Posts from — December 2007

Hello everybody. As you know from some of my recent posts, we have started a donation option for rescue animals. 100% of all funds will go straight to the rescue organizations. As I am writing to you from Denver this week, I thought I post a few pictures showing you how these critters look like when things go right and they don’t get dumped, abused, or left for the shelters.

 Enjoy!

We not only help Dogs, but are also very fond of cats. What do you think about these guys?

Take a look at this little guy

They come in all sizes

We hope you enjoy the pictures today and make frequent use of the donate button to the left.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

Leadership is always evolving and adapting to the changing environment. One of the authors I most like when it comes to historic examples is Barbara Tuchman. Her book; “March to folley” is a great collection. I have selected a number of interesting points she is making about decisions and consequences in history:

Writing about the Trojan horse, Barbara Tuchman states that “the  feasible alternative, that of destroying the horse – is always open. Capys the elder advised it before Laocoon’s warning, and Cassandra afterward. Notwithstanding the frequent references in the epic to the fall of

To an unusual degree in the Renaissance good walked with evil in a wondrous development of the arts combined with political and moral degradation and vicious behavior. (Tuchman, 1984, p. 57)

Alongside the rascals and scandals [of the renaissance], decency and piety existed as ever. No single characteristic ever overtakes an entire society. (Tuchman, 1984, p. 60)

The abuse that precipitated the ultimate break was the commercialization of indulgences, and the place where the break came, as everyone knows, was at Wittenberg in northeastern

It would be tempting to claim that the comfort of carriage horses lost

What America lost in

The follies that produced this result begin with continuous overreacting; in the invention of endangered “national security,’ the invention of “vital interest,” the invention of a “commitment” which rapidly assumed a life of its own, casting a spell over the inventor. (Tuchman, 1984, p. 374)

A second folly was illusion of omnipotence, cousin to the ‘Popes’ illusion of invulnerability; a third was wooden-headedness and “cognitive dissonance”; a fourth was “working the levers” as a substitute for thinking. (Tuchman, 1984, p. 375)

“Nation-building” was the most presumptuous of the illusions. Settlers of the North American continent had build a nation from the Plymouth Rock to Valley Forge to the fulfilled frontier, yet failed to learn from their success that elsewhere, too, only the inhabitants can make the process work. (Tuchman, 1984, p. 375)

A last folly was the absence of reflective thought about the nature of what we were doing, about effectiveness in relation to the object sought, about balance of possible gain as against loss and against harm both to the ally and to the United States. Absence of intelligent thinking in rulership is another of the universals, and raises the question whether in modern states there is something about political and bureaucratic life that subdues the functioning of intellect in favor of working the levers without regard to rational expectations. This would seem to be an ongoing prospect. (Tuchman, 1984, p. 377)

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

When an organization has a leadership position, it isn’t always a position for a person. I can also be a position for the whole organization relative to its market. Organizations that fall in this category would be Wal-Mart for the retail industry, McDonalds for the fast food industry, or Intel in the micro-chip industry. Not always does a leadership role mean that the organization is the only one of its size in the market. McDonalds competes with I

In some cases the leadership role can be limited to a certain part of the organization. That would apply for Toyota. Car manufacturers have not been seen as environmentally conscious or leading. With the hybrid-technology and especially the Toyota Prius the company has been able to change its image and branding into a green company, although the vast majority of its vehicles are not hybrids, and some, even pretty new ones, like the Toyota Tundra truck, are not fuel efficient at all. When there is pressure on an industry, the competitors tend to come together to fight changes that might impact their profits.

Without wanting to pick on Toyota, its interesting to learn that Toyota, together with GM, Ford and Chrysler is fighting tooth and nails against new fuel efficiency standards some states, lead by California, want to introduce.

With the so called green revolution gaining steam, a green image becomes more and more important. Andrew Winston has an interesting observation regarding the responsibility of a leader in an industry in his recent book: “Green to Gold”.

Winston wanted to know if acting and changing to become more environmentally friendly is a matter of values within the organization. What his research found is that the environmental aspect of doing business no longer stand alone and as chores within organizations large and small. He says:

“Building a company  with recognized values has become a competitive advantage, whether you have 2 employees or 200,000. Doing the right thing attracts the bets people, enhances brand value and build trust with customers and other stakeholders. In fact it is hard to conceive of a business asses more central to long term success then trust among stakeholders o or one that is more easily lost”

This also reminds everyone of the famous statement Warren Buffet ones made proclaiming: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”

Examples of this phenomenon is the path companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and others took when they were caught cheating. These days if you violate environmental rules and regulation or show disrespect for nature and the environment, you will loose market share and profits. In really bad cases you might loose the whole company.

While European governments are more proactive in the process of instituting rules and laws for organizations to follow, the United States has tried to achieve the same results through self-regulation. By now, any behavior in favor of profits over environmental consciousness is no longer accepted by the public. With this knowledge in mind everybody conducting business, large or small, is best served by developing initiatives that will help the planet to cope with what humans are doing to it.

For a long time it has been thought that extra expenditure for environmental system will be a disadvantage. Now it is becoming a requirement and an advantage. For the really large players, the leaders in their markets it becomes a matter of taking responsibility of the role of a leader to show that living, producing, selling and achieving profits in harmony with nature is not only possible but a competitive advantage.

We all have responsibility for our action. This is especially true when our action can harm a system that is required to sustain communities and environments.  Being in the lead of a market due to size, market shar, or both bears the responsibility to recognize what changes are needed to have customers and clients in the future. With climate change upon us, customers and clients want to see that the organizations they buy goods and services from have recognized the need to preserve nature and take action, regardless whether the government is pushing the to or not.

The new thing is that showing this leadership responsibility in the open for everybody to see becomes a tool for branding, recognition and ultimately growth. GE has decided to spend $1 Billion (with a B) on changing itself into an environmentally better company. Wal-Mart is spending $500 million per year to establish new system, utilizing solar and wind power to run its stores and more fuel efficient trucks to distribute its products form warehouses to stores.

We all need to look at ourselves, our organization and our ability to make suggestion to take the responsibility of a leadership position seriously. Not only the large leaders in industry have that responsibility, although they should recognize it very clearly, but all of us should ask: How can I use my leadership in a responsible way to sustain myself and those around me together with the environment we live in and from?”

The more everybody tries to take positive action to generate profits while sustaining the environment the brighter our future will be. It’s not just a matter of leading others as a guide, its’ also being a leader and role model in our actions when they don’t directly affect human beings around us

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC