Some would have you believe that Sonia Sotomayor is the quintessential American success story. And that her "story" is the primary reason why she is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. I disagree. For two reasons:
1. The majority of authentic quintessential Americans have not been given a free pass to Princeton and Yale.
2. Quintessential Americans can't be hyphenated Americans.
I've rewritten Sotomayor's life story to reflect what most of us would honor as an authentic quintessential American. My rewrite is in red:
"Sotomayor grew up in the South Bronx in a family that moved from Puerto Rico after World War II. At age 8, she was diagnosed with diabetes; a year later her father died. Her mother raised her on a nurse's salary.
One investment Sotomayor's mother made was in the only encyclopedia in the neighborhood. With this, Nancy Drew mysteries and Perry Mason thrillers, young Sonia started her love with the law.
Lacking the test scores and requisite english skills to get into an Ivy league college, Sotomayer attended her local community college where she spent two years mastering english. Upon graduating with her associates degree Sotomayor was accepted to NYU where she majored in pre-law studies.
Upon graduating from NYU Sotomayor attended the only law school that would accept her - a now defunct Long Island institution where she quickly propelled herself to the top of her class with hard work and dedication. Graduating summa cum laude she was offered a job as an assistant district attorney in New York City where she met and married New York cop Tom O'brien.
As an assistant district attorney in New York City, prosecuting all
types of crimes. Sotomayor then worked as a corporate attorney before
President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New York in 1991. In 1998, President Bill
Clinton nominated her to the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of
Appeals, where she has participated in 3,000 decisions and authored
around 300 circuit court opinions."
There - now she's qualified to be considered for the Supreme Court.
As the father of a 19 year old young lady and the husband of a "stewardess" the comments of Dave Letterman this week hit home for me. My wife and daughter are not public figures but if they were I know I would not take kindly to somebody calling my wife a slut and daughter a whore. What should Todd Palin do? See the poll at right...
Hidden in the 1000 pages of the "stimulus" bill is another extension of socialized medicine.
If you were involuntarily terminate (even for cause, apparently) between September 1st 2008 and January 1, 2010 you can pay 35% of your COBRA medical insurance cost and have it be treated as 100% paid.
Your former employer must pay the rest and gets reimbursed by the government with a reduction in taxes, FIT/FICA/Medicare, withheld from paychecks that are otherwise due to the government. This is a non-taxable gift from the government. Unless of course you make too much then the payment by your employer is taxable as ordinary income on your 1040.
Besides being a logistical nightmare to handle and account for, since when do the taxpayers pick up medical insurance for the unemployed and their families? Somehow I missed that in my reading of the Constitution.
An employee can come in late, drunk, take a swing at the boss and get fired. We, the taxpayers, will then pickup 65% of his medical insurance for he next 18 months. If I fire my wife is the government going to pickup 65% of her and her families health insurance? Honey, your fired!
This of course is in addition to the expansion of medical insurance for children that is in this "stimulus" package. A few more steps and the Clinton one payer plan will be in place and our quality of medical care will be that of the rest of the developed world, rationed by politicians.
I developed the Campaign Engine to drive my marketing campaigns. Click here to read more.
What is a Campaign Engine?
A Campaign Engine is a campaigning methodology that orchestrates a fusion of human creativity and Web 2.0 technology resulting in effective and accountable advertising and marketing campaigns.
Why are Campaign Engines needed?
To deliver effective and accountable advertising and marketing campaigns.
How does a Campaign Engine increase effectiveness?
A Campaign Engine increases advertising and marketing campaign effectiveness by amplifying competitiveness, infusing intelligence and enabling agile campaigning.
Click here to read more.
MARKETING: STRATEGY
Sun Tzu- The Art of War Shambhala/Thomas Cleary version.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Sun Tuz is the ultimate marketing strategist. Learn how to win without fighting. And when you do have to fight - how to kick ass and win.
MONEY QUOTE: Therefore use these assessments for comparison, to find out what the conditions are. That is to say which political leadership has the Way? Which general has the ability? Who has the better climate and terrain? Whose discipline is effective? Whose troops are stronger? whose officers and soldiers are the better trained? Whose system of rewards and punishments clearer? This is how can know who will win. (Pg. 46)
MARKETING: TACTICS
Machiavelli - The Prince Mentor Book's version with forward by Christian Gauss.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Machiavelli delivers a great primer
on dealing with unethical tactics - like blog swarms, short sellers,
social activists, corrupt competitors, media relations, etc.
MONEY QUOTE: A new prince has never been known to disarm his subjects, on the contrary, when he has found them disarmed he has always armed them, for by arming them, these arms become your own, those that you suspected become faithful, and those that were faithful remain so, and from being merely subjects become your partisans. (Pg. 105)
MARKETING: CAMPAIGNING
The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War Robert Coram's biography of John Boyd.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Boyd articulates the secret to
successful campaigning. Boyd's O-O-D-A Loop and thoughts on organic
command and control should be mastered by all marketers.
MONEY QUOTE: For
a time, Boyd and Spinney were reluctant to fully explain the O-O-D-A
Loop; it was far too dangerous. If someone truly understands how to
create menace and uncertainty and mistrust, then how to exploit and
magnify the presence of these disconcerting elements, the Loop can be
vicious, a terribly destructive force, virtually unstoppable in causing
panic and confusion and - Boyd's phrase is best - "unraveling the
competition." This is true whether the Loop is applied in combat, in
competitive business practices, in sports, or in personal
relationships. (Pg. 334)
MARKETING: CRISIS
The Second World War, Volume 2: Their Finest Hour Winston Churchill's WWII chronicles.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because everything you read today about
crisis management is wrong. Churchill's personal experiences leading up
to and during WWII provide a practical foundation for dealing with
crisis.
MONEY QUOTE: There
never was an occasion when powers were abrogated or challenged, and
anyone in this circle could always speak his mind; but the actual war
direction soon settled into a very few hands, and what seemed so
difficult before became much more simple - apart of course, from
Hitler. In spite of the turbulence of events and the many disasters we
had to endure, the machinery worked almost automatically, and one lived
in a stream of coherent thought capable of being translated with great
rapidity into executive action. (Pg. 17)
MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS
Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors Michael Porter's classic.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Porter provides a fundamental primer on competition including practical tools and techniques that are even more important today than they were 25 years ago.
MONEY QUOTES: One
broad approach is to use superior resources and capabilities to force
an outcome skewed toward the interest of the firm, overcoming and
outlasting retaliation - we might call this brute force approach. This
sort of approach is possible only if the firm possesses clear
superiorities, and it is stable only as long as the firm maintains
these superiorities, and as long as competitors do not misread them and
incorrectly attempt to change their positions. (Pg. 91)
Citizen Strategist is written by Mike
Smock, EVP Sales and Marketing for Charles J. Read, Inc. He is also Managing Director of vSente, a San Francisco based marketing consultancy. vSente helps challenger enterprises battle larger competitors. Prior, he was Chief Marketing Officer of CRM vendor Moss Software (sold to E.piphany) and Chief Revenue Officer of outdoor clothing producer Gramicci.
In his early career Smock held senior sales and marketing positions with AFG Industries later sold to Asahi Glass and Allied Tube and Conduit now part of Tyco. He was the Cofounder of Dynaquest Corporation an artificial intelligence pioneer, and led the successful leveraged buyout of AP&E from Johnson Controls.
Smock has executed 100's of marketing campaigns in almost 50 different industries over a 30 year career.
Click here to read his biography.
You can reach him by phone at 415.234.6757 or at mike@vsente.com.The campaign wizards are specialized tools designed to help develop individual campaign elements like strategy and tactics or to quickly assess the potential of your campaign. All wizards are Excel worksheets or workbooks. Click to download any of the wizards.
QUICKLY DETERMINE THE POTENTIAL SUCCESS
OF A CAMPAIGN
Use the Campaign BOT
wizard for a quick (couple of minutes), down and dirty assessment of
the potential success of your campaign. The Campaign Bot is a simple
rubric that measures your strengths relative to your primary competitor
and weighted according to the Campaign Bot indicates a potential
success then proceed with planning your campaign. Click to download.
IN-DEPTH BATTLE SCREENER IDENTIFIES POTENTIAL
AVENUES FOR A CAMPAIGN
The Campaign SCREEN
is a comprehensive version of the BattleBot offering more questions and
greater sensitivity generating a more accurate indication of the
potential for a successful campaign. Use the Campaign Screen if the
results from the Campaign Bot are inconclusive. Click to download.
HOW TO ANALYZE AND EXPLOIT
COMPETITOR VULNERABILITIES
The Campaign COG
wizard generates an in-depth competitive analysis resulting in the
identification of your competitors primary vulnerability (center of
gravity). Use the Campaign COG to better understand and exploit your
competitive strengths relative to your competitor weaknesses. The
Campaign COG includes an interactive set of step-by-step instructions. Click to download.
20 CAMPAIGN SIGNALS - ARE YOU SIGNALING
OR IS YOUR COMPETITION?
The Campaign SIGNALS
wizard describes 20 signals a competitor may demonstrate indicating
potential vulnerabilities. An example of a potential campaign signal is
a competitor launching an expensive high profile strategic branding
campaign which then makes them vulnerable to low profile direct
marketing campaigns. Why? Traditional branding theory advocates the
need for a consistent message broadcast over time. So while your
competitor is waiting for the branding to "work" you're already at work
taking market share. Click to download.
SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL BUILDING BLOCKS
OF KILLER COMPETITIVE STRATEGY
The Campaign STRATEGY
wizard describes seven fundamental building blocks of strategy with
specific examples. These seven building blocks are price, quality,
service, features, infrastructure, relationships and execution.
Strategy is the enabler between ends and means. The ends represent the
objective. The means includes enterprise resources, competencies, etc.
In order for strategy to perform this enabling function it needs to be
effective, comprehensible and executable. An example of strategy would
be for the challenger to attack a leaders premium price, with their own
premium pricing (NOT discount pricing!) in tandem with superior
quality, features or reputation. Click to download.
54 TACTICS TO SELECT FROM IN BUILDING
YOUR OWN PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
The Campaign TACTICS wizard is designed to provide a catalyst to drive strategy and tactics. This wizard is based upon Robert Cantrells innovative Strategy Card Deck
and describes 54 different strategies and tactics. Each strategy has a
one line description, an explanation of the strategy, the basis for the
strategy and a potential tactical application. Click to download.
DETERMINING ASYMMETRICAL ADVANTAGES - WHAT
HAPPENS WHEN THE COMPETITION CHEATS.
Campaign SYMMETRIES
indicate the "fairness" of your campaign. Some competitors are willing
to go further than others in order to win a battle. A battle between
two competitors with essentially comparable offering, infrastructure,
relationships and execution, and, committed to playing by an
established set of rules, can be considered a symmetrical conflict.
When a competitor resorts to breaking or bending the rules, and you are
unwilling to match their tactics, then you have the makings of an
asymmetrical conflict, a battle you will likely lose. The Campaign
SYMMETRIES wizard provide a gauge by which to measure the symmetry of
your battle for market share. Click to download.
