CNN Money Reveals 21 Dumbest Business Moments in 2008


Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
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21 Dumbest Moments in Business 2008 (CNN Money)

 

This post was just too good to pass on. CNN. Money discusses the dumbest business moments – and probably some of the most difficult  -in 2008. Will we learn from them for 2009?

 

1) Detroit execs flying to D.C.: The chief executives of General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), Chrysler and Ford spark outrage when they fly their corporate jets to Washington D.C. to beg Congress for a multi-billion dollar bailout.

 

2) Detroit execs driving to D.C.: Given a second chance after the private-jet fiasco to plead their case before Congress, the Detroit 3 take to the road.

 

3) Henry Paulson’s initial $700 bailout proposal: All of three pages, the Treasury Secretary seeks carte-blanche access to government funding with scant details on how or where the money will be spent.

 

4) The final bailout: When Congress is done with it, the measure balloons to 451 pages and is loaded with pork barrel spending – including, unbelievably, a cut in taxes on toy arrows and an extended tax break on “wool products.”

 

5) The Mozilo e-mail: The now former Countrywide CEO mistakenly broadcasts his thoughts on a customer’s plea for help with a home loan.

 

6) The iPhone ‘I am rich’ app: Eight people download a $999.99 screen-saver for Apple’s (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone.

7) Paulson’s ‘bazooka’: The Treasury Secretary tells Congress in July he thinks he won’t actually need to use the funds he’s requesting to support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

 

8) Tough talk from Fannie Mae: In May, CEO Daniel Mudd says his company will “feast” on weakened competition in the mortgage market.

 

9) Scandal at the Department of Interior: The agency’s Inspector General finds that staffers were taking gifts, having sex and engaging in illegal drug use with employees of some of the oil companies they oversee.

 

10) GM’s Lutz on global warming: The General Motors exec behind the Chevrolet Volt electric car hands environmentalists another twig to beat GM with when he reportedly calls global warming “a crock of sh-t.”

 

11) Hope for Homeowners – er, not really: Congress passes bill to keep hundreds of thousands of troubled borrowers in their homes. A whopping 321 applications get filed.

 

12) Ban the short-sellers: To head off a market onslaught, the SEC outlaws short-selling on 799 financial stocks. Remarkably, investors find other ways to punish the group and the sector sinks another 25 percent.

 

13) McCain on economics: On the morning of Sept. 15, as Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy, Republican presidential candidate John McCain declares “the fundamentals of this economy are strong.”

14) Obama’s tough talk on Nafta: A top economic adviser privately assures Canadian officials in February that his candidate didn’t really mean it when he threatened to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

 

15) Microsoft bids for Yahoo: The $31-per-share offer represents a 61% premium over Yahoo’s (YHOO, Fortune 500) price at the time of the February overture.

 

16) Yahoo turns down Microsoft’s offer: If Microsoft’s (MSFT, Fortune 500) offer for Yahoo was wrong-headed, Yahoo’s opposition to it was downright bone-headed.

 

17) The Madoff miss: As news reports reveal that the Securities and Exchange Commission had probed Madoff and his New York City investment firm over the years, chief Christopher Cox cops to the embarrassing screw-up.

 

18) Oil speculator scapegoats: Are speculators to blame for $37 oil too?

 

19) Steve Jobs’ obit: In August, Bloomberg News accidentally releases an obit for Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who – despite a well-publicized brush with pancreatic cancer – is still alive and kicking.

 

20) Phil Gramm and the “nation of whiners”: In early July, as the financial crisis spreads to Main Street, McCain campaign co-chair and former senator Phil Gramm appeals to voters and their economic anxieties by calling them a “nation of whiners” and dismisses a troubled economy as a “mental recession.”

 

21) Bill Miller comes up short: The fund manager’s contrarian bets on Bear Stearns, AIG and Freddie Mac cost his investors plenty.

 

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Conversation with the CEO of Silicon Valley’s coolest little plug-in – CoolIris


Tuesday, December 30th, 2008



cooliris logo 150x150 Conversation with the CEO of Silicon Valley’s coolest little plug in CoolIris

 

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Soujanya Bhumkar,  CEO and Co-founder of the coolest browser add-on around – CoolIris!

 

On February 25, 2009, at the law offices of Cooley Godward in Palo Alto, he and other inspiring entrepreneurs will tell us about their start ups and what it takes to make them successful. Stay tuned for more details.

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Obama’s World Election


Monday, November 17th, 2008

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The recent election was remarkable and historic and one that will be remembered for many years to come; not only because of the incredible turn-out of young people, with 23 million young Americans under the age of 30 voting, a turn-out this country hasn’t seen since the 70s, but also because it was an election that was felt around the world.

 

On the night of the election results, people could be seen dancing, crying, and celebrating all over the world, from the homeland of Obama’s father, Kenya, to countries that had zero obvious connections whatsoever to the election.

 

No connection except for the fact that Obama in office means better foreign relations, better foreign diplomacy and more intelligent and informed decisions. At home, many Americans were proud to be called Americans again, Facebook status messages erupted with relief and jubilation, and newscasters predicted a surge in patriotism.

 

And it was an election to which the whole world reacted and rejoiced. French President Sarkozy wrote that the election outcome “resonates well beyond your borders.” Former German ambassador to the US, Wolfgang Ischinger, declared that, “a new face offers Europe a new chance to remarry America.” Peru’s prime minister, Yehude Simon, emphasized that the Obama win was a win for many, stating, “Peru wins with the change; it’s a change that we all expected. God help us.”   “Even Iraqi President Jalal Talabani publicly congratulated Obama on his win and stated that he looked “forward to the relations between our two countries under your mandate, and further consolidation and development in all fields.”

 

Maybe this will mean that fewer American travelers will feel they have to have the Canadian flag sewn on to their backpacks for fear of being identified as American and therefore “under-appreciated”.

 

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Communicating the American Way – An Excerpt (pdf file)


Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

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Real Leadership in Silicon Valley – Eric Benhamou


Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

While interviewing leaders of Silicon Valley for my book, one of the first people I was really lucky to be able to interview was Eric Benhamou, the CEO of Benhamou Global Ventures and a very respected executive, both here as well as in and France.

He was also willing to be part of an event we had on April 9th 2008, where 5 international leaders participated in a panel at Pillsbury Winthrop in (see my web site for description) to discuss personal leadership.

 

Some of the leadership characteristics we defined that evening were definitely humor as well as humility. I was struck by this combination, when I went to look at Eric’s web site and found this on his home page:

 

After nearly 30 years spent building or running high technology companies, I created BGV to assist other entrepreneurs build or run a new generation of high technology companies. I will put my own money at risk, not others. I will coach, but will not be a consultant. I will invest my time and experience at the service of the CEO and the company first, and its investors second. I will teach, but will learn as well. I will insist on upholding the highest standards of governance and the best management principles and techniques, but will take myself seriously only some of the time. Eric Benhamou Chairman and CEO, Benhamou Global Ventures

 

Where else would we find leaders willing to “put themselves out there” if not here? I think that these two traits – humility and humor – have to be internalized before leadership becomes real.

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13 Great and Proven Ways to Moderate a Panel with 100% Success Rate


Friday, July 9th, 2010
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Research your panel subject and find out and define the latest trends.


Prepare more questions than you think you will need, it isn’t good [and pretty stressful] to run out. However, with a smart panel, that is very unlikely to happen.


Send the questions to the panel members ahead of time and encourage them to submit questions of their own.


Contact all panel members ahead of time per telephone, agree on their areas of expertise and which questions they want to answer; in addition, see if there is some challenging issue they would like to raise to make the panel more interesting. At the event, introduce panel members to each other 15 minutes or so before start time so that they can get to know and feel comfortable with each other.


Don’t prepare a lengthy introduction, the moderator should facilitate the panel, not push his/her own opinions.


Tell the audience what you are going to do in the allotted time, and encourage audience members to ask questions during the event. If people wait until the end, they can either forget what they were going to ask, or can see the whole event as a [tedious?] lecture. Remember, moderating a panel is having a conversation with the audience as well as with the panelists.


You can ask the panelists to introduce themselves with a couple of words, before they answer the first questions. Don’t read their bios out loud, it is often embarrassing for the accomplished panelist and it wastes time. Audience members can look their bios up online after the event.


Ask each question only of one or two panelists and then move on to the next question for other panelists. Never have all panelists answer every question; it can be a really boring process and it not fair to the panelists.


Make sure you present your panelists in a very good light, you are there to make them shine and never to embarrass them.However, that doesn’t mean you have to let them get away with evading issues.


Prepare to cut a panelist off gently if he/she starts to ramble. There is nothing worse than someone going on and on – except for an audience member who does the same thing.


Ask a couple of questions of the panelists at the beginning of the event and then let the audience know that now would be a good time for their first questions. If the audience has more, relevant questions and the panelists are interested in answering them, let your own questions slide. It is more important to have a good event where everyone participates and is engaged, than getting through your own agenda.


Make sure that the panelists address their points to the audience and not to the moderator or their fellow panelists. Otherwise this will look like a private event and people will disconnect.


Never disagree with the audience, they will never forgive you. Find a way to incorporate the point raised into the discussion so that it makes sense [which is almost always possible].


Know when to stop. First of all, stick to the time you agreed on to stop, give a summary of the points that were made, thank the panelists, thank the audience and don’t forget to thank the organizers and the people who let you use their facilities.


Lastly, have fun. If a moderator is enjoying him/herself the audience can feel it and will join in.


PS: There are lots of good articles online about moderating panels, it is worthwhile reading several of them to incorporate all their good ideas!


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Jack Welsh’s “Lebensweisheit” : The 10 Leadership Principles


Saturday, August 8th, 2009
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I read an interesting, short article that Peter Isackson wrote for the Intercultural Insights Group, he brought up the simple yet profound leadership principles that Jack Welsh developed in his time as CEO at GE. Are they as relevant today as they were when he wrote them?

*1.* There is only one way ˆ the straight way. It sets the tone of the
organization.

*2.* Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer;
transfer learning across your organization.
*3.* Get the right people in the right jobs ˆ it is more important than
developing a strategy.
*4.* An informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage.
*5.* Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
*6.* Legitimate self-confidence is a winner ˆ the true test of
self-confidence is the courage to be open.
*7.* Business has to be fun ˆ celebrations energise an organisation.
*8.* Never underestimate the other guy.

*9.* Understand where real value is added and put your best people there.
*10.* Know when to meddle and when to let go ˆ this is pure instinct.

I think that #4 is a point that would be debatable in Europe and Asia – what do you think, is the business trend toward informality or do these societies still want the hierarchic distance?
And, the notion of having fun [#7] when working as a prerequisite to working creatively and energetically still has not penetrated the minds of the many of the older kinds of organizations, but I think that without fun, why would people want to do their best work for a company?

When I present to foreign companies, and I mention that in the US, having fun is often a goal, I frequently get dismissive looks and comments that this is not something serious and as such isn’t important. Too bad, for as long as the notion of fun is still considered frivolous, it won’t happen.

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Even though we need foreign-born professionals here in the US, the H-1B visa hounds are after them again.


Monday, May 18th, 2009
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As Vivek Wadhwa said in Business Week, “For the third year running, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have taken aim at immigrant labor.”  It seems that both of these senators want to “reduce the abuse” of the high tech companies that hire cheaper, foreign labor in the place of more expensive, skilled American workers. The bill would mandate that employers hiring H-1B visa holders would have to swear that they did a good faith search for an American who could fill the job, but one could not be found; in addition, 1% of the companies hiring H-1B visa holders would be audited.

 

What will that produce? As Wadhwa points out, large companies will slowly feel more and more constricted hiring employees through the H-1B program. And where will that leave us, in the US in general and especially in Silicon Valley?  If we look at the Silicon Valley Index, 2009, 36% of our population here is foreign born; it is a fact  that 50% of all start-ups founded here have an immigrant or a first generation founder and according to a study by the National Association of Venture Capitalists: Immigrant-founded venture-backed public companies today employ an estimated 220,000 people in the United States and

over 400,000 people globally.

 

Can we really afford to turn away potential employers and contributors to our economic success? Maybe the senators should think again.

 

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Seesmic, CoolIris, Ubergizmo, l’Atelier Speak at Internationally Cool & Plugged In Event


Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Cooley event photos by-karsten-lemm

Eliane Fiolet, Hubert Nguyen, Loic le Meur Eliane Fiolet, Hubert, Nguyen, Loic le Meur, Dominique Piotet, Soujanya Bumkhar and Angelika Blendstrup/Daniel Zimmerman, co-moderators, at last week’s event, “Internationally Cool and Plugged in.”

Photos from

130 people attended the event held at Cooley Godward, Palo Alto sponsored by  GABA, the French American Chamber of Commerce and iHouse, UC Berkeley.

Cooley-Eliane Fiolet, Hubert Nguyen, Angelika Blendstrup

 

 

 

 

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