store or from place to place I hear nothing but comments about how cold it is. If it came from “young” people, meaning little ones under the age of 16, I would have some empathy, however when it comes from people from my generation or older I am puzzled.

First of all there is nothing we can do about the weather except take shelter. Scientists have attempted for years to see if there is anyway to seed clouds to cause rain in drought areas. These attempts have largely failed. We are at the mercy of a higher power when it comes to weather. Tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding rains, lightning, hail, drought, heat waves, cold snaps, wind shear and microbursts are all items we have had to deal with for centuries. Not to mention other associated crises and curses like flash floods, mudslides, forest fires and brushfires, Santa Anna winds, windchill factor, acid rain, dust storms, locusts, air and water, starvation, pollution, nuclear proliferation… sorry, I digress.

Weather is weather and there is nothing you can do about it. When it is hot out, find air conditioning, strip down, or find a lake. When its cold out, find a furnace, put on a coat and hat or find fireplace. It is really that simple. Talking about it won’t help. It won’t change if you complain about it enough.

Then there are the people who are at a total lack of words, that they have absolutely nothing else to say to you when they see you other than comment on the weather. You know how it goes. The standard winter phraseology is “Cold enough for you?” . This is the exact inverse of the standard summer phrase of “Hot enough for you”. I can’t help myself and usually reply with some smart retort like, “Heck no, I wish it were colder. I want to see just how cold it can get. I like it when my the insides of my nose stick together as I inhale, or I want to feel the 40 mile per hour wind whipping against my exposed skin, giving it that lovely pinkish glow, followed quickly by the sickish blackness of third degree frostbite; I want the temperature to dive so low that the cheap plastic parts of my car shatter and break at the slightest touch: I want scientists to start talking about how we are entering another ice age; I want to see Eskimos in dog sleds: I want to sponsor the “Central Illinois Iditarod”; I want it so cold schools, business and government shuts down for weeks at a time. So no, no it’s not cold enough for me.” (read with your voice escalating, increasing speed and a high level of stress)

Part of our weather issues, I believe, come from the constant barrage of weather news we receive in our modern world. We have too much information about weather. We have all become junior meteorologists. Farmer’s used to be the best predictors of weather. Now we have storms teams, super duper extra terrestrial hyper active Doppler radar. We have entire television networks devoted to weather. Web sites can give you up to the minute radar in Africa, the south pole or Boogerville, Alabama. Emergency weather radios can be purchased, so you can learn about flooding in weather calamities long before they happen. The local weather guys fight like mad to be the first to place little icons on the bottom of your television screen telling you of the latest advisory. What is most annoying is that after it has been on for twelve hours you would think we got the idea. The weathercasters scramble to have live remotes of events that have nothing to do with weather. They stand in front of the screen blabbering on about cold fronts, occluded fronts, what the computer models say, on and on. Just tell me the weather: Temperature today, temperature tomorrow, whether its going to rain, snow, or be sunny. Be simple.

The “closing notices” have also got out of hand. Without the risk of sounding too old, when I went to school we walked barefoot in the snow 40 miles uphill carrying 50 pound sacks of flour (plus our homework and books) on a trail of sharp carpet tacks both directions during a blinding snow storm every day!

Today, It gets just a little cold and we are canceling everything. Plus you get to see it on the bottom of the screen (another twelve hour telecast). This school district, that daycare, St. Joe’s quilting circle, the judo class, Aunt Edna’s appendectomy. You now what I’m talking about. When did we get to be such wimps?

Here is another phenomena that I have never understood. You wake up to a day of rain. Immediately upon meeting some people you will hear this: “Oh its just so rainy out, I ‘m so depressed. Isn’t this rain awful, I wish it would quit raining; its such a dreary day, its so cloudy, blah blah blah…. It’s so cloudy? You mean to tell me that your day is going to be based upon whether its cloudy or sunny? And in case you missed it science class, we need rain to make things grow. Otherwise we would live in something called a desert. A lot of sand and a lot of sun. Then we could talk about something people call “dry heat”, which would take an entire additional treatise on my part about how annoying I think that phrase is.

What have we become? Weather wimps, that’s what. C’mon people, let’s get with the program. There is nothing you can do about the weather. Nothing. Live with it! And above all quit your yammering about it.

(Next time: How we can be a more polite society if we avoid talk of weather)

Congresswomen Halvorson

2009-01-13T13:53:00.003-06:00

On Monday, I went to Joliet to witness the in-district swearing in of Congresswomen Debbie Halvorson of the 11th Illinois Congressional District. She is taking the seat vacated by Congressman Jerry Weller. Weller, although fairly young decided that he had enough of Washington D.C. and decided to move on.

I was impressed by Congresswomen Halvorson's speech and her sincerity. She is a Democrat that was elected in what is thought to be a largely Republican district. What impressed me about Debbie is that you only need to meet her once and the second time she will meet you she will remember you. She will look you in the eye and whether she actually does remember you, you feel like you have been old friends with her for a while. You don't always get that with elected officials. Even in my position, I have to remind people from time to time who I am and what I do.

In her speech she talked about how she is committed to the people. Ok, you might say that all politicians will say that, but for some reason when Debbie talks about it you know she means it. I am looking forward to working with Congresswomen Halvorson.

We'll be going to Washington D.C. on our annual One Voice trip. It will be refreshing to meet with her there and to work with her. Oh, and I guess we will need to meet with Senator Burris as well.

Reporting on Joe by Marty

2009-01-08T08:36:00.008-06:00

I am announcing that I am going to Latvia to cover the devaluation of the Lat (their currency) on behalf of a consortium of obscure monetary economic newsletters. How did I get this gig, you may ask? Well, I'm the only guy who was interested. There are others who are interested in this topic. I'm not kidding.

Seriously, I merely jest. I'm going nowhere. I do this in light of the breaking news that Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. "Joe the Plumber" is going to Israel to cover the fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Two things bother me about this story. First, that it is an actual story. Why does this even appear in the Chicago Tribune? I know, I know, I am feeding into the frenzy by commenting on it, and perhaps that is what Joe's publicist wanted me to do, but I could not go without saying something considering the name of this very Blog is an ode to his moniker.

Second, what about his business? I want to know if he ever bought the plumbing business he was talking about during his encounter with President-elect Obama. Is there a lady in Toledo still waiting for Larry, excuse me "Joe" to come by to unplug her sink? Why don't we hear about the issues he initially confronted Obama about during the campaign trail. I think that would be the more interesting story. Let's hear about the struggles of the entrepreneur business man. Let's hear how ol' Larry is coping with the economy. How did he go from plumber to journalist? Does he actually have any skills as a journalist?

Is he going to make it or is he just using all this to acquire his fifteen minutes of fame and operate a website? By the way, his website has no mention of his plumbing business. He ought to at least have a phone number. If he has any traffic at all he could be drumming up some business!

I will sit and patiently wait for his dispatches from the front and hope that the EDC Board gives me a leave of absence to pursue my journalistic career.

Housing

2009-01-07T08:44:00.004-06:00

Everyone always says that we are lucky here in Bloomington-Normal. We have an economy that is immune from the travails of the national economy. Indeed to a large extent this is true. According to Ken Springer, the EDC's Project Analyst, who has been tracking the numbers:

2008 set a new record for foreclosures in McLean County, but did so only by a slim margin. The County experienced a 3.93% increase in total home foreclosures over 2007, up to 503 filings from 484 a year ago. While the sheer number of foreclosures is alarming, the week-by-week trends may be cause for some hope: 10 out of the last 15 weeks of 2008 had either the same or fewer foreclosures filed than in the same period in 2007. This indicates that the foreclosure crisis may be tapering off in McLean County going into 2009.

The McLean County Association of Realtors reported through October that new homes sales increased by a total of 0.9% (3 homes) year over year comparison with 2007. The dollar volume increased 5.9% ($5.3 million) and the average price of new homes increased 4.9%. The bad news is in the sale of existing homes. Dollar volume has decreased nearly 12%. However the average price remained steady with an increase of 1.7%. So in McLean County, the average price on new and existing homes has been able to increase by 4.0% overall even though total dollar volume is down almost 8%. It will be interesting to see the final numbers for the year.

Nouriel Roubini's RGE Monitor reports that we are in the fourth year of a housing recession and it continues. A survey of 20 metro areas show 14 of the 20 metro areas are reporting new record rates of decline. As of October 2008, the 10-City Composite is down 25.0% from its mid-2006 peak, and the 20-City Composite is down 23.4%(S&P).

Have you bought a home this year? I know two of my staff members have purchased homes and one is building a new one. All of them plan to stay in their homes for a while. I'm sure they are hoping for a long term turn-around over the next three to five years. Roubini says that the trough or loss in value over the next year will be between 38% and 44% loss in value before things start turning around. Consider ourselves fortunate.

Traffic School

2009-01-06T23:09:00.004-06:00

I meant to write this on Saturday, but ran out of time. I went to Traffic School today to assure that my ticket won't be on my record. I acquired a ticket on October 2nd right outside Redbird Arena. I was on my way to pick up a colleague and told him under no circumstances will he keep me waiting. Officer Krupke slowed me down and I was late nevertheless.

Traffic school is a unique mix of people. Young, old, male, female, friendly and grouchy. I am amazed by people who exhibit disgust or anger at being at the class. As far as I know everyone who goes gets their traffic charge removed from their record, which means a savings in the cost of their insurance.

I counted at least 14 times someone said something completely stupid or took out their anger for being there at the instructor by saying in either despondent or recalcitrant manner, "I dunno". What a bunch or morons!

No one wants to be there. We all know you DIDN'T speed, run that stop sign, cause that accident or (fill in the blank). Neither did I. You didn't impress me with your smart-ass answers, sitting the ENTIRE time with your arms crossed, or falling asleep. And you certainly didn't impress anyone with your visual and loud display of throwing your workbook out in the trash can at the front of the room.

I though going was a good deal, and at the end I found it interesting and helpful. So if you ever get a ticket, take my advice, go to the class.

There is never a reason to speed!

What Does 2009 Look Like?

2008-12-22T16:46:00.008-06:00

As most people know, I am not an economist. But I am a reader and I am curious, and I want to know what the future holds for us, so I have been perusing the various writers and blogs about the economy and have come up with my best guess of what 2009 will look like. The economy has given what seems like a "surprise-a-week" over the past several weeks, however it seems lately the news has been operating from the premise of "no news is good news". A good review of the local economy can be found at the EDC website's Economic Summit page. We review the local economy with a local panel of experts. If you haven't seen it check it out. It is a little long, but no longer than a Seinfeld episode.

So what does 2009 look like? Can the economy recover, and how soon will it recover. I have been talking to business people over the past couple weeks to gauge their thoughts and feelings. I will try to summarize them in the paragraphs that follow.

First the bad news: The economy is going to be tough for a lot of people. How is that for a prediction? There are going to be additional job loss. Manufacturing communities in the Midwest will feel the pinch no matter if the Feds help out the domestic auto companies or not. In any case GM and Chrysler cannot move forward in 2009 without major job layoffs, changes in contracts and a cut in demand to suppliers. This will reverberate all the way through the economy. First the suppliers, then their component and raw material suppliers and then tool and die makers and everyone who supplies them. Economists see the unemployment rate increasing to 9% to 10% nationwide. And this is just the manufacturing side. No one is buying cars either. Toyota announced their first loss in 70 years this past week.

Real Estate: Can home prices be any worse than they have been? I see ads on TV created by our local Realtors Association that are encouraging people to buy. for those who can buy, now is the time. The ads are right, prices are low and one can pick up a bargain in the market place. Home prices are still being driven down throughout the country. According to MarketWatch the median sales price fell 13.2% in the past year which amounts to the largest decline since data collection began in 1968. It is likely the greatest drop in home prices since the Great Depression.

Home inventory is also at the highest point ever, at least since the mid 80s'. The National Association of Realtors inventory of unsold homes on the market rose 0.1% to 4.2 million, an 11.2-month supply at the current sales pace according to NAR. The 11.2-month supply matches a recent peak set in April, and is the highest since the mid 1980s, according to NAR. Results were weak in all regions, with monthly sales down 12% in the Northeast, 10.9% in the South, 7.4% in the Midwest and 4.3% in the West. The good news according to NAR was the increase in the Mortgage Loan Application Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume. This index rose 48 percent from a week earlier to the level of 1245. Refinance applications surged 62.6 percent in one week and purchase applications increased 10.6 percent.

The economy will continue to retract in 2009. Most estimates see GDP in the fourth quarter of 2008 at 1.2% to 1.4%. Estimates of GDP growth (or lack of) at 1.5% to 2.0%. What does this mean for people living in Bloomington Normal? Everyone here believes our economy is "recession-proof" due to the presence of stable employers such as State Farm and COUNTRY Financial along with higher education. Again, this recession is unlike any recession anyone living and paying attention has seen.

According to Nouriel Roubini,Professor of Economics at Stern School of Business at NYU and chairman of RGE Monitor and who predicted our current situation over a year ago, recently said the "U.S. will experience it's most severe recession since WWII, much worse, longer and deeper than 1970s and 80s recessions. Recession will continue until at least 2009-end with a cumulative GDP drop of over 4%, unemployment rate will likely reach 9% by 2010." Roubini believes the recession's persistence in 2010 will depend on the success and aggressiveness of government policy actions. Can monetary policy and fiscal policy and efforts to recapitalize financial institutions in the US and elsewhere work?

I'm not sure we can keep the recession away from us. Our insurance providers will continue to keep policies intact, as everyone requires auto insurance and homeowners or rental insurance, but the trend line for growth is undoubtedly flat. Does this mean layoffs or reduction in jobs? I doubt it, but it does not portend growth.

My overall prediction for 2009 in Bloomington-Normal is that we will suffer from the national recession around us. Lower values in homes and income will reduce expenditures at retailers and reduce local government income. Property values will continue to suffer and those who took out second mortgage and are paying for new toys or even for junior's college education may find themselves upside down. Real estate projects requiring funding will be available,but only to the best proforma's and developers with bucketful of solid equity.

We will survive but times will be tough. Reviewing your strategy and taking advantage of the downturn by being ready for the upswing beginning in late 2009 and going into 2010 will be the right strategy.

What do you think? Is our economy immune? What are you doing to ride out the storm?

New Car Deal

2008-12-19T09:50:00.002-06:00

The President announced this morning a new deal for the big three automakers. The President is offering $17.4 billion in loans to help GM and Chrysler get through a "tough" period. The money comes from the original bailout money since Congress couldn't agree on a plan.

Earlier this week I had indicated my preference for the government not to bailout the auto industry. While I still think that this is probably the right thing to do, I am willing to modify my argument, and perhaps over time I will be convinced to change my mind altogether. In politics they call this a "flip-flop". Since I am not running for any office I cannot be accused of this recent horrifying political transgression.

I find it difficult to understand why we vilify a political candidate or even a sitting elected official for changing their mind. When faced with new information, better information, data that perhaps wasn't available when a politician first uttered their position on a an issue, I want them to change their mind. I want my elected leaders to change their mind when they have new and better information. Isn't it humbling to see a leader move in a logical and perhaps more informed position, rather than be set in their ways and be stubborn. Perhaps we will get to the day where a "flip-flop" is seen as a virtue versus a vice.

A banker I know and respect thought perhaps a bailout in these very difficult time times is warranted. He said under the current economic conditions a massive hiccup in the auto industry may be devastating to the economy (as if everything that is occurring isn't). Perhaps he has a point. Mike Seeborg, Economics professor at Illinois Wesleyan University indicated at our Economic Summit several weeks ago, that we should not bailout the domestics. You can see his comments and others on our website. I wonder if perhaps he has modified his opinion a bit as well.

2009 will be a tough year for everyone. I hope the President's bailout is the right thing to do. I hope that the car companies, unions, bondholders and investors can all come to the tale with concessions that will turn these once proud companies into profitable and vibrant employers.

New Coach

2008-12-16T08:02:00.004-06:00

Illinois State University, my alma mater, is announcing their new football coach tomorrow. Brock Spack, the defensive coordinator for Purdue is an excellent choice for this position. I would like to say that I know Brock Spack, but I really don't. I would like to think that he knows me, but he probably doesn't.

Here is what I do know. Coach Spack and I played against each other on an unseasonably warm October afternoon in 1978, when I was a senior pulling guard for the Thomas Jefferson High School J-Hawks and he played middle linebacker for our mortal enemy, the Rockford East E-Rabs. They beat us and I remember it as the most physically demanding game I have ever played in. No doubt, Spack had something to do with it.

He was really good then, and I remember him as a rising star. I graduated, he played another year and then went on to Purdue. I played one miserable year at community college and ended my football career after that.

Congratulations to Coach Spack. Hey, Brock, if you want to get a good tour of the community, let me know, I am the economic development guy and I know the place pretty well.

If he coaches with the same intensity he played 30 years ago, we are are in for some good years here in Normal, IL. Great job by the ISU Athletic Director Dr. Sheahon Zenger in getting a top guy who is intense, smart and devoted to a sport he loves.

Political Leanings

2008-12-15T20:49:00.006-06:00

At our annual meeting and breakfast two weeks Rich Karlgaard, the eminent journalist from Forbes magazine apparently outed me as a "pro-business democrat". I'm not sure how he came up with that label because by that point in time he and I had only been BFF since the day before and had spent a mere 3 hours together in the car together coming back from O'Hare airport the day before he spoke to our group.

We discussed politics, business, regulation, demographics, Richard Florida, Malcolm Gladwell, etc. Now I am going to out him: He said that if it weren't for the super uber-crazy left wing Democrats that posed as his friends in the San Francisco area perhaps he too would be a Democrat. He said it at mile marker 76 on Interstate 55 heading south towards Bloomington-Normal. He'll never be able to deny it, as I remember it clearly.

Rich, you have done great damage to my reputation, as most people, particularly my Board of Directors believe, as they should, that I am a card carrying, pro-business, God-fearing Reagan Republican. My friends and relatives, (specifically my older sister) based on our many conversations, rants and discussions believe I am secretary-treasurer of the local "Apologists for Debs" chapter.

Well as my former preacher neighbor once said, "my congregation should never know my politics", and as such no one should no mine. Economic Development is "label-less" sport and should resist labeling. I hate labels. What does"pro-business" mean? If I am pro-business am I for Wal-Mart or the little guy selling picture frames in his photo shop in a downtown. If I am "pro-life" am I against abortion but for capital-punishment?

A Board member of my organization who I respect for his business acumen, discipline and advice he has given me over the past two years gave me my annual review tonight. One reason I like him is that he always likes to do it over steaks and beer at our favorite Irish pub (thank God we actually have one in our community). He told me I am a rebel. At once I relish the thought and at the same time I realize it hurts me. But it correctly assesses my character. My ex-wife, children and immediate family would say I am argumentative. Again, I rejoice and lament at that label.

Call me Republican, Democratic, conservative, liberal, or ass, but call me something. One will never know, because the minute you think you know, I promise to say something or do something that will throw you off. My congregation should never know my politics.

(Day 6 of the Blagojevich Watch...the world waits)

Changing the Rules

2008-12-14T10:16:00.007-06:00

I just spent my Sunday morning as I often do watching Sunday Morning on CBS. This long format news show runs 90 minutes and is hosted by Charles Osgood. He seems to have added weight since I first started watching this show at my ex-mother in law's Florida home. This was her favorite news programs and I can see why. It wasn't too heavy, it provided a break from the bad news and almost always does it's own "lite" version of celebrity news stories. This morning one could hear a biography of Richard Wagner, #2 to fans of Austin Powers movies, and former husband to Natalie Wood.

Of course following this show is the hard news program, Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, who covered two stories this morning, the Illinois Governor (please resign, would 'ya?) and the auto bailout. I like how Bob always cuts off people by saying "we are simply just out of time".

So what about the bail out? What should Congress do? What should the president do? I has taken me a while to come to my own conclusions and I am conflicted. Richard Karlgaard, at our breakfast the other day repeated another economist by saying this economic recession has been characterized by it's consistency in providing surprises, so it is difficult for me to determine which way to go on this issue.

I lived through the last auto bailout of Chrysler back in 1979. With a Chrysler assembly plant in next-door Belvidere Illinois, Lee Iaccoca, CEO at the time came to town (Rockford) seeking cooperation from the one lone holdout bank, American National Bank of Rockford (now, Amcore) and their very conservative Bank President, David Knapp. In order for the federal loan guarantees to work in this version of a bailout, every lender to Chrysler had to agree to the new terms. Knapp initially said "no" and subsequently the bank was subject to protests by the local UAW and others. Eventually Knapp gave in under the pressure and agreed to the new terms. As I recall Lee Iaccoca had few nice things to say about the experience in his biography he wrote some years later. I wonder what the now deceased Knapp would have to say about the current crises. Maybe he was on to something or maybe we should bring Iaccoca in to help the situation.

Dan Gerstein, a Forbes.com columnist is someone who is not in favor of a bail-out. He refers to the bailout as "Detroit's biggest snow job yet--literally as well as figuratively". He saves his animus for Cerberus, the private equity firm that owns Chrysler. He gives no quarter to "Cerberus CEO John Snow, who spent three-and-a-half lackluster, and some might say lap-doggish, years as President Bush's second Treasury secretary" and "is leading a who's who of crony capitalists in a lobbying campaign for a taxpayer bailout to salvage Cerberus' investment in Chrysler." This is an argument to which I agree. Why should we as taxpayers, bail out a private equity firm that made a bad investment? If Cerberus could come up with $7.4 billion for the fire-sale price for Chrysler a couple years ago, can't they rely on their huge portfolio or their own stable of investors to bail them out now.

As an open market, free-trading, capitalist I think we should let the auto-makers, and in particular Chrysler work out the issues as any company in our business market-place would do. Whether they are bailed out or declare bankruptcy, I don't think there will be too much difference in the economic landscape. In either case we have to be prepared for massive layoffs. As of this morning the only way the automakers can shake loose the burdensome yoke of legacy labor costs,pension commitments, and medical guarantees is to downsize and become a much leaner, more productive and efficient manufacturer. Either way they will have to do this in Chapter 11 or under the terms of a government bailout. Only then can they compete with non-domestic auto manufacturers.

Will they do this under the false cloud of a government bailout? The executives of the big three or whatever they can be called these days, are barely the titans of manufacturing their predecessors were. At this point not only do they want government to step in and save their backsides, they would probably love a bailout of their medical plan in the form of government sponsored health care. It feels like we are in the midst of nationalizing our domestic auto manufacturing. and indeed some have suggested this, at least on a temporary basis. This morning Senator Carl Levin of Michigan said on Face the Nation that "other countries wouldn't let their auto makers fail" In fact Levin has moved on from supporting a congressional bailout to putting his hopes on the TARP program.

If Congress does nothing or if TARP is not used, what happens to our economy if the dire predictions of a collapsed domestic auto industry come true? Many are predicting thousands of job layoffs rippling through not only the US but throughout the world. In fact, even though the issue is centered around the US domestics, transplants are also feeling the pinch as are global suppliers. Even workers at GM's Indian unit are worried according to reports. General Motors makes its own case with a video now on YouTube that emphasizes their devastating case.

One problem with the video above and many of the people who are arguing for a bailout is they assume total and complete collapse. the doomsayers are implying that if GM, Ford and Chrysler don't get a government bridge loan and have to file for Chapter 11, that this will result in total and complete collapse of the auto industry. I haven't heard anyone say they will quit making cars completely.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is often called "reorganization", and perhaps under this protection the auto makers can sell off brands that other companies might want to buy, sell off plants that other companies may want to make more productive, and become that leaner more productive company that can then compete and grow. If the domestics produce less cars won't other automobile makers pick up the slack as the economy grows? Won't the dozens of other automobile manufacturing plants in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and right here in Normal, Illinois (home of Mitsubishi Motors Manufacturing North America)produce more cars to meet the demands. Is this merely a geographic and current stakeholders (the domestics and UAW)issue?

As a country we have to ask ourselves, do we want to take away the risk-reward incentive that motivates entrepreneurs and even large corporate entities to take chances by propping them up every time trouble stares them down, or do we put in a "fix" and hope someone else can deal with the problem later?

My liberal friends and colleagues in labor my lament at my comments here, as they are likely interested in the jobs and the social issues that will result of doing nothing. My conservative friends and the business owners I know have to come to grips that we need to let some companies fail, and let the course of the economy take its toll. This is not a collapse of a sector, as cars will still be made in the United Sates, but perhaps not by these companies. We are not talking about the banking system. The toll will be heavy and the medicine is bitter, and I am sad we have come this far, but if we bail out the auto industry I do believe we are on a slippery slope and we cannot become more productive, more efficient, and truly appreciate capitalism the way it was intended to be.

At the age of 21 my daughter is experiencing the joys and frustrations of operating her own retail underground boutique. She will tell you that is sometimes very hard and difficult and perhaps there are days she wants to give up and try something less risky. But she doesn't. Why? Because she knows there is hope that one day bigger, better success will come her way. She knows that she gets to control her future to a great extent. She knows that along with the good days there are going to be bad days. But if she overextended herself, if she didn't change with her customers, if she kept paying her employees more and more without regard to the marketplace conditions, she will be out of business, and rightfully so. No one is going to bail her out. She knows it.

Do we change the rules when our businesses get too big too fail?

What do you think? Am I wrong in my assertions? Are saving jobs more important than the sanctity of our risk-reward system? Let me know what you think.

Disappointing News

2008-12-09T20:32:00.003-06:00

By now most people will have noticed that the Gov. of Illinois was served with a criminal complaint that indicates that he was involved in a level of unprecedented fraud and scheming. Let me say that of course, I believe in our criminal justice system and have to say that I believe that everyone accused is innocent until proven guilty. I once served on a jury and the prosecutor did such a lousy job proving the case against the defendant that we let him off on one of the charges. Everyone should truly get their day in court, and I'm sure that the Governor will have his.

Many people know I know involved in government, politics or economic development in the state of Illinois have said for a long time that it was merely a matter of time before the Feds caught up with the guv. These were all whispers, and I by no means am a political insider, but it was pretty common knowledge that his number was going to be called and soon. Consider the distance that President-Elect Obama kept from his home state governor. In my home town it was very difficult to find too many people, including Democrats could find anything very nice to say about Rod. Prior to today's events, the Governor's approval rating was a whopping 13%.

When I first heard the news this morning, I was elated. Economic Development programs have been devastated in the State of Illinois under the Blagojevich administration. The politics of divisiveness has run rampant. The Illinois government has not accomplished what is necessary for the people of Illinois. Economic development in Illinois is difficult because of the perception that has been created by our dysfunctional state government.

But later as I talked to more people, listened to the news conference by the U.S. Attorney, I found myself feeling a little blue, embarrassed and frankly ticked off. Now you might be thinking that I am pissed at the "government", but having been a student of government and having worked in local government I never say something like that. Because I believe as "citizens" we deserve the fruits of what we sow, I think that we have allowed this to happen. Many will say, that downstate has no chance with Chicago voters putting only Chicago politicians in office. But we have voted good people into office as well.

I was ticked off at how we are all complicit in the election of this guy. We haven't done enough in this state to honestly consider what our real issues are. We vote for people who say things we like while we ignore our infrastructure, economic development issues and the very basics of social justice.

We can vote good people into office. I know a lot of very good honest people that hold office. We can recover from this. I know I may sound like a Pollyanna, but trust me I am not. I merely believe in the system.

Leadership comes from a wide variety of areas, disciplines and sectors. Maybe you are one of those people.

It's a tragic story here in Illinois, but we will come out of it.

ED in the midst of a recession

2008-12-06T10:09:00.000-06:00

Economic Development is at best an "undisciplined discipline". I have thought and believed this for a long time. When Ken Springer our Research Analyst was our graduate student and working on his masters degree, he took a class in the economics department titled, appropriately "Economic Development 101", or something similar and more befitting a graduate level course. In any case I'm sure it was designed to be a wide exposure to the principles and practice of economic development. Through Ken I was asked to come and speak to his class, whose students were in various stages of getting through the ISU program that provides educational training to coming and going Peace Corps fellows.

I asked Ken, prior to my presentation, if I could see his textbook. As I browsed through the book, and although I shouldn't have been surprised, I found topic matter that would have never been addressed at any International Economic Development Council (IEDC, our professional association) conference or training session. In other words this was a deep theory class and was designed to give students a deeper, and richer understanding of underlying principles of economic theories, constructs and the like. I don't know to many practicing economic developers who would be interested in the topic matter of the class much less pass it!

Which leads me to the undisciplined part of our profession. Our profession attracts many types of people. I started out in government working in local government management and wit the intent of being a city manager someday. Various decisions and opportunities led me to where I am today. My experience includes everything from sales, consulting,commercial property development and a small retail business, to city management, public finance, and community image building and marketing. I feel as though I have the best of all worlds. As one can see my job, or many jobs in my career track requires a wide variety of experiences. But that is just my experiences. In my work I have met economists, lawyers, former department store managers, real estate brokers, planners, engineers, architects, hospital administrators, developers, executive assistants, and preachers. For their communities they have achieved some level of success or another.

Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes and keynote speaker at our annual community leaders breakfast said something that I've been thinking about since Thursday morning. In relation to other communities he related a story about how Fargo, North Dakota has done well. He talked about how once a community sees one company or entrepreneur begins doing well, they begin to believe in themselves and the community. It spurs others to move forward. People begin to believe "It can be done here".

"It can be done here" is the motto that I believe should and could work for many communities that must work through this recession. It speaks to the attitude of local self-help. Economic Development is not a great mystery. It is one person with one idea interested in growing a business, solving a problem in the marketplace and enriching themselves and others. Economic Development as a practice should be about nurturing and creating these opportunities for people. I will write about these ideas in the year to come. Grow your own and developing business in your community should be the goal of a community. This will bring long-term sustainable economic growth.

Winter is Here

2008-12-01T19:26:00.000-06:00

December is here as is the cold snow and wind. Winter arrived right on time. It looks as though the weather will be winter like all week. Our big annual meeting is being held this week. Rich Karlgaard the publisher of Forbes Magazine and author will be speaking. I heard Mr. Karlgaard speak before. In September of 2005, I attended the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) annual conference in Chicago. Mr. Karlgaard was a keynote speaker and had just published a book titled:

Life 2.0 --How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness.

This book is a “road book” but with a twist. Mr. Karlgaard flew around the United States in his own plane after learning how to fly interviewing various business people, entrepreneurs and others about what it is like living and working in middle America. Unfortunately the book is out of print, but you can read my review of his book at the EDC website. One can also find used copies on Amazon.

The highlight of my week will be picking up Mr. Karlgaard at O’Hare and spending the next two hours driving back to Bloomington Normal for his engagement with us. I hope that I can hold up my end of the conversation.
Mr. Karlgaard and his blog can be found at his blog: Digital Rules http://blogs.forbes.com/

Clean Cut Culture Shock

2008-11-26T15:03:00.000-06:00

My daughter Lauren is an extraordinary person. Of course, she is my daughter and I am naturally proud of her, but she has always had that sparkle in her eye of wanting to get something done. She says she is stubborn (she indicates I am too), but along with stubborn comes perseverance and the type of impatience that often makes people successful. Lauren is also a talented artist, musician and artist. So this isn't necessarily about all of her great qualities, but more about her dead-on analysis of what it takes to be a good small business person and the importance of local support for small business. She and her business partner are smart, young entrepreneurs, the type all types of communities are trying to figure out how to attract to their community to make it hip and cool. The Beloit and Rockford stores can be seen on their MySpace sites. Here is her essay:

Chamber Apologist

... the biggest problem was consumer confidence. If [all of] the people in the community felt confident and went out and shopped over the holidays, our community can prosper despite the issues at the national level."
This is an excerpt from an online article my dad wrote. He is the CEO of the Economic Development Council of Bloomington/Normal IL, and a very smart man.
My dad and I are both pretty stubborn, we like to make our points clear, but we agree on a lot of things too, One of those things being local economy, and an essential local support system.

Support for local businesses tugs a little bit on my heart strings for what most would consider obvious reasons. Skyler and I have 2 stores. While most people would consider "Culture Shock" Skyler's store, understandable, I have been there with him working just as hard as he has since his 5th month of ownership. He and I have helped each other reach completely new levels with that store that we both couldn't have done without each other. "Clean Cut", our second store, is my baby. I have done so much on that end of the businesses so far, with the exception of a few things I've needed help with. It is a huge part of my life. I am there everyday, I order for it, I promote for it, I talk to people all day about it. It's literally consumed my life, and together, both businesses, along with our website, and my college has consumed BOTH of our lives.

But owning a small local business stems farther back than that for me. I remember having a talk with my dad when I was about 9 years old at the kitchen table in my house on Welsh Rd. We sat down with a manilla colored piece of construction paper to talk "business." He showed me that if I got $0.70 per pound of aluminum cans and collected about 80 cans I'd make about $1.40. We came up with a business plan. If I asked my neighbors to save their cans for me every two weeks, and then were to collect a bag of at least 80 cans from 6 of our neighbors I'd make something, give or take, around $8.00 every two weeks. This was a lot of hard earned money for a 9 year old, and It taught me a kind of responsibility. From that day forward, I set out with my authentic wooden red wagon, collecting bags of cans from my very giving neighbors.

A little later on in life, when I was in junior high, my mom started a 'Gourmet Dog Biscuit Bakery' called "A Dogs Life Bakery". Here she made cute little dog biscuits, dog cup cakes, dog birthday cakes, sold dog dishes, little doggie outfits, etc.. I helped out at the bakery every chance I could. I wanted to be involved in all my parent's business decision making. My mom got a lot of local support. You would never believe how many people loved to pamper their pets. She eventually even had her dog treats at a few fancy hotels in Las Vegas for their special four legged accompanying guests.

Since then, along with working another job for 5 years- I have worked for, or helped out at a couple other local businesses. I love watching a business grow, and I love working so hard for something that you can actually see the results from. It's invigorating to me.

The reason I am writing this blog: As we all know, the economy has pretty much been flushed down a HUGE toilet full of diarrheal scandalous, corruption ridden subterfuge and bull-shit. But what are we doing about it? Are you worried about all the hours you're being cut at work? Are you worried about paying your rent, and also paying for the most expensive holiday season of any year? Do you feel like you are so small in this country, like what you do makes no difference at all?

We all need to stop feeling so small. Essentially, everyone can make a difference in their local economy, which in turn will snowball into helping the larger picture. In the quote from my dad above, he basically says that the key to rebuilding our economy is consumer confidence. I am not speaking for him, but speaking for myself when I say that If I along with everyone in Rockford were to go out, and spend the way they normally do, without being artificially brainwashed by the government into being "scared", then the local economy would slowly, but surely, grow.

I'm not sure about you, but I know that I absolutely do NOT have more than $100,000 dollars invested in any single stock or account right now, and if you can point me to anyone my age, who I know, who DOES have that kind of money, then I would tell them to put that money into 100 different accounts, or stuff it under their f-ing mattress because we all learned in 8th grade Social Studies class that the banks in America can only insure your money is safe up to $100,000 if something really screwed up happens... (like a depression....? hmmm....?) What I am saying, Is that it is up to us, the people who feel so small in the general scope of things. We don't have or make over 100,000 dollars a year, like all the stock brokers who are being laid off once did. We are still making our paychecks work, we are making ends meet. Go out and buy a shirt now and then, just like you used to. Go out for coffee with your friends. Don't be scared away by your government. Since when has our generation ever listened to someone blindly without first asking "Why?" and then asking "Why?" again and again?

This christmas season work on building up your local economy. I am not just saying shop at my store, but make a point to shop at as many local stores as you can. You can find so many amazing things at local stores and for so much cheaper and your gifts will have more quality. Do you think that the corporate owners of Walmart care as much as they say they do in their commercials? I doubt it. They are making 6 figures, and they really don't a flying shit if you purchase an over sized XXXXXXL bling-bling Mickey Mouse shirt for your weird cousin. Wouldn't you feel good about supporting a local store, and purchasing a gift from a business who actually cares about you as a customer? There is really a big difference in the customer service you receive between Walmart and Culture Shock.

"Entrepreneurship, I believe is the key to economic growth for many communities. How can a community seeking to raise their economic standards seek to attract new businesses in their community when they are not helping existing businesses?"
(another quote from my dad's article)
I am not, by any means, just talking about shopping at our store either. There are small local businesses EVERYWHERE! In Beloit there is a "Slow food movement" grocery store, a local market have you, where all the food that you can purchase is grown and produced locally. Have you ever been to Phoenix Traders in Rockford? It's an awesome store with two owners who care a lot about every customer who walks through the door. Have you ever been to Just Goods? They specialize in fair trade and are very educated and totally willing to share their knowledge with you about anything they can, not to mention they have very unique gifts. There are so many other stores and businesses I could mention. Minglewood, CD source, Toad Hall. Don't forget about the thrift stores, those are my favorite places to find old posters and vintage jewelry, Three Angels Emporium is a good one, there are a bunch of thrift stores on broadway that I never know the names of, but I make sure to stop in every time I'm around. Buy food locally too! In the summer there are Farmers Markets at colonial village, at the perryville plaza, and in a few other places. Support locally owned restaurants and coffee shops! They are feeling the economic crunch as well.

If you continue to support local businesses, your efforts will go into YOUR economy, meaning YOU'LL be making a difference. This means, your favorite dives will invest more into their businesses, bringing you new products, or better sales, and deals, not only that but putting any money into YOUR local economy will snowball effect into more jobs, more opportunities, more community growth etc. This is how you can help.

So this holiday season, I'm begging you to take a look around, and before you head out to the same mall you've been going to for 458730975 years, ask yourself if you're in for a much more adventurous day of shopping around the entire city of Rockford/Rockton/Roscoe/Beloit. There are a lot of local businesses and the only way our economy can improve is if we all have confidence in it, and invest in the economy accordingly.

-Lauren

Boris

2008-11-24T21:56:00.000-06:00

Dignity. That is what I say when people ask me why I named my Turkey. My Thanksgiving Turkey that is. OK, I sound a little possessive. But it's true that once you place a down payment on a turkey at a farmer's market I feel as though the turkey is mine. I wonder if they put a little name tag on the turkey that says, "Marty's Turkey" just in case I wanted to go out and visit with him. I think it's a him.

Anyway, my turkey is a good turkey, or at least I imagine him to be. Oh, and forgot to tell you that my turkey's name is Boris. That's right, Boris. Last year my Turkey's name was Anton. Anton was a very fine specimen. He was a huge bird, 27 pounds of all-American poultry. I like to imagine that Anton and now Boris lived a pretty good life. They probably ran around the turkey pen, gobbling and eating little grubs and worms and seeds on the ground. The good farmers that raised Boris probably gave him plenty of other things to eat that made him big, fat and juicy.

I'm thinking Boris had some friends in the the turkey pen. Maybe some other turkey's that were spoken for by other people from Bloomington-Normal. There was one that had a name tag that said "Mike's Turkey" or "John's Turkey". There was probably a "Molly"s Turkey and "Julie's Turkey". Maybe since they all knew they were turkey's the tags just said "Molly's" or "Marty's". The turkeys probably had a name tag similar to the type one wears at a Chamber of Commerce mixer. Do turkey's network? Do the ask each other, "So how's everything down at your place. You folks feeling the pinch of this downturn?" Or, "Did you see the market today, the Dow gained 400 points after loosing 450 yesterday!" Do turkey's really care?

I must admit that imagining what a turkey might say to each other is a little bit of fun, but probably they are merely wondering how long they have before they are snatched up by farmer Jones and whisked away for a throat slitting and hot steamy bath to get rid of those pesky feathers. Do turkey's go to heaven?

I am glad that Boris gave his life so that on Thanksgiving (don't ever call it "turkey day" in my presence) we could stuff ourselves with a ton of him, stuffing, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, and all types of other goodies. I really do love Thanksgiving the best. There is only one goal in mind at Thanksgiving. That is to eat, take a nap, watch football, and maybe take a walk in the brisk air. There are no pressures to make sure the gifts are right for everyone, there are no problems if guests or friends are invited, and everyone is the most relaxed they will be the entire year. Right after the Thanksgiving holiday is when the pressure of Christmas starts. Gift buying, malls, and the worry if you have given enough.

Boris is in my fridge right now. Occasionally, I stick my head in there and see how he is doing. Farmer Jones shoved him in the freezer right after he eviscerated him, so I have a feeling Boris didn't appreciate being treated this way. For what? Being a good turkey, not running away? Is this the kind of respect he gets? Well, now I have to defrost him and like I said, I stick my head in the fridge give a little pat on the back and try to build up his self esteem.

Boris, we will raise a glass to you, and thank you for the ultimate sacrifice you have made for us. You were a good turkey when you were alive, and you will be better still, roasted to a safe temperature of 170 degrees internally in the thickest part of your thigh! Hail thee Boris, your dignity is intact, you have served thee well!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Economic Development and the National Agenda

2008-11-20T12:16:00.000-06:00

I am a member of the International Economic Development Council (my professional association) Public Policy Advisory Committee (PPAC). That sounds pretty impressive doesn't it? I 'll leave you with that impression. Truthfully this group, I believe, is one of the hardest working committees I have ever been part of in any organization. It is made up of a number of really smart people all across the country who are very interested in public policy at the national level. In fact their is even one member who calls in for our monthly meetings from Hawaii! The IEDC's PPAC is working on a transition document that is going to be submitted to the Presidential transition team. This paper is very thoughtful and well written and I am proud to say that I have participated in the entrepreneurship portion of the document.

Entrepreneurship, I believe is the key to economic growth for many communities. How can a community seeking to raise their economic standards seek to attract new businesses to their community when they are not helping existing businesses? This is key to our strategy here in Bloomington-Normal. Through our retention program (BizBAM) education, mentoring, access to capital, and our incubation programs we are making sure that the local businesses in our community are being served.

What do you think? What programs exist in your community that help entrepreneurs? If you own or operate a small business, do you know where to go to get help? Have you ever tried to seek help from an agency like the EDC? If you have ever thought of starting business (and you work for someone else) would you know where to go for help in your community? I'd like to hear from you.

The federal agenda for economic development is at best poorly developed. In fact the agenda is dispersed among various agencies and not very well coordinated. We hope that with the new administration, the various agenda items in our transition paper get attention and economic development gets more and better coordinated attention.

Good News --Bad News

2008-11-19T16:14:00.000-06:00

We just got back from our economic summit and learned more about our local economy and how the global meltdown is affecting us. What a great panel. We had Bob Lakin from Commerce Bank a large regional bank; Larry Maschhoff of Bank of Illinois a local community bank; Jim Payne, Economics Chair at Illinois State University, Mike Seeborg, Economics Professor at Illinois Wesleyan University; Eric Schlipf from Morgan Stanley; and Greg Yount commercial Realtor from Coldwell Banker. What a braintrust! Here is what they told us:

The global and national economy is doing poorly (really?) and will continue to do poorly. In fact, it is likely that we will continue to see more bad numbers coming from the various leading indicators. Housing starts, GDP, productivity, unemployment are all going to continue to show bad or dissappointing numbers as we move through the next several quarters. The panel gave the national economy an average of 2 to 2.5 on a scale of 1 through 5 with 1 being the "economy will contuinue to be really bad through the next twelve months", and 5 indicating "the economy will do super over the next twelve months". The local economy they rated at around 3 to 3.5.

They felt as a group that the TARP program is neccessary and Secretary Paulson is correct in modifying the plan. This problem is a moving target and the Treasury should be able to make modifications to the plan as it sees fit. The problem with the original plan was that it was impossible to price the poorly performing financial instruments that the Treasury was to buy.

The local economy is sheilded somewhat from the strong employers we do have. Our largest employers, the insurance industry are conservatively managed according to our panelists and are in no danger of having a meltdown like insurance giant AIG. In fact AIG's traditional insurance lines business is healthy and strong. At least a couple panelists felt that the biggest problem was consumer confidence. If people in the community felt confident and went out and shopped over the holidays, our community can prosper despite the issues at the national level.

Good news: The BN economy is once again reilient and will do ok, but will still take some hits. The bad news: The national economy...not so good.

Watch for an edited version of the program on our web site soon.

The Future

2008-11-19T08:05:00.000-06:00

Today I am hosting a group of very smart people in something we are calling an economic summit. Two economists, two bankers, a broker and a real estate broker are going to tell us what the future of the Bloomington-Normal economy looks like...hopefully. The news around the world is not good. The market is up and the market is down. The whole event will be taped and posted on the media portion of the website, so please watch for it.

The US automakers are seeking additional dollars to help their companies survive. The big question is if by doing this will the taxpayers and General Motors be putting off the inevitable. Is GM really a company that has been mismanaged to the point they are bound to fail no matter what the national economic conditions are?

I am a "glass half full" type of guy and I an hoping for the best. In my lifetime it seems as though as a country we have always been able to get ourselves out of these types of messes no matter what. In my hometown in the late seventies and early eighties manufacturing was leaving town in droves. It was the rise of the Japanese and Europeans that was driving the machine tool industry out of the community, laying off people and turning once prosperous buildings and middle-class neighborhoods into vacant dinosaurs of the past. Since then I have lived through several other downturns, most not as severe. But today, I worry, for the world has changed dramatically and today I don't know what to tell people.

A local radio talk show host I know and whose show I appear on regularly was livid over the fact that Treasury Secretary Paulson changed the rules of the game with the TARP program. While initially I didn't agree with her I can see where she is coming from. In my glass-half-full type of way I explained to her that the whole program is subject to change and I don't mind if they change the program in mid-stream, as long as they do it right. But what is right?

By 3:00 pm today we will know more about the local economy. I hope there is good news.

Welcome

2008-11-15T17:15:00.000-06:00

This is the very first entry to what I hope becomes a long-term compendium of my thoughts and actions in wide variety of subject matter. What you will find here most of the time is information and tidbits about this broad and interesting subject called "economic development". But here is so much more. Most of what goes on in our world today can have a line drawn back to economic development. In other words "connect the dots". But then, is this activity, this "thing" really economic development? Hard to say. But at least we can explore some of those issues in this blog.

I hope, if you are reading this, that you find this interesting, thought provoking, and makes you want o argue with me, for as everyone who knows me well, I love a good argument! We call all be friends when we are done and hoist an ale!

See you soon...Marty the Economic Developer