Black In Business

In January every one is optimistic over business. There is little down side to our business plans. We are coming back to work after holiday, may have taking a great trip and we know we have our act together. How were we supposed to know gas would hover around 4 a gallon in the USA. The gas price has a negative affect on business. We were still feeling good at the end of the first quarter because like the Sox are saying and the Cubs say every year, It is early. Now we are at the mid point of the year. Those of you that are kicking butt will enjoy this analysis, those of us that have work to do hopefully will benefit, those that have given up, should begin work on their resume. As follows is an effective outline for mid year business updates.

Sales performance by month, Jan –June. This should include a actual sales vs. Goal and % of goal
Margin performance by month, Jan-June, same analysis as above
Gap analysis, if below plan revenue and margin, notate the dollars needed to make up.
Discuss plans to make up the additional dollars to fill the gap, plus second half goals by account.
Use below format to discuss accounts
Account name—objective—tactics—time line for each step of sale—comments
If you are running above plan, use the analysis to discuss how much potential over achievement is possible by account

Review big picture aspect of your first half year.

Major accomplishments
Major disappointments
Critical factors that could influence outcome of second half of year
Key events
Additional resources needed to make and beat plan.
Competitive update
What I will do differently
This exercise will help you understand your business much better.

Business people, how is your year going? How will you analyze the next 6 months. I look forward to your comments on this.

I have posted about the Biracial Issue a few times. We have the remarkable rise of Barack Obama and he being the first serious black canidate for President. We have discussed the color thing in regards to black people. My brother married a white woman, he considers his kids black, I am not sure about his wife. We discussed the Loving marriage and the law change because of this black-white couple’s courage.In today’s Tribune. Dawn Turner Trice shares the compelling story of a biracial Lawyer and the biracial conference comming to Chicago. I think the biracial thing lowers the impact of black Americans.Prior to being biracial they were all consider black. Is that a bad thing?

Biracial people to define selves, issues at forum

Published June 18, 2007

Michelle Hughes has brown, curly hair that’s fine in texture. Depending on the season, her skin color ranges from a light olive brown to a creamier hue. When she meets someone new, that person often finds a way to ask: “What are you?” (which sounds rude, right?) or “Where are you from?” (which is sort of the same).

She admits she can be a bit of a chameleon, capable of “blending” into several racial or ethnic groups, depending on the neighborhood.

When she’s on Chicago’s South Side, she said, people assume she’s a fair-skinned African-American. In Little Village or Pilsen, she might be considered a Latina. In Little Italy, she could pull off Italian.

Hughes’ mother is white. Her father is African-American. Though her gene combination skews toward her mom’s features, there’s just enough of her dad’s to confuse people. But that confusion has to do with others, not her.

“I have two parents,” said Hughes, 41, an adoption attorney who lives in Wicker Park. “Part of who I am is my mom; part of who I am is my dad.”

Beginning Thursday, Chicago will host a four-day conference titled, “Loving Decision Conference 2007: The Next 40 Years of Multiracial Communities.” Though the event will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Loving vs. Virginia — the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down miscegenation laws in several states, legalizing interracial marriage — it will focus more on the issues affecting the offspring of interracial couples.

Though Hughes is not a proponent of the “tragic mulatto” mythology, she believes issues surrounding identity remain real and complex. Biracial people often are still expected to define themselves singularly, by choosing one part of their ancestry over the other. Interracial parents, though incredibly sensitive to racial matters, may not know how to help their biracial children navigate the best and the worst of both of their worlds.

The conference is designed to address many issues, including transracial adoptions. But it’s also designed to celebrate multiculturalism.

Years ago, the furor over interracial unions and marriages was indeed about the fear of miscegenation. But it also was about what would happen to the offspring of these couples. Some believed biracial children would live a life of isolation, confusion and depression. They would crumble.

Hughes has not crumbled. But some of her experiences have been unique to being biracial. Growing up, she remembers walking into restaurants with her parents and the patrons, black and white, glaring at them.

Her mother didn’t always know how to deal with her hair. Her father often was making sure his children had a deep understanding of black history.

She said that over the years she has been in white crowds and defended blacks if something disparaging was said. The same is true of her having been in black crowds and defending whites if the need arose.

“You’re forced into educating a lot,” said Hughes, a member of the Chicago-based Biracial Family Network, a conference organizer. “Being white is the norm in this country. If you’re anything else, you have to deal with race.”

Hughes said dating presents its own challenges. “I find that men of color are more comfortable moving between both the Caucasian world and the ‘of color’ world. White men aren’t always as comfortable doing that.”

With interracial unions on the rise, more biracial people are defining themselves rather than accepting society’s hand-me-down definitions.

The 2000 census was the first time Americans could check several race categories to describe their backgrounds. About 7 million Americans did so. And it’s not uncommon to hear a teen who’s the product of a black parent and Mexican parent call himself a “Blaxican;” or one who has a white parent and an Asian or Pacific Islander parent call herself a “Hapa.” The word comes from the Hawaiian term “hapa haole,” which means “half white.” Even with folk claiming their own identities, we still have a long way to go in all matters racial. But we have come a long way since the night Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and a black woman, were arrested in their Virginia home. Their infraction? Simply loving one another.

To find out more about the conference, check out www.lovingconference.com.

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dtrice@tribune.com

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This blog has been nominated as best business blog. We have received 13 votes Thank you. This blog has also bee nominated as best political, best corporate and best educational. Wow!!! If you are so inclined, click on the stamp for best business blog and follow the directions to vote for blackinbusiness. In order to be the best I need to bring value, I will today by providing a real life case study and introducing 4 more blogs I love.
When I attended Northwestern University’s Kellogg school of Management’s Advance Executive Program, we did case studies every day. We had groups and would work on solutions for company problems together.
As many of you know, I own an executive search firm, Global Recruiters Net Work of Oak Park. I specialize in the Medical field and hope to differentiate from other recruiters. I plan to do this a with a few key contacts and by building a relationship bases on trust and respect. My hope is to become a talent broker, and not a search consultant. I am fortunate to have many successful and talented friends in the medical field.
Recently I made contact with the COO of a multi billion dollar corporation. The executive is a star in his field and a part of my personal network. At the time he had no searches happening that I could do but I introduced him to 2 stars. This ultimately lead to interviews and the selection of 2 VP’s to hire. My fee for this search is 30% of first year income. I was told in training to walk away if below 25%. These 2 VP jobs have salaries of 300k plus. This would provide my 1 man firm revenue of 150k plus. This is where I need your advice.
My buddies firm countered offered, 15% for first placement, 20% for second, and a promise of more searches. In fact they offered an additional search on the spot. Search 3 would pay 20% 4, 22.5% and search 5 and above 25%.
They have offered me 105k vs. 150k. The 105k includes by implication additional opportunities for me. This company has well over 20000 employees. OK, what would you do and why?

Here are some interesting blogs to visit.

Villager
KWiz
Manchild
Twinsherry

Rainbow cafe has listed the 10 top love songs of all times. My favorite, Marvin Gaye, “Let’s Get It On!”

My Man, Chris Cree introduced me to the word Opi. Opi is a Greek word that refers to the here after. The Opi is to be written of the future you in the present tense. April Groves tagged Chris and Chris tagged me. I am not a big fan of tags but this is a fun one. Reading Chris’s yesterday, I got caught upped and thought his call from Oprah was real. He has some good Opi on.
April Groves, The realtor of integrity, excellence and unparalleled service in the coastal Georgia area got me thinking how this Opi could aply to business.
As a businessman and sales leader, my thought is, what a creative way to have your team visualize their goals. In sales if you maximize your bonus, your Opi could be what to do with the cash. Blackinbusiness leaders and Managers, have your team Opi their goals. This would be a new twist on a yearly exercise.

My Opi

I just finished my 10 am workout and am on my way top have lunch with my son, the junior Senator from the state of New York. He is so busy and getting to spend some time with him this father day week is special. As we enter BSmith’s, I noticed my Daughter doing the CNN noon news cast. My wife is in Bali finding some special accessories to sell in her incredibility successful store “Weincahoots.” She has open a school and college for autistic children. Our youngest child, who is autistic have been a remarkable success as the school first graduate and now is VP of Public Relations. He and his brother, the Senator have pushed important legislation to have helped special needs children and made No Child Left Behind a reality as opposed to a slogan.

I am retired except for a few lectures and managing my blog staff of 300. I never thought Blackinbusiness would become more successful than Ebony, Black Enterprise and BET combined. We live on West 50th between Madison and Park in a brownstone close to the Palace Hotel. Our upstate home is in Lake Placid and is a Log Cabin surrounded by trees. We have a larger home that sits on 5 acres in Kingsville, Maryland. Our children and grandkids live in Atlanta, Georgia, Washington, DC and New York.

Everyone health is good and we feel lucky.

Tag you are it!

Ted
Doug
LDW
ebonyblue
Liz

Steli Efti is an entrepreneur and wants to build a on line community to change the education system. He is right it needs change. The future Blackinbusiness leaders will have better opportunities for success with a better education system. I have a degree in education and am a parent to black children. I am fascinated by the school’s name, “Super Cool School” and the vision of Mr. Efti.He is my first interview subject. If you care about education, this will be a great topic. Here goes! Thank you Steli, my Greek brother with the stamp of a brother with locks!I think your answers are compelling and may lead to more debate.

.

You are a brilliant man, why education, what is in it for you?
I am a dreamer - blessed with opportunity and health. And I feel very passionate ( or pissed) about
the problems we face today in education worldwide. You see, I never decided to go into this field. It
just happened in a natural way. If I look back at my life I can see a clear path that has lead me to this
project. From dropping out of school, to becoming an entrepreneur, to teaching and coaching others and
being an advocate of education as the single most important process to growth.

I love learning. And building a free online school for the people is a fantastic way
to learn more then ever before in my life. I think that´s one of the key motivations why I´m doing this.

Supercool School’s name is hip why is it Kool and dose it translate into better students?
I hope so I think that education is a serious topic - however I do NOT believe that acting
seriously helps. I wanted to send out a crystal clear message that we
are different then the usual education websites and that we are inclusive!
Everyone knows something of value! I really do mean everyone. And if we all share
our knowledge and teach each other about things we really care about - that´s the coolest thing ever.
That´s why it´s Supercool School.

I loved your 7 lessons learned in school that will cause you to fail. Schools should prepare us for life, your 7 items are similar to what i would tell a sales team or business people. Describe how you implement this kind of change in thinking.
Step 1: you except those facts on a intellectual level. You read and reflect about your life and your believes and start to see the
patterns. That´s the easy part. What happens next is even easier: you change. What´s surprising to most of us is the fact that the hard part lies in between step 1 & 2 : and that´s commitment. You got to distinguish between wishing something would change and really wanting it. Most people don´t. And that´s why we still believe that changing is hard. It isn´t.

How important is diversity?
It´s essential. Learning is always an individual process. Individuals are diverse. We can see the problems of treating everyone the same way
in our current education system.
Most of us have experienced a time when we suddenly became better in a class after a new teacher arrived. It had nothing to do with the subject - it was the individual that changed our relationship and improved our attitude and our results. And why? Because it needs trust and respect for a student to open up and learn from a teacher. And you can´t force someone to trust and respect you.

If we all could choose our teachers in every subject you would probably pick someone else then I would for the same class. And that’s ok. We are different personalities and our current education system punish this fact instead of taking advantage of it.

I can´t even imagine what would happen if we would give the power of education to the students and give them more and more access to diversity. But the thought of it makes me smile for sure

Do we have enough black male teachers?

I think we don´t have enough brilliant, passionate and differentiated personalities in education.
And that´s because this field is so difficult, important and underpaid all at once.

I don´t know the exact numbers of black male teachers and honestly I do not feel very qualified to talk about this specific group.
But I truly believe that more black, Latino, Asian, Indian etc. teachers would be beneficial for our students.
The world is a diverse place and so are the people of this planet. Our cultural differences can be used positively for the benefit of our students
and our future. We can learn so much from each other but the current situation in our classrooms isn´t reflecting this enough.

At the end of the day I will probably always relate more to someone who looks like me and comes from a similar background. But it´s a choice that we can´t make as students as long as there aren´t enough teachers available from every cultural background.

There are studies that indicate the system is set up for black boys to fail, Black boys experience sudden drop off in performance in the 4Th and 5Th grade. Some of these kids had been honor students, Comments
Who is the system? Every system is build around people. And people have certain believes about the chances of different kinds of students. These believes transform into the way those students get treated. I believe that this is certainly one reason for kids to fail in this system. But it´s only one factor of many. Today, you have a chance against the system, but it´s definitely harder for black kids then for white kids. As it is harder for poor kids, immigrants, sick kids… everyone who is different in our society has to overcome obstacles. You can do it - but it´s harder then for the rest of us. I was an immigrant kid in a German school and most teachers had perceptions about how a cool Greek kid would perform and behave at school. That made it hard for me to stay motivated and work WITH my teachers. It felt like I had to work AGAINST them.

That´s not the best environment to grow and learn. It needs trust for people to learn from each other because we have to open up ourselves in order to receive new knowledge from others. So in my case the system won at first because I dropped out of school early. But I´m back for the attack

Do you believe the most difficult thing to do is learn a language, which we all do by kindergarten and if you do that you can do anything?
No - I don´t believe there is something that is “the most difficult thing to learn”. I believe we learn so much faster as kids because we haven´t
yet learned alot about learning. Kids learn in a pure way driven by curiosity and as they grow up we teach them to learn with intellect and to avoid mistakes. We put all these false ideas into their heads.

How many times does a baby fall down in the process of learning how to walk? Does a baby give up after a time and decide that she´s not a
walker? Does a baby give up learning to speak because she couldn´t say “papa” or “mama” after trying a thousand times? Nope. That would be ridiculous. They keep going till they figure it out. And they do it because we don´t put pressure on them and we don´t act like total morons. Well, that changes as soon as our kids get a bit older.

Our ability to learn is unlimited. Only the power of our believes can limit the speed of our learning. Period.

What can we do about the shocking stat in black America, we have more boys age 18 -23 in prison than in college.
It´s a vicious circle. The fact that more black boys age 18-23 are in prison than in college plays an important role in keeping the situation
this disastrous.
Our imagination draws pictures of our future in our mind. Those pictures are what motivates us and guides us towards our goals in life.
But our imagination is influenced by the pictures we see every day around us.
There are not enough stories, pictures, books, television shows, songs…etc. about black success stories outside of the entertainment and sport business. But there are so many success stories out there. We have to find better ways to spread the word about them.

I´m not sure if this is enough but to be honest with you - what do I know about it anyway? I´m a Greek kid born and raised in Germany.

Comment on parents.
More education.

Tell us anything about your self.
I hated learning when I was a kid. I felt like it was something to punish me and put me around boundaries. It was a magical moment in my life that turned my relationship to learning upside down.

I learned that education is the most powerful tool to freedom and since then I educated myself into a new life. From someone without perspectives in life to someone who builds a online school for the world to help others discover the power of learning and their love for education.

Education is freedom: Share it to grow!

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