Phil Clements's blog
Innovation and Creation
Submitted by Phil Clements on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 15:50.The importance of entrepreneurs for job creation in the United States is nicely summarized in two articles in the current BusinessWeek, March 22&29, 2010. "Give me Your Smart and Motivated..." by Douglas MacMillan, p. 27, discusses the need to make visas available to those wanting to come to the U.S. to start businesses. The unfortunate data noted in the article is Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's findings that U.S. startup activity has declined from 12.4% in 2005 to 8% in 2009. Internationally, the startup activity increased over the same period.
The IRA Situation
Submitted by Phil Clements on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 15:39.2010 will be marked as the IRA conversion year. Each of us gets to ponder the question of whether we should convert our traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. For many of us, the real first question is, "What is the difference?" A traditional IRA distribution is taxed, whereas the Roth IRA distribution is not. That is about the easiest part of this discussion. In the conversion process you elect to pay tax in 2010 on the traditional IRA, which then makes it a Roth IRA.
Inventory Changes, The Economy, and The Smaller Company
Submitted by Phil Clements on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 18:54.As noted in prior blogs, the economy seems stable and poised for improvement here in the first quarter of 2010. There is a lot of discussion of inventory changes; see this WSJ article on small business. The following are some thoughts we should keep in mind about inventories as we run our companies:
Snow Happens
Submitted by Phil Clements on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 15:09.This winter has seen lots of snow across the country. As shown in this WSJ article, uniquely hit has been the mid-Atlantic states, where three to four feet of snow has fallen during early February, 2010. In running our companies, what do we do about snow? Here are some thoughts, please share yours.
Apple's iPad: Implications for Small Enterprises
Submitted by Phil Clements on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 23:03.January 29, 2010
On Wednesday Apple Computer announced the iPad. Cathedral would like share a couple of observations on the implications relative to this announcement.
Bubbles and Cycles
Submitted by Phil Clements on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 18:29.January 20, 2010
Today we consider economic bubbles. The current worry is whether China is developing a bubble, either in their real estate or stock markets. The U.S. went through bubble effects on both its residential real estate and stock markets over the past two years. What does the modest size U.S. business do about bubbles?
Flexibility in the Workforce
Submitted by Phil Clements on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 20:43.January 19, 2010
How Good is Your CEO?
Submitted by Phil Clements on Fri, 01/08/2010 - 19:02.January 7, 2010
At the end of a year, we do our performance reviews of the company. As part of that review we should consider the effectiveness of leadership. An article that raises a series of issues in this evaluation is “How to Tell a Good CEO from a Dummy,” Financial Times, January 6, 2010.
Several important points are highlighted:
