If I only criticize…

…then I’m no better than those I’m criticizing.

Those of you who have been reading The Invaluable Leader for a while have seen me rail at the media for a variety of ills – at least my perception of their ills.  I have not, however, offered an alternative – until now.

I’d like to introduce you to Community News, www.mycnews.com.   This local paper, under the guidance of Robert Huneke, publishes only good news.  It serves St. Louis and St. Charles Counties in Missouri.  They print:

• good news
• upcoming events
• health and fitness tips
• safety tips
• movie reviews
• recycling tips

and a host of other topics all designed to make people’s lives better.

Kudos to Robert and his team for showing us the inspiring side of life.  They comment candidly on the stimulus package and its effectiveness, or lack thereof, and other timely topics without either sugar coating the message or reporting with the intent to create fear or anxiety.

If you listen to most members of the media, you know that they consider Community News’ approach to be, at best, naive and, at worst, a prescription for failure.  Yet the Community News continues to thrive in the markets it serves.

The public craves good news, particularly in challenging times.  It’s why box office hits during tough economic times have historically revolved around superhero and good-triumphs-over-evil themes.  The public, at least subconsciously, seeks an escape, a respite, from the difficult reality it faces.

It’s counter-intuitive, at least in the minds of most media people, that good news is what the public desires.  Any time you, whether you’re a member of the media or not, have a chance to deliver good news, you have an opportunity to inspire others to overcome whatever challenges they face.

Isn’t that one of the reasons we’re here – to help others navigate the storms they encounter during their journey?  And if we help others in this way, aren’t they likely to reciprocate when storms cloud our vision and attempt to throw us off course?  Please follow the lead of Robert Huneke and the Community News’ staff and deliver good news whenever you can.  You never know when your message will be just what your listener needs.

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog I used Step 1, Contributory Negligence, to see that my criticisms of the media wasn’t well balanced and to rectify the situation.  I also used Step 2, The Persuasion Myth, to ask a few questions to allow you to form your own judgment about our purpose in life and Step 5, Contrarian Mindset, to show how the Community News‘ approach is contrary to conventional media wisdom (group think).   For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.

I’m pleased to announce that AMACOM, a Division of the American Management Association, has set September 9, 2009 as the release date for my new book, Pricing for Profit.  The book shows business owners and leaders how to free themselves from the bonds of industry pricing.  Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com are both taking prepublication orders.

Can we prevent future occurrences?

If so, how?

In his April 1, 2009 Wall Street Journal article, Preventing ‘Too Big To Fail’ Isn’t Easy, Sudeep Reddy noted that Gary Stern, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, had repeatedly warned regulators of allowing banks to get too large.  He also quoted Former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, who said “Knowing when the crisis will happen is not possible for human beings.”  

While I agree that we may not be able to predict the exact time that a crisis will occur, we can certainly get early warning signals that we’re creating one.  Certainly Mr. Stern had that ability.  The key is that the earlier we can identify that an effort is going to fail, the smaller the crisis we’ll face when it does occur.  How can we avoid the “too big to fail” mistake in the future?  There are two questions that I find particularly helpful in discerning whether or not a merger or acquisition will fail.  

The first comes from Juli Niemann, Smith Moore & Co.’s resident economist who asks “Are they investing cash?”  Juli says that managements make more prudent investments when they’re using their company’s cash than when they’re borrowing the money from others.  We need only recall our youth to validate her statement.  Who among us wasn’t more frivolous in our spending when our parents were footing the bill than when we had to cough up the money ourselves?

• The second question is one that has served me well both in my personal investments and my client work.  The question is “What’s in it for the customer?”  An industry leader acquiring a relative newcomer to the industry can significantly increase customer value if:
• the newcomer has offerings that the industry leader does not
• those offerings are valued by the industry leader’s customers
• it would take years for the industry leader to develop comparable offerings
• it would take the newcomer years to build the name recognition and gain the level of customer confidence the industry leader possesses
• there are markets in which the industry leader has a presence that the newcomer doesn’t serve

Had these questions had been asked prior to the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and Wachovia/A.G. Edwards mergers would the regulators have approved them?  We’ll never know for sure, but three things that are obvious is that all four companies had:

•  stellar reputations with strong brand recognition
• wide distribution channels which made them readily accessible to customers and prospects
• a wide array of offerings designed to satisfy virtually any customer need

From that vantage point, was there really any reason for those mergers to occur?  

It’s counter-intuitive, but these two simple questions:

•  Are they investing cash?
• What’s in it for the customer?

can provide regulators with the insights they need prevent a recurrence of the “too big too fail” fiasco we’re currently suffering.

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program I offer is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog I used Step 1, Contributory Negligence, to demonstrate how simple, inexpensive and easy to implement solutions can be when we break problems down and begin to look at them from the standpoint of what we did to contribute to them.

I also used Step 5, Contrarian Mindset, to look beneath the level of complexity most people see to the lowest common denominator(s) that drive the challenges we face.  In this instance, two fairly simple questions serve as powerful indicators of how to avoid “Too Big To Fail.”  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm. 

Please share your experiences and wisdom with Invaluable Leader readers by posting your comments.  If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder for The Invaluable Leader blog or if there’s a topic you’d like me to address, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.