October 16, 2006 Carnival of the Capitalists

Wecome to the 158th edition of Carnival of the Capitalists

Welcome to my part of the third anniversary celebration of Carnival of the Capitalists, in the form of the second edition of CotC’s fourth year, on the anniversary of the second edition ever.  In case you missed it, Rob’s anniversary of the first edition ever was here last week.  Next week’s edition will be hosted at Blawg Review, the home of the carnival of law bloggers of the same name.

For this edition, we asked that people depart from the norm and resubmit a best or favorite “historical” post of theirs that appeared in a previous CotC.  If you had a current superlative post, we’d take that too or instead, but we were looking for the best of the old and the best of the best of the new to fill out the rest and be able to stand the heat of all that bestness.  Not the week for semi-automatic SEO-inspired submissions that it’s not fair for us to malign because dagnabit they’re business-related, even though they gradually reduce the carnival’s quality, stature, and satisfaction for readers and hosts.  And - cough - carnival administrator.

Unfortunately, people who enter (or host) CotC routinely, or even now and then, aren’t all on the mailing list.  Which is fine, because everyone who contemplates entering periodically or has an interest in CotC checks the CotC page regularly enough to have seen the announcement.  Plus, since most people enter through the blogawful ”Blog Carnival” submission form, rather than the preferred Gongol submission form, they would have all seen the blurb about this week’s edition looking for best historical posts and at least been curious enough to check further.

I was afraid the turnout of historical posts would be truly dreadful, but there are something like eleven thirteen, plus a couple I will take the liberty of adding.  Those will be the focus this week, followed by the disproportionate and not-necessarily-all-superlative rest.  Sadly, my plans to go through early entries and do “where are they now” harvests of newer posts from the pioneer participants, or to comb through past editions for some of the best stuff, has been thwarted by my being Just Too Busy.  And not just with crashing the New Hampshire blog gathering.  Or even with kids!  Oh well.

I hope to redo the site of Carnival of the Capitalists sometime Real Soon Now to render it much more usable, with easier to find pages with host lists or specific bits of info one might seek.  I pioneered the idea of a home page for a carnival, making upcoming and previous location lists and other info readily available, but others adopted that and have done it better.

The Historical Entries

Accidental Verbosity
(Which was our blog before Blogblivion and after Jay Solo’s Verbosity and The Accidental Jedi)

An entry from each of us, because I can.  Deb posits that some employees really are unmanageable and tells of her experience with a pair of them who appeared to be.  This appeared in the May 8, 2006 CotC.

Inspired by Friends as Partners by Jeff Cornwall, I wrote about the problem of Partners, Friends, and Uncommon Goals, discussing the problems that can come from having partners derived from friends, at least if everyone isn’t really on the same page.  I can’t imagine having not entered this into CotC, and if so, it would have been in the especially controversial March 28, 2005 edition that was posted in two parts, neither of which exist any longer.

Speaking of past editions gone fallow, if you plan to shut down, break all your old links, or would just like a backup of an edition of CotC you hosted, just in case, I will be happy to repost any given CotC edition at thecotc.com.

Businesspundit

One of Rob’s best posts ever, as I commented at the time, was Why I Quit Entrepreneurship and Got a Real Job.  The post was enriched by many comments, and is not anti-entrepreneurship, but rather a hard look at what’s involved.  I didn’t find it in a CotC, but it would appropriately have been in the January 9, 2006 edition based on timing, and would indeed have rated as one of those all-time superlative posts.

Gongol.com

The Self-Delusion of Contemporary Economic Development is Brian Gongol’s classic entry to the November 15, 2004 CotC, where Trader Mike said:

Brian Gongol says that contemporary economic development work by the public sector puts a lot of taxpayer resources to very inefficient use. He proposes that instead of providing special incentives to a small number of firms, states and communities should focus on creating a better organic environment for all businesses.

Sounds about right.

Local Small Business Marketing & Advertising

Niche marketing - growing your business w/small numbers was Michael Cage’s classic entry into the September 19, 2005 CotC at WILLisms.  The post discusses the merits of finding and marketing to niche targets, which can be highly lucrative if not immediately obvious.  The particular edition of CotC has an interesting discussion in the post and comments regarding the merits and methods of ranking of carnival entries by hosts.  Perhaps more of that would be the road to quality.

I see on Michael’s main page he has a current followup to the famous Starbuck’s customer service post.  I was astonished to realized I remembered the original post, when I saw the followup, and I was thrilled that I did.  His experience made it into a book.  Very cool.  I loathe Starbucks coffee, but you just can’t beat service like that.

MineThatData

Four Questions with Jim Fulton appeared in the August 21, 2006 CotC.  Regarding it Kevin says:

My best post ever had almost nothing to do with me.  I intereviewed Jim Fulton, Database Marketing Consultant.  His discussion of Database Marketing is head and shoulders the most popular post on my site.  Two months later, this is still one of the most-read posts I have written.

BigPictureSmallOffice.com

Intellectual Property appeared in the April 10, 2006 CotC at four time host Business Opportunities Weblog.  Elisa Camahort, posting at The Browster Blog, where the December 25 edition will be this year, flagged the post as best of that week and added to the discussion.  As Big Picture Guy says:

Do we sell our souls when we sign an employment contract? Do we become intellectual property? Two cases beg the questions, one when a terminated employee is told where he can and cannot seek employment, a second where a lab rat’s patent is claimed by the company.

Good questions indeed.

Political Calculations

I couldn’t identify which CotC edition Telephones, Steam Engines and Zeer Pots was in, but it’s a great post from October 28, 2005, of which Ironman says:

Political Calculations best post about business ever spans the world and several thousand years in search of what it takes to make or break an innovation.  Oh, and it never even mentions the word “business” despite being all about what successful businesses do every day....

Wordlab

Putting the Coke Back in Christmas appeared in Rob Sama’s December 12, 2005 CotC, featuring what some considered to be a risqué theme or set of graphics.  Abnu hooks the Santa history post with:

“Did God make Santa Claus, or is he just another one of the Coca-Cola Company’s holiday characters?”

This brings to mind a great Santa history post by Sam Decker originally The Community that Created the Santa Claus Brand in December 2004, then reposted here in late November of 2005.

Speaking of Rob Sama, I’d like to note that he has been one of us talking real estate bubble for a long time, and has a couple recent posts after the fall: Piggishness and Told You So (the second primarily links and cites an article and wouldn’t normally be CotC fodder, but the two kind of go together).

Blog Business World

Title tags: SEO by any other name is Wayne Hurlbert’s most visited CotC entry post of 2006, and one of his most popular ever.  I assumed it must be in the January 23, 2006 edition, but apparently it must have been at PHOSITA the next week, and sadly that edition is gone; not even available via the Wayback Machine.  Obliquely a business post in that SEO is useful to business sites, the post explains the usefulness of title tags in getting desired search engine attention for a page.

Queercents

In Netflix and a Living Wage, Nina tells the fascinating story of how the Netflix processing centers handle returned DVDs, which it’s easy to see could be a very factory-like operation, even more than so many sweatshop-like modern call centers.  Leading with a rather communistic FDR quote - which goes to show why he is both revered and reviled, often both by the same people - she makes an appealing case that the Netflix workers are not adequately paid.  Many of us aren’t, or have at times not been, relatively speaking.  But who’s to say, outside the parties to a voluntary transaction?  So long as it’s really voluntary.  Substantial economic freedom can be a tough thing to watch in practice.  But I digress, and I still haven’t pointed out that this post appeared in the September 11, 2006 CotC at View From a Height.  Agree or not with the sentiment, this is a great post.

Execupundit.com

Michael Wade provides us with some Lessons From Jerks.  Great advice!  It was included in the May 1, 2006 edition at Interim Thoughts, specializing in posts on business in India.

Econbrowser

Oil company profits seem not to have been reinvested at the rate one might expect.  Why might that be?  From Part-Time Pundit‘s November 7, 2005 CotC.

Photon Courier

In the November 5, 2005 post Management Education and the Role of Technique, which I was unable to connect to a specific CotC edition, the question raised is:

Do today’s MBA programs tend to graduate people who overemphasize the importance of theory, methodology, and technique? After all--when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Spooky Action

Spooky Action Predicts: Nick Carr has your number! (.8 probability) is described by Mike DeWitt as:

Nick Carr became an instant pariah in IT circles with his “IT Doesn’t Matter” article.  This post outlines why in 8 out of 10 cases Nick is right, and what you can do to be one of the two where he isn’t.  I’m not holding out any false hope for you.

This is one of my favorite names ever for a blog, and of course IT management stuff is always of extra interest.  I was unable to locate this post in an edition of CotC on or within several weeks after the time it was posted, but I’d have presumed to find it in the June 14, 2004 CotC, emergency hosted by Deb at Accidental Verbosity.  That was before I started using a Gmail account, an idea I lifted from the always worth visiting Carnival of the Recipes (you do eat, right?), so when the host went AWOL, we had to get people to resend their submissions as best we could.

This Week’s Regular Entries

These are presented in order received via the Gongol submission form and direct e-mail, and then in order received via the “Blog Carnival” submission form.  I fear I didn’t do the descriptions as much justice as I could have.  Where available, I relied heavily on descriptions supplied by the entrants.  One of the problems with the BC entries is almost none include descriptions as every entry should, even though there is a “remarks” field that can be used for the purpose.  I used the “handy HTML” supplied in the BC entries, so they all sound identical, then tried to add a few words of description even if none were provided.  That’s especially important if the post title doesn’t provide much of a hook.  While I tried to emulate the layout of my original CotC edition above, I reverted to a more normal formate below.

More Partisan Shopping was inspired when Joshua Sharf received a call from a local reporter wanting to know his views on shopping based on what causes the company gives to, particularly partisan ones.  Should that really matter?  What of ownership?

Insurance Claim Rental Car Foolishness is a good example Scott On Money encountered personally of auto insurers being ostensibly penny wise and undeniably pound foolish.

Gautam Ghosh gives us 10 reasons why organizations are not able to retain employees, which of course also says what organizations can do to reduce attrition.

Michael Wade looks at the importance of Reading the Boss.

In Hamburger Management Revealed, Carmine Coyote points to concrete evidence of more “Hamburger Management” in the news: a way of organizing and managing that’s devoted to doing everything as quickly and cheaply as possible—with the inevitable shoddy results.

Leon Gettler of Sox First presents an exclusive interview with Lord Michael Hastings, the man who headed up the BBC’s corporate social responsibility unit and who now works as KPMG’s international director of corporate citizenship, when he is not sitting in the House of Lords. In this interview, Lord Hastings explains how business can make the world a better place and he warns of dire consequences if it doesn’t.

The Chicago White Sox have gotten a sponsor for the starting time of their evening games: 7-Eleven and have shifted the first pitch of all night home games to, you guessed it, 7:11 PM.  Thank Heaven for 7-11, says Mark at SportsBiz.

Zimbabwe has launched an international tourism fair to promote its largely deserted resorts.  Interested-Participant has Zimbabwe - Good News and Bad News on the state of their economy.  Mostly bad.

Mike Buckley presents Selling to Your Uncle (Sam) posted at Mine Your Own Business.  Tips on selling to governmental units.

Laurie Bluedorn presents The Homeschool Marketer - Speak Your Marketing Ideas into Existence - Homeschoolblogger.com posted at PRMama.  Review of a portable recorder and tips for using it to catch and organize ideas.

Peter Kua presents Negotiate, haggle, bargain - with a little flinch posted at RadicalHop.com.  Negotiation tips, featuring body language.

John Buehler presents Rebuilding Eden - The 3rd Channel » Predicting the Future posted at Rebuilding Eden.  Detailed advice on how to extrapolate more effectively into the future.

John Ingrisano presents And Sometimes the Bear Gets You... posted at The Freestyle Entrepreneur.  Great stories of people taking undue advantage of those in business.

David B. presents Million Dollar Idea, Billion Dollar Genius posted at How Do People Get Rich?.  Interesting post about the guy and concept behind the Million Dollar Home Page.

Ian Welsh presents The Art of Measurement | The Agonist posted at The Agonist.  This hits on problems with call center/tech support management; a favorite topic of mine.

FMF presents How to Make $260,000 a Year at Age 33 posted at Free Money Finance.  This post technically doesn’t belong, because it’s almost entirely quoted text and links, but that doesn’t mean there’s no advice to be found there.

Brandon Peele presents Why get an MBA? posted at GT.

Wenchypoo presents Memo to Old-Line Feminists posted at Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket.  Where is the inequality now?  You’ve won.

Bob Vineyard, CLU presents Entitlement Bellweather posted at InsureBlog.  A recent report from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve warns against taking Social Security benefits for granted. InsureBlog’s Bob Vineyard bottom lines it.

Dan Melson presents Why the Current State of New Developer Housing posted at Searchlight Crusade.  A good look at why new houses tend to be so large, and why affordable new housing is difficult to achieve.

Steve Bainbridge presents Warren Buffet’s Memo posted at ProfessorBainbridge.com.  Some thoughts on why “everybody is doing it” is a lousy business model.

Tom Hanna presents The Week Ahead: Your Financial Roadmap for October 16 to October 20, 2006 posted at Financial Options.  A review of the upcoming economic indicators, Treasury events and earnings reports for the week ahead. Updated as results become available throughout the week.

David Maister presents How to Get Ahead: Lie and Cheat? posted at Passion, People and Principles.  Academic dishonesty in business schools and the potential fallout of those attitudes.

Zendo Deb presents It Isn’t “Life, Liberty and Property Insurance�? posted at TFS Magnum.  What happens when a whole group of voters want the government to eliminate risk? They try to overturn the functioning of the free market.

Steve Faber presents Are Big Corporate CEO’s Really All Republicans? posted at Debt Free.  A look at the way business is done with and where money goes in the political sphere.

Pawel Brodzinski presents How to Fire People posted at Software Project Management.  Some advice on how to make this unpleasant task a bit more pleasant.

Bill Losapio presents LWilliamLosapio.com » A Walk in the Park posted at LWilliamLosapio.com.  Thoughts on free-market solutions for government parks

Andrew Trinh presents How to Really Train Your Employees posted at Trizoko.  Use the learning by doing method for best results.

A Samuel presents Kariat Smir Apartments may be closer than you think posted at Off Plan Property.  The prospects of property in Morocco sound uninteresting to you?  Then check out this post for a detailed look at the future tunnel between Spain and Morocco, a span many of us have long imagined bridging.

cehwiedel presents Mohammed Yunus on Microloans for the Gulf Coast posted at Kicking Over My Traces.  The recent announcement of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner is used as a hook for the announcement of a modest online bootstrapping effort aimed at small businesses and individuals on the Gulf Coast. 

I remember reading about the microloan concept back when it was a new thing, and thinking it was a brilliant idea.  I was pleased with the Nobel selection and meant to post about it.  I wonder, though, if the concept can work as well here, given the relative economies…

nickel presents Health Insurance: HMOs vs. PPOs posted at fivecentnickel.com.  Surprising comparisons between HMO and PPO health coverage options.

Boring Made Dull presents The Impossible Standard posted at The Boring Made Dull.  The insanity of suits against companies that made lead paint when it was legal and have not sold it in decades.

That’s it for this edition!  Be sure to check out and participate in CommerceBucket for other great reading on a day to day basis.  See you next week at Blawg Review.



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