Corporate Profits and Hiring

This article was broght to my attention by my twitter friend @LeahThayer http://nyti.ms/ce6BvE

It is a wonderfully debatable topic. With Corporate profits heading upwards and Unemployment rates still lagging is it fair to beat up corporate America?

If the companies were able to cut payrolls and increase revenue or profits then I believe those CEO's deserve the gratitude of all their shareholders. If they were able to pull the double whammy off then clearly they were running fat and some good people were given the chance to shine and unfortunately some good people were let go.

The statement in the article is "Until we value our workers..." I would venture to say that for those who remain employed their value has risen tremendously. Finding the people in your organization that can make it happen is energizing to the leadership as well as the whole company.

If these companies did not share their success with these people than shame on them and they will not hold onto that superstar for very long.

I will admit that a change has occurred. Materials take longer to get. Phones and questions take longer to get answered. The marketplace is adjusting to this. My days are longer and more challenging, but that just makes me feel like we were cruising on easy street. Everyone was chasing the bubbles and easy money. Very few were actually working hard. I thought we were working hard but it is truly amazing what we are capable of when crisis hits.

I think it is a mistake to drag these companies through the mud when it appears their balance sheets are healthier and the employees who survived are better served by the refocusing of their efforts.

I believe any move to hire people back just because profits are up is an inherent disregard for how business works. Instead they should be looking to reinvest those profits into R&D to find new ways to grow their business.

Could it be, we are entering into a promising period where our ingenuity and drive will transform our country. I see articles all the time about people who lost their job and decided to start their own business. Most had wanted to do it but fear prevented them. Take away the steady paycheck and the fear went away… nothing to lose.

Some amazing things will come from those people and hopefully they will build their companies and be able to hire some of those without a job.

Clean Energy... An opportunity for America

Set your political views aside for a minute and just think about the opportunity our country has in front of it. We pride ourselves as being a country of innovators, inventors, and creators. We also stand up for freedom across all boundaries and believe that humans have an inherent right to freedom. Clean Energy sits squarely on all these principles. Having the ability to generate your own electricity, heat, or clean water could be a power shifting movement. That creates huge amounts of fear in people because it is change and we all fear change.
The United States trails most European countries in the deployment of renewable energy resources and yes, they were forced to do this out of necessity. They lacked the wealth of natural resources that we are blessed to have. We do however, understand that even our natural resources have a finite existence. With this in mind is it OK for us to just sit and wait for that to happen then go to Germany or China and ask for there technology? Seems like a shift in power to me.

The attached video is driven by a political group, don't ignore this just, take the video at face value and decide for yourself if what the guy is saying makes sense.

This is not an easy river to navigate but if we choose not to get in the water, we will still be standing on the banks when the flood comes...

http://bit.ly/a9ot3v