Viewing by month: February 2009

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Feb 3 2009

Cut and Ruin

By Lance Helfert

Financial booms and busts result from many causes, but our short memories certainly play a key role. Experience and attention to history help investors remain calm during periods of increased market volatility, but also during extended periods of growth or decline. Brandes Investment Partners sent out a fascinating chart to shed light on "the cost of throwing in the towel," as they put it.

The table, which we have recreated below, shows peak-to-trough declines greater than 20% in the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1960. It also shows the percentage change one and two years after the trough.

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Categories: Finance | Economics | Investing

1 comments - Posted by Dean Zatkowsky at 4:25 PM

Feb 2 2009

Change is Inevitable. Uniqueness is a Choice.

 

By Dean Zatkowsky

When I take on a new marketing assignment, I spend the first few days interviewing the company's coworkers and executives, pressing this simple question: What makes you so special? I also interview customers.

Too many executives delude themselves, believing that vague notions of excellent value or product quality make their offering unique, but this is almost never true. If your business is unique, it's because of something very specific and identifiable. If your business is not unique, you are living on borrowed time. (By the way, executives are notoriously susceptible to their own internal PR campaigns. When they start blathering away about "integrity," I know I should demand my fee in advance. People don't have to talk about their integrity. Their customers handle that chore.)

 

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Entrepreneurialism | Leadership | Competitive Advantage

0 comments - Posted by Dean Zatkowsky at 12:48 PM

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