Demographics, Generations

We Made The Experiment, And The Fruit Is Before Us

October 3, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

For more than 20 years in our online poll, we’ve asked our audience for their thoughts on a wide variety of Main Street subjects. Recently, we asked the following question with four response options, and results in parenthesis:

“Based on your observations, will younger generations – currently under 45 – be able to take full possession and manage the transfer of America’s business?”

• Absolutely. Just as well as any other group – maybe better (23%).

• Not looking great so far – high in entitlement and low in work ethic and critical thinking (26%).

• It seems they’re behind, but there is a minority – about 20% – who could save them (28%).

• Time marches on and each inheriting generation shapes their own future (23%).

In the hundreds of polls we’ve published, rarely has the tightness of the spread of responses been as noteworthy as the leading vote options. For now let’s set aside the 23% who defend the younger generations and the same group who equally defends humanity in general, and focus first on the leading responses.[Continue Reading]

Parental Paradox: A Father’s Love Is The Harder Job

June 18, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

Parental love is a paradox, simultaneously delivering the expectation of a safe harbor with the consequences of discipline. As the father of an adult daughter and son, plus the grandfather of four knucklehead boys (Hurricane, Tornado, Crash, and Train Wreck), I’ve learned some things about this paradox.

All the hours logged as Dad and Poppy have often caused me to contemplate how different are the roles of mother and father, especially in the overt demonstration of parental love. And it’s fascinating how the manifestation of this love differs between mother and father – biologically, emotionally, and experientially.

A mother’s love, at once gentle and fierce, is observed in almost all animals, not just humans. No doubt you’ve heard this simile: “… as sweet as a mother’s love,” and this warning: “Never get between a momma bear and her cub.” I’ve witnessed and have been the happy recipient of this side of the parental paradox, and there truly is no other force like it in nature.

However, a human father’s love is more often associated with the other half of the paradox by unfortunate references like “tough” and “strict.” Here’s a warning no one has ever heard from a father:[Continue Reading]

Implications of the Pandemic Workforce Diaspora on Corporate Culture

September 20, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

“Frankly, I’m amazed at how well we’re working right now. We’ve experienced zero drop in performance.”

That quote, and variations of it, came from several CEOs during the second half of 2020, in response to my question: “How have your teams performed so far during the lockdown?” These CEOs were guests on my weekday, syndicated radio program, “The Small Business Advocate Show.” In fact, they were so pleasantly surprised that one executive even asked rhetorically, “Tell me again why we’re spending $5million a year on office rent?”

For date context, that was the initial period when the marketplace was essentially locked down, and the workforce was sent home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overnight, millions of workers across the globe started working remotely and, ready or not, subsequent teamwork, collaboration and meetings were conducted in the two-dimensional digital domain, like on a Zoom call.

Based on the answers to my question, it seemed that this emergency, once-in-a-career, global workplace disruption had revealed some previously unknown magical management formula [Continue Reading]

Internet Genesis Chapter 1, verses 1-3: And it was good.

August 18, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Internet Genesis (1961-1974): Chapter 1, verse 1: On the first day, The Genius Cluster said, “Let there be a network of networks.” And they saw that it was good and named it “The Internet.”

Verse 2: On the second day, The Cluster said, “Let there be structure.” And so it was that the three building blocks – now known as the World Wide Web – were formed and mounted on The Internet:

HTTP, a computer language that ultimately turned code into a lever that regular people could use (like a website),
direct messaging,
and email.

Verse 3: On the third day, seeing that their creations were good, The Cluster rested.

For many generations – okay, about two – the Internet and the WWW flourished with few changes until one day a heretic said, “Let’s connect on Twitter.” [Continue Reading]

Age of the Customer Prospecting Rules for the Age of the Pandemic

November 15, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

Since 1993, control of the three major elements of your customer relationships – product, information, and buying decision – has shifted from your business to your customer. This marketplace transition is, by definition, a Biblical proportion paradigm shift from the original, 10,000-year-old Age of the Seller, to the new Age of the Customer.

This shift has created many disruptions across the marketplace, but none more than to the discipline of professional selling. More specifically, the element that has been disrupted most is business-to-business prospecting.

If your sales effort isn’t getting the job done, it’s probably not because your sales team isn’t working hard enough or has forgotten how to close – a process that has not been disrupted. It’s because the rules of prospecting have been turned upside-down. Here are four facets to this prospecting shift: [Continue Reading]

Reconciling Blasingame’s 2020 Crystal Ball Predictions

November 28, 2020 by Jim Blasingame

Since 2000, I’ve offered prognostications on what was coming at small businesses in the New Year. Then, at the end of each year, I’ve reconciled my predictions against what actually happened and gave myself a score.

Through the 20 editions prior to 2020, my accuracy record was 73%. That might not impress you, but in the Major Leagues, batting .730 would get you into Cooperstown on the first ballot. Just saying …

As the third decade of the 21st century dawned, my 21st set of predictions, published on January 5, were heavily influenced by three-years of Main Street optimism about the momentum of the U.S. economy. But then, in less than 90 days, everything changed. An organic invader turned our reality from halcyon to horrific in a way that only Chinese President Xi Jinping could have anticipated.

In our history, never have American business owners had to simultaneously fear that a deadly disease would attack their families and the political response to that pathogen might kill their businesses.

Because of the unprecedented weirdness of this year, scoring my 2020 predictions as I have in the past isn’t possible. Reading the list will either produce a wry smile, a cringe, or an expletive. Consequently, this year I’ll follow each prediction with appropriate commentary without a score – even when I was right. Some of my predictions have been omitted from the original list because the pandemic either made them irrelevant or moved them forward. Buckle up for a bumpy ride.

[Continue Reading]