Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

header image

Archives for February 2021

What’s Latin For Delivering On Digital Customer Expectations?

by

Why do we put locks on exterior glass doors? Why would a business extend credit to a customer with merely an illegible signature on a purchase ticket? Why do we make promises to customers based on the future performance of vendors?

Yes, there are laws and consequences that address missteps or misbehavior in all of these scenarios. But are those elements really what make us extend and expose ourselves?

Post hoc is Latin for “after the fact.” Laws, regulations, contracts, and other such elements are part of the post hoc process when Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall. They remediate, redress, and reconcile – after the fact. But as important and effective as they may be, they’re not really what drives our behavior.

[Continue Reading]

Five Post-Pandemic Rules For Business And Life

by

Almost a half-century ago, a list of rules really caught on. Without the benefit of the Internet, email, or social media, but with no less an endorsement than syndicated newspaper oracle, Ann Landers, “Ten Rules For Being Human” quickly circulated around the globe.

Initially, the author’s name didn’t make the trip, resulting in attribution to “Anonymous.” It remained that way even when Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen included The Rules in their original Chicken Soup For The Soul book in 1993. Still attributing it to “Anonymous,” they somehow didn’t know that the wisdom of The Rules came from their long-time friend, Dr. Chérie Carter-Scott.

Chérie has been my friend since she first told that story to my radio audience over two decades ago, as she launched her first book based on The Rules, If Life is a Game, These are the Rules. Using Chérie’s numbering, here are five of the ten Rules that are handy for small business owners any time, but especially so just now. And, of course, each rule is followed by my thoughts.

[Continue Reading]

Ten Reasons The $15 Minimum Wage Is A Harmful Blunt Instrument

by

Arguably our first primordial tool, humans owe a lot to blunt instruments. Indeed, the world could not have been built without hammers and such.

But thousands of years ago, even Og and Gog knew a boulder wasn’t an appropriate tool to stake a hide to dry. Alas, in the 21st century, that “appropriate” concept is still lost on the largest and most unwieldy blunt instrument in history: the U.S. government, which has a sad history of inappropriately hammering square policy pegs into round resolution holes. Remember these two legislative pile drivers?

[Continue Reading]

The Key To A Successful Post-pandemic Banking Relationship

by

One of the most interesting relationships in the Main Street economy is the one between business owners and their banks. It is at once powerful and essential. Let me tell you a short story about where this dynamic has been in order to explain where it’s going.

Unlike our big business cousins, small firms have limited capital sources. Indeed, the lion’s share of our growth funds come from a bank loan, with almost 60% being made by a community bank (ICBA). Yet, since 2008, more than half of small business CEOs have consistently reported not needing to borrow money (NFIB).

A dozen years ago, a kind of perfect storm began for Main Street businesses: the 2007-09 recession was made “Great” by the Wall Street-induced financial collapse, which was followed by our economic lost decade during the Obama administration. In survival response, small businesses tightened their belts and deleveraged on a scale not seen in generations.

This deleveraging phenomenon resulted in small businesses retaining more earnings which, by definition, produces stronger balance sheets and reduces loan demand. And it produced a silver lining we didn’t know we had or needed – until last year.

[Continue Reading]

Categories

Archives

Share this page with your friends and followers