Dream Big or Go Home

Two of the largest web-based applications have joined forces to dominate the internet even more. Those two sites are Google and Salesforce. So, the next issue, how it works. It’s broken down as follows: businesses advertise through Google adwords, potential customers then click on the advertisement, you capture leads on your website, and then businesses convert the leads into new customers. It’s absolutely genius and I am confident that their business model will be mutually beneficial for them, and the businesses that use this service.

 If you are a small to mid-sized business, attracting new customers can often be a difficult challenge. On top of that, figuring out the most efficient way to stay organized with potential leads and customers can also be a challenge in itself. This collaboration will help these types of businesses and will in turn generate more revenue for them.

 Here’s how www.techcrunch.com breaks it down (just in case I wasn’t clear enoughJ

“Businesses will handle their Adwords campaigns through Google, as usual, but Salesforce takes over from there. When potential customers click through to the businesses site, Google tells Salesforce what search terms brought the user to the page and where they navigate throughout the site”.

The application is going to cost $600 for 5 user accounts and will come with $50 of adwords credits. I am personally excited to watch this monster grow and to be driving force for businesses to grow.

There are always different ways in which a person can view things. They can either take a negative approach or try to find the ugly in situations, or they can try to make the best of things and learn from experiences.  I recently read in Crain’s Detroit that Michigan unemployment rate jumped in April to 7.1% from 6.4% in March according to the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth. Michigan’s unemployment rate is the highest in the country with the exception of Mississippi which is at 7.5%. The lowest unemployment rate in the country is in Hawaii with unemployment being 2% followed by Utah at 2.6%.

I look at all of these horrific stats, and instead of it making me depressed about our economy; I use it as a motivator to change the number and to make a difference. That percentage won’t change over night and it won’t be easy. But with enough people that have passion about changing our economy and actually doing something about it, I have hope that it will turn around. Jobs aren’t going to be magically created by someone else. People have to have the mentality that now more than ever you have to go out there, work hard, and do something about this economy whether it be to start your own business, or take a pay cut temporarily, now is the time. Its sink or swim, and I’m swimming.

Last week in class I brought up that Kirk Kerkorian was planning on bidding $4.5 billion on Daimler Chrysler AG. The most interesting part of the story which I wasn’t to familiar with was the concept of putting up cash in return for the exclusive right to negotiate the companies purchase. Kerkorian shelled out $100 million dollars in cash for those rights with no guarantee that he will get it back. Kerkorian is no stranger to Chrysler considering he used to own 13% of Chrysler before it was acquired by Daimler Benz AG.

It’s quite ironic that he put this offer in for multiple reasons. First being when he parted ways Chrysler the first time, it ultimately ended in an ugly litigation case that he ended up losing. Secondly, he put the offer in just one day after a shareholder meeting in which they had reported that sales had significantly dropped over the last quarter. Is this going to be a good thing for the company? Who can tell as of right now; but he is definitely going to make some significant changes. One major one for example is passing the ownership to the employees instead of the public. I’m looking forward to any type of change in the Detroit auto industry from the direction it’s going right now. Let’s hope for our sake, and Detroit’s sake that Old Man Rivers has some tricks up his sleeve.

Bizdom U has truly opened my eyes to many things that otherwise I wouldn’t pay attention to (sad to say, I know). Before enrolling in this program I can say with confidence that I wouldn’t sit down and watch Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor Detroit, give his State of The City to the people of
Detroit and Metro Detroit. I think that Kilpatrick is an extremely powerful speaker and is very well spoken. 

I don’t have much of a benchmark to compare this speech with others, but what he was saying in this State of
The City sounded very good and that he was serious. In recent years
Detroit has been notorious for pointing fingers and blaming others for the problems that are occurring in the city. To some extent this is true, but Kilpatrick admitted fault and is ready to take action: 

“I truly understand, I have studied the history of African American people in this country. But we’ve come to the point where this is not an outsider conspiracy doing this to us. This is mostly African Americans killing African Americans, some family member of mine or yours killing some family member of yours or mine. And we, as a community, have to stop it now. Nobody’s coming to save us. The heroes we are looking for are already here. We have to stand up for ourselves.” 

He touched on issues such as law enforcement calling his program “take back the streets” by cracking down on the law and increasing level of awareness with everyone in the community. Kilpatrick said “We need an aroused, engaged and mobilized community”.  He also has appointed a new Detroit Public Schools superintendent who he strongly believes will do a phenomenal job and will make a big difference for the better.   

There are a handful of issues that need to be resolved in order for the city to revitalize and become great once again. I STRONGLY believe that all of us are going to contribute to bringing the city back and that people in general are going to start to do their share as well. The City is holding itself accountable for issues such as crime, poverty, and education and they are taking strides to improve all of them. I look forward to the future of
Detroit and to saying that I was a contributing cause to revitalizing it. I also look forward to becoming the Mayor one day, so Kwame, if you have any advice feel free to share!

It’s always good to see a
Michigan based company do well. Moosejaw Inc. recently was acquired by Dallas based private equity firm Parallel Investment Partners according to Crain’s
Detroit. For those of you that don’t know what Moosejaw is, they sell outdoor gear and apparel. They can be compared to an R.E.I. or Eastern Mountain Sports but on a much smaller scale.

The reason that this particular article interested me is because of the attachment that I have towards the company, and how much I love their business model. Growing up I always went to sleepover camp (Tamarack to be specific) and as the years went on I progressed to working there. After working at the camp itself I began taking trips all over the country with campers i.e.
Alaska and West Coast trip. The point I am getting at is that I always did my shopping and preparation for camp at Moosejaw. I loved the feeling of going into their stores knowing that I was going in there for to get gear to go out and live on of my passions which is the outdoors. It was always a great experience to shop there because of the friendliness of the employees and atmosphere that they have. It started as a very small
Madison Heights based company, and now there are 6 stores and they generated $12.4 Million dollars in sales in 2003. The purchase price was not disclosed. Moosejaw…I solute you.

www.moosejaw.com (Check it out).

 Visiting the African American history museum last week was an incredible experience for me. Being that February is Black History month, it was great to gain some knowledge about African American history in such a beautiful museum. The tour guide was filled to the brim with information, enthusiasm, and love towards the museum. At the young age of 18 he made the experience very entertaining while educating us. It’s good to be reminded about the history of people and about the struggle it took to get to where they are today. For a non-profit organization, the museum does an exceptional job with the aesthetics of the building and the staff. It is important to me to finish the tour so I am going to make sure that I go back there and see the rest of it. With a questionable doubt I highly recommend everyone to go there to learn about African American history, but also to see the remarkable beauty of the artwork etc.

I recently read an article that
Detroit is expected have 1,800 new hotel rooms in the very near future, and 1,200 of them are going to be in casinos. The topic of conversation is whether are there going to be people to fill these rooms, and if so is it a good thing for the city? Is this new addition to the city going to attract people to come downtown more and increase the economy? Only time will tell. Personally I think it might not be the best thing for this city right now. It is good for the city in regards to creating new jobs and starting to move in the right direction; I’m just a little reluctant to believe that it’s going to be crowded and occupied over 75% at any given weekend.

I sincerely hope that I am completely wrong and that this development of new hotel rooms will be the first big step towards reviving
Detroit. The last thing that I would want to see is people from all over the State going to the Casinos on Fridays, cashing there whole paycheck on gambling, and then sleeping there because of the convenience now.  

It’s reassuring to know that an old alcoholic like myself can be a billionaire in this day and age (just kidding). The San Antonio Spurs owner is a true inspiration in many ways. First and foremost, what he did for the Spurs organization is incredible. Its goes to show you those 20 “Big Shot” millionaires are clueless about running a NBA franchise. He completely turned that organization around and brought a couple of NBA Championships to
San Antonio.

More admirable than his accolades in
San Antonio, is his strategy in picking his players. He doesn’t go down the traditional path and chooses the top draft pick out of College, or the most impressive dunker out of High School. He picks and chooses his players based upon personal merit, how active they are in the community, education, and a list of criteria that goes on and on. He avoids troublesome players and has a list of stand up guys that you wouldn’t be ashamed to bring home to Mommy for Thanksgiving dinner. Much respect Peter Holt…much respect.