Jobs War: Post #10--Final Words

Conclusion: Here is an abbreviated list of Clifton’s key findings:
a. The #1 social value in the world is to have a good job. Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough of such jobs. Cities are the #1 location for job creation, especially through entrepreneurship. Key sources of job creation: Top 100 cities (regions); top 100 universities; top 10,000 (top 100 cities X 100 key leaders) tribal leaders. Entrepreneurship drives the economy more than innovation. Invest in entrepreneurship. Small to medium-sized companies will drive job growth, not the big companies.
b. Other findings: Healthcare cost will bankrupt us unless we switch to a wellbeing mentality. The high school dropout rate, especially among minorities, is astronomical and debilitating for any economy. America has to engage its workforce. Well less than a third of our workforce is engaged enough to fight for jobs. And about one fifth is actively disengaged—actually a toxic drain on business and the economy.
c. BIG thanks to Jim Clifton and Gallup for writing this book!

Jobs War: Post #6--Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Innovation and Entrepreneurship
a. We have a lot of innovation in America. Ideas proliferate. What’s lacking are great new business models that allow us to monetize those ideas.
b. Innovation must be bridged to the customer by the entrepreneur. And the entrepreneur builds that bridge by using a sustainable business model. Worldwide, the U.S. has commercialized 30-40% of the business breakthroughs for about as long as it’s been around as a nation. Henry Ford did not invent the car; rather, he commercialized and mass produced it. He created the business model to make it work. However, entrepreneurs are rare birds and need to be supported and developed because they create the all important jobs that people want and need.

Jobs War: Post #1--Overview

The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton (Gallup Press, 2011). Reviewed/summarized by Steve Gladis, Ph.D., January 2012.
Overview: The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton (Chairman of Gallup) is a very sober and instructive read. An organization with Gallup’s reputation has to be taken seriously, and their numbers about the economy are very serious. Here’s the cliff-notes summary: Currently the U.S. has the leading economy (GDP), with China #2. However, our GDP is only growing at 2% a year, China’s at 10%. Do the math, and the story’s more than sobering in the coming decades. According to Gallup’s research, job creation remains THE critical answer to the GDP growth problem. Also, small to medium-sized companies, not large companies, grow 99% of the jobs. The author argues that entrepreneurism and innovation are the very lifeblood of job creation and the economy. Clifton cites three key elements of such job creation: Cities, local tribal leaders, and key universities. To win the jobs and economic war, we need employees who are engaged. Currently, less than 1/3 of US workers are truly engaged, and 19% are actively (toxically) disengaged. Also, we need to view global, not just domestic, customers as our target market. We must get our arms around our schools, where 30% of K-12 students leave or delay graduation and where 50% of minorities drop out. Finally, we must fix healthcare, which is about to break the American economy—70% of the $2.5 trillion healthcare problem orbits around obesity-related disease! Note the entire GDP of Russia and India is only $1.5 trillion each. However, here’s the hope: We can win this jobs/ economic war, just like the Greatest Generation won World War II in the 1940s against Japan and Germany; just like the Baby Boomers won the technical economic wars in the 1970s-90s; and hopefully just like we will win the job wars in the 21st century. Clifton argues that will happen if we focus on our secret weapons: Behavioral economics (understanding what motivates people to act), entrepreneurship, and innovation. Job creation and entrepreneurship live together like twins, and anything we can do to cultivate entrepreneurs helps not only local cities, but also the nation, and the world—our new playing field.

Lean Start Up: #3 - Management

Entrepreneurship is management

a. Goal: Create an institution, not just a product.
b. Frederick Taylor: Invented Scientific Management…in 20th century got us thinking about scientific process.
c. We need practices and principles geared to extreme uncertainty—like entrepreneurship that employs a scientific process.
d. The PIVOT: One foot planted in what we’ve learned and changing one thing in the business at a time—using the scientific experimental process.
i. What do successful startups have in common?
ii. Successful startups…had screwy ideas. They didn’t give up OR drive biz into the ground. They made a critical pivot.
iii. Speed wins: If you can reduce the time between making “pivots” you’ll increase the odds of success—before you go broke!
iv. So, how do you figure out how to make a move sooner…aka pivot faster?
v. Pivot: One foot in the known and moving the other foot in a different direction. Like basketball. Pivoting faster makes the difference between success and failure.

Lean Start Up: #2 - Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are everywhere
-Ries’ definition of a startup: Human institution is designed to create something (deliver a new product or service) under conditions of extreme uncertainly—uncertainty about the customer, his/her wants, and about sustainability.

- Nothing to do with size of the company, the sector of the economy, or the industry genre.
- Entrepreneur is a career, a calling.
- Startup is an experiment.
--Science of entrepreneurship.
--Stop wasting people’s time!
--Waste: Building things that no one wants.
-Success: Which companies live up to their aspirations, dreams, plan, talent, energy of founders, investors and employees?
- All of us lack a theory of entrepreneurship
- It’s not can it be built, but should it be built. Software—we can build anything we can imagine—but should it be built?
- AND can we build a sustainable business around the product?
- GDP will be built in the future on the quality of our collective imaginations.

Delivering Happiness: Introduction

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh (Business Plus, 2010). Reviewed by Steve Gladis, Ph.D.

Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) has written both his autobiography and a case study for the new economy: The Internet-based economy. Both are equally interesting and compelling journeys. At the ripe old age of 24 and after learning some tough business lessons, Tony sold LinkExchange for a tidy sum of $265 million, built a tribe of friends who had a great time living and playing together, learned to play poker, and became an venture capitalist (through Venture Frogs) in emerging companies. Eventually, he and Alfred, his life-long business partner, invested in an online shoe company start up, Zappos.com, founded by Nick Swinmurn, who had bet his future on the idea that “…e-commerce will continue to grow. And it is likely that people will continue to wear shoes in the foreseeable future.” Written in a conversational style that’s both authentic and engaging, the book stands as a primer for anyone starting a business from the ground up. His comparing business and poker, developing corporate values and culture, and delivering happiness to your employees and customers are the stuff that should be taught in any MBA program. Kudos, Tony. Nice work all around.