THEMCKAYPOST

Death of the double digits

Here is a short post I came upon over at The Big Picture regarding the death of double- digit earnings growth.

Times gone by

Every time I come out here (about three or four times a year) I reminisce about the eighties, since that is when I spent seven years living here. I was in my twenties, ambitious, learning the ropes, making contacts, and working and partying hard.

L.A. is a strange place. Businesses come and go almost as fast as Hollywood marriages, but there are a few exceptions, and one was Jimmy’s restaurant on the Century City/ Beverly Hills border.

Jimmy’s was a staple in the area, where many upscale restaurants came and went. I worked upstairs in the building Jimmy’s was located in, and it was a great place for both lunch, after work cocktails, and dinner! The food was outstanding, the service was superb, and the atmosphere very relaxing. It was a favorite haunt for me, and the people who worked at the firm where I worked back in the eighties.

Jimmy’s is gone now, and earlier today when I drove past the old spot where it once thrived, I couldn’t help being a little saddened. No matter how often I do this, the result is always the same!

You can read a little about this truly great place and see a photo here.

PS - There is a lot of talk about the celebrity clientele Jimmy's entertained at the above link, but plenty of regular folks enjoyed Jimmy's too, and everyone was treated like a star!

Something in the air

My Mom is with us on this trip, and one of her favorite expressions when people do dumb things, especially as a group is; “There must be something in the air”, as in something people are breathing that is causing a partial shut down of the portions of the brain that are responsible for logical thinking. She knows of course that this is not true, but she loves to say it, and somehow, maybe because she is such a loving and good person, it never gets old.

We arrived in LA a few hours ago, just getting settled into our hotel, and as is always the case when I come out here I noticed that the air out here is different than the air in the Midwest, or on the east coast. I’m not talking about temperature or humidity levels. It just “feels” different, and beyond that I can’t explain it. I notice this every time I come out here and walk out of LAX and into the open air. It’s different. The same was true when I lived out here and would fly back to Chicago, or New York, or my home town in Michigan, only in reverse. The air out here is different. Plain and simple. It could be the smog, which gets trapped between the mountains and held down by temperature inversions, or the proximity of both ocean and desert, or a combination of all these factors. I don’t know. If anyone has any thoughts on this, or has had the same experience feel free to comment.

Pressing the flesh

Pressing the flesh is a phrase you don’t hear as much now days, but it is an important aspect of marketing that should never be overlooked. Back in the days of Web 1.0, some expressed fears that the internet would lead to a depersonalization of how we do business, and it is true that some internet based businesses never have to meet, or even speak on the phone with their customers. For some types of services this can work out quite well, but amazingly, now that we have the capability to interact with a whole planet full of people through blogs and other social networking services, the fears of the past have proven to be unfounded. In fact the internet has brought people together in ways that would never have been possible just a few short years ago.

It is human nature to want to reach out and shake hands, and to look someone in the eye when you do so. It is human nature to want to watch a persons reaction to a comment, see their facial expressions, body language, and experience things like infectious laughter when a good joke is told, etc., etc., and Web 2.0, was built by people to help facilitate this vary basic instinct to socialize with others. It is a reflection of what we desire, which is to personalize, not depersonalize the social aspects of our lives.

Earlier today I received an email from Reuters inviting me to attend next months Money Show which is being held at Mandalay Bay resort and casino in Las Vegas on May 14-17. They gave me a promotional code allowing me to attend without having to pay the standard admission fee (I’ve got to get one of those smiley face buttons for this blog). I also received an invite to meet up with our friend Andy Swan, who is going to be working the event. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend, as I have pre existing plans that will have me out of town at the time, but that is not the point. As one who has attended many trade shows over the years I know for a fact that these are great vehicles for networking, making good business contacts, and marketing ones wares. One need not have a booth to do this either. You can work the floor, meeting people, introducing yourself and your business, handing out brochures and business cards, and inquiring about other businesses that may be either potential clients, or candidates for some form of joint venture (syndication, etc.).

When I started my current business five years ago I relied primarily on advertising, and some pre-existing contacts who provided a few early deals that I was able to fund. The ads I placed were very targeted, and as it turned out my strategy paid off. Many who responded were lawyers and accountants who had access to good deals due to their client bases, which were comprised of businesses, real estate developers, etc., looking for investment capital. I now have several of these professionals in various cities across the country and they are the primary source of my firms deal flow. I know all of these people personally. I visit them often. We play golf, and go out to dinner. I am a resource for them, and they are a resource for me, but if we don’t interact and socialize, there are plenty of other small investment bankers/arrangers like me who will step in and take my place. There is something about the personal aspect of marketing any service related industry, but especially anything involving the financial aspect of business that beckons the call to “press the flesh”, and it is one prong in the multi pronged approach we all take to marketing that definitely cannot, and should not be ignored.

OOT Again

We are all leaving for southern California early Tuesday. I have a few meetings on Wednesday and Thursday in the L.A. area, then on Friday morning we all drive up to Santa Barbara to spend Easter weekend with my wife's sister.

This is more of a mini get away, and I told my mom and B that they can do all the shopping (hopefuly the window kind) that they want on Rodeo drive (they call it retail market research, just to mess with me), but it's really going to be a great time!

Posting will be light, or maybe not, will try to keep up!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

Schools

I have posted about the disreputable condition that our public schools are in before, and I have also posted, and preached about how the only answer to this and other problems we face is an honest, straightforward, meeting of the minds somewhere, at some point, and somehow.

Over the weekend I watched several great films that depicted life as it was in the not so far past. The first was “Cold Mountain”, which I had never seen before, but thought was pretty good. I have ancestors who fought in the civil war (on both sides), and a great grandfather (my family married late) who was a veteran of that war, and who is buried here in lower Manhattan. I also watched “Gangs of New York”, an outstanding account of the early “Tammany Hall” days when barbarism and corruption were the rule, and the law hung on the coat tails of the criminals, rather than the other way around. Next, I watched “Deliverance”, a film that I went to see first when I was 12 years old, thanks to an older buddy who worked at the local theater, and let me and my younger friends in, even though it was R rated (same way I got to see The Godfather, and A Clock Work Orange)!

Above: The Chattooga, used in the filming of "Deliverance".

The Civil War is over. The gangs of New York have changed their faces, and the control they once had over the city has long ago faded away. The last of these creeps to wield any real power was John Gotti, and he is but a fading memory in the eyes of those of us who believe in the real “way it ought to be”. The Chattooga was not dammed up, and thrives with it’s lush forests, and ever so dangerous water flow (many have died since the movie, trying to navigate these waters), and while the shanties with their outdoor toilets still exist (I have seen them when driving through the deep south), even these people are becoming more aware, and are less isolated, and less cut off from the rest of the world.

My mom likes to say that things were better in her day, and I’m guilty of this sometimes as well, but it really is not true. We have moved steadily in a positive direction over the years, and although we may take a step or two backwards from time to time, just like the market, we always gain in the long run.

So what does all this have to do with schools? Well, like I started out to say before I got side tracked, we can all learn from each other. There is no “one way”, it’s a constant learning, experimenting, expanding process that can only occur if we come together, in some form of real dialogue! This doesn’t mean we have to give up our principles, on the contrary, it means that we can combine them! We can, if we really want to, make a better world. We do it every day, but because we are all a little bit stubborn, it is taking us longer than it should.

Read a great article about lessons learned, and lessons shared at the International Harold Tribune.

Can't get enough of Knut!

I love this cute, cool little fellow, and would rather watch him romp around exploring his environment and playing with his handlers than the constant barrage of "Idol" vids the cable news folks keep shoving in our faces!

As we head into the weekend I thought I would share just a few of the photos of this little buddy that I have saved on my computer. Have a look:

Bombings, deaths rising in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A surge of violence in Iraq in the past week demonstrated the ability of al Qaeda to strike virtually anywhere at will with a seemingly limitless supply of explosives and suicide bombers to wreak chaos.

Read the full article Via Yahoo! News.

Early Spring in NYC

Global warming may be to blame, but I'm not complaining at the moment. I have posted before about how we love the fall and winter months, and we do, but around this time of year we also get that spring itch, and we are having a little taste of spring here in New York right now.

It was 78 degrees in the city yesterday, and it is a very comfortable 64 at 12:45 PM today! Birds are chirping, and a gentle breeze is blowing.

I cut out from work early so we could go for a late afternoon/early evening bike ride yesterday, and my neighbor was working in her garden turning soil and getting ready to plant.

Time to bring the old golf bag out of mothballs!

Secret to smarter schools

I know some truly bright young people, and I love the fact that technology, and the internet has opened the doors for these folks to flourish and grow in a way that was not possible when I was younger. I did not become a full time entrepreneur until I was 30 years old, primarily because it took time to amass the necessary capital, and the background and experience needed for those in the traditional business establishment to take one seriously. That’s pretty much how it worked back then, but that was then, and this is now, and we are producing a great many talented, intelligent, ambitious young people who are able (thanks to technology, and lower start up costs) to circumvent the traditional stepping stones and go straight from college into their entrepreneurial endeavors, which I think is terrific! Many are running thriving businesses, making very good livings, and many more are well on their way to achieving real, sustained success.

Still, we are constantly made aware of our failing public school system, and the large number of students graduating from High School that are semi-illiterate. This is simply mind boggling, and totally unacceptable (I went K-12 at public schools and did just fine, but as I said, things were different then).

I know there is no one answer to the problem we are experiencing with our public school system today, but there are some models that seem to be working in other countries, and we should be looking at them. Our young people are just too important not to.

You can read about Finland’s approach to public education, and how it appears to be working at U.S. News and World Report.