“Consumers are statistics.

  Customers are PEOPLE.”

–Stanley Marcus, Chairman Emeritus, Neiman-Marcus 

     In case somewhere between the thin divider line between 2009 and 2010, you might have lost sight of what’s important and instrumental to boosting business in these bleak economic times, I give you (Ta-ta-ta—-ta-ta!) the CUSTOMER!

     Former Ford Truck Operations Gen. Mgr. E.P.Williams is quoted in Tom Peters and Nancy Austin’s book, A Passion for Excellence, as saying:

We must always think the customer is in the middle of the thrust of what we’re trying to do.”

     Does that apply to small business too? Absolutely! Does it matter what kind of business you have or how old or new it is? Absolutely not!

     The challenge then is not in thinking, “How do we make more money?” It is in thinking (and acting on) “How do we get and keep more customers?” OR “How can we do a better job of providing the products and services that will attract more new customers and more return customers?”

     We already know that people buy benefits, not features. We already know that people buy products and services because of an emotionally-triggered buying motive (not a logical, rational, unemotional one!). We already know that every behavior (including buying motives) is a choice.

     And we already know if you’re reading this, you probably own or operate your own business or manage one, or part of one and/or that you’re an entrepreneur … so LEADERSHIP is also important to you.

     If you could lead the business or part of business that you’re responsible for into an ongoing, daily pattern of catering to customers and prospects with innovative new and value-added products and services that provide genuine benefits, wouldn’t that be a great beginning?

     If you could do that, you need only find a great writer/marketer (not just a marketing writer, mind you; there’s a big difference!) who has a proven track-record for triggering emotional buying motives and helping to attract the kinds of new and repeat customers you want. 

     Well, here’s the good news: You CAN do all that. It’s easier than you think. It means not accepting that the economy is a hovering doom. It means having the courage to cast off the past and the constraints that mindless politicians continue to force on small business.

     It means taking the road less traveled. This is not just empty talk, or hype. This is reality.

     If you’re serious about your customers, listen to them … and lighten up. Then watch what happens.  

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

# # #               

Throw Up. Clean Up. Sit Up. Step Up!

     1. It’s that time. Dump Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Schumer (and all the other big misguided tax and spend abusers who are killing small business) into your trash bin. Rid yourself of all the 2009 stress, upsets, ill-feelings, lost sales, financial worries, ego-maniacal do-noting politicians and half-hearted employee efforts by simply throwing up!

     Go ahead; get it over with; tickle your throat; I’ll wait.

     Done? Good. Next…

     2. Clean up the mess. While you’re at it, clean up your email files, your desk, your accumulated piles of paper, your truck, business cards, and phone messages. If there’s any time left, attack your most discombobulated file.

     Then…

     3. Sit up! Look around and make sure your work setting and all first impression views, items, furnishings, windows, equipment, and signs are glistening and free of clutter and performing at optimum level. You’ll never get a second chance at a first 2010 impression!

     Finally…

     4. Step up to the plate and get a good grip on the bat. Prepare to send the next pitch flying into the centerfield stands. Also, write your 2010 goals down on paper (you know, with a pen!) and make sure each goal is specific, flexible, realistic and due-dated.

     Remember that — no matter what your business is — your integrity and your people are your greatest assets. And remember too that you have what it takes to achieve your goals. It’s all about choice. Choose to make it happen. Choose 2010 to be your year!

To all my great friends and blog visitors:

My very best wishes for you that 2010 is the happiest, healthiest, most prosperous year ever for you and your families! Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Year!

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More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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Is Your Vision Statement A Mission?

Does Your Mission Statement

Have Vision?

You’re getting ready for 2010 and you’re confused?

Gee, hard to imagine.

Just because the media and politicians tell us the economy is getting better? Just because we’re looking at a healthcare reform proposal that has absolutely nothing to do with healthcare? Just because enemy combatant terrorist situations surface from circumstances that we’re assured do not exist? Just because global warming hoaxsters had us running to refrigeration investments? 

     We’re probably feeling like confusion is nothing new, right? So why not live with a little more? 

     Well, here’s why: The business you own or manage doesn’t need to be as misguided and convoluted as politicians and the media. Remember they get paid for creating confusion. Your success depends on keeping things simple.

     Keeping things simple starts with attitude, awareness, and hard work.

     First off, don’t let anyone tell you to work smarter and not harder. That’s baloney! Every business success comes from hard work. Next, don’t let people confuse you about the characteristics and values of Mission and Vision Statements. [No, they are NOT the same!]

     A Mission statement is essentially a declaration of intent, challenge and pursuit. It is your goal statement that clearly and succinctly explains what you plan to accomplish over what specific period of time and by what means. It is action-focused.

     And, like every meaningful goal, your Mission Statement needs t0 be specific, flexible, realistic and have a due date. [Without all four criteria, you’ve nothing more than a wishlist fantasy!] 

     A Vision statement is a summation of where you see your business in 5-10 years. It is a picture you paint in your mind and share with others. It answers the question: If you succeed in your mission, where will you be?

     It’s a set of words that best describes what you imagine to be your future state of existence, and how you expect (hope) to be viewed by others: your employees, associates, vendors, customers, markets, industry or profession, and community. It is dream-focused. It’s primary value is to inspire pursuit of your Mission. 

What’s your Mission for 2010? What’s your Vision for 2020?

     Oh, and in the same fashion that it helps to start ANY mission with 20/20 vision, it is often most useful to put your 2020 Vision on the table (to keep focused on it) while you develop your 2010 Mission (or while you think up the ways to get where you want to end up).  

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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Think Big But Act Small!

     As small business owners and managers, we unfortunately have not much of a role model for success anywhere within the avalanche of daily government’s much ado about nothing, or the poor misguided mainstream media’s efforts to distort, opinionate and manipulate in order to sell advertising time and space.

     How could we expect, for example, to learn anything about decision-making from an Armed Forces Commander in Chief who takes three months to conclude what his own paid, experienced experts have told him from the outset the steps that needed to be taken with respect to troop deployment?

     And, to top it off, in addition to having put those who serve — and who are clearly committed — in harms way for that entire three months, the agonizingly slow decision and extent of unnecessarily prolonged delay now threatens to undermine the very determination that was finally and reluctantly made. This decision should have been made in one day.

     Odds are that if any of us practiced such poor (and critical) decision-making and failed to rely on those we chose to surround and advise ourselves with in our own businesses, we’d be out (or well on our way to being out) of business!

     Oh, and just imagine what kind of customer loyalty we might generate if our marketing programs and public messages were as intentionally contentious and provocative as the sensationalist “journalism” that flows from the fork-tongued mouths of mainstream media’s loose cannons. You know who and what make up this list. 

     Something about this desperate media pproach to doing business smacks of ramming a healthcare program down the throats of 63% of the population who do not want it. Could you do that with your business prospects and survive?

     We could forget about repeat sales. We could also give up our customer service pursuits (Who would ever believe in the dollar value and performance quality of our products and services when we’re fully preoccupied with putting down our competition or trying to produce sales by mental water-boarding instead of simply demonstrating the benefits of our business, our integrity, trust and authenticity?)

     And what have we in our poor excuse for a national leadership to follow? A hypocritical multimillionaire holding our feet to the fire to keep us honest while abusing tax-dollar-paid privileges? People with less business experience than your 2 year-old nephew, dictating business policy? People so entrenched in their own sense of political self-importance that they’ve lost sight of what they’re supposed to be doing and whom they’re supposed to be representing?

     You couldn’t count fast enough to guess the numbers of customers leaving your business if you started price-gouging while delivering inadequate products and services in the name of global warming scams designed to divert tax dollars to political causes, and self-aggrandizing delusional thinking about spreading wealth to those who haven’t earned it (because handouts work just fine).

     A helluva way to run a business. Any business. 

When you want to be big,

act small enough to make it clear

that your growth is not more important

than your customer.    

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Politically Correct Crap

Has Gone Over The Top!

     It’s really time for small businesses to rebel.

     It’s time to show the corporate giants standing in line waiting for another surge of taxpayer dollar bailouts that their small-minded insistence on following small-minded government politicians (and even smaller-minded, major-media wimps) is wrong because Christmas is Christmas is Christmas. Period.

     It is what it is: a Christian celebration of the birth of Christ.

     It is NOT a generic convoluted cluster of “holidays.” It is NOT Hanukkah, Ramadan and 39 other special celebrations all thrown together in one big New York City melting pot. This is the CHRISTMAS Season!

     You’re not likely to toss all your meat. fish, vegetables, bread, and dessert into one big bowl and call it dinner, right? So why should anyone insist on combining all religious celebrations into one and calling Christmas and the Christmas Season “Holidays” as indistinguishable from the others?

     The answer: Big business and government and the media have become so superficially multi-cultural and culturally-diverse conscious (and more sensitive to unfounded anti-discrimination lawsuits than to the Christian religious ideals and annual celebration of the birth of Baby Jesus) that they are petrified at the idea of calling Christmas by its name for fear of offending those who provide handouts and political favors.

     It’s not just time to put Christ back in Christmas, it’s time to SAY “Merry Christmas!” without being afraid of offending someone. Anyone who IS offended by that is as ignorant, insensitive, misguided, and self-righteous as those who would have us take “In God We Trust” out of our nation’s pledges, proclamations, and currency.

     Bottom line: Stand up to those who try to make you feel guilty (or who are simply too dumb to know better) by wishing your customers and suppliers “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

     If those you do business with want to wish you Happy Hanukkah or whatever it is that one wishes for Ramadan, accept it and thank them and wish it back to them. But let’s not encourage any more “PC” thinking about something so sacred, and so much a part of American tradition … for even those who are NON-Christians!

     Be reminded that “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” carries with it implications of commitment to goodwill and to loving and respecting one another. Jews and responsible Muslims share that thinking. There’s no need to feel apologetic for wishing someone “Merry Christmas!” no matter what his or her religion. 

     I have had a great many Jewish friends (including quite a few who are orthodox) and never knew even one who took offense at being wished Merry Christmas. Most, in fact, have always replied in kind, or with a cheerful: “And Happy Hanukkah to you!” 

     Big business and politics have no place in dictating change in objects of religious respect, and need to butt out! Small business owners and managers can help make a difference by simply honoring the Christmas Season as they have since childhood in wishing one and all a “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” and by suggesting those employees who agree, to do the same. 

     It is the joyful spirit of what the message represents that counts.    

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You must be dreaming!

Today’s economy is GREAT!

     Dear business owners and managers:  If you’ve been talking about having some weirdo notion that we are in a never-ending economic tailspin that’s ruining the odds for  success, you may not be speaking with forked tongue, but you are looking through crooked glasses! 

     If  your business is still afloat,  that means you have done some hard sweeping work getting the cobwebs out of the corners. It means you are down to a bare-bones personnel operation that is probably 50-100% more productive than it was before “bailouts” and “stimulus” became part of the language.

     And you are coming full circle around  to what Tom Peters and Nancy Austin told us a quarter of a century ago in their classic #1 best-selling business book, A Passion for Excellence:

In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observe that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul:

“First, take exceptional care of your customer (for chicken, jet engines, education, healthcare, or baseball) via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it.”

They add that “sound financial controls” and “solid planning” are of course also essential and necessary,” but that the bottom line of achieving success is to manage by wandering around —

• By constantly talking with your people,
• By constantly and attentively listening to their ideas, and
• By motivating through examples of the ways you cater to customers and work nonstop at innovation: always drumming up new creative ideas and strategically taking them all the way through in your thinking to a point of implementation.

Introducing a new product feature isn’t good enough. Anyone can think of that. Actually working out all of the steps involved with associated costs, benefits,  timelines, and logistics… that’s innovation! 

• By instilling a passion for customer courtesy and innovative thinking in every tiny corner of every department of the business, whether there are three employees involved, or 300,000. 

     Today’s economy sucks if you choose for it to.  If instead you seize the opportunity to be more motivated to deliver a better dollar-value quality product and service, quicker and safer, and that’s longer-lasting than ever before… and you pump all your company’s efforts into making your customers love you… NOW you’ve got something!

     And your leaner, tougher, more customer-conscious business  would never have happened when cash was flowing and you were on cruise control, lunching out and playing golf and taking off early and traveling the world on long vacations, and being so successful you were able to sell ice to Eskimos with one hand behind your back.

     Speaking of your hand:  The lousy economy, being continuously fueled by shortsighted (maybe even blind) government bureaucracy, has essentially forced your hand to act in new ways. And if in fact you do act in new more productive ways, then it’s a GREAT economy!

     Will you rise to the occasion  and make things work, or keep dreaming that they can’t,  throw in the towel, and get out of the way of those who are choosing to meet the challenge? 

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Healthcare Dictatorship?

In this week’s Wall Street Journal,  former NY State Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey brought to light some of the small business-impact details buried in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990-page health bill (H.R.3962) that you need to know about:

The government will require

EVERYone to:

     • Enroll in a “QUALIFIED PLAN.”  Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires that if you get your insurance at work, employers will have a “grace period” to switch you to a “QUALIFIED PLAN,” meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there’s no grace period. You’ll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

     • Be legally required to pay  whatever the Secretary of Health and Human Services decides what a “QUALIFIED PLAN” covers and what your fees will be. Sec. 224 (p. 118) provides that you will be told an amount 18 months after the bill becomes law. That,” says Ms. McCaughey, is like a banker telling you to sign the loan agreement now, then filling in the interest rate and repayment terms 18 months later.

On 11/2/09, the Congressional Budget Office estimated an individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses: total $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus $5,300 out-of-pocket: $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income. Individuals and families earning less will be eligible for subsidies paid direct to  insurers.

     • Adhere to a “one-size-fits-all” QUALIFIED PLAN  even though it doesn’t exist. See Sec. 303 (pp. 167-168) The bill claims to offer choice—basic, enhanced and premium levels—but benefits are the same. Only co-pays and deductibles differ. You will have to enroll in the same plan, whether the government is paying for it or you or your employer are.

     • Include proof in your taxes that you are in a QUALIFIED PLAN.  Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) If you don’t, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt.

Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a “QUALIFIED PLAN” for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Smaller payroll businesses are fined less.

     The bill Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) cuts future Medicare funding by $500 Billion, takes away patient rights to choose which doctor to see, permits the government to dictate treatment decisions, and specifies patients may have to accept a nurse practitioner instead of a physician.

     • Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) reduces payments for care and the standard of care for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.

     • Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors) expected to cut back benefits such as vision and dental care.

While the bill will slash Medicare funding, it will also direct Billions of dollars to numerous inner-city social work and diversity programs with vague standards of accountability.

     • Sec. 399V (p. 1422) provides for grants to community “entities” with no required qualifications except having “documented community activity and experience with community healthcare workers” to “educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities” aimed at drug abuse, poor nutrition, smoking and obesity.    

     • Sec. 222 (p. 617) provides reimbursement for training healthcare workers to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their right to an interpreter.

     • Secs. 2521 and 2533 (pp. 1379 and 1437) establishes racial and ethnic preferences in awarding grants for training nurses and creating secondary-school health science programs.     

 And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg! For the text of the bill with page numbers, see www.defendyourhealthcare.us     

# # #               

Dear SBA: You’re out of touch! 

     I just read  a meaningless, unintelligible, patronizing, jargon-filled statement by SBAs Delaware District Director which reinforces in spades a conviction I’ve voiced in prior posts that the Small Business Association is utterly useless to small businesses and waaaaay out of touch with reality.

     She headlines her article  “100 Days After the Recovery Act” and starts out by telling readers how great all the new SBA programs are to “help small businesses weather this economic storm, and ultimately continue to grow and create jobs.” Where was SBA when these kinds of comments were being posed as requests over a year ago on this blog and many others?

     She ends with:  “America’s small businesses are the key to our nation’s economic recovery.”  (Duh) “The SBA is using every tool in our toolbox –and creating new ones when necessary– to help small businesses lead us out of these tough economic times.” (Double Duh)So tell us about the tools in your toolbox! In plain English would also be a nice thing to try to do, by the way.

     Get this, business owners:  You think the SBA is relevant so you read this gobbledygook (or gobbledegook if you prefer… a word that’s really worth looking up!) and imagine you might get an idea or two about how to help your business recover, right?

     Wrong.  Unless of course you happen to be well versed in “loan programs–7(a) and 504” because then you undoubtedly understand about “eliminated fees for borrowers” on 7(a) “and for both borrowers and lenders on 504” and that they’ve “temporarily raised the guarantee.”

     Oh, yes, and we should be thrilled  to know that “there’s been a 30 percent increase in average weekly loan dollar volume” and –on top of that– the new SBA launched ARC loan “program provides loans up to $35,000 to viable but struggling small businesses,” and that “SBA has now put in place programs implementing 88 percent of the $730 million provided.”  

You must be kidding, SBA!

• What is “7(a)”? Who should be expected to know this?

• What is “504”? Who should be expected to know this?

• What “eliminated fees”? Why? When? For how long? So what?

• Why eliminated for just borrowers on one loan and for borrowers and lenders both on another, and who cares?

• What exactly does “temporarily” mean?

• What “guarantee”? Whose? For what? For how long? What are the terms?

• 30% increase? This has something to do with my small business?

• So what? What does this have to do with me and my small business?

• What exactly is “viable”? Is it not defined because not many will qualify?

• What exactly is “struggling”? And again, how is this determined?

• What difference does it make to ANYone that 88% of $730 million has been “implemented”? I’m trying to put food on the table. Who are you trying to impress?

• What does “implemented” mean, exactly? Why can SBA language never be straightforward? Likely because no small businesspeople are speaking.

     Find me ONE “struggling” small business owner who understands all this crap. Just one. The problem here is that the SBA is simply another BIG-business-run federal government agency that hasn’t a single clue about owning and operating a small business … and that is more concerned with covering its butt and looking good to political administrators than with helping small businesses create jobs. It is tokenism run amuck.    

I served two consecutive 2-year federal appointment terms on what’s been called the country’s most important SBA regional advisory council (NY/NJ/CT and the USVI. I  resigned  because 31 of the 33 membership seats were filled with major corporate executives. I and one other member were the only ones who owned and operated small businesses. The job of representing and cultivating small business interests was not getting done, and it’s still not.

# # #

Dear FTC: C’mon in. I dare you!

A www.NEWSMAX.COM headline today reads:

“OBAMA’S FTC MOVES TO REGULATE BLOGGERS”

     The story reports  how I (blogger) will be required as of 12/1/09, to disclose all the “computers, toys and trips to Disneyland” (cited as examples) that I’ve received in exchange for blog post endorsements because such arrangements are a “conflict of interest.”

     I thought I had enough  computers. I am too much of a realist to be interested in Disneyland. But: Gee, free toys! Now that’s a cool idea.

     Why does the FTC’s focus  remind me of the infamous captain we’ve called into play a few times? You know, the one who busies himself arranging deck chairs while the ship sinks? With all the major federal trade violations taking place every day, don’t these people have anything better to do than worry about such drivel?

     I’m sorry to disappoint you, “Mr. Obama’s FTC people”  but — BESIDES being appalled at the audacity you evidence by leveling your taxpayer-financed sites at bloggers instead of simply prohibiting advertisers from pursuing those bribery practices that may result in harmful consumption or use (some of which certainly should not be condoned)— BESIDES that:

Do you think for one minute  that American businesses are blind to the fact that your blanket overstepping of bounds serves to fan the out-of-control wildfires of the Consumer Federation of America?

     As a long-term business owner/consultant/author and educator,  responsible by the way, for the first consumer education mobile unit in the United States, and for initiating numerous consumer-benefit companies and programs, I can assure you that the CFA is a radical organization with political underpinnings that is waaaay over the top!

     Some (perhaps CFA?) will jump for joy  at having your implied endorsement to spread the notion of “unethical bloggers.” Could it be possible that something like a desperate smear attempt might be fostered to undermine Internet credibility and reduce embarrassing blogger attacks on sadly misguided administration decisions?

     This is of course particularly convenient timing  as well, as we continue to stand witness to the long-deserved, self-imposed collapse of traditional mainstream media!

     I hate to have to own up to  the fact that I have never engaged in the kinds of underhanded, conflict-of-interest shenanigans that ineffective FTC leadership has chosen to decry, and I’m quite certain that neither have the vast majority of bloggers.

     To be sure though, Dear FTC’ers,  you are cordially invited to examine my blog archives in detail. You might actually learn something.

     You will find only  good, sensible business and personal development advice and ideas… plus occasional (warranted) attacks on your “higher authority” for passing along, promoting and endorsing NON-sensible business and personal growth and development advice… and many bad ideas! Sorry, but it’s true!

     This is not to suggest  that there are not unethical bloggers out there. Y’know, there are also unethical judges, government officials, and religious leaders. Maybe FTC’ers should turn their agency’s venim in those directions and stop being Mr. O’s puppets.

# # # 

Stuff always gets worse

before it gets worse.

December, 2008: Gutless, Incompetent, Greedy: The US Postal Service http://halalpiar.com/2008/12/no-more-room-for-snail-mail/\

March. 2009: Having grown up a mailman’s son, maybe I’m just sentimental (or simply as stupid as the PO?) http://halalpiar.com/2009/03/23-lifelines-tossed-to-the-post-office/

August, 2009: Not just tech triumphs, the PO is a self-fulfilling sinking http://halalpiar.com/?s=postal+service

     …and yes,  there were other blog posts beating on the PO, and hoping for some light to penetrate the organization’s self-imposed deathwatch. But no, it mustn’t be in the cards. The US Postal Service does nothing to help itself, choosing instead to just keep digging a deeper grave!

The most recent proof  of ignorance came in the form of a 32-page atrocity of an ignorant, out-of-step excuse for a magazine delivered, it appears, to PO Boxes nationwide.  Campbell-Ewald Publishing should be ashamed of itself for putting out such politically-motivated trash in the name of the dying Postal Service, instead of taking a constructive stand on behalf of Postal Service customers!

  It’s just more evidence  of the sea of federal government incompetency that dictates to and surrounds the United States Postal Service … surely an organization (and I use the term loosely) destined for the next federal bailout after, let’s see, is it newspapers that are now being considered?

Please, spare us the insult!  Why on Earth cannot SOMEone with some business savvy step forward and get Congressional blessing to take control of this rapidly fading and no longer relevant entity that has simply lost touch with reality.

Businesses are failing  left and right. Families are struggling to make a living. The federal government sends $529 million tax dollars (reported today!) to Fantasyman Al Gore’s new automobile company so he can manufacture and sell cars in Finland! If this isn’t astonishing all by ityself, you must be living on Mars!

So along comes the Postal Service  with yet another elaborate, expensive promotional piece with thinly disguised heavy support for badly misguided Administration environmental policies. Why am I reminded of the story about being preoccupied with rearranging deck chairs while the cruise ship is sinking?

How many families  can you think of right now that are worried about environmental problems? It’s a little hard to focus on the spotted owl and Mr. Gore’s make-believe global warming issues when there’s a need to put food on the table and pay the mortgage… or pay for the gas to drive the car to go to the post office to pick up the mail!

Wouldn’t you think  the Postal Service would be standing on its head to compete in the marketplace and make the most of its resources to exercise some leadership geared to helping businesses get back on their feet instead of throwing bad money after bad money producing pricey lackluster materials that no one cares about?

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