As President of the Florida Chamber, I’m often asked why the Florida Chamber cares so much about Florida’s education system. The answer is simple, but not always obvious. Talent is the newest economic development tool and preparing the next generation for the future is an important long-term economic development strategy for all four of Florida’s education zones – Pre-K, K-12, Higher Ed and workforce development.
Blog
I’m not prone to exaggeration. Yet I can only describe time spent with Senator Bob Graham recently as a life-changing experience. The former two-term Governor of Florida and three-term U.S. Senator agreed to visit with the Foundation team to contribute to the content development for our forthcoming WFCF-Radio program. It’s an internet-based approach to talk radio—but I needed only to listen.
Stephen Covey made seeking win-win agreements part of the modern business vernacular with the release of his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Testament to the value of this enduring principle is that it resembles the closest thing to the law of gravity in the field of economics. When trading with others, both parties seek to better their own position.
Senator Francis O’Reilly (I-Puerto Rico) filed a bill yesterday to remove the phrase “land of the free” from the National Anthem. During brief remarks from the senate floor, the legislator from the recently admitted 51st state decried the embarrassing fall of the United States’ ranking to 10th in the Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom.
I think my brother makes more money than I do. During the annual Christmas visit to North Carolina to see my family, I told my parents that this absence of economic equality just isn’t fair. My parents’ answer was much more colorful, but the two-part message included a reminder that life isn’t fair and that trying to make it so is folly—and they’re right. Spending anytime at all resenting my brother, or anyone else, for making more money than I do, requires a belief that economic equality is achievable—but it isn’t.
Ours is a culture whose time is marked by momentous events, usually tragic, and documented by an explosion of media coverage. My father’s generation sacrificed to win World War II and put a man on the moon. Baby Boomers lost a president to assassination, endured the Vietnam conflict and navigated the constitutional challenge of Watergate.
Conversations about the economy are increasingly speaking about structural problems versus cyclical problems. In short, this equates to the difference between hearing your pest-control representative tell you that the cross-beams in your floor need to be replaced (structural) as opposed to just needing the more routine application of more termite retardant (cyclical).
The writings of M. Scott Peck, MD taught me just how important thinking is. Yet it is increasingly difficult to find the time to think as we all modulate between life- and work-styles equally characterized by the phrase, “time compressed.”
The sight of young Gideon in the distance, again standing behind his card tables, broke the tight grip that frustration had locked on my face. The blazing July heat and humidity dissipated as I approached my favorite 11-year-old neighborhood entrepreneur.
It is a fair bet that how we’d like to be seen by others is different than how others actually see us. In marketing, this is the difference between brand identity and brand equity. Companies (and people for that matter) should spend time up front thinking about how they’d like to be perceived by shareholders, customers, employees and other stakeholders.
