July Insights

Are You A Typical Vistage Member?

What Our Members Want You to Know

Week of July 2, 2018

Happy Fourth of July!

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.

When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson

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“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.”

Albert Camus

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"My father described this tall lady who stands in the middle of the

New York harbor, holding high a torch to welcome people

seeking freedom in America. I instantly fell in love."

Yakov Smirnoff

Russian born American Comic

FOR YOUR EDIFICATION AND ENTERTAINMENT

The Jerk Fallacy

Independence in Real Time

Five From the Marines

Days of Disruption (No. 2):  Meet Zander Futernick

Econ Recon:  Unintended Consequences

The Jerk Fallacy

It’s said “nice guys finish last.”  Put differently, you need to be a “not nice” person to prevail in life and business.     Marketing and management guru Seth Godin suggests a more nuanced view that he calls the “The Jerk Fallacy.”     Read it and ask yourself the reason for your success

Independence in Real Time

The introduction of the telegraph in the 1830s made news available instantaneously.  Until its invention, news could only travel as fast as a horseman or ship could carry it. 

Were the Declaration of Independence to signed today, the announcement would be shared everywhere at once (assuming of course it hadn’t been leaked first).  This graphic from Smithsonian Magazine tracks how the news of independence made it across the United States in 1776.

                                                                                                            

Five from the Marines

Looking for a short course in leadership?  The United States Marine Corps has been training leaders for nearly as long as there has been a United States for them to defend.  One former Marine Officer (and Vistage Chair) shares his personal take on Five Leadership Lessons from the United State Marine Corps.

Days of Disruption (No. 2):  Meet Zander Futernick

Meet 21 year old Zander Futernick who may be about to teach the airline industry how to run, well, an airline.   Existing businesses are often reinvented by finding an unserved market and/or creating a different business model for an old product.   This short article from Forbes relates how Mr. Futernick is exploiting the market space between commercial air travel and luxury private jets.   

Step one,  he says,  is “getting rid of commercial airports”  That’s REAL disruption. (Let’s hope he succeeds).   

Econ Recon

 

Unintended consequences:  It’s often said that the “road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  To wit, Harley Davidson’s response to the new tariff policy.   Find out why the economists at ITR Economics think the impact on the iconic motorcycle maker should be filed under “Unintended Consequences.”