Hawkeye Smartwatches with Vigilint Family Assistant App
Science shows that the more parents interact with their children the happier their lives will turn out.
Talking, writing, encouraging, hugging and interaction with your children in their formative years, is not just good parenting skills. It set them on a path for the rest of their lives. The Harvard Child Development Science findings show that the ability to communicate with parents literally shapes the biology of children’s brains’ architecture. The reciprocal relationships of “Serve and Return” back and forth interaction is crucial for good parenting to maximize your child’s cognitive functions, emotionally support and social competence. As a result, the kids have increased learning capabilities. Healthy development in the early years is the foundation of everything that a child learns and how the child learns, how healthy the child will be throughout their life.
Protect, Encourage and Communicate with Your Children
These good parenting skills help parents guide communications to provide a sense of independence in their kids as well as helping be more assured. Hawkeye smartwatches for kids inform, protect and reassure parents/caregivers by allowing access to their kids and the ability to provide guidance every time it is needed. The fun Hawkeye Smartwatches bluetooth kid-to-kid communication enables a child to talk to their friends ‘walkie-talkie’ style. Hawkeye Smartwatches also offer a step tracker feature which kids love, as they compare their physical activities with their friends during recess.
Modern tools like Vigilint Family Assistant help working parents stay in touch with their kids via calls, chat and the ability to guide the kids 24/7. Kids have access to parents each time they need their parents’ input and feedback.
Hawkeye Smartwatches and the Vigilint Family Assistant app allow parents to create custom SafeZones™. The moment the child moves out of the SafeZone™, parents are alerted. Imagine you are cooking and the kids are on the playground, park, afternoon program. Knowing exactly where your child is a major comfort for both parents and kids.
Each watch holds up to 20 parent-selected numbers that children can call. Kids are able to speak to their siblings and close friends through a direct kid-to-kid “walkie-talkie” connection. The more parents and kids communicate the less stress they have due to wondering and worrying. Relaxed parents enjoy happier and more confident kids that have a better, healthy and smarter life.
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Laura Ashley is brilliantly marketed. It reminds Baby Boomer ladies of the days, back when they were young, confident and beautiful, during the late 1980s. It meets their current wish to tend to their wonderful gardens with stylish garden clothing, hats, and garden tools. Lovely.
In 1925 baby Laura Ashley was born in Dowley, Wales. She was an enterprising woman and started designing home furnishings. Later on in life, in the 1960s she also expanded her business into clothing.
Laura Ashley RIP September 17, 1985
She was inspired by the Roman Holiday. Audrey Hepburn looked so pretty and her clothes were feminine and romantic, unlike the psychedelic fashion that took over the UK at that time. Think the Mike Myers movie “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.”
The fashion brand was a huge success and in the 1980s it expanded into the US. After Laura Ashley’s death in September 1985 the company had been taken public.
Today the company is owned by Malayan United Industries Berhad (MUI) which is listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad. The corporate philosophy of the Group for over 50 years is guided by three key attributes – strength, efficiency and trustworthiness. In their advertisements here in the US, in which older ladies are sold gardening tools and chic outfits by one of the top retailers in the US, Orchard Hardware Supplies, this sentiment certainly comes across. But few people realize that the company merely sells to the US consumer, than transports the earnings to Malaysia, where undoubted lot of very young people are employed.
One of their important non-executive directors has been educated in the US. Tan Sri Dato’ Paduka Dr. bin Ahmad attended Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School, Executive Development Program at Philippines Executive Academy and holds Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History from University of Malaya, Master of Public Administration from University of Pittsburgh and PhD in Public Administration from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
The trading company, one of the most successful company’s in Malaysia, is managed by Khoo Kay Peng. In his personal life Mr. Khoo Kay Peng does not espouse the values he sells to the women in the US. He is divorced from the former Ms. Malaysia Pauline Chai who now lives in the UK. Their daughter Angeline Francis Khoo revealed in 2014 that domestic violence was the cause of their parents divorce. Bravo to Ms. Pauline Chai for no longer putting up with maltreatment. The UK courts awarded her $112 Million in their divorce settlement, clearly a very tiny fraction of the overall personal value their 40 years marriage has produced. However, the price for freedom of maltreatment is worth it. It is always a very brave step to leave your abuser.
Khoo Kay Peng’s daughter, also a Ms. Malaysia, met a young Caribbean Scientist at Oxford and in order to be permitted to marry him, she chose to be disowned by her imperialistic father. She was slated to run the Laura Ashley empire and had spent every University Holiday learning about the business. After the split with her father, she decided that she could not be stopped by his controlling behavior and she started “Rosie on Fire.” Lovely fashion indeed.
Malaysia has joined the United Nations, which is disconcerting since their influence on the world seems to be quite horrible. Here are some details of recent human rights offenses within Malaysia.
Now back to Orchard Hardware Supplies. Orchard Hardware Supplies initially benefitted greatly from the real estate boom in Northern California. Despite the fact that their loyal customers left the individual retail outlets with solid sales, the debt piled on by Sears turned out to be unbearable. Sears spun out the company as an empty shell and unloaded it to Lowe’s after it had filed for Chapter 11 for $205 Million dollars. More
Now Laura Ashley is brilliantly marketed. It reminds Baby Boomer ladies of the days, back when they were young, confident and beautiful. It meets their current wish to tend to their wonderful gardens with stylish garden clothing, hats, and garden tools. Lovely.
It is marketed truly in line with the corporate manifesto of their Malaysian owners. It is undoubtedly very profitable, which will please the owners of Lowe’s primarily illustrious institutional investors. 76% of all shares are held by Vanguard Group, BlackRock, State Street, Wellington Management Group, and Price T. Rowe Associates, according to the Nasdaq.
Personally I genuinely believe that we influence the way the world works each and every day. You can spend your hard earned money on lovely phantasies created by brilliant marketers. Enjoyable and practical. Or, you can buy from small business owners, thereby actually changing and improving women’s lives. www.fikuros.com is now available on Etsy. Amazing Bespoke Accessories created one at a time by Niina Karlsson in Finland. Or the many fabulous designers well-known and brand new, available on www.dreslyn.com a company recently started by three millennials, a couple and the lady founder’s brother and her husband’s best friend. They are genuinely lovely and very smart. Or, you can check out up and coming designers on Nineteenth Amendment
Fortunately, since we live in a genuine democracy the choice is genuinely yours. We each get to choose everyday where and with whom we will spend our money.
PS: If you feel that you or someone you know may be abused, know that there are a lot of people who care. You can get legal assistance. You can get physical protection. There is a lot of help. Accepting help from good people is the first step out of domestic violence misery. Elderly who are abused by “care takers” also can get help through the same links.
On Oct. 24, 1945, the United Nations was ratified by five permanent members of the Security Council which consisted – right after WWII – of the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China and was able to secure 46 other members. It was originally conceived in San Francisco and the charter was created in April and signed into being by the people who conceived it on June 26, 1945.
The United Nations charter back then was described as being created to maintain international peace and security and to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems that are derived from economic, social, cultural, issued or are the result of problems with humanitarian character – namely it’s lack. Hitler, and Mussolini to a lesser extent, had shown clearly how devastating the lack of humanity and a humanitarian culture that cared about social and economic issues of the mass population could be on the entire world.
The goals were noble and as always when dealing with large groups of people problems started immediately. For instance: May 14, 1948, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed as British rule in Palestine came to an end. The next day NYT reported: “The declaration of the new state by David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the National Council and the first Premier of reborn Israel, was delivered during a simple and solemn ceremony at 4 p.m., and new life was instilled into his people, but from without there was the rumbling of guns, a flashback to other declarations of independence that had not been easily achieved.” The goal was to give a sense of permanency to the many Jews who were transported to or had fled to Palestine, while it was under British rule. The United Nations partitioned Palestine into Arab and Jewish sections. in November 1947. Naturally we all know about the many humanitarian issues that evolved from this decision and especially how it was implemented. Arab Nations are still today upset about it and they often use it as an explanation for their own inhumane behavior. Naturally Israelis now live in a nation that legitimately needs defend itself. When they are ruled by someone who doesn’t really care about economic, social and humanitarian issues in the West Bank or Palestine ever more problems are created.
The original purpose of the United Nations was good. The way it has been run since Kofi Annan tried to get fairness and attention for African Nations has been pretty awful. He wanted justice for the African Nations since they often were used and abused by business interests who didn’t care about the population at large. Unfortunately, a lot of the African leaders are incredibly corrupt and self serving, often killing entire villages to allow international business to “license” the right to excavate property stolen from these villages. Are there problems? Yes.
Does the current US administration help solve any of the issues? According to the recent US speeches it seems they want to become one of the top problems in the world. Declaring Nuclear War as an option is hardly in line with the UN Charter. Perhaps it is a good thing. Maybe now leaders will finally realize they are equal. Now we live in an equal opportunity world. The world needs leaders who want to create peace and social and economic justice for all in a democratic and humanitarian way. Maybe now countries from all around the world will create their own versions of world peace. Clearly at this moment in history, the US has lost its way as a peace loving nation. Trump’s speech is undeniably and very clearly proof that there is no US commitment nor interest in world peace. The truth is out. It is time for new peace loving leaders. no matter where they come from.
It is most heartening that more and more Americans who are listening to the current chosen American leaders like Pence, Sessions, Cruz, McConnell, McConnell, who clearly want Americans to die in the street, and their chosen “education leader” DuBois – ever more people are wondering whether it is time to improve education in the US. It is finally becoming clear to more and more people , that after 40 years of hoping the various States will educate kids on their own volition has left a country where there is much room for improvement.
Facebook in their media relations page claimed this:
“Over the past few months, we have taken action against fake accounts in France, Germany, and other countries, and we recently stated that we will no longer allow Pages that repeatedly share false news to advertise on Facebook.”
I rejoice since I think at last the manipulations of nefarious activities manipulating the public, whether it is Russians getting conservatives hyped up into a mob mentality against the LGBT community, or having an unqualified real estate maven, who seemed surprised that he was chosen to be president, or providing a platform for hate speech for German Nazi’s, which happened to be against the law.
I followed the development of the extreme right groups who are often sponsored and supported by Russia – take hold in Western Europe and I was surprised since it used to be against the law to even whisper the word “Nazi” in Germany. The punishment in the 1980s was severe – over $1000 in fines or 2 weeks in prison.
How the world has changed since the Reagan era when we become “one world.” Germans seem to have forgotten their history and now Neo Nazis are running around demonstrating and promoting their hate freely in public, protected by the free speech laws. Erdogan’s dictator supporting Turkish soldiers are running around Germany turning in ex-soldiers, if they practice German free speech, and Erdogan tried to shut up a, perhaps a bit tasteless, German comedian. He launched lawsuits in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerlands. Only in Germany he received an audience by politicians who pushed for silencing their own citizens in support of the dictator.
Facebook and Twitter helped these trends, there is no doubt about it. No matter how much they wanted to deny it or ignore it initially. They forbade pictures of classic Greek statues and paintings from the Renaissance if they offended some religious desire – but hate speech, even illegal hate speech was entirely ok to them. We now know that it was because they made good money with it. The bot factories paid precious advertising dollars. Art lovers who shared a beautiful Botticelli painting could not compete with the foreign dictators’ budgets. People who portrayed rape scenes were okay, women’s nipples were not. When questioned in Germany, they arrogantly proclaimed that the Facebook police were run out of India, thus not subject to German law. Only when Merkel got so frustrated by the public furor that she promised to shut the site down altogether, was she able to get Zuckerberg’s attention.
Now in Germany they are working on a “Facebook-Gesetz” – a law that is targeting social media companies. the law is meant to stop social media companies from spreading illegal hate speech. The German press is concerned that while there is an attempt to create such a law, it is far from certain that there will be such a law. Political infighting points that in Germany freedom of speech and the fight against hate speech vs. mob rule attitudes are literally at odds.
While politicians are discussing the pros and cons of the formulation it is up to Facebook to keep order “voluntarily.” In German fashion, they don’t seem to care if they tacitly allow hate speech free reign while they fight about the way the law is worded.
Thankfully, there definitely have been some improvements as the top management of Facebook finally is starting to become aware that they may be destroying Western Civilization by allowing “free speech” to extremists, while being responsive to complaints by extremists whose goal is quite literally to abolish the Freedoms of Western Culture as we know it.
Facebook informs us: “We are also experimenting with changes to help us more efficiently detect and stop inauthentic accounts at the time they are being created.”
Hopefully this is a priority and completed before the next elections. Trump fans are right that Western Civilization is under attack, mostly by ourselves. Business leaders will ultimately decide whether democracy will survive. Business leaders are pro democracy and those who are against democracy will decide our future as they deploy artificial intelligence who write programs which determine how we will be able perceive our world now and in the future.
Is the time-honored tradition of Fraternities and Sororities coming to an end?
A committee announced on Wednesday, July 13, 2017, that they recommend that Harvard completely forbid students from joining “fraternities, sororities, and similar organizations.” They feel so strongly about it that they wish to replace existing penalties for members of the social groups that are set to go into place in the fall.
Harvard is not the first University who is grappling with the problems caused by these “private” clubs. Amherst College, Bowdoin College, and Williams College all prohibited undergraduate participation in fraternities, sororities, and similar organizations in recent years.
Undergraduate Council Vice President Cameron K. Khansarinia, class of 2018 said the proposed policy completely “takes away personal responsibility and choice” from College students—and that it is unlikely to be effective. “It’s simply going to either force [the clubs] underground or literally dry out any semblance of social life on campus,” Khansarinia said. “It’s really not the right way to go about this.”
The faculty needs to guide Harvard into the present-day realities and prepare students for life in a gender neutral world. This is an issue that needs to be addressed in most traditional colleges and society at large.
Department of Labor Statistic about workforce participation by sex.
Several of the social clubs, for instance the “Fly Club” are seeking legal council on how they can fight the effort.
Statistics about rape point in a direction that something really needs to be done.
Rainn provides data that shows that sexual violence on campus is pervasive.
11.2% of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation (among all graduate and undergraduate students).2
Among graduate and professional students, 8.8% of females and 2.2% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.2
Among undergraduate students, 23.1% of females and 5.4% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.2
4.2% of students have experienced stalking since entering college.
Student or not, college-age adults are at high risk for sexual violence.
Male college-aged students (18-24) are 78% more likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault.1
Female college-aged students (18-24) are 20% less likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault.
University culture have a profound impact on overall culture around the world.
In June the Harvard Crimson reported:
Harvard College rescinded admissions offers to at least ten prospective members of the Class of 2021 after the students traded sexually explicit memes and messages that sometimes targeted minority groups in a private Facebook group chat. A handful of admitted students formed the messaging group—titled, at one point, “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens”—on Facebook in late December, according to two incoming freshmen. In the group, students sent each other memes and other images mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust, and the deaths of children, according to screenshots of the chat obtained by The Crimson. Some of the messages joked that abusing children was sexually arousing, while others had punchlines directed at specific ethnic or racial groups. One called the hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child “piñata time.”
No one would dispute that people who engage in threatening deaths and child abuse and find it humorous or in anyway acceptable should not be let loose on society, much less on a top notch educational institution.
Is it time to think yet?
The “Fly Club” an all male institution retained an attorney who made some interesting points in an op-ed in 2016. Silvergate:
“The report acknowledged the correlation between alcohol-fueled partying and sexual assault, which we believe implies that forcing independent organizations to go co-ed would only lead to an increase in the high-risk encounters that lead to assaults. Their proposed alternative is to create a blacklist of non-complying organizations, thereby abridging the freedom of association—a bedrock principle of our nation’s constitution—for its very own students. This latter course of action is particularly galling: Harvard appears to be moving towards a policy that would expel students simply for membership in a club, while it simultaneously fails to properly adjudicate sexual assault cases. The University is blaming an entire class of students for the condemnable and illegal conduct of a small minority—a clearly backwards approach to community safety.”
He later goes on to state:
“We are witnessing a return to the College operating in loco parentis, as it attempts to both dictate social-sexual norms and limit students’ independence. Harvard bureaucrats continue to expand their numbers while also attempting to bring independent single-sex organizations, including the Final Clubs and the growing number of Greek letter organizations, under their control, if not to eliminate them entirely. Unlike past debates about sexual mores and student liberty at the College, undergraduate students appear unperturbed by, if not supportive of, this assertion of administrative control over their private lives, while the Faculty of Arts and Sciences seems to have little influence with regards to the issue. The administration is leveraging the current political climate to achieve policy goals that will unfortunately do little to prevent sexual assault, but will certainly make Harvard more illiberal.”
In my opinion there is much to think about and the trend to have “Big Brother” forbid you to get drunk and rape people instead of encouraging public debates that allow a culture of inclusion, respect and with humanistic values to thrive voluntarily, is a debate that does and should go on and on until we all live in a free society in which everyone is safe from assault, and free to excel at their own personal highest level.
Equality in a society where women make up more than 1/2 of the work force is a must have. Being able to feel safe is a need that both women and men should be able to enjoy. How to accomplish that reality should really become part of the public debate. Forbidding public gatherings of like minded people may just drive the activity underground and it may be unconstitutional. Eliminating “wanna be” and actual racists and rapists should be a must for every educational institution. Racists and Rapists need therapy not more easy access to victims. However driving racist and misogynist attitudes underground may not be a long term solution for our society either.
When studying Victor Frankl someone who has experienced the worst of human kind in person while he was incarcerated by Nazis during the Holocaust, we may learn that we have to raise our expectations of each other and teach our young future leaders to thrive and foster their wish and their ability to create “Lives with Meaning”, people who are happy and content while working on making life better for everyone. This is what moves people to feel content. Busy and content leaders don’t have time to be jerks. Most jerks are either unhappy and insecure or are pathologically damaged. As we know from some of our current public leaders being a jerk does not make you popular and the ill manners actually make people more lonely and give them a craving for attention and love that will stay unfulfilled. Nobody likes these lonely jerk or brute. We have to aim higher for our students. We need to encourage them to be the better.
Maybe it is time to bring back the education that is deeply rooted in the Humanities that sets the aim high and encourages students to create a better world.
During the past five months of Trump being in charge 863,000 jobs were created. During the same period last year 955,000 jobs were added while Obama was still in office. On July 5th this year, Gallup reported: “Last week, Americans’ confidence in the economy averaged a score of 0, the first time in the 33 full weeks since the presidential election that the index’s weekly average was not positive. ” Full Report
In a recent NYT article of Today, half of American jobs pay about $37,000 or less each year, a quarter pay about $23,000 or less, and a family of four qualifies for SNAP at $32,000 or less. No wonder just over half of all SNAP families work, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. In America, “real” poverty is not about a lack of work, but a lack of compensation.
Trump has run on a platform of addressing this issue by “Making America Great Again” by creating jobs. So far this has not come to pass and slowly the public are losing faith in his “Art of the Deal.”
The US is in trouble it is no longer the land of the free and it is not the land of opportunity. Our research shows that in many respects it never had been.
National Conference of State Legislatures shares that in Oklahoma the minimum wage in 2017 is $2.00 per hour.
Oklahoma Employers of ten or more full time employees at any one location and employers with annual gross sales over $100,000 irrespective of number of full time employees are subject to federal minimum wage; all others are subject to state minimum wage of $2.00 (OK ST T. 40 § 197.5). National Conference of State Legislatures.
How can people survive and pursue their happiness on wages like that? Meanwhile the cost of living index in Tulsa Oklahoma is only 24.42% lower than in New York City.
Four-person family monthly costs: 2,790.93$ without rent (using our estimator).
A single person monthly costs: 807.71$ without rent.
Cost of living index in Tulsa is 27.42% lower than in New York.
Cost of living rank 215th out of 507 cities in the world.
Realtor.com suggests that a 1 to 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in Tulsa costs between $526 to $2,280 dollars per month which is of course much lower than the monthly rents in NYC $2,815 for 340 sq ft up to $22,000 for 2400 sq ft, or the San Francisco monthly rents of $2,815 for 340 sq ft to $13,500 for 2240 sq ft. The minimum wage is $9.20 to $11.00 depending on employer size in NYC and $14.00 per hour in San Francisco as of the time of this article. It is impossible to find a decent place to live on a minimum wage and it is little wonder that people who were raised believing in the American Dream are turning to suicide as a solution to their life issues at record numbers.
Housing Crisis and Fraud at all time high
Countries with a strong middle class are economically strong. Only after owners and investor of large companies, and political policies support a strong middle class will the country stop the trend toward becoming a third world nation.
Photo courtesy Hillsdale College http://online.hillsdale.edu/
The Battle between Wealth and Human Rights is nearly 250 years old.
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoted the ratification of the United States Constitution with articles and essays that were collected and are still available at The Federalist Papers.*
Within these articles and essays these founders outlined their thinking about creating a federal union. They urged people to allow wise and experienced men who have the public good in mind to counter balance the needs, wishes, and desires of individual states. They believed that a federal union would better safeguard national borders, treaties with foreign nations. National Government would enforce the laws for all people better, instead of having individual states or individuals fall prey to undue influence for personal gain, personal wealth creation, or a desire of personal power, or by foreign powers.
The Federal Papers were used to educate American voters about the benefits of balancing individuals and individual states’ freedoms with the public good and freedom as well as safety and overall wealth for all.
It is amazing how topical these papers are still today when we are engaged in the same exact battle once again. It is obvious that the current administration and the Congress is not occupied by educated, experienced and wise men who strive for what is best for everyone. The Constitution which was written with the public good in mind is now under constant attack.
Freedom of the Press is under attack by a President who has falsified Time Magazine covers decorating his golf courses. He recently stated that the Constitution is “old-fashioned.”
The health care bill that is currently proposed by the House and the Senate leans strongly toward wealth creation for the few, instead of the public good and freedom for all. The desire for individual wealth and power trumps the desire to protect freedom and safety for all.
The current administration who won due to manipulating the voting regions by gerrymandering, does not have full public support. Trump undoubtedly won over a lot of the working white class voters by promising to improve the health care system. Now instead his party wants to eliminate coverage for millions, lower coverage for those who are sick, and increase the premiums for when the policies are used when needed. This translates to the fact that millions more will either not be able to afford healthcare as soon as they get ill or they will go bankrupt trying to pay for medical expenses. In Alaska for instance Premiums for a 60 years old man will go up to $34,000 per year a high price to pay even in a state that offers above average median wages ranging from from $84,000 to $37,284 per median family incomes.
Clean water is under attack by the chosen head of the EPA. Millions of acres of public lands are leased to oil and gas companies with a history of causing oil spills ruining the environment. The Secretary of State, Tillerson has a known history of ignoring, if not supporting human rights offenses, by working with government known to steal from their inhabitants and in some cases killing entire villages to be able to provide Oil companies, like Exxon, with drilling rights.
In an op-ed piece in “The Hill” David Abramowitz, points out that looking for short term wealth for the few often hurts human rights for the many in the long run.
Right now the US is run by people with a history of siding with Human Rights offenders. Trump is publicly friends with human trafficker and known child molester Jeffrey Epstein, who ended up with very little jail time due to the Trump’s family intervention; Tillerson who was nearly sued by Indonesia for human rights offenses but “let go by W. Bush;” Joe Sessions lost his bid for the Supreme Court for his racist comments and attitudes; Steve Bannon, known for garnering support of the KKK, Neo-Nazis; Mike Pence, known for his ties with the tobacco industry and support of ultra conservative Christians oppressive and dangerous to LGBT persons; Sebastian Gorka known for his help to Russia overthrow Democracy in Hungary; and of course Manafort, Flynn and Trump’s own son in law; Guiliani who consulted helped prop up dictators like Duterte, Erdogan and created havoc in Venezuela. The list is too long for this article.
It may be a good idea to reread the Atlantic Monthly Time Capsules as we watch Democracy, Human Rights, Ecology, Education, and everything that has made this country great in the past under attack.
Will the battle for democracy and freedom for all people, regardless of sex, race, religion and national heritage as outlined in the US Constitution be won – AGAIN?
* Kindle Edition free from Amazon and the Gutenberg Press.
Communication & culture determines business success
Whether I worked with a tiny start up like the one above, or Microsoft when they grew from 24 people to thousands, or major Fortune 1000 companies like for instance HP, or a brand new entertainment company, it is usually easy to spot who will more likely succeed.
Ironically, it is not how breakthrough the company’s concept or the management team is on paper. It is also not the access the team has to VCs, Customers, and Vendors due to their Alma Mater, Or, even how chic their equipment and office furniture may be and how huge their marketing budget is initially. Of course, all these factors help tremendously, and of course without a functioning product or services success stays elusive.
What is so striking to me still, after providing strategic advice to companies during their rapid growth phase for so many years, is how much internal communications affects a company’s overall success.
I found in my many years of assisting people succeed, often from the two guys or ladies’ with an idea on a napkin at an affordable coffee shop phase to literally becoming billionaires. Quite a few of them anyhow and millionaires still count, right? The success often hinges on the way the teams communicate with each other inside the company. This is often an underrated success factor.
Are the founders/managers listening and hearing what their teams have to say? Are they staying informed about what the teams are actually working on? Or, is everyone creating their own little business model without letting the rest of the team know? Are people and their contributions valued? Are they encouraged to contribute? Do they feel that they can grow their own career within the company by helping the company grow. Or, do they feel that their ideas are disrespected or worse stolen, are they treated like minions, do they feel used and abused. Very often when the first or second venture money arrives, it quickly becomes apparent who can handle success without loosing composure. Attitudes matter.
Companies, no matter how large or how small, improve their success rate tremendously if they insisted that people communicate with each other in an empowering and honest way. The corporate culture is always linked with top management. Today the HR teams have a lot of influence, not always for the better. Whoever is in charge of hiring has a great influence over a companies’ success or failure. Every new individual brings their own culture into the enterprise and adds or subtracts from the overall success of the company. The culture determines if the company stays informed, nimble and quick – yet steady, reliable, and solid. Successful companies typically somehow manage both by nurturing a culture of open and mutually respectful internal dialogue.
A quote that I often share with C-level managers: “Whether you have a plan or not, you will get there.”
If the company has a plan everyone has a chance to move forward toward the common goal. If there is no plan, everyone may very well move in different directions, messing up the chances for success. If there is a plan that only the top managers know, the company functions as though there really is no plan. Only if everyone on the various teams understands the overall plan, likes and buys into the plan, sticks with the plan or improves and carries out their own part of the plan, has the company a solid chance for success. This is true at every phase of a company’s growth. Lack of mutual respect ruins companies. Sometimes when larger sums of investor money arrive some people get grandiose or create cliques. It is no fun to watch people lose money through foolishness and arrogance.
A small company maintains a solid sense of direction and cohesion by having regular meetings in which people in the various departments share how they move toward meeting their miles stones. An open communication style rooted in polite behavior and mutual respect allows everyone to help improve the companies’ cohesiveness and allows the prompt removal of obstacles to success. As the company grows it is still needed that hundreds of people share their own progress and concerns on how to improve their abilities for mutual progress. At that point, having a clear communication flow vertically, horizontally, and across different departments is ever more important. By the time communication flow needs to filter through team managers the corporate communication culture becomes vital to the company’s health. For many years I heard financial manager say “stay out of the weeds.” Yet, if you don’t know about an overgrowth of weeds, the growth of the crop may be strangled before top managers or the board finds out about needed fixes. Think Uber CEO!
Strategic governance allows departments to stay focused on future goals while dealing with issues in the here and now. It helps a company stay realistic and in tune with their vision, mission, the company’s values, and manage available or missing resources. Team members, whether male or female, will not get defensive if they stay regularly informed about market changes, delivery issues, needs or opportunities in the various departments. In healthy companies there are no problems only solutions! It’s a matter of the corporate culture’s attitude toward issues.
A cohesive team will freely identify and manage challenges, and turn them into opportunities. They will avoid unnecessary risks and make sure the entire company is legally compliant, while allowing the company’s individual divisions adapt to remain relevant to the overall success of the company. Company’s who have constructive policies about sharing, evaluating, and acting on new information without getting distracted from their overall plan have a greater chance for success.
Unlike Comey, Gorsuch must have sworn complete and unwavering loyalty to Trump.
Trump is jubilant. The now conservative US Supreme Court, supported by his appointee Justice Gorsuch, has ruled that his Muslim ban is partly okay until the time they will look at it in October. Experts seems to agree that this is a sign that the Court will uphold his ban in October.
He and his son-in-law recently sold $110 Billion dollars of weapons to the ultraconservative Muslim country of Saudi Arabia, which is known to poison young people’s minds all around the world through their state supported Imams who prejudice against women, Christians, and are known to promote ISIS and attacks on Westerners. But, money talks in Trump land. If you pay you get to play, if you are poor you get prejudiced against. None of the Muslim nations whose citizens are now bannedhave as many known terrorists as Saudi Arabia. So why aren’t the Saudi Arabian Muslim’s banned? Why are only Muslims from oil-poor countries banned? Maybe because they are “useless” to the likes of Trump and his supporters who seem only interested in the Mighty Mammon.
Unfortunately, Democrats don’t seem to have any strategy to change the system, except to ask for their daily demand for small bits of money, as though being willing to ask for small donations is a badge of honor in the money driven world of Nancy Pelosi. No wonder voters are turned off by both parties.
The second ruling supported by the now conservative US Supreme Court is to abolish separation of Church and State. Yes, the Lutheran church merely wanted to have the state to pay for their children’s playground protective rubber mats. Seems benign, right? However, as the Constitution is once more ignored they have now set yet another precedent. First “Church-going” people don’t have to sell cake, they don’t have to support women’s health, now churches can demand tax dollars, and soon? Well, it seems we are well on our way back to the Middle Ages.
The news about right-wing success is encouraging others to come out of the woodwork. Hungarian Leader Orbán today honored Hitler and Himmler supporter Miklós Horthy, who was personally responsible for collaborating with the Nazis in sending over 600,000 Jews to the death camps. Today this mass murderer is celebrated in Hungary as the US lost its way and the Supreme Court ignores the Constitution, again. This is a sad day in history and soon young people around the world will have to choose between Life and Death, again.
In the Federalist No. 2, “Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence” for the Independent Journal, written Wednesday, October 31, 1787 we find:
"It has lately been a received and uncontradicted opinion that the prosperity of the people of America depended on their continuing firmly united, and the wishes, prayers, and efforts of our best and wisest citizens have been constantly directed to that object. But politicians now appear, who insist that this opinion is erroneous, and that instead of looking for safety and happiness in union, we ought to seek it in a division of the States into distinct confederacies or sovereignties. However extraordinary this new doctrine may appear, it nevertheless has its advocates; and certain characters who were much opposed to it formerly, are at present of the number. Whatever may be the arguments or inducements which have wrought this change in the sentiments and declarations of these gentlemen, it certainly would not be wise in the people at large to adopt these new political tenets without being fully convinced that they are founded in truth and sound policy.
It has often given me pleasure to observe that independent America was not composed of detached and distant territories, but that one connected, fertile, wide-spreading country was the portion of our western sons of liberty."
Perhaps there is hope in this text that was written so eloquently nearly 230 years ago. Apparently the debate about State Rights and Federal Cohesion of the USA has been going on for a very long time. Maybe this great country will survive this latest onslaught of personalized greed and stay democratic after all – eventually.
Making America great and relaxed again. Cut off from the world and with diminished numbers of enthusiastic international business people bringing money and customers to the US the economy will suffer. Perhaps Americans should embrace the Amish life style? Plant a garden and live life without any connection to the crazy media world?
But since when there is a will there is a way, government sponsored terrorists will simply use private Jet Planes. They are terrorists and they are funded, ironically by countries who have often held long and close relationships with the US government. Europeans are not on the top lists of global terrorists. They are too busy working, drinking beer at local festivals and going to the opera.
As international business people are forced to use public cloud systems, cyber crime will rise to an all time high. Which is a risk that many companies will not wish to deal with.
When computer illiterate people are in charge this may seem like a good idea, since they are completely unaware of the unintended consequences.
As imports are strangled and business customers can’t shop in the US anymore in a convenient way, both B2B and consumer prices will skyrocket. It may create local jobs for some of the basics. There is always perfect balance in the world. Gardening equipment will go up as people have to grow their own food, due to loss of income.
Business internationally will be forced to reorient and Jean-Claude Juncker who recently got in trouble for stating that the “English language” is loosing its importance – just may become right with the help of some computer illiterate leaderships around the world.
It probably would be less costly and much more effective to just have a public relations campaign that promotes: “Buy Made in the USA” or “Assembled in the USA” products.
The fall out of such a decision will negatively affect the travel industry, tech industry, most exports, and it will practically force nations around the world to deal with each other and forgo business with the US, until this country’s business leadership comes to their senses. While corporations are people and they can clearly sponsor anyone into power, they have chosen some real doozies lately. They have eroded the middle class to an all time low since World War II.
The people in charge seem not to realize that trade is a two-way street. You cut off one way and you automatically cut off the other way as well. There are a lot of nations who will love to step in to fill the void. US lifestyles will suffer but international business people from around the world will always find a place to their investment dollars.
Out of 7,347,000,000 there are only about 321,000,000 Americans and only about 58 Million Brits. That means that over 7 Billion people and their business élites are not controlled by the US government. The reason why the US and England were so successful in the past, is that they were fairminded business people who wanted to create mutually beneficial financial relationships. Clearly that is no longer celebrated or even supported by the US government, except in genuinely international businesses like Space Travel and the development of life in space. NASA is entering into more and more genuinely international relationships as the support in the US is diminishing since several administrations in a row.
International business execs are not controlled by anyone, since the can simply move to another country that is more supportive of their business ventures. I imagine this will be great news for Canada, Scandinavia, Brasil, and of course China, Vietnam, Japan, and India, and even Russia and the ex-Soviet States as the Silk Road gains importance. Enterprising Europeans will look elsewhere for business that is enjoyable and profitable. Theresa May was annoyed when Jean-Claude Juncker snubbed her about the English language loosing importance. And he is often quite arrogant! But unfortunately lately his arrogance is not entirely unreasonable and occasionally even understandable.
It is a fact that meditation will help us lower high blood pressure. Lie down or sit with a straight spine. Get comfortable and listen to this wonderful music.
One of our favorite tuning services is Amplifield out of Marin County, California.
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You can attend classes, purchase seminars, or join like-minded people to meditate with you, or even support your mediation or you can support others’ intentions.
Russian affiliated paid smear campaigner, foreign agent, Michael Flynn, paid FBI official to derail Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Yes, we know, the electorate voted for Trump and therefore he is the legitimate US president and leader of the Western World. This is how Democracy works.
Homeland Security? What security?
However, we also know that there has been a fight between the CIA and the FBI for many years now and we know that the FBI has started to work internationally. Now we know that some, perhaps bad apples, within the FBI are working against Democracy. And, yes we are aware of all the CIA, dark prison sights, drug deals like the Iran Contra debacle, etc.
The FBI has done an amazing job recently arresting human traffickers and child abusers. We applaud that effort and we therefore know that not everyone within the FBI is working on corrupting the system with the goal to eliminate Democracy. We do however know without a shadow of a doubt that both Putin and Erdogan do not believe in democracy, do not believe in freedom of speech, do not believe that we are all created equal.
So when will people in this country rise up and start working on cleaning up the language used in public discourse? Dictators throughout history have perverted language to obfuscate what they are saying. Throughout history dictators have believed that they are “superior, demigod like” creatures, or at minimum “cleverer” than the stupid public, who can be sold anything by simply telling them what they want to hear instead of the truth. This is a technique that has been used for thousands of years.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Putin, Erdogan, Kim Jong-un, to some extent the Chinese and Indian government, all of which have vastly different political systems than the West, are working hard to undermine the West and bring back the old feudalist system. We don’t have to get into the EMEA or Africa because they really never stopped functioning in the feudalistic system of tribal oppression.
It is astounding how much more proof Western Journalists seem to need before they start addressing the elephant in the room. The Feudalistic Power Brokers run the world, always have and always will. That is not the question, the question is how miserable they allow the vast public has to become.
In Russia you have Oligarchs and serfs. You have the rich who have gilded 1000 room homes with a vast serving staff, and you have the long lines in front of the grocery stores because the country is run in such a corrupt and inept way that it is simply inhumane.
In Turkey you have journalist who “offend” the crazy self appointed Dictators arrested, while his crazy wife wants to bring back the “fine tradition” of a harem, essentially a thousand locked up slave girl who are supposed to attend to everyone of their perverted needs.
In China, if you offend the communist leadership, entire families are blackmailed or worse, and people are regularly locked up and worse.
In India they voted for a president who shot 1000 people dead in one of the worst massacres in human history. Yet neither Indians nor the rest of the world says anything or does anything, while watching as he roles back the advances reached over the past 20 years.
In Germany only a few years ago Merkel wanted to abolish freedom of speech to “serve” her megalomanic plan of being the leader of Europe and letting Erdogan get away with clear offenses against journalistic freedoms. She literally sided with that creep and tried to arrest bloggers for “treason.” She rewarded Erdogan with an EU down payment of $3 Billion dollars to stop the flow of refugees and to save from her world leadership responsibility of setting up policies that actually work to keep people safe in Africa. These people are fleeing for a reason. Address the reason and they probably would love to just stay home.
Yet, the Western Media and the Western governments, and by extension the public, all turn a blind eye to all these human rights offenses and abuses. Now that the Barbarians are inside the gate, will we continue to serve the mighty Mammon over human rights? When will the media and the public stand up and say: “Enough! We are not going to cooperate with this perversion of humanistic values any more? ”
How much more proof do we need that our world is being changed before or very eyes? How much more proof do we need that kindness, humanity, mutual support and mutual respect – all prerequisites for a free world are laughed at by these Barbarians, who care about nothing but material wealth? The Bolsheviks ruined Russia, the communists ruined China, the medieval Islamic values of the Ottoman Empire are ruining most of the Muslim countries.
When I was young I promoted international trade, because I thought that lifting people out of poverty all around the world, would allow everyone to become more civilized. Unfortunately, I believe now that what happened is that these uncivilized nations, are working on influencing us to become uncivilized just like them.
The Third World with all its filth, oppression, brutality, exploitation, perversion is encroaching on us. Why are we standing by? Why after 30 years of this development are we still pretending that we can’t see it? Or, is it that our social climbers, nouveau riches, just don’t want to or genuinely can’t see it and we allow it to happen, because we don’t want to get our hands dirty.
The genuine elite, whether they come from genuinely old money, or genuinely close-knit and mutually supportive families from all walks of life, namely those whose families are aware of the cycle in political upheaval, we are so conflict averse. Why deal with those shameful conditions, when we can sit in our ivory towers, get our hair done, and focus on choosing nice art, delicious cuisine and fine wine? Why not ignore our parents, grand parents, great grand parents stories of international turmoil and the resulting hardships for the public?
Do we seriously believe this will not affect us? If so, that is genuine ignorance. Yes, can money be made during times of war. Yes, of course. Much money. Can money be made after the wars, when entire nations have to be rebuilt? Of course, more money than during normal times.
But do we seriously believe that with Nuclear Weapons in the hand of Barbarians, we will not be affected? That is blind trust. If you trust that mentally unstable people will not start a war, will not create conditions of horrific inhumanity, than your cumulative understanding of what civilization is about has genuinely been lost, along with your ability to think clearly.
We need to decide to recommit to humanistic values and we need to do it quickly, swiftly, and without leaving any shadow of a doubt, that the Barbarians should move back into their caves and not come out until they are willing to behaved in a polite and civilized manner. The privileges of wealth and leadership in the wrong hands are disastrous.
