Political

Ineptocracy Definition

November 3, 2011

I came across this term ineptocracy this morning while watching CNBC. The hosts had lots of fun with the word saying it is redundant. Here is the definition they quoted and a website with more:

A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Photo credit: Victorian Traditions / Shutterstock.com

Posted in Financial, Political

Gary and Mary West: Improving Healthcare Through Disruption

October 19, 2011

For years, Americans have prospered like people in no other country on earth because our class-free society allowed virtually anyone with a good idea to launch a company, hire, prosper and keep the majority of the fruits of their labor. A competitive entrepreneurial culture further fostered an environment where successful businesspeople went from being entrepreneurs to serial entrepreneurs.

Even more impressive, so many of these successful businesspeople seem to reach a point in their career where they don’t feel satisfied helping society through their inventions and hiring, they want to focus on problems with society and fix them directly.

Such is the case with Gary and Mary West – two legends in the call center space as founders of West Corp. As you may know,in 1982 TMC launched the first magazine in the world in the call center space and at the time we called it Telemarketing (now Customer Interaction Solutions). Believe it or not, The term call center wasn't coined until the late eighties. And one of our areas of focus was on the outsourcing space – which at that time was virtually all done domestically in places like Iowa and Nebraska.

For decades, West Corp constantly placed high on lists of contact center outsourcing companies TMC ranked and currently employs around 35,000 people.

Posted in CRM, Call Center, Financial, Political, Technology

Herman Cain Page Views Greater Than Others Combined

October 17, 2011

As of tomorrow it will be three weeks since I wrote my post regarding Herman Cain Crushing it Online and to see how much staying power he has I went back to Alexa and did some analysis on all the major candidates. As a refresher, this graph below shows Cain's late September ascent with a week's worth of results.

The question on everyone's mind of course is will Cain be a flash in the pan like Perry was. To get an idea of what happened to Perry, check out the graph below where Perry's page views (mustard yellow) spiked for a few days in late August and rapidly descended below Romney whose traffic is represented by the red line below Cain. As you can see, Cain has not only sustained the lead in page views over other candidates but his page views are accelerating and are greater than all other major candidates combined.

To put this in perspective, Newt Gingrich recently released his new 21st Century Contract With America and promoted it on his website.

Posted in Political, Technology

Herman Cain Crushing it Online

September 27, 2011

Just a week ago the common wisdom was the Republican nominee would be either Mitt Romney or Rick Perry but when Herman Cain won the Florida straw poll this past weekend it showed that clear cut leaders are not as “clear” as many had thought. In fact the 65 year old Georgian had a resounding victory in last week’s poll winning 37% of the votes. To put this in perspective, this is more than double the number of the runner up Perry at 15.4% or Romney at 14% and a higher percentage than the next two combined.

When I heard the news I went to Herman Cain’s website to contribute and as I mentioned this past weekend the site was down.

Posted in Political, Technology

Women's Rights: The Next Frontier of Product Marketing

September 26, 2011

History shows us commoditized markets can be fertile ground for differentiation and pricing power if a product or company is innovative, branded properly and/or connects emotionally with purchasers. In the tech space we think of Apple and Bose, while in the food arena brands like Häagen-Dazs, Grey Poupon and Purdue Chicken show that no sector of the market is immune to establishing high-end merchants.

Ethical Oil

And this is all I could think about when I came across the legal fight between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Ethical Oil Institute an advocacy group whose message involves switching from Saudi oil, a product supporting human rights abuse to Canadian oil sands. Currently the ad is not being shown in Canada as a result of Saudi threats relating to what the kingdom deems is falsehoods in the ad.

The video above explains that Saudi women are not allowed to drive, leave the house or go to work without the permission of a male guardian and that their testimony in court is only equal to half a man’s. It goes on to say, “Why are we paying their bills and funding their oppression?” It continues, saying ethical oil is produced from Canada and says, “It’s a choice we have to make.”

Interestingly while the Saudis complain the ad is inaccurate, they should likely be happy that it doesn’t mention honor killings, a practice in the Middle East, Asia and other areas which could be responsible for deaths of up to 20,000 women a year.

Human Rights Watch defines "honor killings" as follows:

Honor killings are acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.

Posted in Apple, Marketing, Political, Technology

Herman Cain Wins Straw Poll and Website Goes Down

September 24, 2011

I received a news alert from CNN and immediately decided to contribute to the Herman Cain campaign in-part because it seems he is gaining serious traction and I really like what he says and his business background. But when I went to his website it was down. Is this the largest amount of traffic his site has had to deal with? Perhaps so but if his performance in the recent debate this past week keeps up he is going to need to move that website of his into the cloud.

Posted in Political

China Repeals Trade Rule Favoring Local Companies

June 30, 2011

In order to get into Chinese markets companies have to partner with a Chinese firm which in effect means partnering with the Chinese government. In many cases this means signing over your technology as well. But companies look at the Chinese market with over a billion consumers with rising incomes and say the risk is worth it as the market is so vast.

The challenge is many companies have seen Chinese sales far smaller than their expectations. This is in part because it isn't easy to market in the country and also because the Chinese have had trade rules in place favoring local suppliers.

Thankfully, China repealed its technology trade rule favoring local companies meaning there should be more opportunity for outside companies selling into the country.

Posted in E-Commerce, Political, Technology

Telecommuting Tax: Now The States Are Killing Jobs

June 16, 2011

In August of last year I explained why there are so few jobs – in part the problem revolves around demonizing the successful by our politicians and in-part because of excessive taxation. Part of the support for my post was an opinion piece from Michael Fleischer of Bogen Communications – a company in the telecom space I have followed for over a decade-and-a-half. Some of you may think Fleischer is complaining too much and he needs to give back more of the money he earns to be fair – but you should know that in New Jersey he has to pay $74,000 so a worker can take home $44,000. He doesn’t mention this but I will – if he then is lucky enough to make profit he could pay 50-60+% of that money back out to the government through federal and state tax as well as various fees – real estate taxes, regulatory compliance, etc.
Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com

This week Fleischer was on Fox Business and isn’t any happier with the state of the US economy and has nothing for venom to spew at politicians who make it more difficult for his company to succeed.

Posted in Broadband, IP Communications, Networking, Political, SIP, Skype, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP

Which Kills More Jobs - The iPad or US Politicians?

April 18, 2011

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. recently went on a rant discussing how the iPad is produced in China and is responsible for killing jobs and is responsible for Borders going bankrupt. He continued to rail against universities who have adopted the iPad instead of text books.

Posted in Apple, Broadband, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, Political, Science, Technology, Wireless

President Obama Needs to be at ITEXPO

April 15, 2011

I recently learned that President Obama isn't happy with the old White House telephone. According to Fox News he said:

The Oval Office, I always thought I was going to have really cool phones and stuff," he said during a small fundraising event at a Chicago restaurant. "I'm like, c'mon guys, I'm the president of the United States. Where's the fancy buttons and stuff and the big screen comes up? It doesn't happen."

So it would make sense to have the president come to the largest event focusing on communications and technology in the US - one which draws virtually the entire ecosystem of companies who provide IP-communications and video-based phones.

Posted in AT&T, Android, Blackberry, Broadband, Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, IP Communications, ITEXPO, Microsoft, Political, Social Networking, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP

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