Beyond Messaging

Growth Vs. Income

This week I am mulling over something - a lot of investors expect growth and seek out companies they think will be growing.  If the company posts earnings or forcasts that show less growth than the market expected, the stock goes down.

Another type of investor is looking for income.  They want a stock that generally posts a dividend and are less concerned with the price of the stock going up and down.  If it goes up, great, but they really want that quarterly divendend.

I was thinking about this as an analogy to the world population.  The population of some countries is growing, and some countries are slowing down.  In a consumer driven economy that population growth represents more sales opportunities.  Would a stable or slowing population be more like dividend paying economy rather than a growth economy?

Unchecked growth, whether in a company or population, probably isn't good in the long run.  On the other hand, we want to see the quality of life and bottom line numbers getting better.  I think its a game of balance between growth and income. 

Business Cat Says:

via i.imgur.com

Business as Usual

Modern life and modern business is so full of change that the very idea of "business as usual" seems quaint and out of date.  If you are not growing and changing, you can sure assume that your competition is!  There is this fear of the other company coming out with a new product, a cheaper way to make something, or a revolutionary way to interact with customers.

Let's think for a moment about business as usual.  Routines create efficiencies, processes in place ensure consistent results, and business as usual should indicate that all the process you painstakingly set up are working as planned.  Business as usual means customers are buying, being billed, and money is flowing into the bank accounts.  Business as usual means that employees have the tools and equipment they need to do their jobs.  It means no downtime, less frustrations, and less friction.

If your business is well tuned, has a great product, and great people, business as usual is going to make you money!  Interruptions and upheavals can cost valuable time and energy better spent on making customers happy.

So while your strategic thinkers are innovating and pointing out the new direction the company needs to go in, please don't forget to appreciate the profits that come with business as usual.

Convergence and Divergence

Modern life saddles us with different devices, phone numbers, and accounts and their associated passwords. Our different online identities require appropriate privacy settings. We may have one set of privacy criteria for our personal social media information as opposed to work related information. Our different life roles may be as simple as home and work, or even more complex. Inevitably some items may bleed over into one another such as co workers who are Facebook friends. At the same time we wish for simple management. Is this possible?

Well, I am afraid to say that in modern life things are seldom simple. In fact, it takes work to make things simple. Tools that help us manage complexity, once they are set up, will help simplify life. But first you have to set it up! Yes, there is a chicken and egg analogy here.

One example of convergence is that you can have one phone number that someone can call and it will ring all your phones - desk, cellular, home. In purely corporate terms one number that can ring both a smartphone and a desk phone and allow transfers between the two systems seems incredible useful.

Now, I personally, would not want to include my personal phones in this mix. I like to keep things separate. But within the business realm, convergence is great. And within the personal realm convergence is great also! I just don't want to mix the personal and the business if I can help it.

What about device convergence? I like the idea of having a universal device that can do a lot of things. My BlackBerry smartphone serves as a camera, gps with turn by turn navigation, handheld game machine, eBook reader, and alarm clock. But I still have a Kindle, two digital cameras, GPS in my car, and various other gaming systems. Ok, I admit I am I lover of gadgets and technology so I may have more devices than some other people. But the specialized devices each serve a different purpose. The Kindle eReader's e-ink display allows me to read without eye strain, the Nintendo DS lets my kids play games on the go, the navigation on my car is one button push away and never needs to be taken out of my purse. I have a point and shoot digital camera that fits in my purse but takes fantastic snapshots. My Nikon DSLR allows me to change lenses and take astounding quality photographs.

I did get rid of my alarm clock, though so that's one less item. Maybe there is hope for a little convergence and simplicity in my life after all. But for now I am walking around during the day with my work cell phone in my left pocket and my personal cell phone in my right pocket. When I go home for the night I switch pockets!

Cool Website of the Day - VisualThesaurus.com

I stumbled upon this website while searching for synonyms.  I like the graphic approach.  I think this would be very handy for the high school crowd as wel as business writers, as they have a section on SAT words and study guides for various books.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/