The Perfect Storm

A “perfect storm” is an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically. And that’s what’s happening today across this great nation.

While so many organizations are simply sitting dormant waiting for things to get better, others have decided to take action in an effort to make things better.

The rare combination of circumstances coming together today include chaos, competition, and creativity … all leading to major CHANGE you probably thought you’d never see … and yet current news releases inform us that many changes are already taking place. Here are three you might find interesting.

Burger King Planning to Sell Beer

Yes, it sounds like a whopper, but it’s true. The burger chain already has a Whopper Bar at Universal Citywalk near the theme parks in Orlando, Florida, and it plans to open others in Miami Beach, New York City, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. The beers will be mostly domestic, such as Bud and Miller, and will be served in aluminum bottles selling for about $4.25. Burger King is also experimenting with several combo offerings.

McSaloon Will Offer Win Coolers

In an attempt to counter Burger King and maintain its position as the #1 burger chain on earth, McDonald’s has announced that it will start selling wine coolers at its South Beach locations in Miami beginning the middle of March this year. Interestingly enough, that kick-off date correlates with Spring Break. Called McWineCooler Swirls, the alcoholic beverages will be served during McHappy Hour from 4-7 p. m. daily at the McSaloon section of the restaurant. The beverages will not be served in the main family area of the restaurant.

Kroger Get Creative

Creativity isn’t limited to the fast food industry. Kroger has seen the benefit of expanding its offering as well in hopes of weathering the Perfect Storm.

Kroger Marketplace in Frisco, Texas, has opened up a new 123,000-square-foot store that greatly expands upon the products the supermarket typically sells. In addition to everything you would expect to find in a Kroger store, this one also sells home furnishings like dining room sets, bookshelves and lamps as well as toys, jewelry and more. Oh, and if on the way out you suddenly experience the urge to splurge on a diamond pendant or pick up an engagement ring, a Fred Meyer Jewelers is conveniently located at the front of the store. (It turns out that Kroger, the country’s second-largest grocery chain, also owns the Fred Meyer Jewelry chain, which happens to be the nation’s third-largest jewelry retailer).

Target Targets Food

If you haven’t already noticed, Target has been expending its line of food products for the past several years and the response has been very positive. So much so, that it is now testing fresh meat products in a number of test stores. If it catches on like its other food products have, Kroger may be concerned.

You can bet there are a host of competitors watching what happens as a result of these creative attempts to survive and thrive. If they fail, you will hear a chorus of “I told you so.” If they succeed, you’ll suddenly see a lot of them scrambling to do the same. However, there’s a good chance that it will be too late.

To succeed today, you’d better be willing to do what it takes to weather that “perfect storm” that confronts us all! Get creative, take a chance, put forth an effort or pay the price as you simply sit and watch!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Grandpa Wouldn’t Understand!

Watching the many football bowl games televised on so many networks for the past six weeks brought back some very fond memories of time spent with my grandfather. We used to sit in front of that old black and white TV over the holidays watching the bowl games we had waited for all year. Popcorn, soda, and time with my grandfather made those games so special to me.

However, there was a major difference in those days compared to what we see today. I was just thinking about that over the weekend. If, by some miracle, Grandpa could return for an afternoon of football with his grandson, how in the world would I possibly explain the many things we take for granted today? Things that I know would blow his mind. How would I explain the following:

  1. color television … with a screen 10 times larger than the one we used to watch at his house … hanging on my wall … with picture in picture … HDTV … stereo sound … instant replay and 375 channels (he had 8 channels)! Where would I begin?
  2. How would I explain that we had our choice of 34 college bowl games to choose from this year? Back then he and I had only four choices and of course we watched them all. We had only “The Fab Four” … Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Cotton Bowl. In those days, we felt it was hard to keep track of them all. Little did we know that the “Fab Four” would someday grow into the marathon of chaos we witness today!
  3. After explaining our many choices, how would I explain the crazy names? Rose, Orange, Sugar and Cotton are pretty simple compared to this year’s offering. What would Grandpa think when he saw these names?
    • GMAC Bowl
    • Brut Sun Bowl
    • Outback Bowl
    • Chick-fil-A Bowl
    • Eagle Bank Bowl
    • Capital One Bowl
    • Little Caesars Bowl
    • Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
    • MAACO Las Vegas Papajohns.com Bowl
    • Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
    • AutoZone Liberty Bowl
    • Meineke Car Care Bowl
    • Emerald Bowl (snack nuts)
    • Konica Minolta Gator Bowl
    • Valero Alamo Energy Bowl
    • Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl
    • Insight Bowl (technology solutions)
    • Champs Sports Bowl (Foot Locker)
    • Beef O’Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl
    • Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
    • Pacific Life Holiday Bowl (insurance)
    • San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
    • Texas Bowl (Lone Star Sports and Entertainment)
    • Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl (Roady’s Truck Stops)
    • R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (global transportation)
    • AdvoCareV100 Independence Bowl (energy drinks and nutritional supplements)

And they even butchered our “Fab Four” bowl games of yesteryear. They have become the Citi Rose Bowl, MetroPCS Orange Bowl, Allstate Sugar Bowl, and AT&T Cotton Bowl.

Yes, I’d have a difficult time trying to explain today’s world to Gramps! If you think the world of televised football would be a challenge, can you even imagine trying to explain:

  • 9-11
  • GPS
  • TSA
  • iPods
  • E-mail
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Katrina
  • Facebook
  • Afghanistan
  • Health Care
  • Cell Phones
  • Satellite TV
  • Banking Bailout
  • Global Warming
  • Big Three Demise
  • A Black President
  • A Woman Running for President

Yes, things happen much faster than we sometimes realize. Maybe it takes an exercise like imagining your grandpa coming back for a visit to realize that fact! Of course, you can always reverse that process and imagine what it would be like if we came back 35 years from now. Can you even begin to imagine what might await us?

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Do You Fear Change?

Many changes rear their ugly heads in today’s chaotic environment and those changes often lead to fear. Of course, fear can be paralyzing, often leading to inaction. When facing a change, most people invariably feel insecure, lost and overwhelmed. Whatever your fear—making decisions, changing careers, health care decisions, leaving a relationship—you must learn to push through to a resolution or suffer the consequences of inaction.

In several of our seminar and keynote presentations, we refer to the classic bestseller by Dr. Susan Jeffers: Feel the Fear … and Do It Anyway. The title tells all. Susan shares a not-so-obvious truth that it’s okay to feel fear when facing change. Many people feel they’re the only ones who experience fear. The key, of course, is that you “Do It Anyway!”

In her bestseller, Dr. Jeffers inspires readers with dynamic techniques and profound concepts that have helped countless people grab hold of their fears and move forward with their lives.

I recently came across this unique video which speaks volumes in a mere 1 minute 28 seconds to the importance of facing your fears. Not a word is spoken but the visuals will captivate you and certainly lead to deep thought on this very critical subject. The last five seconds will reveal what happens when you finally face your fears. Take a look!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

You’d Better Sit Down – Technology Reigns!

It doesn’t matter who you are! It doesn’t matter how old you are! It doesn’t matter where you live! It doesn’t matter who you work for! It doesn’t matter what business you’re in! It doesn’t matter how large or small your business is! It doesn’t matter what products and/or services you offer! It doesn’t matter how successful you’ve been in the past!

You’re about to experience more change in the next few years than you have in your entire lifetime. Constant change is the new dynamic of the global economy and makes agility even more necessary than at any point in business history.

Take a look at this video, and if you’re not shocked by the content, you’d better view it again. In fact, my guess is you’ll want to see it again regardless. This is another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence.

Boards, leadership, middle-managers, front-line staff, vendors, consultants, and parents had better take heed of the messages you’ll find here and begin to plan and prepare to deal with them!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Scales Finally Tip in Favor of Women

Apparently, the recession denied by Washington may have somewhat of a silver lining … at least for women. It appears that women are on the verge of out-numbering men in the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. This will occur due to the long-term changes in women’s roles at a time when men are suffering massive job losses from coast to coast.

Consider the following details provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

  • In mid-summer, there were 132 millions jobs in the U.S.
  • At that time, in June, women held 49.83% of those jobs.
  • Women are gaining the vast majority of jobs in the few sectors of the economy that are growing.
  • The Bureau is predicting that women will become the majority in late October or early November.

Obviously, these facts are far from showing full equality.

  • Women still work fewer hours than men.
  • Women hold more part-time jobs than men.
  • Men still dominate higher-paying executive ranks.
  • And the fact I’ll never understand is that women currently earn 77% of what men make!

The scales have tipped considerably due to the major blow suffered by the construction and manufacturing industries. So far men have lost 74% of the 6.4 million jobs erased by the recession that we’re not having.

Men have lost more than 3 million jobs in construction and manufacturing alone.

The few areas of the economy that are still growing—health care, education, and government—have traditionally hired mostly women. Here’s another major influence in this gender transformation as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

  • The local governmental workforce of 14.6 million people (hard to believe that number, isn’t it?) have cut 86,000 men from the payrolls this year while adding 167,000 women.

This equality in workforce numbers has been coming for quite some time. It’s a long-term cultural change that’s been moving far too slowly. It’s going to be quite interesting to see what evolves during the coming months as Washington continues to fall short on their promise of an economic recovery in the near future.

While it’s nice to see more balance in the workforce as far as numbers, we still can’t rest until both men and women receive equal pay for equal work! It’s too bad it took a recession to get the wheels turning, but it often takes a Significant Emotion Event for us to SEE the error of our ways. Let’s hope we’ve learned a lesson!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

GM Markets Cologne – New Leather #9?

Constant ChangeIt had to happen. We just didn’t think it would be so soon. Shortly after General Motors became “Government Motors,” the wheels began to turn. (Get it?)

Consider the myriad issues facing GM after the events of the past year. Who, in the midst of this chaos, took time out of his or her challenging agenda to ponder the possibility that the general public would be interested in an automotive fragrance? After all, how many people do you know who immediately think “cologne” when they hear the name of General Motors?

This is not a joke. Well, it may end up being a joke, but GM is dead serious about offering what it calls “Cadillac Fragrance” for men. It has licensed a company, Beauty Contact, Inc. (a Dubai-based cosmetic company), to create a cologne which is “at once bold and sporty, yet luxurious and refined.” I know that’s what I always look for.

Cadillac CologneThis new Cadillac cologne is described as having a real “guy” smell, composed with top notes of grapefruit and chamomile; middle notes of geranium, tarragon and cinnamon, and a dry-out of ebony, sweet spice, vetiver and incense. Do you think that’s happy talk for “a whiff of gasoline or the aroma of burning rubber”? With that many ingredients it sounds as though they’re going to have to package it in a keg rather than a bottle!

This unique mixture is said to “pay tribute to the opulence and extravagance of past eras, as well as the luxury and ease of today.” The line includes a spray, aftershave lotion, deodorant stick, and hair and body wash. Some products will come in translucent glass bottles with sleek metal caps. The retail price for a 100 milliliter bottle of the eau de toilette fragrance will be $73. GM plans to launch the Cadillac line in stores this fall to mark the Cadillac’s 100th anniversary.

This certainly sounds like government thinking, doesn’t it? I wonder if GM will take trade-ins or if it will come with a 50,000 mile warranty?

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Constant Change – Another New Feature

We’ve heard it in various forms all our lives.

  • Constant ChangeThere is nothing permanent except change.
  • Change alone is unchanging.
  • Change is the only constant.
  • If you don’t create change, change will create you.
  • When you’re finished changing, you’re finished!

If you were to take the time to sit down and create a list of the changes we witness on a regular basis, it would seem endless. To name a few, the list would include family, friends, health, career, finances, daily activities, business, products, services, trends, insights, politics, technology, and the weather. Obviously, that list would go on and on.

To many people this is a frightening and daunting phenomenon, as most of us crave stability. However, stability is an illusion as we face new paradigms almost daily. Sadly, there are more people today who are more frightened of failing than they are anxious to make the necessary changes required to survive and thrive in our current chaotic environment.

This new feature will bring you some of the more recent changes, large and small, occurring in today’s headlines … examples of people and organizations attempting to survive and thrive by using change as a strategy for success rather than an excuse for failure.

Let’s start with something we’re all familiar with—Coca-Cola.

I guess you can expect most anything today. The soft-drink king is apparently attempting to get into the milk business. Yes, MILK. COKE is currently test marketing a sweetened fizzy milk beverage called “VIO.”

VioIt’s made with sparkling water, a hint of skimmed milk, fruit flavoring and cane sugar. While it may sound slightly nauseating to some, Coke assures us that the milk won’t curdle in its aluminum bottle. The 8 oz. bottle, selling for $2.49, is available in four flavors: Citrus Burst, Peach Mango, Very Berry, and Tropical Colada.

The new drink is currently being distributed to over 200 retailers in the New York City area. Although the fizzy milk may be new to the States, Coke has been successfully selling a similar product, called “Ooo” in Japan since the late 1990s.

Be daring, take a risk, move out of your comfort zone, give it a shot—then let me know how that goes!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.