QUOTATIONS QUIZ

(Match the author and the quote. First winner gets a $20 gift certificate to Starbuck’s, i.e. one small cup of coffee!)

“Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. The world is full of educated derelicts.”
“The freed prison comes into the sunlight, dazzled by a new mission and unable to see what […]

Posted in Quotes, Mar 2007 | No Comments »

STRATEGIC PLANNING REDUX

By the early 1980s, lots of U.S. companies had been battered by global competitors and nimble entrepreneurs. At this point, the egghead “strategic planning” efforts of the past looked archaic. Now, old line corporate America was deeply introspective . . . where did we go wrong? . . . how do we catch […]

Posted in Articles, Feb 2007 | No Comments »

ON THE STOCK MARKET SIDE: NOTES ON BEARING POINT

Well, don’t you just gotta love a firm in the “business consulting, systems integration and managed services” business whom the SEC investigated for “internal control deficiencies” . . . and who confirmed, “its financial reports for 2003 and the first three quarters of 2004 shouldn’t be relied upon by investors.”
Bearing Point “provides consulting services through […]

Posted in Articles, Feb 2007 | No Comments »

AMERICA . . . WE’RE NOT SLACKERS!

Okay, so just about the time you were going to get back into beating up on the ol’ U.S. of A., here’s something to think about. We still kick butt in the area of creating, building and maintain brands. How about:

Top 5 brands in the world.
17 of the Top 25 brands worldwide.
Lous Vuitton […]

Posted in Articles, Feb 2007 | No Comments »

RITE AID TO BUY NEARLY 2,000 STORES

In a deal that some analysts consider “daring”, Rite Aid (nation’s third-largest drugstore chain) moved to keep up with industry leaders, the, Rite Aid Corp. has announced its purchase of U.S. Eckerd and Brooks operations of Canada’s Jean Coutu Group Inc. La quanta: $2.5 billion in cash and stock.
The deal will […]

Posted in Articles, Feb 2007 | No Comments »

DEAL PRICES UP

Mergers and Acquisitions magazine reports that from the third quarter of 2005 to the second quarter of 2006, acquisition multiples of EBITDA increased from 11.74 to 12.95.
If, at first look, this seems moderate or inconsequential, consider a company with $30 million of EBITDA.
At the third quarter of 2005, it would have a value, […]

Posted in Articles, Feb 2007 | No Comments »

THINGS TO PONDER

A very humbling perspective . . .if we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.
There would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 […]

Posted in Articles, Feb 2007 | No Comments »