I had more trouble with computer things over the weekend. I left my power cord at the 800-CEO-READ offices and Saturday night, my little guy peeled six keys off the Powerbook.
Not good.
I am back up and running now. We will get back to some sort of frequency this week.
I had to take the Mac in on Tuesday. I tried to do the Tiger upgrade and got a disk error. The only solution was to erase everything and reload from scratch. I didn’t feel comfortable doing that and the Apple Store will do it for free.
I am going to get it this afternoon.
[smiling]
It was announced Marquette University has reopened the selection process for the new name.
Warriors will be not allowed as one of the candidates.
The process will start with a list of about 10 names with a slot for write-ins with the entire University community voting. The top two vote getters will be voted on a second time for the final choice. Both votes are binding.
I am proud that the University Board had the courage and ability to swallow their pride. I think this is an outstanding process that lets the Unversity community decide the permanent name.
Journal Sentinel is reporting that Marquette University’s board of trustees is meeting today to “review the communications from students, alumni, faculty and other stakeholders regarding the decision [to change the nickname to Marquette Gold].”
It will be very interesting to see how this one goes down…
Welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists. I hosted the COTC back in December 2003 and a lot has changed in the world of blogging. There are so many more people writing great stuff on business and economics.
My weekly reading of the COTC had waned in recent months, but after reading through all of the entries submitted this week, I am all charged up again about the great stuff people have submitted. To show my support for the COTC, I will start including a link to the traveling COTC in my BizLinkBlog (RSS). This will give you an easy way to keep track of where it is each week.
My format this week will be in the form of a FAQ. I took the entries and created questions. The questions will direct you to the associated entries. My thought behind this is that everyone is always struggling with problems and opportunities in their own work and business. These linked entries are clearly not the definitive answers to the question, but they may give you another viewpoint you hadn’t considered.
Advertising
Which is bigger: Ad Dollars Spent on Outdoor Advertising or Online?
Facilities
Should I Be Worried About Energy Prices in the Long Term?
Finance
Can Hedge Funds Manipulate A Merger?
Can Earnings Growth Forecast the Market?
Is There a Better Way to Measure GDP Growth?
Human Resources
Will The Use of Robots in the Workplace Be Possible in The Next Ten Years?
What Keeps Us Where We Work?
Why Don’t Traders and Ranchers Respect One Another?
Law
Can laws inhibit my ability to do business, even charity work in the community?
Could Private Certification Work Better For Drugs?
Leadership
What Leadership Lessons Can We Learn From Alexander The Great?
What Do Herb Gardens Have To Do With Organizational Structure?
How Can Five Minutes Each Day Change Your Organization?
Are Teams Best Led By One Person or All the People?
Why Is Corporate Change Hard And Failure Almost Inevitable?
Is Employee Training Worth The Money You Spend?
Marketing
What should I name my new company?
Is Blogging Reached Saturation? How Can I Stay Unique?
Does Your Website Work?
Are Blogs A Part of Your Marketing Plan?
What does a shoeshop owner do when two of his competitor’s open shop next to his?
How Do You Make a Woman Smile?
Is Business Blogging All It Is Cracked Up to Be?
Personal Development
Does Acceptance of Failure End Creativity?
Personal Finance
Are You Afraid To Sell Your Home?
How Cheap Are Stock Right Now?
What Would Social Security Personal Accounts Look Like?
Project Management
How Can A Company’s Board of Directors Affect the Outcome of Your Consulting Project?
Sales
How Important Is Sales to Entrepreneurship?
Strategy
What Can Yoga Studios Teach Us About Marketplace Dynamics?
Are You Detail Oriented?
What Does Centralization Do To Innovation?
Technology
Why Do Companies Like Open Source Software?
Why Doesn’t Bill Gates Get Mobile?
There were some entries I couldn’t work into my cute little format. I simply listed them below with their titles:
Wal-Mart Bows to Unions, Copies GM Success Formula
Linkin Park protests Warner Music’s upcoming IPO
Criticism of the Peace Tax Fund Bill
The Basics of Press Releases
Canada Wooing Mexicans
Taxes good, market bad
Grading, game theory, and group evaluations..
Morningstar’s Auction IPO
Solutions to Bad Taxes
Mobile Blogging
Viva Immigration
I am going to end with breaking news this morning from the guys at Wordlab on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Name Change.
The talk in Milwaukee this week has been the decision by Marquette University to change its mascot name again.
The team will now be know is the Marquette Gold.
WHAT?!
In 1993, the administration changed the name from Warriors to the Golden Eagles. For the past 11 years, this has been a cloud hanging over the university. Alumni have never really accepted the change. Last year, a board trustee offered the university one million dollars to change the name back to Warriors. The university declined but it reopened the name debate.
To try and close the name debate once and for all, the board voted unanimously to ditch the Warriors name and instead proposed a new name. GOLD!?
Here is some local coverage:
Gold: Pan it or dig it? (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Nickname Timeline (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Marquette students protest Gold (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
I graduated with my MBA from Marquette in 2002. This is the letter I sent the school today with my alumni reaction:
To Whom It May Concern:
I think the decision to change the name of the mascot to “Gold” was a terrible decision. It is clear there was either no forethought to this decision or there was arrogance on the part of the administration that the university community would blindly accept this change.
Creating a third option and announcing it immediately following the board vote did not resolve the emotion surrounding this issue. The board had to offer a new option or else you would have heard loud and clear that the community wanted a return to the Warriors name. I find it very interesting that the survey results were never shared with the public.
I think you have made Marquette University the butt of a joke and I am embarrassed to be an alumni of the University.
This is not something that is going to just blow over.
My wife recently organized the donation of 1.5 million dollars of computer equipment to the university. Do not expect our family to go out of our way for Marquette University in the future.
Please remove us from all alumni communications from the university. Feel free to contact us when the name is changed. At the rate they change, I guess that will be in about 11 years.
I sold my last copy of Kaospilots A-Z and the folks in Denmark are also sold out.
Thanks for all who support that little project.
This Monday I will be hosting the Carnival of the Capitalists.
The absolute easiest way to contribute is by filling out the form over at Gongol.com.
We have about 16 entries thus far and would love to see some more.
I got my cholesterol tested today and the overall number dropped almost 100 points.
Here is the comparison:
| 2/22/05 | 5/6/05 | |
| Overall | 297 | 203 |
| HDL | 57 | 55 |
| LDL | 224 | 129 |
| Tri-Gycl | 157 | 97 |
How did I do it? I completely changed my diet.
With the shock I had with my original reading, I had no idea what would happen. I am experiencing a similar (and more pleasant) shock this time.
The dietician explained you get the biggest drop in the first month or two and that it continues to fall slowly over the next several of months. I am going to have it tested again in August.
I was reminded of one more ironic quote in the WSJ piece.
“You hire some bloggers to come in , and you give them a list of 10 talking points, and it becomes nothing more than a spin machine,” says Todd Copilevitz, director of digital initiatives for Omnicom Group’s Tracy-Locke. “Those are ultimately going to be derided as sellouts or as commercial.”
This should have followed his quote:
Mr. Copilevitz should know something about sellouts and commercialism. At Richards Interactive, he was heavily involved in the Raging Cow Debacle in early 2003, when Dr. Pepper/ 7-Up enlisted young teen bloggers to speak favorable about their new flavored milk product. This upset the blogging community to the point where some called for boycotts of the product since there was no disclosure that these bloggers had a relationship or been briefed by company or their agency.
If you are not familiar with the whole Raging Cow thing, there is a great summary at Business Blog Consulting that includes an interview with Copilevitz.
Again, can we find better sources?
I was returning to normal. Blood pressure was falling. I thought I would be back to blogging in a day or two.
And then I saw the blogging article in the Wall Street Journal. It is titled Corporate Blogging Get a Chance. I saw some people referencing it last night and I made sure to find it this morning.
Let me start by saying that this article is under the regular Advertising column that runs in WSJ. BLOGGING IS NOT ADVERTISING!
Vespa gets alot of ink in the article:
In a move that runs counter to current popular notions of how the so-called blogosphere ought to operate, Piaggio Group, the Italian manufacturer of Vespa scooters, intends to launch two blogs written by U.S. Vespa owners. Piaggio views the blogs as extensions of traditional scooter clubs, in which enthusiasts of the vehicles gather to discuss issues and ideas, says Paolo Timoni, chief executive of Piaggio USA.
Did you catch the ‘intends’ part? Piaggio is a client of Cooper-Katz and is working with Steve Rubel, the current Superman for corporate blogging.
So, Rubel got Piaggio a huge PR placement in WSJ for SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T EVEN EXIST YET!!!!
Attention Journalists: I would be more than happy to talk to you about companies who are actually blogging now. There are great stories out there about things that are already happening.
Again, this is not about Steve or Piaggio. That is just a firm serving a client.
It’s the hype and the media is reporting as news.
I’ll be off for a few more days… 🙂
I think I am a little fed up with the whole blogging scene right now.
The cover article in BusinessWeek did nothing for me. The cute blogging format, the same stories we all know, Rubel’s first step to blogging sainthood. If I see Stoneyfield Farms get mainstream media ink for their incredible blogs one more time, I am going to scream.
Then you have Scoble deciding to take on Ballmer. Please. Why would he put his employer in a position like that? Either he should have waited 24 hours to see if he still felt strongly or the power of his pulpit has gone to his head.
It may be a little quiet here over the next week as I clear my head.
Don’t worry. I still love blogging. I think it is an incredible tool for businesses. And RSS rocks.
I just need less hype.
OnMilwaukee.com looked through the recent Fortune 500 issue and found the Milwaukee and Wisconsin fared pretty well.
I forgot to get this up yesterday.
The Airbus A380 made is maiden flight yesterday. Airbus continues to hog the spotlight in the duel between them and Boeing. And there is not much Boeing can do about it.
As an engineer, I am in awe this amazing machine.
I got my hair cut last week. I was telling my stylist Donna about Steve Hartman (60 Minutes) and his visits to some New York salons. He paid $180 for his first visit and after a lukewarm response to the new ‘do, went to a different salon for a $250 haircut. Donna told me the top end stylists in Milwaukee can make anywhere from $100 to $150.
I was struck by the next thing she said, “The only trouble when you are making that much is your clientele changes.” One of those pieces of often quoted business advice is that as you become in more demand, you should charge more. I met a consultant recently who accomplished his goal of doubling his billable rate and cutting in half the hours he worked. I wonder how his client list changed.
It seems there are some pitfalls you should consider before jacking up your rate. The companies are going to be bigger. The expectations are going to be larger. You may get demands from the newly acquired customers that you are not used to seeing.
As they say, be careful what you wish for…