Lamar Odom, 26 years old, and a high achiever for the Los Angeles Lakers, has figured out the ingredient for success. According to Liz Robbins of the New York Times, Lamar's approach to basketball in the NBA is simple - "I understand about being passionate about what you do, how to give effort and energy every night".

Entrepreneurs and executives - heed Lamar Odom's lesson. Be passionate about what you do!

Lamar, well said. Perhaps coach Pat Riley of the reigning NBA champions - the Miami Heat - taught Lamar his lesson?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 4:02 PM | Permalink

Warren Buffett is my hero. He always has been and always will be. My son Nathan and I met Warren ten years ago at a Coca Cola shareholders' meeting. Warren was on the Board of Directors for Coke. Nathan, twelve years old at the time, was a shareholder and decided to attend the meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, as he knew how crazy I was about Buffett. And I still am!

Nathan stuck out at the meeting, being the only minor in the room. After the meeting CEO Roberto Goizueta and Warren Buffett spoke privately with Nathan. The conversation made a big impact on my son (detailed story for a future post).

Move the clock forward ten years. In June of 2006, the second richest man in the world, Warren Buffett, donated $30.7 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This single act, the largest charitable contribution ever, is making a big impact on philanthropy. Buffett's donation sets the standard. More and more wealthy people are following Buffett's action - giving in large numbers.

Warren Buffett, you are my person of the year for 2006! Ten years ago you made a big impact on my son (now employed by a Wall Street firm), and you are making a huge impact on the world of philanthropy.

Thank you.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 3:17 PM | Permalink

A suggestion of a great post from my business partner, Geof Lambert. He has posted information on his Digaria site.

Do you have any clue what Couch Surfing is?

CouchSurfing's home page description:

What is CouchSurfing?
You're probably here at CouchSurfing to find a free place to stay or people to hang out with while you are traveling. After your first experience of either surfing or hosting, you'll find out that what you get out of it is so much more. We help to create a better world by opening our homes, our hearts and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing changes not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!

CouchSurfing.com helps you make connections worldwide. You can use the network to meet people and then go and surf other members' couches! When you surf a couch, you are a guest at someone's house. They will provide you with some sort of accommodation, a penthouse apartment or maybe a back yard to pitch your tent in. Stays can be as short as a cup of coffee, a night or two, or even a few months or more. When you offer your couch, you have complete control of who visits. The possibilities are endless and completely up to you.

The friendships made through CouchSurfing enhance members' lives and contribute greatly to making the world a better, safer, more peaceful place. Signing up for a free couch and ending up with amazing adventures and a global family--that's what CouchSurfing is all about!

Give it a try - sounds like a new twist on student hostels, but with a chance to meet lots of cool people.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:55 AM | Permalink

Are you up to speed on the new laws that you will be required to follow as an employer? Here's the scoop from the California Chamber of Commerce:

The following is a list of new laws that have recently gone into effect or will take effect in 2007:

Discrimination
SB 1441
Adds sexual orientation to existing classifications protected from discrimination by recipients of state funds and expands the definition of discrimination to include the perception that the victim is a member of a protected class.

Employment
AB 546
Outlaws the use of state-owned or state-leased computers by government officials or employees to access obscene materials.

SB 1759
Establishes requirements for background checks of certain administrators, executives and employees in the health care industry, and a process for transmission of fingerprint images.

Health and Safety
AB 2067
Extends and clarifies the prohibition on smoking in the workplace.

AB 409
Immediately authorizes suspension of the license of a cosmetologist, barber, estheticians, manicurist, and electrologist if required to protect the public health and safety. Provides a means for temporary stay and appeal of the suspension.

AB 881
Requires all roofing contractors to have workers’ compensation insurance, whether or not having current employees.

SB 1613
Effective July 1, 2008, limits the use of cell phones while driving to those having hands-free operation except for contacts with law enforcement and public safety agencies and certain commercial vehicles for whom the effective date is July 1, 2011.

Until July 1, 2011, this prohibition does not apply to a person driving a motor truck or truck tractor, an agricultural vehicle, tow truck, or a commercial vehicle, when using a digital 2-way radio service that utilizes a wireless telephone that operates by depressing a push-to-talk feature as long as it does not require immediate proximity to the user’s ear.

The law does not apply to a person driving a school bus or transit vehicle that is subject to certain existing wireless telephone usage restrictions, or to a person while driving a motor vehicle on private property.

Sexual Harassment
AB 2095
Limits mandated sexual harassment training to supervisors located in California.

State Government
AB 3058
Directs development of a web-based small business handbook on emergency preparedness.

AB 1302
Amends the process by which state government agencies can create and impose emergency regulations and the duration of the period during which emergency regulations can remain in effect.

SB 1436
Requires state agencies to improve their communication regarding regulations and assistance with the business community, with an emphasis on small business.

SB 1827
Permits registered domestic partners to file joint state income tax and have their earnings treated as community property on a par with married couples.

SB 1428
Permits payroll services companies in the motion picture industry to be treated as the employer for purposes of unemployment tax filings and responsibility.

AB 2293
Penalizes an educational employer that submits willfully false statements about a worker’s employment or termination to the Employment Development Department.

Wages
AB 2613
Establishes conditions for a state overtime exemption for teachers in private educational institutions.

SB 1468
This law extends the repeal date of the Car Wash Industry compliance program from January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2010.

SB 1719
Permits employers and unions in the entertainment industry to establish conditions for payment of final paychecks by collective bargaining.

AB 1835
Increases California’s minimum wage and exempt salary standards for all California employers.

This law increases the California minimum wage to $7.50 per hour on January 1, 2007, and to $8 per hour on January 1, 2008.

AB 2095
Permits reporting of overtime hours on the same payroll date as the hours are paid when overtime is paid in the payroll period subsequent to the one in which it is earned.

Wage Deductions
AB 2440
Imposes a penalty on an employer that assists an employee or contractor with child support obligations evade meeting those obligations, including failure to file reports upon hiring.

Workers’ Compensation
AB 1368
Excludes public safety employees from the presumption that medical apportionment applied to certain specified job-related illnesses or injuries.

AB 2068
Permits pre-designation of a medical group as the primary treating physician and extends the sunset date of the right of pre-designation.

AB 2292
Provides for payment of workers’ compensation death benefits to the estate of the deceased worker. Labor Code Section 4706.5 requires workers' compensation death benefits to be paid to the California State Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) if the employee does not leave surviving any person entitled to a dependency death benefit.

For more information about the new laws.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Looking for a different way of celebrating this New Year's Eve? How about the Annual Black & White New Year's Eve Tango Ball! Dancing tango, sipping champagne, and the kissing part at midnight! Beginning tango lesson from 8:00-9:00 p.m and then dancing until 1PM. Cost is $15 per person and includes lesson, dance, hors d’oeuvres & refreshments (including champagne!) Tango by the River is located at 128 J Street in Old Sacramento, on the second floor above the "Visions of Eden" boutique.

You can even squeeze in the 9:00PM Old Sacramento New Year's Eve Sky Spectacular fireworks show, which will also be repeated at midnight.

Tango into 2007. Sounds like lots of fun.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:53 AM | Permalink

The United States has now become the world leader in its rate of incarceration, locking up its citizens at 5-8 times the rate of other industrialized nations. So begins Marc Mauer's excellent post on TomPaine.com entitled "America has become incarceration nation". Some of the alarming statistics he reports:

There are now a record 2.2 million Americans incarcerated in the nation’s prisons and jails according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Since 1972 there has been a 500 percent increase in the number of people in prison.

Sixty percent of the prison population is African American and Latino, and if current trends continue, one of every three black males and one of every six Latino males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in his lifetime. The overall rates for women are lower, but the racial and ethnic disparities are similar and the growth rate of women’s incarceration is nearly double that of men over the past two decades.

The US corrections budget now totals $60 billion annually.

Drug policies have been responsible for a disproportionate share of the rise in the inmate population, with the 40,000 drug offenders in prison or jail in 1980 increasing to a half million today. A substantial body of research has documented that these laws have had virtually no effect on the drug trade, as measured by price or availability of drugs. Most of the drug offenders in prison are not the “kingpins” of the drug trade. Indeed, the low-level sellers who are incarcerated are rapidly replaced on the streets by others seeking economic gain.

And there's little evidence that our race to incarcerate has any substantial impact on crime rates:

While crime rates have been declining nationally for a decade, research to date demonstrates that expanded incarceration has, at best, been responsible for only a quarter of this decline. Other factors that played a key role include a strong economy in the 1990s that provided employment opportunities for low-skill workers, a marked decline in crack cocaine use and its associated violence by the early 1990s, and strategic community policing. New York City, which experienced a two-thirds reduction in homicides from 1990 to 2002, did so despite a one-third decline in its jail population during that period. And conversely, while Idaho led the nation with an astonishing 174 percent rise in its prison population, it nevertheless experienced a 14 percent rise in crime.

According to the author, areas that should be high on the reform agenda:

Crack cocaine sentencing reform—During the last 20 years, the federal sentencing laws for crack cocaine offenses have subjected thousands of low-level defendants to mandatory five- and 10-year prison terms, while exacerbating the racial dynamics of incarceration. More than 80 percent of the persons charged with these offenses are African Americans, who receive much stiffer terms than those meted out to powder cocaine defendants.

Mandatory sentencing reform—Congressional mandates to impose harsh sentences with no judicial input have created unfair and overly harsh penalties, and have been decried by the American Bar Association and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, (Sacramento's own!) among many others.

Racial impact statements—Just as fiscal impact statements aid lawmakers in assessing the financial implications of sentencing policies, the preparation of racial impact assessments could provide similar benefits to policymakers. Had such assessments existed in 1986, we could have had a debate on the racial dynamics of the crack cocaine laws prior to their enactment, not 20 years later.

Felon disenfranchisement reform—Five million Americans could not participate in the November election due to a current or previous felony conviction. Laws that govern these practices are enacted by the states, but Congress has the authority to require uniform voting rules in federal elections. Legislation proposed by John Conyers in the House would require states to permit voting by any non-incarcerated person in federal elections, even if barred from participating in state elections.

And then, the author concludes citing several alternatives (dear to my heart) to our nation's shameful practices:

Both public safety and community health would be better served through investments in policies that promote job creation, high school graduation and substance abuse treatment.

Let's hope our governor incorporates plans for incarceration alternatives in the $11B prison reform program he announced yesterday. His previous program was voted down last fall. This time he calls for $4.4B to be spent on 78,000 new beds. Currently California is housing 174,000 in facilities that were built to hold 100,000. 17,000 of the overflow are living in gymnasium and classroom housing - so much for exercise of the body and the brain. Thankfully, he has asked for $1B for new beds to house 100,000 sick and mentally ill prisoners. Since President Reagan closed the mental hospitals in California in the 70's and nationwide in the 80's and never replaced them, as he promised, with community mental health facilities, many of the mentally ill are lingering in jail with little or no adequate treatment. Schwarzenegger has also proposed a review of sentencing laws in California. Currently, we have a mandatory 3-year parole period, no matter the crime, the longest of any state in the nation. His argument is that by reducing this period for less serious crimes, parole staff could spend more time tracking higher risk parolees. There is some money allocated for juveniles although there are no specifics.

What a waste we are making of our young people and minorities. We must offer them alternatives, motivation, role models, jobs, education, mental health and/or drug treatment. A life in prison is rarely the answer.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Too much holidays, family and bad winter weather. Time to get re-introduced to your sweetie? Well, here's your guide:

The Top 10 Romantic Islands of the World

1. French Polynesian Islands
2. Bali Island
3. Fiji Islands
4. Seychelles Islands
5. Hawaiian Islands
6. Greek Islands
7. Madeira Islands
8. Cook Islands
9. Caribbean Islands
10. Bermuda Island

This list is prepared by: Howard Hillman, who bills himself as the world's leading travel wonder authority. Wow, I want that job!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:33 AM | Permalink

We wish all of our readers time to enjoy the wonder.
We thank you for your readership and support
We look forward to winning your continued support in 2007 and beyond.

Happy Holidays



Gillian and Pierre
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:00 AM | Permalink

Got a new IT project for 2007. Here are some great lessons to be learned to increase the success probability:

From Baseline Magazine

The key to project success is learning from what works as well as what doesn't work . Baseline has compiled a list of best practices drawn from nearly 230 case studies we've written in the last five years.

Lesson 1: Business processes should set the agenda, not technology. Toyota Motor is on track to pass General Motors and soon become the world's largest automotive manufacturer. Technology plays an important role in Toyota's drive to the top, but the company never loses sight of what comes first: improving its manufacturing and business processes.

Lesson 2: Biting the bullet and migrating off an older technology can pay off. R.L. Polk & Co., one of the largest providers of marketing data to automakers, wanted to retire its expensive batch-oriented mainframe system. It spent $20 million to form a new subsidiary that in 18 months developed a "data factory" built on a service-oriented architecture and Intel-based servers. The project let the company cut the head count of its data center operations group by 43%, and also saved money on hardware and software.

Lesson 3: Track projects across the entire enterprise. American Family Life Assurance Co. (AFLAC) used to have dozens of technology projects moving at once, but the company wasn't ever sure when its 230 technologists would be done with an installation and free to start something new. AFLAC set up a project management office and put software in place that lets executives and project planners see who is assigned to which projects, how many hours they have put in, how many hours are left and which project they will work on next.

Lesson 4: Get stakeholders in the same room. In five years, the number of software applications used by Cirque du Soleil employees had ballooned from roughly 40 to more than 200. Although these tools ran a wide range of operations, they could not share data. The company's goal was to organize all the application environments onto a single, standardized platform for access and development. Getting all the stakeholders in the same room to agree on the requirements was critical to the project's success.

Lesson 5: Give customers what they want. Megachurches like the 25,000-member World Changers of Atlanta can look at their data and identify members, determine who contributes how much in donations, and track who's becoming discontent and may abandon ship. With a well-trained staff and the technology to track worshipper demographics and their shopping, prayer and volunteerism behavior patterns, World Changers can target products and services to its followers and keep its pews filled.

Lesson 6: Measure success—but also failure. Technology managers at the Bank of New York thought they were doing a good job of running its information systems, but they couldn't back up their assessment with metrics. That's why they turned to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, a set of best practices guidelines for managing technology.

Lesson 7: The easiest solution isn't always the best. Merrill Lynch & Co reinvigorated 420 financial programs stored on mainframe computers. How? By building—from scratch—Web services that can handle millions of interactions a day. But unlike many other corporations that are embracing Web services, Merrill decided to do it without the help of a traditional vendor of Web services platforms. Instead, it chose to develop and implement an entirely new Web services architecture on its own.

Lesson 8: Consider Master Data Management. Mentor Graphics, a maker of electronic design automation systems, tried to manually bandage the problem of incorrect and inconsistent data in its enterprise information systems. But it was losing the fight. Then the company deployed a master data management system to automatically update changes in its operations.

Lesson 9: Make a lean system even leaner. Tom Mathis, vice president of supply chain management at Danaher Sensors and Controls, had the job of taking a "lean" organization and making it even leaner. So he bucked corporate tradition when he proposed adding computerization to a manufacturing process known for achieving efficiency without it.

Lesson 10: Don't use complicated, expensive software when a clipboard and pencil will do. Dollar General, the $8.6 billion discount retailer, can get a new store up in eight days or fewer thanks to a super-efficient logistics process honed each time it sets up one of its 8,000 stores. Key ingredients: sweat equity and scant technology beyond PC cash registers on a satellite system.

Go check out the whole article with case studies from industry leaders.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:13 PM | Permalink

Plan on attending the American Marketing Association Sacramento Valley's January Luncheon. Local startup founder and CEO Jason Frankel of Coversant, Inc., will introduce Enterprise Instant Messaging: The Next Best Thing Since Email. Jason will discuss the future direction of this new communication technology and how it will impact your business. And, over a delicious lunch, you will learn how EIM will eat SPAM for lunch!

Sounds like a great way to start your new year. You can register on the AMASAV website. There's even a discount for students. And you'll even get to see a future Sacramento bigwig before he gets big! That's my prediction!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the more interesting propositions facing California’s voters last November was Proposition 87, which would have taxed in-state oil producers to fund alternative energy projects. Proponents of this bill aired a television commercial, narrated by Bill Clinton, where the Brazilian ethanol industry was referenced. The closing message is “If Brazil can do it, so can California.”

This is preposterous. First of all, Brazil, which only replaces a bit more than 10% of their petroleum with ethanol, has a per capita petroleum and ethanol consumption of about 4.0 barrels per year per citizen (ref. EIA). California, the most energy-efficient of all US states, nonetheless has a per capita petroleum consumption of over 20 barrels per year per citizen (ref. DOE). For this reason, California, with 33 million inhabitants and sitting on maybe 40,000 square miles of fully utilized farmland (ref. NetState), requires nearly 700 million barrels of petroleum per year. This is almost as much as Brazil; with 186 million people, and nearly 10,000 square miles of farmland already dedicated to growing sugar cane, Brazil requires only about 800 million barrels of petroleum and ethanol per year.

Where is California going to find enough land to make any dent whatsoever in their petroleum consumption through planting biofuel crops? Let’s not forget that sugar cane doesn’t grow in California, but corn does. Sugar cane, best case, will yield maybe around 11,000 barrels of ethanol per square mile per year (ref. UCLA), but corn yields less than half that, around 4,700 barrels per square mile per year (ref. USDA).
This math is not encouraging: For California to replace 10% of its current petroleum consumption with ethanol, California would have to convert 50% of its existing farmland to grow biofuel crops. Not a chance.

Obviously California can import ethanol from America’s cornbelt, but the issue remains of how to find sufficient land. As we note in Biofuel vs. Photovoltaics, there are around 5.0 million square miles of arable farmland in the entire world, and even at yields of 11,000 barrels of oil per year, to get 80 million barrels per day (to match world petroleum consumption), you would pretty much have to replace 100% of the world’s farmland.

Proponents of biofuel correctly point out that it isn’t meant to completely replace petroleum, and that new techniques to extract biofuel from cellulose or to grow it in self contained reactors may greatly increase capacities. What they aren’t saying is that meanwhile food prices are being driven up all over the world, particularly in poorer countries, and deforestation is accelerating, because of this new cash crop.

Bottom line - if this is the best proponents of Proposition 87 could offer, they didn’t have anything worth voting for. Let’s not forget it was government bureaucrats who wasted billions of dollars on hydrogen fuel cells, delaying the introduction of hybrids and all-electric cars by a decade or more.

It would have been tempting to support Proposition 87 if the bureaucrats intended to use 100% of the funds to expand photovoltaic capacity. But investments are already going into photovoltaic research and new manufacturing. And the private funds going into photovoltaics today are coming from the Silicon Valley, where investors are managing their own money with an eye towards breakthroughs, not patronage.

Ed Ring
Editor, EcoWorld

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ok, it's tragic that 3 people's lives have presumably been lost on Mt. Hood. But, at the end of the day, these 3 climbers were experienced and had deliberately planned this trip at the most dangerous time of the year and to include the most dangerous route.

"What we're they thinking?" asks a search-and-rescue volunteer in this mountain town when told about the three lost climbers stranded somewhere on Mount Hood in Oregon.

"To climb a difficult ascent in the kind of weather they get over there in December is just asking for it," said the volunteer, who preferred not to be identified. (ABC News)

The cost of the rescue efforts is enormous:

The $5,000-$6,500 a day the Hood River County Sheriff's Office has spent on the search is only part of what will be become the final price tag, in part because much of it is being done by volunteers and the military, which in the past has tagged such missions as training.

"There is no way of answering these things," said Georges Kleinbaum, state search and rescue coordinator for Oregon. "Obviously there is a lot of money being expended, but there is never a bill to look at."

The Black Hawk helicopters alone are estimated to cost $2,800 an hour to operate. At least two Black Hawks and a Nevada Air National Guard C-130 transport have been repeatedly used in the search. (CBS/AP)

And at least one of these climbers was not without means. I know that he bought furniture recently from a very expensive store in Dallas.

And frankly, it's not underprivileged citizens that get stuck on mountains and get hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to rescue them with no bill payable at the end. It's people who can afford all of the equipment and training and time off and could quite easily pay, if not all, something toward the rescue effort. Otherwise it is the local county, in this case Summit County, and the Federal government, and you and me and everyone else that never thought about going on a mountain and might want to donate our share to pay for a mammogram for an indigent woman, or for a college education for a poor kid with potential, or for adequate body armor for a solider in Iraq, or even for a hospital bill that never gets waived for peole who are pushed into bankruptcy because they don't have insurance or the means to pay.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From Yahoo

What do you think?

Iraq, Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Global Warming, 2006 Election Results. Not even close

1 Britney Spears
2 WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, for those who aren't in the know!)
3 Shakira
4 Jessica Simpson
5 Paris Hilton
6 American Idol
7 Beyonce Knowles
8 Chris Brown
9 Pamela Anderson
10 Lindsay Lohan

What? No Nicole Richie. I demand a recount. Seriously, this is good fuel for Pierre's dumbing down of America rant.

For those more serious types, here is the Top Ten News Searches:

1 Steve Irwin death
2 Anna Nicole's son dies
3 Iraq
4 Israel and Lebanon
5 U.S. elections
6 Fidel Castro stroke
7 North Korea nuke
8 JonBenet confession
9 Saddam Hussein trial
10 Danish cartoon

Still a little "celebrity" rich for my blood.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The company that purchased Tower Records had plans to keep the Tower stores on Broadway and Watt Ave. open. But they announced today that the leases "weren't what we thought they were." The Broadway store closed today and the Watt Ave. store will close is on Friday. Farewell, sweet prince.

It wasn't so long ago that Tower Restaurant on Broadway was worried about Tower Theatre closing and ruining its business. I wonder what will happen to the Land Park Drive/Broadway Corner with no Tower. And as far as I know the future of Tower Theatre hasn't been secured yet. Is this famous corner snake-bit? Let's hope not, there's a lot of history here that Sacramento needs to work hard to preserve.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sacramento Kings - breaking news for this holiday season! The NBA plays with just one ball at a time. And it's a good thing! Can you imagine two balls at the same time and the top two scorers on the same team?

Allen Iverson and Carmello Anthony on the same team - why? The top two scorers. The top two ball hogs (outside of Kobe Bryant). Both players average 24 shots per game. Tops in the league. Even more than Kobe right now. Can you imagine being one of the other three players on the floor? Will they ever get the ball? What about team chemistry? Not just one ball hog. But two!

Ask Charles Barkley if he would like to play for Denver with these two shooters.

It's really simple. A regulation game has 48 minutes - 12 minutes a quarter, four quarters a game. Each team, by definition will have only so many possessions. Even if the game is sped up, it's just a finite number - the number doesn't change (unless you're playing with Steve Nash). There's just one ball and one shooter at a time.

And another thing, the NBA has proven multiple super stars on the same team just doesn't work. Look at Kobe and Shaq. Furthermore, look at our "dream teams" in international competitions. Super star filled rosters don't win. Why? Because basketball is a team sport.

Proof - 2002 World Champions - Yugoslavia. 2006 World Champions - Spain.

Basketball is a team sport. Teams win. They always have. And always will.

Oh. One more thing. I only know one instance of two players on the same NBA team ever to each average 30 points or more in the same season - The Lakers in the 1961/1962 season. The players? Elgin Baylor with 38.2 points per game; and Jerry West (the all-time Lakers scorer) with 30.8 points. The results? The Lakers were beaten in game 7 of the finals by the Boston Celtics, 110-107.

Need I say more about the Nuggets chances of winning it all this year?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive.

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

YingYing Wu and her star are shining! At 21 years old, Ms. Wu has achieved international fame. Scholar, inventor, media darling, and executive.

What can't this woman achieve? She has it all going for her right now.

I expect more high achievers from China.

My advice to American business people looking for the best in talent - go East young (wo)man!

TopCoder - you are brilliant. What a shrewd move!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ran across this in the Folsom Telegraph today:

Golf course may close
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 3:14 PM PST

A strong rumor about its closure is making the rounds at the El Dorado Hills Golf Course this week.

Everyone concerned is speculating about a series of employee meetings to be held at Serrano. The focus of these meetings is being advertised as a decision by Bill Parker, lead developer and owner of most of the remaining undeveloped property in the Serrano complex, as to whether this El Dorado Hills signature 45-year old public golf course will remain open or close in the foreseeable future.

Contrary to recent Sacramento area opinion, the oldest Robert Trent Jones, Sr. designed executive golf course in the Western U.S. has "never" closed.

The course is in great shape. Its greens are still immaculate and fast and, best of all, the green fees are extremely affordable, although you wouldn't know it from the complete lack of advertising by the owner during the past two years.

It would be a quality-of-life (i.e. traffic) and an environmental tragedy if El Dorado Hills and the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors were to allow the golf course to be closed or that this last remaining piece of open, pristine land would be re-zoned from recreational/farming to commercial/multi-family.

Walter G. Andrews

Does anyone have any other info? If so, please post a comment.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of the many valuable lessons I learned at Sterling Software was that you can’t make every customer happy. There are customers that for various reasons e.g., using your product for a purpose it wasn’t designed for, that will never be happy. And as a company you will go broke trying to make them happy. At that point, it is better to sever the relationship and if that requires a refund, it’s going to be cheaper than the cost of dealing with them for months and years to come.

Over time, I also realize that you can cut service or product or something of value so that the vast majority of your customers are happy and you take the risk that some of them will not be. In times of budget cuts, or stock market requirements for your company to show higher profits, this is a strategy that can work. Although maintaining the right level of customer satisfaction can be tricky and requires that you know a lot about your customer and how much (or how little) they will tolerate. Lately I am seeing more and more of this and from personal experience I am beginning to think that companies are betting the odds a little too often.

A few months ago, Pierre and I went to stay in a resort in Costa Rica – a fancy resort. We booked an expensive room with its own swimming pool. It was only an hour later that we began to hear the banging from next door and realize that swimming au natural in the pool would be a bad idea as their were numerous workmen only a thin hedge away. When we were awakened at 6AM the next day, we finally said enough is enough. We called the front desk to complain and an hour later we were upgraded to a private villa with no construction noises to be heard. So, the hotel was playing the odds. They could close the adjoining rooms during construction time, which would be a big cost, or they could do the work, take a chance that the vast percentage of guests wouldn’t complain and if a small percentage did, then it would be a lesser cost to move them to a better room. I am pretty sure it was working too because a younger couple we met were without water for more than a day and didn’t ask to be moved or be compensated in any way. And in our case, we were at first very impressed by the resort’s ability to recover, but then I started thinking that they should never have put us near that construction in the first place. They didn’t understand how much we would tolerate, so their bet didn't work with us.

Earlier this week I rented a car from Hertz. I rent from Hertz because Pierre has a fit if I rent from anyone else because he associates Hertz with quality and service and he thinks the competition is vastly inferior. I pick up my car and at the first stop realize that there is a big scratch down one side and a ‘smush’ in the back panel. The car has 13,000 miles on it and rattles, and by the time I return it to Hertz the check engine light has come on.
Returning it is a big pain. The car is loaded with multiple packages, suitcases and cases of wine and other things you need for Christmas and the Hertz people watch as I spend 20 minutes lugging my stuff from one to the other. One even remarks, “Wow, you have a lot of stuff.” I wait for the, “May I help you?” But it never comes. And then to top it all off the clerk who waits on me is nothing short of surly and I hadn't even opened my mouth yet. And worse still this is at the executive desk. So, now the brand that we all associate with quality and service is willing to put all that at risk by renting cars that are completely outside the bounds of what we have a right to expect. And worse than that, when they are caught, they don’t even recover well.

So, it is possible to over service your customers, but watch carefully how much you are willing to cut without doing lasting damage to your company.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:37 AM | Permalink

Proctor & Gamble. Do you think of entrepreneur or innovator when you hear the company name? Well you should. Larry Huston is vice president of innovation at Proctor & Gamble. Huston's title is not just smoke and mirrors.

According to Taylor and LaBarre, authors of Mavericks at Work,

Huston is convinced that P&G must look outside the walls of its celebrated research labs, and beyond the breakthroughs of its full-time scientists, to tap the brainpower of the whole world. Even though P&G employs many of the smartest scientists and engineers in their fields, the company's vice president of innovation understands nobody is as smart as everybody - and not everybody can work for P&G.

"We have 7,500 R&D people who operate in 150 different areas of the science," Huston explains. "But when you look around the world at these 150 areas, you see there are one and a half million people outside of P&G with training that is equal to or better than our people. In other words, for every one person we have in a particular area, there are 200 people on the outside of equal minds or better. Now, it's pretty obvious that 200 can invent better than one - you don't have to be a genius to figure that out."

Huston has asked 60 of P&G's scientists and engineers to be technology entrepreneurs. As such, these technology entrepreneurs travel throughout the world to discover innovations beyond the walls of P&G. The mission - to identify innovative ideas that can be brought in-house to create new products or improve existing products.

Ed Getty, one of P&G's technology entrepreneurs says, "Our job is to look outside, find disruptive technologies and products, and bring them back to the company. We're innovating on how we innovate. That is a real game-changer for us."

Yes, Proctor & Gamble, as big as they are, has the entrepreneurial spirit. P&G is pushing the envelope on innovation. We should all learn from Proctor & Gamble - an elephant that dances with startup companies.

Fascinating!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK. I don't do this often in the space of Sacramento Executive. But I feel compelled to speak my peace. Especially at this time of year, when the Prince of Peace is celebrated.

Quite often I think about the use of the term insurgent and civil war. I'm not sure the press and our elected officials use these terms in the purest sense. Might they use these words to push their own agenda?

According to Wikipedia, a civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power. I tend to agree with this definition.

Also, Wikipedia defines insurgency to be an armed uprising, or revolt against an established civil or political authority. Persons engaging in insurgency are called insurgents, and typically engage in regular or guerrilla combat against the armed forces of the established regime, or conduct sabotage and harassment in the land in order to undermine the government's position as leader, or at least their appearance as such. Again, I have no quarrel with this definition.

Well here's my dilema. If a country invades a sovereign state, overthrows the ruling power, and the loyalists of the overthrown government continue to wage battle against the invaders, is that a civil war?

Furthermore, if a country invades our sovereign soil, tosses out the current government, and I fight back against the invader, am I an insurgent?

Semantics? Propaganda?

Peace be with you!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive,
Holder of a Political Science degree from
The University of Maryland,
and American Patriot.

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 4:21 PM | Permalink

Jane Hanson, millionaire mentor, money manager, entrepreneur, and former Goldman Sachs banker, has put together a network of 15,000 professional women. Featured in the current issue of Fortune Magazine, 85 Broads focuses on mentoring and coaching college undergraduates and business school students. The networking program has partnered with more than 40 MBA programs and 100 undergraduate programs. UCLA and UC Berkeley are partners, but amazingly enough the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, who's dean is female, is not a partner.

I want to change this. Gillian and Nicole get moving!

Check out this YouTube video on 85 Broads.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 3:14 PM | Permalink

Last year I shared with you my Christmas wish list. This year - I want the same things.

My Christmas Wish List:

Goodwill towards all women and men,

Housing for everyone,

Close the digital divide,

Affordable health care,

Clean air and water,

Respect for those who are different,

A calmer mother nature,

Leave no child behind,

Stop the dumbing down and fattening up of Americans,

A balanced budget,

Religious tolerance,

Fair trade,

Peace on Earth,

and,

A Kings championship!

Is this too much to ask? OK. Maybe the Kings championship is pushing it. But, the others...come on these are definitely possible.

Oh, and for my stocking stuffer - a 20-bagger liquidity event from American River Ventures, so we can fund more great Sacramento-based entrepreneurs. Harry, John, and Corley, are you listening?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 1:26 PM | Permalink

Fortune Magazine's reporter Jia Lynn Yang identifies ten rules for building wealth in the December 25, 2006 publication.

1. Start early.
2. Use your 401K.
3. Keep it simple.
4. Don't try to beat the market.
5. Don't chase trends.
6. Make saving automatic.
7. Go heavy on stocks.
8. Hold down fees.
9. Ditch credit card debt.
10. Defer taxes.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 1:11 PM | Permalink

THEORIES ABOUND FOR SCARCITY IN EXEC, BOARD POSITIONS
By Michelle Quinn Mercury News
Women in Silicon Valley have a problem.

They are MIA in the board rooms and executive suites.

I'm talking single digits, folks. According to a recent study, among the top 103 public companies here, women make up 6.5 percent of board directors and 8.8 percent of company leadership teams.

Women fare somewhat better in California overall, where they make up 8.8 percent of board directors and 11.7 percent of managers identified by their companies as executive officers, according to the study released Thursday by the University of California-Davis.

So what's the problem with Silicon Valley, which considers itself a meritocracy?

How is it that Netflix, TiVo, Yahoo and Apple -- all consumer companies with presumably plenty of female customers -- have no female board members? If it was strictly about business experience and coding ability, then why is Al Gore on Apple's board? Obviously, he's got serious juice in some corridors. But what other corridors are companies here overlooking?

It's been a mixed year for women in Silicon Valley and the tech world. The Hewlett-Packard pretexting debacle took down a couple of prominent women, such as Pattie Dunn, the non-executive chair of the board, and Ann Baskins, vice president, general counsel and secretary. Nancy Heinen, resigned from her job as Apple Computer's chief counsel and secretary in May, shortly before Apple's June disclosure of irregularities in its stock options grants.

And Carol Bartz stepped down as chief executive of Autodesk after 14 years at the helm.

On the upside, Safra Catz keeps Oracle running as the company's chief financial officer and co-president. And last week Susan Decker, chief financial officer at Yahoo, was named to Intel's board. And there's Meg Whitman, president and chief executive of eBay.

But why so few?

You've heard all the theories, I'm sure.

The Pipeline Theory -- Girls go ``yuck'' when faced with math and science, limiting their options too soon, which contributes to the shortage of women in technology fields.

The Opt-Out Plan -- Many talented women climbing the ladder pull the rip cord at critical career junctures to have children or downshift to jobs with less responsibility. And they don't or can't re-enter or ramp back up.

The Individual Contributor Syndrome -- Women focus laser-like on doing their jobs but fail to schmooze or work in groups, all of which would help build up their base of support when they want to move up. (Note to self: Take off the earphones at work).

And there is, of course, straight-out bias. Maybe the way meritocracy is defined around here is flawed. It's like kickball all over again. We're not getting picked, so we're not getting better at it.

Ellen Siminoff, president and chief executive of Efficient Frontiers, disagrees. ``Women have an equal shot to get to the top of a company,'' says Siminoff, a former senior vice president at Yahoo. Sure, to succeed in Silicon Valley, ``you have to have a pretty good understanding of technology. It doesn't mean you have to be an engineer.''

Personally, I am partial to the The Despot Decides theory. The person in charge of a company is the Sun King, the company his fiefdom. He radiates influence with grand pronouncements, little asides or even raised eyebrows. He tends to favor people he feels comfortable with...usually male.

The chief executive also holds the power to change the number of women in leadership and on boards by saying Make It So.

That's what seemed to happen at Hyperion, based in Santa Clara, one of the few local public companies cited in the study as having women in more than 25 percent of their executive and director positions.

When Godfrey Sullivan, Hyperion's chief executive, was recently looking for a new chief financial officer, he told recruiters he wanted candidates ``from all walks of life.'' And he knew that edict would mean a longer search.

``You have to have a belief in diversity to overcome the normal search process, which will only reinforce today's norms,'' said Sullivan. ``We could have gotten 10 traditional CFOs in here.''

It took six months before Hyperion found Robin Washington, senior vice president of finance and corporate controller at PeopleSoft. Though she had not previously served as a CFO at a public company, Hyperion hired her. ``You have to take a little chance,'' said Sullivan.

The time might be right for changing people's thinking, says Kim Jones, vice president of Global Education, Government and Health Sciences, Sun Microsystems. ```The valley is taking off again. It's getting hard to find good people again. It's about reminding people there's a great pool of talent out there we can draw on.''

Great story Michelle. My theory. Corporations were set up by the big boys, using big boy rules. Women are never going to win on that playing field. We need to start more of our own companies using our rules. Anyone want to start? Oh yes, that's a problem too because VCs, overwhelmingly men, don't lend to women anywhere near as much as they lend to men.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

.

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:13 AM | Permalink

Bonuses as high as $100M will be paid to Goldman Sach's employees this Christmas. Here are some spending suggestions from ABC News:

Dec. 13, 2006 — It was reported today that Wall Street's famed investment bank Goldman Sachs will be shelling out over $16 billion in bonuses this holiday season — an average of over $600,000 per employee.

Many of those bonuses will be performance-based, so some of the company's bigwigs are likely to get as much as $100 million.

With all that cash coming in, it's easy to wonder what someone might buy with a $100 million holiday bonus.

You could provide immunizations for more than 40,000 impoverished children for a year ($37.5 million), then throw a birthday party for your daughter and one million of her closest friends ($60 million). You'd still have enough to buy a different color Rolls Royce for each day of the week ($2.5 million).

You could feed about 800,000 children for a year ($60 million), recreate the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes and Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston weddings four times over ($16 million), buy one of Mel Gibson's private islands ($15 million), and still remain a millionaire nine times over.

You could pay Harvard tuition for more than 1,500 students who couldn't afford it ($70.5 million), provide health care to over 1,000 Americans for a year ($7 million), and still have enough to buy a different Brioni designer suit for every single day of the year ($6,000 suits for all 365 days would cost $22 million).

You could take everyone in the country of Grenada to a Broadway show, then buy the most expensive apartment in New York City (a triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel, $70 million), and still have an extra $15 million dollars in your pocket — over 300 times the median income of the average American household.

You could buy every person in Kansas City a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes (147,000 pairs of $400 shoes comes out to about $60 million) and still have $40 million dollars left — that's more than 500 times the average doctor's salary in the United States (about $80,000).

You could buy 1,000 gala tables at your favorite charity's ball ($10 million), provide winter blankets for 350,000 children in developing countries ($14 million), personally pay Derek Jeter's salary for a year ($21 million), and still buy your own private Boeing jet ($55 million).

You still could not pay to insure Jennifer Lopez's backside though — rumored to be worth a cool $1 billion, according to the New York Post.

I wonder if they could spare some for the kids at Sacramento's juvenile hall?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:44 AM | Permalink

Beginning Tuesday, December 19, Roseville-based SureWest Broadband (NASDAQ:SURW) will rollout a new Internet service offering up to 50 Mbps of hyper-speed access which is approximately 50 times faster than typical broadband service. The catch - you must be one of SureWest’s FTTH network which reaches nearly 100,000 marketable homes in the Sacramento region.

SureWest is bundling the 50 Mbps offering in its newly-created “Ultimate” quadruple play package which also includes digital TV’s highest-end package, Full Color Multiplex, which features over 250 channels and includes every premium channel; National Unlimited local and long distance telephone; and Unlimited USA wireless with 1,000 travel minutes each month. Cost for the “Ultimate” quadruple play is $415.18 a month while the 50 Mbps product costs $259.95 per month.

A welcome Christmas gift for the ultimate movie/music downloader in your household?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:26 AM | Permalink

My vote for Sacramentoan of the Year (the Decade) goes to Rhonda Erwin who singlehandedly works all of the hours of her life to give a voice to the troubled youth of Sacramento. She never ceases to amaze me. This is Sacramento's own Mother Theresa.

A couple of days ago, she reminds us that there are hundreds of kids lingering in Juvenile Hall, many of them with no family or friend support and that a small gift from someone in the community could teach them what being loved is all about. Maybe a book, a card, or something of small value could make all the difference in the lives of these troubled kids who are facing woeful futures.

As I have written previously, Pierre and I were given a chance to help a young adult boy who was in Juvenile Hall and we are strong believers that sometimes, and sadly too rarely, a small showing of support can change a young life for the better.

So back to Rhonda and her latest quest for the day. She writes:

Today I contacted Juvenile Hall facility to find out what wards need and can receive for the Christmas/ Holiday season.... MANY do not receive any visits, magazines, books... Please if you can donate books, magazines, crossword /scramble puzzles... (Bibles are available for the wards..I wish we could give personalized Bibles...but this idea just touched my heart and I don't think we will have time) The Chaplain mentioned how seeing youth (gang members) cry reading the Bible, young girls who are arrested after being on the streets (because they have no home...) these children need love and they need to see a community loving them.

I received many responses to the request for Christmas donations for the juvenile hall wards. AND I THANK each of you. Today I received a response that expands my heart. The family of 16yr-old September 22, 2006 murder victim Donte Walton emailed wanting to know where to drop off apples, oranges, baskets. The family has also offered to make baskets and wanted to know what type of books and magazines they can send. Donte's aunt wrote "it is really hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year with all that has happened to my family but I feel doing something anything to benefit someone in need would help me to move forward." ... This event is about more than showing love it will be about reaching out to educate, inform and doing so in the spirit of love. I previously mentioned I would like to make this an annual event. I would like the memory of Donte Walton to continue to live through giving. I would like the wards to know of the life and the tragic death of 16yr old Donte Walton. Perhaps through this families tragedy/suffering/heart a life will be saved, a life will be changed, a life will be affected. I didn't realize the family would receive the email and I would like to desperately make this event special for Donte, his family and all families who have lost a child as a result of youth violence.

Please contact Senior Chaplain Dan Thompson at 916-875-5050 or myself at 916-256-5975 for more information

Pierre and I are contributing. I hope many of you will also.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

More than a month ago, Pierre wrote about TopCoder, a Glastonbury, NJ firm and their hiring of a 21-year old women, Yingying Wu, to oversee and manage TopCoder business relationships and build TopCoder's market presence and member enrollment throughout the greater China and Asia region. How neat is that? Since then, however, we have received comments that the Chinese are furious with the appointment and there are allegations being made that Yingying's background is not half as impressive as TopCoder's press release has related.

On a tip from a commenter, I took a tour of the Chinese sites that are abuzz with this subject. In doing so, I quickly found out that the translate feature for these sites is abyssmal, but it was good enough for me to figure out that there is indeed a general discrediting of Ms. Wu in progress. Every aspect of her resume seems to be under attack - the seriousness of her patents, her membership in the American Psychological Assocation (which they downgrade by suggesting it can be had for a $10 per year fee), even her degree from a Chinese university.

And if that's not enough, there is also a discrediting of TopCoder - that it's only been around a couple of years and only employs 75 people, so it's not even a serious company anyway. This from writers from a country where a Western decade is equivalent of a Chinese second.

But on the positive side, there is an interview published by the Women of China that seems to confirm much of the glowing background that TopCoder touted about Wu in their announcement. From it we learn even more about the accomplished Yingying - that she is an expert in Chinese folk dancing. There is even a picture of her. Although the title is a little insensitive for Western standards -

Wu Yingying is not only talented, but also beautiful. [ynet.com]

So what was TopCoder thinking when they appointed her? Here's what they said officially:

"TopCoder has a large number of Chinese members and has sought to establish a presence in China for some time, however a unique person with a highly specialized set of skills was needed," said Rob Hughes, President and COO of TopCoder, Inc. "Yingying Wu brings with her a graduate degree in psychology, extensive technical understanding and a deep awareness of business management all of which will bring significant value as we expand membership and the TopCoder brand in China."

But a 21 year old and a women to boot? Were they completely out to lunch in terms of cultural sensitivity? Or, was it a brilliant move? Their target market is young, smart, technology gurus. So, who has picked up the story and made TopCoder one of the top names on the Chinese web? Oh, would it be those young, smart, technology gurus? If TopCoder wanted to get the word out about their company and recruit new members in a country as vast as China for little advertising money, this seemed like a brilliant move to me. Or, maybe a lucky accident based on complete cultural ignorance.

Pierre loves this company, thinks it is the hottest thing going right now, so we are banking on the sheer brilliance theory. We will monitor Yingying's career and give you periodic updates. We are both rooting for her.

And Chinese bloggers - keep sending us more info!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)

Often I meet with potential new entrepreneurs, especially through my work with the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy . The hardest thing for them is to figure out a business idea. The last time I had this conversation was with a very bright new student who was struggling to come up with an idea. "I may have hit a roadblock," he emailed me recently. This was my response:

don't get too worried about your idea...good business ideas are sometimes just the simplest things but we are too close to them to see them easily. think about your life...think about what frustrates you...what could you do better and more easily every day...somewhere in there is a product that others would find useful... or think about the fastest growing segments of the country - what do they want... e.g., young people can't buy houses in California...they can't afford mortgages...what does that mean? is there a way to help? will they do something else and need other things to make up for lacking a house? just talk to people...what do they wish they could have that they don't... i am sure it will come to you...this is the hardest part!!

And just about every day, I see something in the newspaper about a new company and I think, "Yes, that's what I meant".

Here's one from today's paper. It plays off my husband's daily wish to be able to sit down and turn on (insert whatever piece of your listening/watching pleasure equipment) and it just works. No fancy hit this button, turn this knob, plug this into this and then unplug that. That's not for him and that means I have to try to figure it out and feel like a failure when I can't get it the first time! And we gave up, long ago, trying to connect up all our stuff when we move. We just call a professional company to come do it. It's cheaper than a divorce!

So, here's the new company. WiQuest Communications, Inc. plans to unveil a technology today that could get rid of the wires connecting TVs and other devices, such as cable boxes, game consoles and DVD players.

"Now that meets a real, honest to goodness need," I think when I read it. And great minds think alike - Menlo Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and other leading VCs have invested in the company. Which leads me to another subject on which I will blog soon, the quality of your VC money says a lot about your new venture.

So, keep checking your every day life for that new business idea. It's right there, you just have to 'see' it.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Check out this book, I didn't read it yet, but it got great reviews on Amazon:

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:27 AM | Permalink

The Little Book That Beats the Market authored by Joel Greenblatt, may be the only investment book that you will ever have to read. Greenblatt has an enviable record of 40% annual returns since 1985 in his private investment firm Gotham Capital. In the Little Book (it really is little!), Greenblatt lays out a simple strategy that just seems to work. He contends you should buy 20 to 30 stocks each year with the highest pre-tax earnings yield (the inverse of price to earnings ratio) and the highest return on capital. That's all there is to it. Sit back and beat the market. If you applied this magic formula since 1988, you would have realized a 30.8% annual return. Not bad, particularly when the S&P 500 produced a 12.4% annual return over the same period.

I want to test Greenblatt's magic formula. For the next year I will keep track of his results. We'll call it the MagicFormula Index. From his website www.MagicFormulaInvesting.com, I applied his formula and ran the following search: top 25 companies with a minimum market capitalization of $100 million. Here are the results and closing prices as of December 12. Let's invest a fictional $100,000 and see where we end up on December 12, 2007.

• Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corp. (ASPV), $19.70
• Biovail Corp. (BVF), $21.00
• Cavco Industries Inc. (CVCO), $34.41
• EPIQ Systems Inc. (EPIQ), $15.76
• Earthlink Inc. (ELNK), $6.42
• Fording Canadian Coal Trust (FDG), $22.58
• Freight Car America Inc. (RAIL), $53.39
• Frontier Oil Corp. (FTO), $31.34
• Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR), $10.21
• King Pharmaceuticals Inc. (KG), $16.56
• Korn/Ferry International (KFY), $22.30
• Mannatech Inc. (MTEX), $13.46
• New Frontier Media Inc.(NOOF), $9.31
• OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI), $14.59
• PW Eagle (PWEI), $34.96
• Palm Inc. (PALM), $14.01
• Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (PNCL), $10.34
• PortalPlayer Inc. (PLAY), $13.40
• True Religion Apparel Inc. (TRLG), $15.41
• United Online Inc. (UNTD), $13.38
• Vaalco Energy Inc. (EGY), $7.97
• Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI), $16.44
• Verigy Ltd. (VRGY), $18.06
• ViroPharma Inc. (VPHM), $14.99
• Western Refining Inc. (WNR), $27.17

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 5:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

iPods come in all shapes and colors - even green. But according to Greenpeace, Apple comes at the bottom of the list of electronics companies when it comes to environmental and recycling criteria. Top of the list is Nokia, follwed by Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard. And there in the 14th position is Apple.

Apple, according to the report, still relies on toxic chemicals and plastics. It also does, according to the report, a poor job promoting recycling efforts for its iPods and other products.

"For a guiding company that is so inspirational to many, we really need to know about these problems and what they are doing about them," said Zeina Alhajj, a Greenpeace campaign coordinator.

Apple didn't comment

So, Pierre, about that blog you wrote about Apple's stock meteoric rise, could this prove a damper?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:57 AM | Permalink

From Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee this morning in reference to the possibility of Allen Iverson joining the Kings and playing with Ron Artest:

The pairing of Iverson and Artest would be so volatile that smoking would be banned within the vicinity of Arco Arena. Underage fans would be asked to sign a disclaimer regarding personal safety. Media outlets would remain on 24-hour news alert. Additionally, the Kings' locker room would anchor the ESPN highlight show.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:36 AM | Permalink

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, United States (UPI) -- California`s wine growers want officials to know they add $51.8 billion to the state`s economy and $103 billion to the U.S. economy annually.

The Wine Institute and California Association of Winegrape Growers said Friday in a newly released report that the state`s vintners create 759,000 jobs in the United States and billions in economic activity, while generating significant tourism, trade, taxes and revenue.

The two groups commissioned the 'economic impact' report to provide 'solid data on the state`s industry to use in public policy discussions with state and federal legislators and other key officials' as they consider farm bills and agricultural subsidies.

California, which has about 500,000 acres of vineyards, is the fourth largest wine producer in the world after France, Italy and Spain, producing 225 million cases in 2005. The 185 million cases sold in the United States had an estimated retail value of $16.5 billion.

'The state`s wine industry is clearly an asset to the economic vitality of California and the (United States).'

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:02 AM | Permalink

Yesterday Pierre and I decided to check out an art show at the Central Library. The art was all produced by homeless people who participate in an arts program put on by a local church. We thought it would be a great way to add to our very ecletic art collection while providing funds to a very necessary cause.

It was a very cold day with a wind chill temperature in the 20's - very unusual for Dallas. As we drove through the downtown area we saw crowds of homeless people trying to find places to take shelter. It was, as it always is, heartbreaking and overwhelming. Dallas has approximately 9,000 homeless on the streets at any one time - growing from 6,000 a year ago.

As we drove in front of the library to find a place to park, we saw every seat was taken by homeless men and women, and even some children. We walked by the huge library windows toward the front door and through each window we could see people who were obviously homeless sitting at desks intensely reading newspapers, magazines and books. But on closer inspection, we noticed that most, if not all, had their eyes tightly shut and were sound asleep.

Throughout the library - at the computers that access the internet, at the used book store, in the reference section - everywhere, the vast majority were obviously people with nowhere else warm to go on this cold December day.

By the time we reached the art showing, we were more than motivated to buy a piece of art to try to do something - a drop in the bucket something - to help. And the piece we chose, a self-portrait of a homeless woman, is a haunting image that will remind us every day that this is a problem we cannot forget.

What has happened that we, the richest country in the world, allow fellow citizens - often mentally ill, often veterans of our wars, often made homeless due to our practically non-existent health-care system, to live on the streets like animals. And when did we ever annoint our librarians as mental health care workers and our libraries as community mental health centers.

Finally, cities are seeing that an ever growing homeless population is not good for business and they are coming up with nifty programs - Sacramento (with 11,000 homeless in the county) have a plan called the Ten-year plan to end chronic homelessness. But I haven't seen any funding being passed and it's hard to find where any progress is being made and the last time I was in Sacramento, specifically on J Street, the problem seemed like it was getting worse, not better. Even though, many cities have proven that by bringing permanent solutions to the chornically homeless, millions of dollars can be saved in the form of emergency medical treatment, court and jail time.

Dallas has passed a measure to provide $23.8M to build a downtown center which will provide indoor beds, shelter, restrooms, showers, job training, mental health treatment and an outdoor pavilion for those who refuse to go inside area shelters. But progress is slow and this 'bandaid' will not come for several years.

In the meantime, the library is the place to be and the librarians juggle their duties, not only with the homeless but also to many kids whose parents, unable to afford daycare, designate the library as their after-school solution.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Just when you think you have it all down pat, the rules change again.

From The Economist I learn that buying organic food might be making the world worse instead of better. Seems the claim that when you grow organic food you use less pesticides, build richer soil and keep the water supplies cleaner is not the whole story. Organic farming methods are far less intensive than conventional ones. To produce the same amount of food organically as is conventionally produced would require several times as much land. That would mean massive more deforestation. And as we all know by now, deforestation is thought to one of the major causes of global warming.

Unfortunately, it appears that we cannot improve the world with our grocery carts. We must push for government change through the ballot box - implementation of a a global carbon tax (pricing the cost of emission into the price of goods to encourage more local sourcing); motivating retailers to source more foods locally; reform of the world trade system; and abolishing agricultural subsidies and tariffs.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:55 AM | Permalink

American entrepreneurs and business executives don't think enough. Look at your calendar this past week - meeting after meeting. Every day is filled with endless meetings. And if not in a meeting you are on the phone, essentially having yet another meeting. Or if not on the phone, then you are pecking away on your computer, responding to an endless stream of email.

Email - now that's a brainless activity (and a CYA game too). No time for thinking while processing your emails. You are definitely not thinking when on the phone and simultaneously emailing and messing around on instant messenger.

Thinking requires quiet time, away from all interruptions. You cannot think when on the phone, in a meeting, or instant messaging.

Thinking is a hard skill to develop. Most companies' value systems do not include thinking. Not IBM though. When I joined IBM in 1984, the company handed me a stack of pocket notepads. On the cover was a single word - THINK. I also received a metal placard for my desk with the etching THINK.

In the recent book Mavericks At Work, authors Taylor and LaBarre describe Microsoft's Bill Gates process for thinking:

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world and by most accounts one of the great business geniuses of all time, offers a perfect image of the lonely leader's guide to innovation. In March 2005, the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page account of Gates's secretive, twice-a-year "Think Weeks" in which the Microsoft cofounder heads off by himself, in total seclusion, to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest. Armed with white papers penned by Microsoft staffers, fueled by orange soda and two meals a day, Gates reads, reflects and thinks big thoughts. Among the business ideas to receive a green light from the boss after these retreats, the Journal reports, were Microsoft's Web Browser, its Tablet PC, and its online videogame business.

THINK

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:52 AM | Permalink

TopCoder is looking for the best high school programmer in the world. Bragging rights and $50,000 in scholarship money is at stakes. Registration for this inaugural event begins February 13, 2007, and ends February 25. Purdue University will host the finals on May 19. Don't miss this heated battle where the most talented students under 20 years old vie for the coveted title TopCoder. For rules and registration click here.

By the way, the high school TopCoder will most likely have recruiters from Google come calling in May! Get ready for an awesome tournament!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:32 AM | Permalink

When's the last time you found a magazine that was so good you carefully planned a time to read it so that you could savor every word and wring the last drop of enjoyment from it. It's been a long time for me. But happy days are here again. Sactown has arrived.

I had been hearing rumors for several months. There's a new magazine coming to town. The owners are from New York and have national magazine experience. And the naysayers began, "All the other magazines in town better watch out". (In fact one that was about to release its premier issue, never did). "There'll never be enough advertising revenue to go around." "They have underestimated how much funding they will need." Etc. etc. etc. And I hoped, really hoped, that Sacramento was big enough to welcome and celebrate a great new entry. After all, competition only makes things better and we needed better as we get bigger.

But never once in my wildest dreams did I think the new magazine, now known as Sactown, would be as good as it is. From the moment I saw the cover, I wanted to dig in. And dig in I did - from front to back. It's hip, it's irrevent, it's funny, it has great photographs, it gives due credit to philanthropy, it appeals to a broad base of readers and the national experience of its founders is obvious on each slick (in the best sense of the word) page. Yes, it's all those things, but what shines throughout is the genuine love this husband and wife founding team has for Sacramento and what hope they see in the bright future ahead. And the pride they feel in this city that many of the rest of us carry around like a chip on our shoulder.

Cases in point:

The total irrevence of the event photos. Who ever saw Randy Paragary look anything other than serious before? You know what? An icon can look like a normal person in cities that feel comfortable with themselves.

The article rebuking Arnold for not ponying up for a Sacramento spread. "Sometime during the first week in January, Arnold Schwarzenegger will pop into Sacramento, take the oath of office for his second term, then pretty much beeline it to the airport for the short flight back home to LA." You know what? If Arnold wants the biggest job in our town, he needs to act like he deserves it by living here. One of the magazine's suggestions: "...the three of you (Joe and Gavin Maloof and Arnold) can strike a man-to-man-to-man deal over one of those $6,000 hamburgers. You get a mansion in the old SP railyards, they get the concession rights, and your CHP security detail promises to give the new coach a ride home whenever he needs one, no questions asked." That's funny and irreverent and Sacramento is big and bad enough for us to poke fun at ourselves.

Who knew that the famous Eames chair was designed by a Sacramentoan and a woman at that? Know what? We live in an amazing town with amazing people, an amazing history and an amazing future and why don't we act like that everyday? If we don't think it, who will?

My hat is off to you Rob Turner and Elyssa Lee, founders and editors-in-chief. I think you got it exactly right. And the rest of us better make sure there is enough advertising and funding because this is too good to lose. I am signing up for my subscription now.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Despite what everyone says, we say, Mark Cuban is a class act! Right now we are watching the Mavericks play Detroit at the American Airlines Center. Every front row seat in the arena is occupied by a US soldier wounded in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavs, has paid to transport each of them to the game. The Mavericks season ticketholders donated their front row seats. Immediately after the game, the entire Mavs team will host a party for these 'celebrated' guests on the floor of the arena.

And, surprisingly, we can't find a thing reported anywhere on the web about this generous gesture on the part of Cuban and the Dallas ticketholders. Most noteworthy to us however is the visualization of what an immense toll this war is taking on our young people.

Way to go, Mark and Dallas. Class acts. And kudos to our war heroes - each and every one of them.

Gillian Parrillo
Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:40 PM | Permalink

For many years, we have waited for the perfect storm - a confluence of academia and industry funded locally. Maybe, it's finally here.

Check out local startup Synapsense. Founded by Peter Van Deventer, an ex-Intel executive and Raju Pandey, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, and funded by local venture capital funds American River Ventures and DFJ Frontier. The company has raised $2M in funding and has just announced its first product in the fast-growing wireless sensor networks market. And on the website and you find two additional ex-Intel employees in leadership roles. Employees are now at 15 and expected to grow quickly.

So, here it is. Local academic and corporate talent coupled with local funding. Hot market doesn't hurt either. ON World estimates the global market for WSN technology will grow from $141 million this year to $5.2 billion by 2010.

Let's keep a close eye on these guys. They could have found the secret formula we have all worked so hard to discover.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:36 AM | Permalink

Do you know what your teenagers are doing online these days? Move over MySpace. PICZO is the latest online social networking rage for teens. Check it out from PICZO's website:

Piczo has created a space that gives teens around the world the freedom and tools to express themselves and connect with friends in a safer social networking environment.

Piczo allows its users to create fully customizable personal websites that do not require any understanding of html code. Users share their life stories with friends by designing their sites with multiple pages featuring photos, graphics, guest books, comment boards, music, and more. Each site can be linked to other friends' sites and users can interact with them and their friends, and meet new people online.

Since its launch less than two years ago, Piczo has grown to over 10 million monthly unique visitors and 2.5 billion monthly page views solely through the viral efforts of its loyal members. Rave reviews from these users claim that Piczo is unmatched in the control it offers over their sites, ease-of-use, and 'walled-garden' approach with no searching for users.

PICZO is now the second most popular teen social network site. Parents and future investors, keep your eyes out for big things from this startup. PICZO, a San Francisco based company, backed by venture firms Sierra Ventures and Catamount Ventures, is led by ex-AOL executive Jeremy Verba.

Pierre Cutler
Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 6:58 PM | Permalink

Right in our backyard is an organization that is working hard to alleviate poverty around the world. The organization is Freedom from Hunger located in Davis. On Sunday, a member of this organization's Ambassador Council, Dr. Muhammad Yanus, will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Freedom from Hunger will be hosting a viewing party starting at 2PM at their office in Davis. You can RSVP at 530-758-6200 ext. 36 or by emailing jbeeman@freedomfromhunger.org.

Dr. Yunus, known as the banker to the poor, sparked the present day microcredit business model by giving tiny loans to the very poorest people in Bangladesh. His first loan, the equivalent of $27, was given to a group of very poor women in a small village in 1974, Two years later, he founded the Grameen Bank in order to make these kind of loans to a wider audience most of whom had no collateral and no chance of getting a loan from a traditional bank. The movement known as microcredit had begun and spread around the world assisting thousands of people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. By 2006, when Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize, the bank had helped more than six million borrowers, the vast majority of them women.

In awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee stated: "Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means." Dr. Yunus will be donating his share of the $1.4M in prize money to a variety of charities.

Interestingly, Dr. Yunus graduated from Vanderbilt University which he attended on a Fullbright Scholarship. Charity comes full circle.

Freedom from Hunger, a powerhouse in the microcredit business, bases its work on Dr. Yunus' model.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:37 AM | Permalink

Sand Hill Road - smart money - right? Wrong!

Benchmark Capital - smart money - right? Not always!

An $8 Million investment! Has the world gone mad? Is this deja vu? What is going on in Silicon Valley? Did the brain cells forget the insanity of our recent tech crash past?

Beam me up Scottie! There's no intelligence here!

TechCrunch.com - popular - yes. But why? Because they provide a great service.

Advertisers on TechCrunch.com - like LogoJeez - crooks, as reported here before. Investors in today's markets - dumb or dumber than before?

Where's LogoJeez now? Replaced by oDesk. Why would Benchmark Capital invest in oDesk? Who knows. But this is smart money, remember!

What does oDesk do? An online bodyshop. A glorified headhunter. Is this the next big disrupter? I don't think so.

oDesk -

The On Demand Global Workforce that enables buyers of services to hire, manage, and pay technology service providers from around the world. Buyers choose oDesk for top global talent, comprehensive management tools, and a flexible hourly payment model. Service Providers choose oDesk for challenging jobs and guaranteed payment. Every day, thousands of buyers and providers work together through oDesk - a unique company at the forefront of reinventing work.

Smart investment? I think not. A twenty-bagger in the works? Nope!

Who's the winner here? TechCrunch with another $10K per month for the next two months. How long will oDesk last? Probably not long. Just watch the TechCrunch website.

This reminds me of the company my wife and business partner once owned - TechCrash. I kid you not! We actually had a company named TechCrash. TechCrunch the URL is probably for sale!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Chances are you have found some wonderfully appropriate gifts for your friends and family, but there are a couple of names on your list that have not provided any inspiration in the gift-giving arena. How about this for an idea? Give a donation to charity in the recipient's name. That will save you from the marauding crowds at the mall, having to wrap the gift, mailing it, wondering if they liked it, and all the other negatives that come with gift giving, and it will make you feel good. They will not have to pretend they liked the gift, sneak to the mall trying to figure out where you bought it so they can return it, or worse still have to drag it out of the closet everytime you come to visit. And, like you, it will make them feel good. But most importantly you can do a lot of good, sustainable good by giving a gift that provides a chance to change the life for the better for someone who desperately needs it.

We are giving donations through ACCION this year. ACCION provides “micro” loans to people to have a significant impact on poverty. They operate in 22 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and in the U.S. Since 1996, ACCION affiliated programs have made $9.4 billion in microloans to more than 3.97 million people, with a historical repayment rate of over 97 percent.

What a record - in 10 years they have loaned more than $9B to almost 4 million people and 97% of it was repaid. As Donna Dubinsky, Founder, President & CEO, Handspring says, "Giving to ACCION is more than a donation - it's an investment in the future. With ACCION, I know each dollar I give will be leveraged to help many microentrepreneurs. I feel I'm part of a permanent answer to poverty."

And the reason we chose ACCION is that is so highly endorsed by so many emminent organizations:
Clinton Global Initiative Certificate of Commitment 2006
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grants $5.8 million to ACCION International
Clinton Global Initiative Certificate of Commitment
Fast Company Names ACCION One of Top 25 Organizations Changing the World
Charity Navigator Awards ACCION Four-star Rating for Second Consecutive Year
American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) Names ACCION a Top-Rated Charity
ACCION Meets Better Business Bureau (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance Standards
ACCION Accredited by World Economic Forum
Worth Magazine Names ACCION One of 100 Best Charities
President Clinton Honors ACCION for Excellence in Microenterprise Development

So, consider giving a donation to charity, but please also ensure you are giving the money to an organization that will do the most good with it. You can check the ratings of charitable organizations here.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:53 AM | Permalink

We are spending Christmas in California, so only minimal decoration is required at our Texas abode. I go to Home Depot and find a cheap seat of flashing icicle lights and a handy lighted collapsible star – all very tacky, but they will suffice. I come home and decorate in 2 minutes or less.

The next day I see my neighbor. “Nice decorations,” he says. Oh, no he has noticed my pathetic effort. Now I get defensive about my decorations. “Well,” I say. “I am planning on changing them around a bit!” “The star?” he asks. Oh no, he has noticed, the tacky collapsible star, which, even as we speak, is starting to collapse.

Later that day, I run into him again. His car is full of gorgeous Christmas pieces of every shape and kind. (He tells me that I inspired him! What to go gorgeous?) I ooh and ah over his purchases. An hour or so later, I drive by his house which is now covered – almost literally – by fabulous silver wreaths. There are 6 on his front door and more on the multiple balcony doors. I am awestruck by their brilliance and with the nonchalance he has utilized to create this masterpiece.

I call my husband. Tomorrow we go shopping I say. And shop we do – now we have multiple wreaths and for good measure a small Christmas tree in a pot on our front doorstep (with lights and baubles). At first we only bought one wreath, but another look at our neighbor’s display required an additional trip to the store for a second one.

Our neighbor passes by. “Oh” he says, “that looks great.” “Do you have a spotlight on the wreaths?” My blood runs cold. “A spotlight?” I ask sweetly. “We are planning on it”, I say.

I call my husband. Tomorrow we are shopping again.

Merry Christmas

PS: There is a business lesson to be learned here - first mover advantage is not always an advantage!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:38 AM | Permalink

Since March, I have been spending a lot of time on the road. Traveling has allowed me to find more time for reading. Reading is a great way for me to relax and learn. Gillian and I went to Costa Rica in October for ten days. Armed with several books and with the best intentions to get through each of them, we set off on our trip. The first book I turned to was "Mavericks At Work" by William Taylor and Polly LaBarre. The book's subtitle was "Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win". To borrow the words of Tom Peters, "I didn't read this book. I devoured it."

It is a fantastic piece of work. If you could only read one book this year, this one is it. This is a must read for every executive or business school student.

According to Taylor and LaBarre,

Business as usual is a bust. In industry after industry, the old guard is cutting back and losing ground. Meanwhile, organizations that once were dismissed as upstarts, as wildcards - or mavericks - are making waves and growing fast. There is a reason: In an age of hypercompetition and nonstop innovation, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something truly original.

The old guard - such as General Motors, Ford, Amtrak, and Major League Baseball - are going to continue to struggle. The mavericks - such as Google, ING, and Pixar are going to prosper. Why will they prosper? Taylor and LaBarre assert:

• Being different makes all the difference;
• sharing values beats selling value;
• the company with the smartest customers wins;
• nobody is as smart as everybody;
• character counts for as much as credentials;
• great leaders are insatiable learners.

Mavericks are rule breakers. Disrupters. Chris Albrecht, CEO of maverick cable TV HBO, creators of forward edge programs such as Sex and the City and Six Feet Under, said

"We didn't get here by playing by the rules of the game. We got here by setting the rules of the game.'

We need more mavericks.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:55 AM | Permalink

Over 40 million people around the world are living with HIV or AIDS.
Just under 14,000 new cases of HIV infections occur every single day.
95 per cent of all AIDS cases occur in the world's poorest countries.
Over 4 million people were infected with HIV in 2006.
3 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2006 - that's more than 8,000 deaths a day.
Biggest fallacies: Country with the largest number of AIDS cases - 5.7M - is somewhere in Africa. The answer is India.
AIDS is a homosexual disease. Most cases are from unsafe drug use or hetrosexual contact.
Biggest long term hope: an AIDS vaccine
Best news today: Bill Clinton, the guy who is giving a good run at Jimmy Carter's best ex-president status, just negotiated a deal with two Indian pharmaceutical companies who agreed to cut the prices of HIV and AIDS treatment for children, making the lifesaving drugs far more accessible worldwide.

It's not fixed and we need to put more smart minds to work to solve it.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:21 PM | Permalink

By: Kim T. Gordon
Courtesy of: Entrepreneur.com

Throughout 2006, I've been watching and interpreting the marketing stats and studies that impact small businesses to give you tips on staying one step ahead. Now, with 2007 fast approaching, let's look at a roundup of the hottest trends, from changes taking place among consumer audiences through what to watch for in traditional and online marketing. Here's the info you need on the most important trends and how to make the most of them to increase sales and grow your business in the New Year.

Consumer Trends

1. College Grads

If you're searching for the most effective way to reach this desirable prospect group, move your marketing dollars into online media. The internet is now the primary source of media and entertainment among college grads, whose top planned purchases upon graduation are professional clothing, travel/airline tickets, health insurance and furniture according to the “Y2M: eGrad College Graduate Survey”. Nearly 80 percent of respondents are online purchasers, making them ideal candidates for your online campaign.

2. Affluent Working Women

The big news is that this group is increasing in size, and the best way to reach them may be online. According to The Media Audit, affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number, and 94.3 percent access the internet during an average month. About half are now considered heavy users of the internet, while heavy use of radio, television, newspapers and direct mail has all declined within this group. To increase sales from this expanding audience, alter your media spending to place greater emphasis online.

3. Asian Population Growth

The southern region of the U.S. boasts the fastest Asian population growth rate (31 percent), followed by the Midwest (24 percent), the Northeast (23 percent) and the West (19 percent), according to an analysis of Census Bureau data in the “American Community Survey” by Kang & Lee Advertising. Asians represent a prospect group with higher than average household incomes and education levels. Can you offer a product or service that will appeal to this growing market?

4. Word-Of-Mouth

Want to build buzz? Lucid Marketing's study, "U.S. Adults: Word of Mouth Communications," found that women were more likely than men to share a positive experience with a business or recommend an enjoyable product; full-time employees made substantially more daily contacts than those not in the workforce; and people with household earnings of more than $100,000 were more likely to make recommendations than those earning less. So buzz marketers should direct efforts to these three "chatty" groups.

Trends in Traditional Media

5. Yellow Pages

According to a study from the Kelsey group, marketers targeting younger demographics should transition away from print. Only 28 percent of teens said they would turn to print Yellow Pages first to find a local business, product, or service, while 47 percent said their first choice would be search engines. And just 44 percent of respondents between the ages and 18 and 34 favored print Yellow Pages.

6. Simultaneous Media Usage

There's no longer such a thing as a captive media audience--consumers are frequently participating in more than one form of media at any one time. Seventy percent of web users, for instance, watch TV occasionally to regularly while online, according to BIGresearch’s “Simultaneous Media Survey.” It also found that nearly 65 percent watch TV while they read, and 51 percent of radio listeners read the newspaper while listening. The rise in multitasking among consumers mandates an integrated media approach and an increased emphasis on advertising within the most relevant and engaging content.

7. Newspapers

This past year, many of the websites of major newspapers have become the number-one portals in their geographic markets and are drawing a larger, younger and more affluent readership. The audience that reads a newspaper’s website but not its print version accounts for 2 to 15 percent of the Integrated Newspaper Audience, according to Scarborough Research, and that represents hundreds of thousands of readers for many newspapers in larger markets. They’re successfully attracting 18-to-34-year-olds to their sites, and the online readers are more upscale, which can make them a more desirable audience. If you're an advertiser in the "print" newspaper, you can negotiate for a combo rate to run online as well to reach these additional readers. And if advertising in the print newspaper is too expensive for your business, you may find more affordable rates online by drilling down past the main pages to place ads on content-rich, but less frequently visited web pages.

Hot Online Trends

8. Web Conferencing

As business travel becomes increasingly challenging due to increased security, advance check-in times and transportation delays, online workshops and meetings that require no travel are coming to the forefront. It’s more desirable than ever to demo your new product to a group or make a sales presentation without anyone ever leaving home. Participants can watch your presentation on their computer monitors and hear you live on their computer speakers or by phone. In fact, I'm now transitioning to this technology to deliver webinars, and you can, too.

9. Online Research

Whether you sell exclusively online or primarily through a brick-and-mortar site, online search will have a profound impact on your sales in 2007. When asked how often they researched products online before buying them in person or in a store, 87 percent of nearly 7,500 respondents to a BIGresearch “Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey” said they did so occasionally to regularly. And a comScore research study showed that 63 percent of searchers completed a purchase in offline retail stores following their search activity. So no matter whether you sell online, off-line or both, you need a great website with deep, persuasive content that keeps your prospects and customers shopping on your site or sends them to your store.

10. Local Search

Want to know where to invest your online marketing dollars in 2007? Aim for higher rankings in the top search engines. Sixty-two percent of searchers click on a link within the first page of results, according to a report from iProspect and Jupiter Research. To win higher rankings in natural search results, you can optimize your site by sprinkling the keyword phrases your best prospects will be searching for throughout all the pages of your site, in your page descriptions and in metatags. You should also secure links to your site from other high-ranking websites. But to guarantee you'll turn up in the top search results, invest in a paid search campaign. Local search campaigns are often the most affordable and will bring traffic from your immediate market area in the New Year.

Kim T. Gordon is the "Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and a multifaceted marketing expert, speaker, author and media spokesperson. Over the past 26 years, she's helped millions of small-business owners increase their success through her company, National Marketing Federation Inc. Her latest book,Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars, is now available.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:52 AM | Permalink