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Top of Mind Thursday – September 28, 2023: Can’t We All Just Get Along?
As of now, it looks like the US federal government will shut down on Saturday night because Congress can’t agree on how to pass a funding bill.
Well, actually it’s the Republicans in the House of Representatives that can’t seem to agree on how to solve this. The Senate is working on a bipartisan bill to keep things running, but the House Republicans can’t seem to agree among themselves on much of anything. Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, has said some of the holdouts seem bent on “burning the place down.”
We often hear that American government is broken, but in reality our government works incredibly efficiently. The mail is delivered in a reasonable time, our food and drug supplies are safe, Social Security and Medicare programs work effectively, our military is well trained and equipped, and planes land safely.
It’s the legislative process that’s broken. Too many people—on the local, state, and federal levels—seem bent on airing a personal grievance or stopping someone else from making something happen because they don’t agree with what the other person says or believes. Adults know life is a series of compromises—throwing a tantrum because you can’t get everything you want is for small children.
Meanwhile, thousands of government employees will be furloughed as of Sunday. Others—including air traffic controllers, the TSA, the border patrol, and the military—are considered essential workers and will be forced to work without pay until this is resolved. Is that fair to them?
Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, had a great saying: Agree and commit, disagree and commit, or get the hell out of the way.
Burning the place down doesn’t help anyone. If you can work together with others to get a compromise, that’s preferable. If not, get out of the way and let those who are adult enough to work with others do what they were elected to do.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – September 21, 2023: Bittersweet
This week, we mark 30 years since my daughter’s diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes, just before her second birthday.
Things have certainly changed dramatically since then. In 1993, glucometers were brand new, required a ton of blood, and weren’t all that accurate. Human insulin was new, and we often had to mix a number of different insulin types to try and keep blood sugar in check throughout the day. Insulin pumps were fairly primitive, and not used for young children.
Probably the most dramatic change, though, was in what challenges Type 1 diabetics could expect they would face. Severe, life-threatening complications were quite common (faced by as many as half the kids with T1D), and we were warned about blindness, neuropathy, end stage kidney disease, and a whole slew of other potential horrors.
Today, we have a wide variety of new insulins, much more effective insulin pumps, and continuous glucose monitoring devices that are fairly accurate most of the time. Closed loop insulin delivery systems are advancing nicely. The level of severe complications has dropped to the single digits, and, with careful monitoring, most people with T1D can live a fairly normal long life.
The one thing we still don’t have thirty years into this, though, is a cure.
While we’re relieved that Ilana remains healthy and free of complications, she still has to manage diabetes 24/7 every single day. Just yesterday, her blood sugar went haywire because the pump infusion set she was using was faulty. High blood sugar impacts just about every system in the body, and makes it hard to focus, think, or work effectively.
Research continues, but for those of the nearly 1.5 million American families dealing with this disease, a cure can’t come soon enough.
In honor of how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go, I invite you to join us in supporting organizations like JDRF, who supports much of the research for a cure, as part of their mission to advance life-changing breakthroughs for type 1 diabetes.
The only thing better than celebrating how long we’ve stayed ahead of this disease would be to start counting how long it’s been since it was cured.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – September 14, 2023: Captured!
Yesterday, a police dog named Yoda was instrumental in recapturing an escaped murderer who had been on the run for two weeks in southeastern Pennsylvania.
The dog obviously channeled the Force to find the convict, bite him a couple of times, then hold him till officers could grab him. Law enforcement officers tried all kinds of methods to search for the man, before finally calling in the dogs and infrared heat sensing equipment, which unearthed his hiding place.
But how did this situation happen anyway?
The convict had been convicted of a horrible murder and sentenced to a life sentence without possibility of parole. He had plenty of incentive to get away and avoid capture. Yet, he was being held in a minimum security facility, whose response to the incident was to fire the guard on duty and, note they need to build more fencing around the prison. Gee, do you think?
Luckily, no one was hurt during the two-week escapade, including Yoda the dog. But this could have ended very badly. The escapee could have hurt or killed other people in his effort to get away. He obviously knew how to hide effectively in rural terrain. He told police he intended to carjack a vehicle and head to the Canadian border. If he made it across, it would have been that much more difficult to ever find him again.
This was not the first inmate to escape from this prison in recent history, though the other man was captured very quickly. Wouldn’t it be better to ensure hardened criminals are housed in secured facilities, rather than running around in circles trying to find them when they escape?
As with many other situations, doing things right the first time is so much better than having to deal with the repercussions when things go wrong. Whatever money was saved from skimping on protection around the prison was trivial compared to the cost of the manhunt and the potential human cost if he killed again.
Where in your business are you cutting corners, hoping no one notices? Time to do your own patrol and ensure you are well-protected.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – September 7, 2023: End of the Red Envelope
This month, Netflix is ending the 25-year practice of shipping DVDs in red envelopes to subscribers.
It’s estimated that over that period, the company shipped 5.2 billion DVDs to 40 million customers. Over a million people were still subscribing to the DVD service when it was cancelled.
Why would anyone still order DVDs in today’s world?
For one thing, internet access can be spotty or non-existent, and playing a disk locally doesn’t require one to be connected to the net.
More importantly, the number of titles available from Netflix on DVD was over 100,000, with only about 6000 titles available for streaming in the US at any given time.
That means if you don’t want to watch the new hottest offering Netflix is pushing, you may now be out of luck in terms of finding a niche film, or one from a bygone era.
Other streaming services, such as Disney and Apple, only offer a fraction of their library online at any time. That’s because streaming content is expensive and most streaming services are losing money.
What to do if you’re a film buff looking for the 94% of Netflix films that aren’t available for streaming? It’s a challenge. Or perhaps a good business opportunity for someone else.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com