The Rapid Response Institute

Tag: baby boomer

  • V R T

    V R T

    In our forthcoming book, “Navigating the Data Minefields: Management’s Guide to Better Decision-Making”  we coined the term, Valid, Reliable and Timely (VRT).  “This term identifies all data dimensions including its temporal component.”

    Check Up

    When we go to the doctor we expect that the information conferred by this professional is Correct, Consistent with the current medical knowledge base and Relevant to our present.  If it is not, the confidence in the diagnosis degrades and can even lead to malpractice driven legal issues.

    One of the issues a patient faces is the significant difference in the knowledge base between the medical professional and the layperson sitting across of him/her.  Many accept the statements of the professional as gospel.  Sometimes to their regret.

    Enter the Knowledgeable Buyer

    We live in a technological era even though many of us are technologist.  Often the technology itself is user friendly and reduces our core knowledge.

    How many of us rely on a calculator or spreadsheet to the extent our math skills have suffered?

    This Baby Boomer spent much of his career on the bleeding edge of the computer era.  Today I am not conversant in the details of Acritical Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Big Data etc.  However, I know how to ask the right questions!

    One of the Right Questions is embodied in our Economic Value Proposition Matrix (EVPM).  Does this technological investment add value to the organization and if so, how and how much?  In other words, the economic value of the expenditures.  Keep in mind that technology expenditures include not just the cost of the product, its support infrastructure, switching costs and training among other change management processes.

    One does not need to be a medical professional to query the doctor about the recommended action plan.  Common sense and knowledge of our body in the case (or our business) as the saying goes, “is not so common.”  Don’t just jump on the technology bandwagon, do your homework and ask “does this add value to our culture as well?”

    VRT

    Does the proposed project make sense does it sound like it is a Valid or accurate process?  Is it consistent or Reliable and finally is it the right time for our ‘culture’ and organizational maturity to make the change?

    You might be surprised at these common sense answers.

    Does your organization have a plan/process in place to cut through the technology clutter?

    For More Information

    Please note, RRI does not endorse or advocate the links to any third-party materials herein.  They are provided for education and entertainment only.

    See our Economic Value Proposition Matrix® (EVPM) for additional information and a free version to build your own EVPM.

    The author’s credentials in this field are available on his LinkedIn page.  Moreover, Dr. Shemwell is a coauthor of the just published book, “Smart Manufacturing: Integrating Transformational Technologies for Competitiveness and Sustainability.”  His focus is on Operational Technologies.

    “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” (Martin Luther King speech at Cornell College, 1962).  For more information on Cross Cultural Engagement, check out our Cross Cultural Serious Game.  You can contact this author as well.

    For more details regarding climate change models, check out Bjorn Lomborg ands his latest book, False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.

    Regarding the economics of Climate Change, check out our recent blog, Crippling Green.

    For those start-up firms addressing energy (including renewables) challenges, the author can put you in touch with Global Energy Mentors which provide no-cost mentoring services from energy experts.  If interested, check it out and give me a shout.

  • At the Precipice?

    At the Precipice?

    On October 8, 2021, we posted the blog, Welcome to the 70s–Again!  The point that the awful economy of that decade could return.  It seems that one year later, those comments have come true.  Many are now freely comparing out contemporary time to that period before most adults were born.  This Baby Boomer graduated from college in 1970s and ‘enjoyed’ the full economic Stagflation experience and it was not pretty and definitely not fun.

    However, increasing global events, especially from Europe and Asia beg the question, Are we entering the 1930s again?  Seeming sinister forces both internal to the United States and global are conspiring to wreck havoc if we are not careful.  Even the word, World War  III is being ‘loosely’ tossed about by various journalists and pundits.

    On top of all these daily headlines, we are told the planet is in peril.  However, the trillions and trillions of dollars necessary do to seem to be available.  “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.”

    What to Do?

    Geopolitical Risk is not a new concept.  Organizations have been dealing with it for many millenniums.  As always, the race goes to the best economic players.  Agile, Smart, and Decisive continue to play a big role in the success of organization live and even thrive in hard times.

    R B C

    We have long been advocates of the Relationship(s), Behavior(s), Condition(s) model first put forth to research International Negotiations by Stephen Weiss in 1993.  It is a good construct to assess behavioral changes based on situational (conditions) changes, even transformation.  Which results in changes in relationships including adding new and dropping existing.

    Interested readers can search this website, there are 14 blogs on this subject in our Critical Mass series.

    Pressure Cooker

    No one can predict the future but it is abundantly clear there a  lot of pressures on business and people in general.  This writer is not as sure that new behavioral tools are as necessary as good old fashion Leadership!  For executives, the adage, “Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way” is applicable today as it ever was. 

    Finally, with so many mounting and rapidly changing Conditions, a constant review and assessment is in order.  For example, in the last period of great inflation, successful companies conducted ongoing review of their pricing and cost structures.

    How are You Leading Your Team/Organization/Family in these Trying Times?

    For More Information

    Please note, RRI does not endorse or advocate the links to any third-party materials herein.  They are provided for education and entertainment only.

    The author’s credentials in this field are available on his LinkedIn page.

    “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” (Martin Luther King speech at Cornell College, 1962).  For more information on Cross Cultural Engagement, check out our Cross Cultural Serious Game.  You can contact this author as well.

    For more insight regarding the economics of Climate Change, check out our recent blog, Crippling Green.

    For those start-up firms addressing energy (including renewables) challenges, the author is a member of Global Energy Mentors which provide no-cost mentoring services from energy experts.  If interested, check it out and give us a shout. 

  • The 1950s Were So Good Because the 1930s & 40s Were So Very Bad

    The 1950s Were So Good Because the 1930s & 40s Were So Very Bad

    An early Baby Boomer, born in 1948 this post war pundit watched (pun intended) the beginning of the broadcast television age, featuring I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, The Ozzie and Harriet show, Leave It To Beaver, Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club, The Roy Rogers Show, Superman, Looney Tunes, Captain Kangaroo, The Howdy Doody Show and more.  A technological wonder, no less an important marvel than today’s Smart devices.

    The 1950s were a time of a non-existent (TV) American family that has never been reproduced.  My generation was raised watching June Cleaver cleaning her house all dressed up and wearing pearls.  I do not recall my mother (of that peer group) dressed as such doing daily chores.

    After the horrors of World War II and coming off the Great Depression era, America needed a pause.  Europe and Asia needed to rebuild themselves after their self imposed stupidity.  The so-called Happy Days established an Americana right up there with Norman Rockwell‘s vision.

    The 1950s set the stage for our 21st Century.  It established a ‘can do’ approach that persists to this day.  Many do not know that the transistor, the basis of all modern Cloud solutions was invented in the late 1940s and came into fruition during the 1950s.  Enabling the Apollo moonshot ten years later.

    On the down side, the Korean War draw and the Cold War with potential Nuclear Holocaust loomed large and set the stage for defeat in Vietnam.  This first American rout would not be our last.  Afghanistan!

    “Déjà Vu All Over Again”

    Apologies to Yogi Berra, it does feel sometimes like we are in a pre-1950s era.  Economic uncertainty, global political unrest, domestic turmoil, Covid-19, even pending European military hostilities, Asia etc. are all taking their toll on our collective psychic.  It all seems so similar to the late 1930s.

    The British Minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain, perceived as the appeaser did not live to the see the rout of 1940’s totalitarianism.  Had he, he might offer some thoughts about our current situation.  Winston Churchill most certainly would as would Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln and others.

    Economically, the world fell apart.  Since the safety nets of today that did not exist back then, the impact was massive.  However, our safety nets are under attack.  Inflation may destroy the middle and other classes.  Just like it did in the 1970s—Stagflation.  The worst of all possible economic worlds.

    Our parents and grandparents survived significant and in some cases life threatening problems.  Collectively, society emerged stronger and perhaps happier.  Paraphrasing from the TV series Mission Impossible, “Our mission, should we choose to accept it is to rise to the challenge and makes this world a better place for those who follow.”

    We also remember the 1950s as so good because the 60s and 70s were subsequently very bad.  This does not need to be the case with this social/economic cycle.  We are not doomed to repeat that history and can change our destiny.

    Seems that we are not really trying.  Have we become the nanny state?  Making our parents and grandparents so proud.

    And Yet

    The 1950s were by no means perfect.  Long simmering civil rights tensions began to manifest and certainly many did not enjoy the environment many of us fondly look back upon.  However, this period was a pause that would be rudely awakened, perhaps when JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963.  Or maybe earlier when Rosa Parks took her stand (or seat) on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 about the time Martin Luther King Jr. was coming into prominence.

    Throughout the 1960s a number of horrendous crimes would be committed against innocent children, activists and others–ultimately leading the assassination of Dr. King.  Moreover, the 1970s would start with Kent State and the Jackson State killings.

    Lessons Learned

    For many, the 1950s were happy days, for others not so much.  Guessing most readers were not alive during this period and perhaps even their parents were too young.

    History is the ultimate task master.  Dooming new generations to relive the past.  However, this need not be the case.  We can and should learn from the follies and successes of those who precede us.

    The 1950s were unique in many ways.  Many in my generation believe that to be true.  However, it seems we are reliving the 1930-1950s era and the outcome might be similar.

    Our challenge is to make sure that does not happen.  History need not repeat itself.  It is up to us.

    What Are Your Organization’s Future/Contingency Plans?

    For More Information

    Please note, RRI does not endorse or advocate the links to any third-party materials.  They are provided for education and entertainment only.

    For more information on Cross Cultural Engagement, check out our Cross Cultural Serious Game

    We presented, Should Cross Cultural Serious Games Be Included in Your Diversity Program: Best Practices and Lessons Learned at the Online Conference, New Diversity Summit 2020 the week of September 14, 2020.  Check Out this timely event and contact the organizer for access to the presentations!!

    For more on DEI Standards, see the newly released ISO-30415.

    You can contact this author as well.

  • Welcome to the 70s—Again!

    Welcome to the 70s—Again!

    This Baby Boomer graduated from college in 1970.  Just in time for Saturday Night Fever and Grease, Avocado colored refrigerators and Harvest Gold dinnerware.  Plus, the best friend a then bachelor ever had–the microwave oven!

    Not to forget the Gasoline Lines and Hyper Inflation, Vietnam, Peace/Race Protests/Riots, a Major Recession, Stagflation and other wonderful (not) youthful memories–ugly political and economic time not wished on future generations.  Adjusted for inflation a gallon of gasoline was $0.36 in 1970.  By 1980 it was $1.19–greater than a 330% increase.

    Seems like as Yoga Berra once said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again,” or ‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”  Yet here we are again, or so it seems.

    While I am not dusting off my leisure suit or growing what’s left of my hair, if as this boomer believes we are beginning to relive the 1970s economy, so what should we do?  How should we respond to this new, yet old situation?

    Most financial planners, corporate executives, academics, regulators and others were either not old enough or even alive when the economic and political shocks of the 1970s engulfed the globe.  Without this experienced knowledge, many maybe ill equipped to deal with the current  tsunami that is building.  Perhaps a critical concern for everyone’s 401K retirement investments?

    Hyper inflation is a cancer.  It destroys economies and even societies, not to mention families and individuals in its wake.  Real estate may be a winner if anyone can afford to purchase your house.  However, equities struggle and cash is toast.  From 1970 to 1980 the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced a scant 5 percent.

    How does this compare with an over 300% increase in the gasoline we all needed for our automobiles?  Short answer, it does not and individual households went backward during that period.

    So What Do We Do Now?

    Flight to quality.  But what represents quality?  Big Tech comes to mind but what is the underlying value proposition of a web based database?  The outage of a major player blamed on a network issue and a number of (internal) cascading issues–the plague of many industrial incidents including Deepwater Horizon questions that proposition.

    Are companies this vulnerable in our age of digitalization, or was this a sign of something else?  As with many IT oriented decisions, “It depends.”  The fact that one of the world’s largest, high profile web based companies suffered a significant outage, not as a result of a cyber attack but apparently its own technical incompetency is not reassuring in a Cloud based global economy.

    The something else–we have discussed the need for High Reliability for complex sectors including the 16 sectors the US Homeland Security deems as Critical Infrastructure.  Social media is not on that list, but manufacturing is.  In our forthcoming (2022) book, “Smart Manufacturing: Integrating Transformational Technologies for Competitiveness and Sustainability,” we address risk mitigation strategies that can inoculate organizations from such catastrophic IT failures.

    Heavy industries such as oil and gas are routinely criticized when a catastrophic incident occurs.  These need no longer happen and we have put forth strategies routinely for more than a decade including in our 2014 book, Implementing a Culture of Safety: A Roadmap to Performance-Based Compliance.

    As we move into the ‘Smart’ era, it will be incumbent on organizations to take steps to mitigate what happened to a web based chat room provider.  The exogenous risk of critical infrastructure failing is significant, per the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and the systemic damage done to the US east coast.

    The 1970s were marked by turmoil and follow on from the late 1960s.  Richard Nixon took the country off the Gold Standard opening up significant economic and individual distress.  We appear to be on the cusp of Yogi’s cautionary tale.  It does not have to be, but appears likely.  Is the US dollar no longer the world’s reserve currency in a era of bitcoin?  If so, what are the ramifications?

    Finally, as the son of parents from the Greatest Generation, I admit I never faced the challenges they endured.  During my 20s, the period was an inconvenience, yet one I do not care to relive in my 70s.  The graphic was taken from the Internet without citation.  The author is unknown but we acknowledge his/her sense of humor.  AND I can relate to it!

    The Fed has indicated Inflation (Stagflation?) is here to stay.  To this individual, this is a scary statement even though it posited as essentially ‘no big deal.’  We will see in a year if it was as big a deal as it was in the 1970s.

    How will You Manage in this Environment?

    For More Information

    Please note, RRI does not endorse or advocate the links to any third-party materials.  They are provided for education and entertainment only.

    Interested in Cross Cultural Engagement or DEI, check out our Cross Cultural Serious Game

    We presented, Should Cross Cultural Serious Games Be Included in Your Diversity Program: Best Practices and Lessons Learned at the Online Conference, New Diversity Summit 2020 the week of September 14, 2020.

    For more information on these and others subjects covered in the Critical Mass series contact this author.