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GLOBALIZATION: AN ANTI-DEMOCRATIC NIGHTMARE IN THE MAKING
Prefatory note: The current demagoguery in the hands of globalists takes the ugly form that a citizen who believes in national borders and national priorities cannot be a good citizen – that he is a fascist some claim. We need to be reminded that the American revolution was a nationalist uprising which few would call fascist. Read More…
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CUSTOMER SERVICE CLAIMS AS RHETORICAL SPIN
What can I believe? This is a familiar lamentation by consumers when confronted by the product and service claims made by firms of every size and stripe in the marketplace. Nearly sixty years ago, historian Carl Becker in his book, Freedom and Responsibility in the American Way of Life, madethe following claim: “No one can deny that much of our modern advertising is essentially dishonest…” Becker also saw the tension between freedom of speech and freedom of lyingand believed that corporations should have the latter freedomcurbed. Read More…
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SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE: TURKEY SHOULD HOPE IT WERE THE SOLE ADMISSION STANDARD TO THE EUROPEAN UNION
Editor’s note: A couple of summers ago my wife and I had
occasion to spend a week in Istanbul, Turkey. The city is clean, bustling, and
thriving. Construction cranes can be seen on the horizon in every direction.
And there is more to come. Mega projects underway include the world’s
largest airport; a canal linking the Black Sea to
the Sea of Marmara, thus allowing maritime traffic to bypass
the narrow Bosporus straits, and a tunnel underneath the seabed of the Bosporus to speed vehicular
traffic along the ultra-congested Istanbul streets. Read More… -
THE UNITED KINGDOM IS RESURGENT
During
the 1990’s, our company was involved in projects in the United Kingdom to automate metal packaging plants for
improved cost and service efficiencies. The projects took our team far and wide
from London to Wales, and from Windsor to Coventry. Marketing missions also took
us throughout the Midlands and to Peterborough.I remain especially nostalgic about the time we spent working at the plant in Flintshire, Wales a stone’s throw from the meandering river Dee. The plant was located in the highly industrialized corridor which straddles both England and Wales. Read More…
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GET THE IRS OFF THE BACKS OF AMERICANS INVESTED OVERSEAS
The United States Congress most shamefully failed in its attempt to repeal or replace the obnoxious Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill passed in December, 2017.
This provision of the tax code requires foreign financial institutions to report the identities of American customers with foreign financial assets such as mutual funds, private equity funds, and depository accounts above a $50,000 threshold – if the taxpayer is single or filing separately from a spouse, or twice that amount if the taxpayer files jointly – to the IRS. Read More…
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THE PRINCIPAL-AGENT PROBLEM IN SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMER
Editor’s note:
“My boss hits me over the head each time
he thinks I’m spending too much time on the phone dealing with a customer’s
issue.” Ouch! That was the way a caller put it while I was doing a radio
interview some time ago.I was being interviewed to describe my espoused principles and practices on service to the customer, and while I was touched by the man’s distress, I’m afraid to say, I had seen this movie before. Read More…
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THE U.S. SERVICE ECONOMY IS IN THE RED ZONE
Even the most begrudging observer realizes that the nation has pretty much ceded industrial production to offshore locations. And, while it comes as welcome news that President Trump is working hard to bring jobs back to our steel, coal, and manufacturing industries it is doubtful that the trajectory of a slow and gradual decline in jobs can substantially be reversed. Read More…
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SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMER IN THE GIG ECONOMY
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) there were roughly 16.5 million workers in the United States in 2017 who either had contingent work arrangements – work engagements that were strictly temporary – or those who had alternative work arrangements. Independent contractors, workers on call, and those on temporary help-agency rosters fit the latter category according to the government.
A 2016 survey
by the McKinsey Global Institute, however, reports that something on
the order of 54 to 68 million workers in the United States are independent workers. Read More… -
MEXICO: A WORK IN PROGRESS
Editor’s note: The very same day I arrived in the city of
Monterrey the
local news reported that police had found six severed heads in the trunk of a car
parked at a gas station. I was in Monterrey to lead a seminar and workshop on
Service Management to a local group of business men and women over the coming
three days and this was hardly the welcoming I was expecting.I
have traveled widely throughout Mexico and the city of Monterrey in particular for more than twenty years on
business and have followed the nation’s gradual descent into violence and
death. Read More… -
SERVICE MANAGEMENT MUST COME TO THE WORLD OF NON-PROFITS
Editor’s note: A benefactor to a local opera house pledges a seven-figure donation over four years only to find that the head of the opera insists on the entire donation be made in one shot right then and there. Wisely, the donor ignores the strong-armed tactic and walks away leaving the charity empty handed. Shortly thereafter the donor tells all of her friends of the charity’s seedy behavior. On another occasion, the same opera house invites Grand Benefactors to attend a private recital given by New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. Read More…
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A SERVICE ECONOMY WITHOUT SERVICE: ANOTHER GREEK TRAGEDY IN THE MAKING
Editor’s note: The service economy of Greece accounts for roughly 80% of GDP. So, one would think that with so much riding on this crucial sector of the economy that the nation would excel in its delivery of service. Alas, that is not the case. Service across the board in key industries, from energy, to telecommunications; from transportation, to retail, to tourism is mediocre at best. Read More…
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REMEMBERING THE INFAMY OF MR. OBAMA’S VISIT TO HAVANA
Editor’s note: If a government’s mission is to be of service to its citizens, President Obama’s less than transparent visit to Cuba in 2016 betrayed the citizens of the United States. Mr. Obama’s visit was stagecraft meant to signal to the unquestioning that only he has a grasp of right and wrong. To his American audience he left the impression that a little fence-mending would make the Castro regime more amenable to democratic reforms. Simply book a cruise on Royal Caribbean or a flight on JetBlue to Havana and voila Cuba’s ills will wither. Read More…
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