Mr Obama has done very well to get his stimulus package through both legislative houses in America. Bill Clinton in comparison failed in 1993 to get mere 16 billion through. There is lot at stake at the moment not only the economic recovery but also the integrity on a political leader to deliver on his promise.
Mr Obama methods could not be more contrasting to the out going republican administration who pursued a policy that America could dictate it’s terms to the world. With American debt spiralling out of control Mr Obama has realised that this is no longer case. It is sad reflection that would think that table banging politics could ever work. Mr Obama’s policy of bipartisan is still currently being subject to spoilt child tactics of the republicans. Who if they can not get there way take their ball and refuse to play.
He is on the right track. Better to engage although more costly and time consuming and win the battle of minds. There is only so much one can do. Without general consent it has no credibility. The key is how does one engage all parties. Choosing your method is critical, than again if it does not work you can always try another one. Cleary Mr Obama’s methode has worked.
I have just watched the video which you can see below from Ted about what is happening at Second Life - virtual world. The next big area of growth will be virtual worlds in the coming decade. In fact I would go so far as to describe it as Web 3.0. The complete immersion of ones self into internet reality. Not only having two way communication but body communication too.
It interesting to wonder what sort of world would people create given the free reign of their imagination. Unfortunately just before christmas I read some where that down town on second life had became exactly the same as any major city in the world. Predictably? possible. As quoted from the website “The Second Life Grid™ provides the platform where the Second Life world resides and offers the tools for business, educators, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs to develop a virtual presence. Headquartered in San Francisco, Linden Lab has over 250 employees spread across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.”
So it is a business tool. The technology has still has long way to go but it is very interesting hearing from Philip Rosedale the founder of this.
One of the hardest things as an entrepreneur is to believe enough in your idea to do it, but not so much that overpowers everything else. I came across interesting article that expresses this sentiment exactly.
“Ego also gives entrepreneurs the confidence to sell their start-ups to partners, customers, and investors, and the courage to act like famous international CEOs even when they know they really are just playing a role. And ego is the force that allows entrepreneurs to get comfortable with their powerlessness and learn to love the word “no” instead of panicking in the face of it.
On the other hand, when allowed to run amok, ego keeps entrepreneurs from knowing what they don’t know and tempts them to believe their own press. Ego is also the culprit when entrepreneurs cling to their role as founder rather than turning their companies over to more capable managers. And ego is to blame when entrepreneurs can’t work with odd people who are clearly smarter than they are, or when they fail to remain calm and gracious in all business situations.”
Credit Control – “no sales transaction is complete until you have been paid for the goods or services you have supplied. If your customers are not paying you within the agreed timescale, be that monthly or whatever, then it’s time to call in these outstanding payments. Make sure you remind customers a few days before payment is due. Whilst a letter or email could do I personally favour a quick telephone call along the lines of “Payment for our invoice 123456 is due next week, can you confirm that you have no queries and that we can expect payment on time?”
If you don’t receive the payment then wait a day or two to allow for genuine postal delays – these do happen - and follow up with another call. Be polite but firm and don’t be fobbed off with excuses. Remember, other suppliers will also be chasing payment and if your client is short of cash they will get paid first.”
Of course a very simple point to remember in all this. If somebody has got no money, it does not matter what you do, it is not possible to get it back. Hence why a online/off-line reputation is so important and paying on time if you want to keep your credit.
It is easy with hindsight to look back and say if only. If only the Labour government had properly regulated the financial institutions in London we might not be in this sorry state.
Hindsight is a wonderfully thing.
Of course that does not preclude any government from properly planning and preparing resources.
One must ask themselves why is it that the UK may well with in the next ten years start to suffer black outs due to inadequate planning in electricity supply. What is more surprising is that we do not even have the skills to build a modern power station. We are totally reliant on the French EDF controlled company to do it for us. If a smaller percentage of the 400 billion pounds that we spent on bailing out our high street banks at a debt of 10,000 pounds for every single person living in the UK, was to be spent on upgrading our transport infrastructure. We might than have a few more engineers that could be used for our own energy related business. Not forgetting of course that we would have a coherent and reasonable transport network like the one that our European neighbours experience.
Long term planning
Suggest long term planning to politicians here is like talking about SDP winning the next election. It is a reasonable choice, but you know it is not going to happen. May be politicians could be more accountable if they were given a free vote on all legislation in parliament. Instead of the old line of using government whips to insure the party line is met. Than people can decide for them selves way we can not regulate a bank to lend money reasonable.
It is interesting to note that Obama has chosen to keep the current defence secretary from George Bush. The question now is who is he more accountable to Obama, the Republicans or the American public. A shrewd move indeed.
I have been reading the IOD magazines in my Christmas break and they have got an interesting article on e-commerce. They claim that you have got seven seconds to capture and interest your visitor. With so much content online these days the old maxim that content, content, content would guarantee a number of visitors is yesterdays news. Why?
First it takes time to produce quality content, not only do you have to be well informed you also need an opinion. Even if you have these two aspects it may not be enough. Writing content is an art as Sherrilynne over at Strive Pr can explain. Is it cheap to produce quality content? Hell no, even the most established bloggers such as Dosh Dosh require an indeterminate amount of time to write and check there content before it goes on there website. Other bloggers or companies employ other people do it for them. Which ultimately costs money instead of time.
Is Content King? Nope. A few months ago I looked at setting up a debt recovery business. In my research I was staggered to find so much quality content already on the net . I could have written till I was blue in the face with original content. I do not think that that my debt recovery website would have got on to the golden first page of google results for debt as a search word. As Chris Barling, in the IOD article also CEO of e-commerce software company Actinic, explains: “People try to trick Google, but it’s very good at finding relevant sites.
So what to do? Owen and I have been talking too about this problem recently and we do believe there is a solution. It does not lay in the content that you produce. Although original content is beneficial. It is no longer about one certain area but the concept as a whole. You can now buy a very respectable website for £1000 pounds. Unless it is geared to engage your market in all honesty you are better spending the money on hosting a wine and cheese evening for your potential customers . The only problem with that is, in a time poor world you are severely limiting your market and my 7 seconds was up long ago.
