Todd P Paul

On the Road again....

I am traveling the southeast over the next few days. I am working on some rental property in the DEEP south, so communication will be light.

On my trip down, I saw this sign. I thought some of you may be interested in becoming a Ninja, so I took a picture so you could have the 800 number. Enjoy you Ninja pursuits over the next few days!

A day at the office

I thought I would share a little about my day. It has been amazing in Chicagoland the last few days and this afternoon I decided to get out and enjoy it a little. I worked from home this morning, but it was too nice to be inside. After lunch I decided to head to the park to work from there. I was behind on a little reading and needed to do some thought work. What better place than the park down the street. Sam and I decided that this is the way to spend a work day.
She surveys the park and I work on the Blackberry. Despite my love/ hate relationship with the device, it is pretty nice to be able to work from anywhere. I worked out two real estate deals setting right there. Not bad.
Best of all, I got to walk home (in under an hour), open the refrig and enjoy a nice beverage. Yesterday, I brought a 30 pack of beer for under $13. Yes, that is .43 cent a beer. I was snobishly sticking to the PBR bottles, but in light of this new discovery I may be a convert.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a work day. I just wish I could figure out some way to make everyday like today.

Strategic Self-Investment/ Self-Development - Part II

Building is an active process.  I cannot do nothing and expect a well-equipped toolbox.  I think this is a common thought.  Passive learning does happen but it is very haphazard and slow.  Passive learning happens by random experience and unenlightened trail and error.  One keeps running into walls until a wall falls down.  One then dusts themselves off and progressive into the next series of walls.  Once they have healed from the pain of the last brick wall, they start running into walls again.  Alternatively, they may decide they have had enough pain and stop running into brick walls.  At this point, they settle into the pattern and rhythm of life confined within the walls around them.  They explore the wall’s boundaries slowly and careful, so not to get hurt.  This type of process is often called lazy or other words. However, in reality it is an overarching orientation toward life and personally.  I like to think of it in terms of a reactive orientation.  Reactive versus proactive. Both are choice patterns and require activity. The difference is whether one is acting on the environment (walls) or acting in response to the environment.

Laziness is not reactive, it is inactive.  Reactivity is the response orientation to one’s surrounding environment.  It is the problem/ response cycle.  A.) Problem: Coworker’s are controlling and poor communicators.  Response: Get defensive and hoard control.  I can think of numerous other examples but the point is that our environment is the dominating force acting on us.  We feel constant pressure from our surrounding and feel always in an environmental defense mode.  Some form of defensiveness is our primary mode of operation.  Need more teasing out? Make Sense?

The other option is proactivity.  This is just the opposite.  Proactivity is acting on one’s surrounds and shaping the environment.  It is an action / response cycle.  I want “C”; therefore, I will do “A” and “B.”

Back to the above analogy, I am surrounded by brick walls, which are blocking me from a successful (self-defined) integration into my work environment. I want a successful work environment; therefore, I will learn how to understand the culture, enculturation, and communicate with my coworkers.  So in order for the walls to be removed, I must educate myself on understanding work cultures and learn about new communication styles.

Maybe this is better worked out as a change orientation?  How does one respond to the need for change? Building one’s toolbox is a change process, so maybe that is a better framework. One is either actively changing the environment by strategically developing their skills to adapt, or one is seeking the environment to change independently from and without their actions.

Thoughts??

Strategic Self-Investment/ Self-Development

These next few posts are for me more than an audience (as most are).  I am trying to work out some thinking on some various issues and writing them down for others to read and comment on is usually helpful.  So, feel free to share your thinking or say this is misguided.  Just make should you say why?

I am trying to work out my thinking on self-development.  Questions like the following. Is more education better, necessary, or beneficial?  Are the costs associated with education worth it?  What type of development is most beneficial (academic, professional experience, professional education, etc…) Is formal education “better’ than informal? How do people respond to ability stress (stress felt from lack of ability in one or more areas)?  How does one development in their self the motivation to development them self?  How does one motive other to do so?
Those are a lot of the question swirling around in the (slightly) old noggin.

Starting Point – Core thoughts? 

My basic philosophy toward life is a process orientation.  Nothing fancy!  Life is a process of development.  Choices offer the confines of the development process and not everyone starts at the same place.  Choices and experience shape the life one leads and what opportunities are presented before them.  There is a, seemingly, obvious nature aspect to the process.  For example, I was lucky enough to be born in the United States and to upper middle class, hard working parents.  Who made a conscious, daily decision to stay together and raise me with an intentional set of priorities. Most of that was out of my hands, but it shaped my experiences and choices significantly.  It is and has been much easier for me to walk down the path of life than others, and still, it is easier for others than me.  This cannot be overlooked, but mostly these things exist outside my control. So easily enough, I choose to discount them and focus on the things I can control.

So, I generally think of life as a toolbox.  Whether it is a Craftsman Stainless Steel toolbox or a cloth sack is largely out of my control – due to the through process above.  What I do with the toolbox is my task.  What tools do I put in this box?  How do I reinforce the toolbox so it does not fold in on itself from the weight of too many tools?  How do I stack the tools? How do I prioritize the tools for use and easy access? These are all choices I make along the way.

The toolbox is both a confine and a resource. I am limited by how well equip is my toolbox.  For example, I cannot build a brick wall if I only have a hammer and nails.  However, I maybe able to leave the brick wall and come back to it later when I have some concert, sand, and bricks.  Alternatively, I maybe able to build the stud walls needed to support the brick wall and let someone else lay the bricks.  Then I can learn from them how to build brick walls.  Make sense?

This may be over simplistic, but all analogies are at some point.

What I want to move toward is a look at how toolboxes are built and prepared for the task and future tasks (imaginable, but not known).  This is where the self-development and self-investment ideas move into play.

When in Doubt..... Regulate

Why do we feel the overwhelming need to protect people from themselves? Seat belts, helmets laws, SOX, etc... Why is the response, regulate? The WSJ has a free article, today that says private economist think there should be more regulation of hedge funds. Why? Are their people out there investing in hedge funds that do not know they have an above average risk? Is the added volume and market presents in equities that bad?

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my mom a few months ago. My parents like riding motorcycles. A few months ago, we where talking about people not wearing their helmets. The state they live in does not regulate helmet wearing on a motorcycle. My mom thought they should be wearing helmets and I respond to her with this.

Think of it as evolution. Let the people who don't want to wear helmets have their fun. When they kill themselves because of their actions, it means more social security and scarce resources for the rest of us. Maybe a little insensitive, but true?

Reshaping America's Companies

Over the past four years, American (and other) companies have been the target of a new wave of leveraged buyouts (LBO). Large Private Equity groups (Bain Capital, Blackstone, and the like ) have become large cash machines operated by investors seeking "above average" return on investment. While this is by no means a new phenomena (remember the late 1980's movie Wall Street), the magnitude and profile of these buyouts has risen. This morning the WSJ is reporting Harrahs may be the subject of a new LBO by private equity groups. This is just the latest in a string of acquisitions (think HCA, Meristar, etc...).
While these acquisitions are not surprising given the return on invest in equity markets and the increased difficulty in posting high shareholder returns with such large amounts of cash, what is surprising is how it is changing the people operating the organizations being brought out.
Shareholder control and activism takes on a new meaning when there is one large shareholder holding all the control and power. The demand for efficiency and flow through cash (to allow for other LBOs) is having a big effect on organizational operations. Executives and managers are being forced to think like owners and investor. I have been working in a companies for the past few months had was brought out by a private equity firm at the beginning of the year. I have seen some interesting changes take place since the buyout occurred. A more hands-on approach by vice presidents, an extreme focus on operating efficiently, focus of top managers to perform and perform in all knowledge areas (HR, leadership, finance), and a strict push to demand great leaders and managers run the operations. These are just to name a few changes. A notable problem I have seen is the lack of development and development opportunity. These executives and managers are experiencing this dramatic change without being taught how to manage like investors or owners.
I suspect as these demands push down through organizations, organizations will start demanding more from business education and lower level workers. As the universal standards rise throughout organizational culture, we will see a universal focus on the Value Imperative and manging for shareholder returns which will have to be developed at all levels of organizations.
These questions remain. Where will managers and executives seek to cut corners? Where will the backlash happen? In this type of rapid change, in the short term, executives and managers will seek shortcuts as the first answer. There is such a void in mid-level manager's strategic processes and ability to "think like owners" (Warren Buffet) that the short-term backlash must blow out somewhere.

 

Other Sources:
            Bloomberg