Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!

Happy 4th Of July! It’s been a while since I have made a new post here, and I committed to myself to do better. So to celebrate our country’s Independence Day I decided to reminisce about a theme park that never was, but eventually came to be in different pieces.  Disney’s America.

Disney’s America was a project that was created during the early years of The Disney Decade. This was a period from 1990 to 2000 in which Michael Eisner, then CEO of The Walt Disney Company laid out many ambitious projects for the company to embark on. Many of these projects came to fruition, but an equal amount never made it off the drawing board.

Disney’s America was to be built on a 1200 acre of land in Prince William County, Virgina. The Governor of Virgina was on board as Disney quietly began placing options on land to create the park. However, soon word got out of Disney’s goal and the residents of the area began a literal village uprising as they didn’t want the noise, traffic and congestion that would follow a theme park.  While they eventually succeeded in stopping Disney’s plans, they still wound up with the noise, traffic and congestion that follows urban sprawl. So ultimately, what would have been better?

The local residents also didn’t want Disney’s version of history. They thought that the public needs to be shown history for the way that it was. While I agree completely, I believe there is nothing wrong with making history more interesting as it may spark even more thinking of an audience who otherwise may not have been interested in the first place. Right or wrong we may never really know. The park was cancelled and many of the attractions that were planned were actually re-purposed and placed into Disney’s California Adventure. While I would have found visiting Disney’s America a fun. and somewhat educating experience.  I don’t think the prophecy of Civil War soldiers graves being dug up and removed to place a parking lot down would have come to pass either.

You can read some great posts about Disney’s America by vistitng these other great sites!  Disney’s America , Disney’s America, Disney’s America 

Keep Moving Forward and Happy 4th Of July!

END-OF-LINE

Last week was a rough one in my plugged in digital life. It was a veritable perfect storm of when good tech goes bad. It’s amazing how dependant we become on our gadgets, we take them for granted and expect them to always be working. But what happens when things don’t go the way we need?

Tuesday- I love my  TiVo HD unit. It records many of my favorite shows in HD and last Christmas my parents gave me a Western Digital TiVo certified external drive to increase the capacity of recording shows in HD. My relationship with this external drive has been a rocky one. About 6 months into owning it I needed to move my TV cabinet out from the wall. The unit is on wheels to make moving it easy. When I moved the unit I accidentally vibrated the WD HD unit. Now we are talking mild vibration. After I was done and went to power up the TV the TiVo was telling me that it could not detect an external drive connected. After multiple reboots it finally came back up. This problem would rear it’s ugly head every once in a while but I was able to fix it. Lately though, the unit has begun to take on a life of it’s own. It would crash while watching recorded programs or it would just say the equivalent of a digital F-You and stop working altogether. On Tuesday, it had enough and just died all together. $115 down the drain after only a little more than a year. (The unit was out of warranty) This along with several programs that I loved were lost.

Wednesday- My UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) decided that “I really don’t want to work anymore” and right in the middle of a project I had a surge through the system. Normally, the unit would function perfectly and handle the surge with no problem. Not today. The back-up battery in the unit was now fried and would no longer work, this along with my PC just shutting off in the middle of a vital project.  My UPS had been basically reduced to a $2 Wal-Mart extension cord. Price to replace the battery $40.

Thursday – With my week in tech now spiraling out of control, it was now my PC’s turn to need some love. Heck, everything else was crashing down so why not pick now to start having corruption problems. My PC runs Windows Vista. I never could figure out why manufacturers were so slow to create drivers and software for this much maligned operating system. Well, after running Vista for 2 years I realize that Vista has become the replacement for Windows ME. Anyways, I had noticed that the system was become very creaky and programs that ran fine before had become corrupted . Even Windows Task Manager was corrupted. So I decided to reformat the Hard Drive. I have no problems with this except that it takes on average 13 hours to restore everything back to where it was.  So after countless hours, the software was reinstalled. For the record, I also own a Mac, which hasn’t been immune to issues at times either.

Saturday -  On Saturday night, I noticed that my wireless home  network was down. After troubleshooting, I realized that my Linksys Wireless Router was no longer functioning. I tried many different things and still couldn’t get it to work. I just assumed that it had died as well. So off  to the store I went for a new one. After installing, it had the same problem the old one did. I had an Internet connection at my DSL modem, but once it hit both routers, (kaput) So after many more hours, I realized that my PC for some reason wanted nothing to do with my router anymore and I had to run the router though my wife’s PC in the same office. To this day I have no idea why. The service tech in India whose English I couldn’t understand didn’t either.

So after a week of digital misery, I learned some valuable lessons. Don’t become too dependant on your tech, and always know where you can find all of your software installation discs!

Keep Moving Forward!

On Friday, May 29th. Jay Leno will say good-bye to the time slot that made him famous. When he took over the reigns of The Tonight Show back in 1992 many thought that he wouldn’t be able to fill the mighty Johny Carson’s shoes. In fact, Arsenio Hall was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly professing to “Kick Jay Leno’s Ass” Well, Mr. Leno eventually proved all the naysayers wrong and wound up being a huge success in late night. Then, out of the blue, in 2004 both NBC and Leno made an odd announcement that in 2009 he would retire from The Tonight Show and Conan O’Brien would take the seat behind the desk made famous by so many.

So now in 2009 with his retirement date looming, Leno begins to have second thoughts about wanting to step down. So much so that he begins courting offers from other networks about another possible late night show. CBS was out, they were not going to give up Letterman. That left ABC and FOX. The Fox network  had many misfires in late night. Everything from Joan Rivers, and The Wilton NorthReport, to Chevy Chase. They weren’t all that excited to get back into the ring again, even with Leno. So that left ABC. After much negotiating it was looking like Leno was going to jump. What was NBC to do? They didn’t want a repeat of the Letterman Vs. Leno war from before, and they promised the slot to Conan. So what was Jeff Zucker head of NBC/Universal programming going to do? He gave Leno a talk show in prime time.

So in the fall of 2009, The Jay Leno show will be shown every Monday through Friday at 10PM (9PM Central and Mountain). Now many will say in the NBC/Uni program department that this is sheer genius. I said, and I still believe, that this could wind up ending Mr. Zucker’s career with NBC/Universal. You see, even though talk shows are cheap to produce, there is a sheer glut of them on the air now. On the big three networks alone they program 7-10 hours a night of talk shows. With all of the talent that goes around on these shows you start to get a lot of doubling up. Now we’re adding another hour into the mix. As I have said on this blog in the past, we now have 4 hours a day of The Today Show and soon, 3 hours a night of talk shows. Finally, one station today said “Enough is Enough”  WHDH-TV, Boston’s NBC affiliate, announced via its website Thursday that it plans to launch an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast in the fall. The stations ownership said that We don’t think the Leno show is going to be effective in primetime,” They said ”It will be detrimental to our 11 o’clock (newscast). It will be very adverse to our finances.”

I have to agree with Boston. I think that NBC is making a huge error in thinking that America will tune-in every night for all of this talk.  I have also said before, I think NBC is in a huge creative hole right now, and they don’t seem to have any logical way of digging out of it. With the 9/10 hour now locked up for a talk show, that leaves only 2 hours of original programming on NBC each weeknight.  Speaking of original programming this doesn’t even factor in the void of intelligence with reality programming. What you have here my friends in my own opinion, is the making of an “Also-Ran” network. I say this because I used to think that NBC was the best when it came to their programming. Now I don’t watch NBC nearly as much as I did. Even my once favorite morning program, “The Today Show” isn’t even enjoyable  to watch anymore. It seems like the entire cast of The Today Show is never on together  and it’s obvious some of them can’t stand each other. But I digress.

It will be interesting to see what happens if  “The Jay Leno Show” does not rise to the success that NBC needs it to. What will be more interesting to see is how long they keep it on the air. In these days of “If The Show Isn’t A Huge Hit By Episode Three Then Yank It”  we’ll see how long they leave it on the air to save face.

Keep Moving Forward!

General Electric has created a new website to help educate people on a 21st century power grid. They do so by using some pretty incredible new technology to show us a world of augmented reality. It’s pretty simple to do. You can click the picture at left and be taken to the site. Once there, you will need to print out the same page you see to your left. You will also need a web camera. When you launch the application and hold the page up to the camera, a 3D world will begin to open and emerge in front of you!

Here’s My Demo!

It’s amazing what they are coming up with in terms of new marketing campaigns. GE is very committed to making our planet a cleaner better place to live. This is just the beginning as to what can be done with this technology. Take a moment now and experience it for yourself! You’ll be glad you did!

Keep Moving Forward!

Can We Go Home Again?

During the past thirty years of the last century, television in the United States was a far different landscape than what we have today. Back then, we didn’t seem to have the attention span of a You-Tube clip, and we were entertained by the vast amounts of original programming that is now all but devoid from the current television landscape.  Reality TV was ‘Real People” and comedy wasn’t watching men in drag telling a girl how to “work it”  in trying to be America’s Next Top Model.

Now many say that we have evolved past the television of old, but I have to disagree. I would say we have de-evolved. With every economist saying that our economy is now resetting itself, I for one would welcome a reset to the television landscape. For you see, I don’t completely buy what the networks say when they report that their audiences have all gone elsewhere. Maybe it’s not the audience, but the creativity.  Case In Point, remember the splashy Fall ad campaigns of years past? These were wonderfully written PR campaigns that made you excited to watch the network and made you feel like we were all part of their family. The stars and talent all aligned together to support the network as they were placed in many cute little vignettes in the campaign. They were fun, and often catchy tunes and made you feel good. 

And that’s what we need right now, is to feel good again. Sitcoms rained supreme during the 80′s on NBC as it was a juggernaut not to be reckoned with. Now it seems NBC has been reduced to an “also-ran” that airs nothing but six hours of the Today Show and soon 3 hours of Talk Shows a night. Is that really what it’s come to? How many times can you see the Octo-Mom in the morning followed by Paris Hilton or the likes on at night? This is entertainment? No wonder we’re migrating to other sources. I have no problem with change. However, I also subscribe to the old adage that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Maybe if the networks went back to more original, creative programming it would help. Hey, It’s so crazy of an idea that it just might work!  Heck, while we’re at it, let’s take some stimulus money, get the creative MAD Men going and create a feel good campaign for all of us. Crazy sounding, perhaps. But I look to the retailing giant Wal-Mart as the leader in telling people what they want to hear, and them believing it. If you spend 2 billion dollars a year telling people you have the lowest prices around, well, it just starts to sink in with your customer then doesn’t it?  Imagine what we could do with a similar campaign to feel good about America. For that, I leave you with this.

“Keep Moving Forward!”

It was reported in TWICE this week that Best Buy will inherit the bulk of Circuit City’s $9 billion in Consumer Electronics sales once it’s doors close by March 31st 2009. As the doors close to the  once behemoth in the electronics retailing industry, the opportunity is being given to its competitor to pick up the slack.

But can they?

I have to admit, Best Buy hasn’t always been my first choice when it came to fulfilling my needs in consumer electronics. For many years I never ventured into their stores simply because I was not a fan of their service. Getting good service at a Best Buy store is the ultimate in ”Hit or Miss”. There have been times I have gone into their stores and been given exceptional service. However, while I wish I could say that was more the norm, it alas has not been. Best Buy realized their service wasn’t winning any awards anytime soon. So several years ago they launched a huge campaign within its stores called “Customer Centricity”. What this program was designed to do was give its store managers more autonomy as to the products, layout and service in their respective stores. While ambitious and beautiful in the eyes of the PR department, I feel that they still have not gotten it right. Now I know it’s impossible for a customer to have a great experience each time they visit a Best Buy but it begs the question, “Why Not?”

The Walt Disney Company whom I deeply respect with its guest service policies, goes out of its way each and every time to each and every guest. While they stumble sometimes as well, I have never known The Walt Disney Company to have a website created by a disgruntled guest that other disgruntled guests go to so they may vent their frustration. Such as was the case for many years with Best Buy. Now with Circuit City gone, I begin to worry about the staffs of many Best Buy stores adapting a “Last Man Standing” attitude.  What this could mean is they would possibly begin to feel that since the competition is all but gone, who’s left to challenge us and where else are you going to go? While I hope this is not the case, it would be wise for Best Buy HR departments to create a training module that would address this. I for one would be very impressed if Best Buy refocused their efforts on customer service.

I say this because of a problem that I recently had in regards to their Rewards Zone program. I had signed up for the Rewards Zone program many years ago but discovered about 6 months ago that somehow my Rewards Zone information had been merged with someone else in another state. I tried in vain several times to contact the Reward Zone customer service department to change the information but to no avail. It finally reached a head in December when I had earned a $5 reward certitficate and went to use it at a Best Buy store in Orem, Utah. I was purchasing over $100 in items and upon check-out, I handed the cashier my reward zone certificate. She scanned the certificate and it came up invalid. She said she couldn’t accept it and I replied to her that I had just printed from the Rewards Zone site 2 hours ago and it was still showing active on there. I even offered to show her this information on the iPhone I was carrying. She replied that there was nothing she could do. All she offered was that I could call 1-800-Best-Buy. I asked to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor came over and it might as well have been her clone. All he could offer was the toll-free number. It was as if nothing in the way of a guest complaint could be handled in the store, and the only outlet for resolving guest complaints was through a toll-free number. At this point, I was done. I told them that if the lousy $5 coupon was more important than my business then fine, keep the merchandise. I gave the “supervisor” one last opportunity to make the situation right. He did not.

So I left buying nothing. I eventually contacted the Reward Zone customer service department and they could not have been more helpful. They apologized for all the address errors which they admitted was their fault. The supervisor then credited me $40 in reward certificates for all of my troubles. The Reward Zone supervisor was also dumb-founded that the associate just didn’t take the $5 off the total. 

So with Circuit City now gone, I challenge Best Buy to step up and go the extra mile and appreciate the fact that they are still in business today. For it wasn’t always so rosey for them. Best Buy was nearly bankrupt back in the mid 90′s so this could easily have been them closing their doors.

So Best Buy, Are you up to the challenge?

Keep Moving Forward!

Over the years, I have devoted much time to reading everything I can on the operations of The Walt Disney Company. I have always been a fan of Disney as long as I can remember. I especially enjoy reading about the inner-workings of the company and pick up any book I can about it. These books have ranged on all different aspects over the years, and while I enjoy books on the imagineering processes the most, I have always love to read about first hand experiences from former associates of the organization.  

If you’re looking for insight on how things run in The Walt Disney Company, may I reccommend a great book from former Disney executive Lee Cockerell. “Creating Magic” takes the reader on the journey of this man’s tenure of positions both before and during his work at The Walt Disney World Resort. Mr. Cockerell will educate you on 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies that can help you in your position or company no matter the size.  His experience at the Walt Disney Resort takes you through a no-nonsense look at how his tenure as Operations Vice President helped develop many strategies and operational processes over his ten years with the company that are still in place today.

I enjoyed the book and all it offers. However I did notice that while Mr. Cockerell spoke of open door policies, and the ability for anyone to approach him,  it appears that he hasn’t always been the warm and fuzzy person that he sometimes portrays himself as. There are two instances in the book where he pushed people to a breaking point that involved him getting punched out. Now in all my years of management, I have never have had that happen once, much alone twice!  There is also a point where he describes letting go a high level executive simply because his position was eliminated. While he allowed the executive time to find a new position and the outcome wound up positive, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of these exchanges didn’t go as smooth and it made me realize that while The Walt Disney Company is all about fantasy, it’s a business, first and foremost. Mr. Cockerell is definitely more on the business side than on the Pixie Dust side. 

So if you’re looking for a different side of the mouse, that is more of a behind the business scenes than fantasy, then I would highly recommend picking up a copy of this book today!

Keep Moving Forward!

We’ll look back on today and remember when a retailing giant fell to it’s knees. It was announced today that Circuit City would cease operations and hand over control of it’s stores to liquidators. 567 stores will be closed by March 31st 2009 and over 34,000 Circuit City associates will be left jobless.

It doesn’t really matter anymore how they got themselves into this predicament. It’s over now. I have to say that I know exactly what these associates are going through. I was laid off from a retailing company 3 years ago after going through a liquidation sale.

If you have never been through a liquidation sale consider yourself lucky. The liquidation company sends a representative whose sole purpose is to make as much money in the least amount of time as possible. The liquidation company essentially owns the assets of the company as they purchased it for roughly pennies on the dollar. The liquidator goes through the building placing integrity seals on all the fire doors and dock doors to make sure employees are not stealing anything from the store. During these times store shrink can skyrocket from disgruntled employees. They will usually conduct a store inventory of all assets and thus begin the liquidation of the building.

Sometimes you get a good person in charge of the liquidation who understands what the associates are going through. Employees are in shock and disbelief as their world is being turned upside down. At other times, you can get someone who simply doesn’t care. They are there to do a job and be done with it, and the associates. When I worked for Media Play several years ago and we began liquidation, my staff and I did something our liquidator said he has never seen before. “We Went Down With The Ship, With Class” We continued to operate the store as best we could under the circumstances. However the longer a liquidation sale progresses, the harder it becomes to go on. A liquidator once said to me, “As The Discounts Go Up, The I.Q.’s Of The Customers Go Down.” He was 100% right. Many a times we would get patrons screaming at us because we couldn’t accept their returns on merchandise or we were trying to rip them off. One lovely exchange had a woman screaming at a poor 16 year old cashier of mine that couldn’t accept her return. I tried to reason with the guest as she screamed at us to return her $19 DVD as if her very life depended on it. Finally, the liquidator came over and instructed her to leave. The last thing she said as she walked out of the door I will never forget. “I’m Glad You’re All Losing Your Jobs!” I wonder as I type this if she has been effected by the economic downturn. I hope she never knows what it’s like to lose something you worked so hard to build.

My favorite memory of my stores liquidation was when we were given a replacement liquidation supervisor because our supervisor fell ill and was hospitalized. We were counting a deposit and discovered through some system error that we were $400 over in cash for the day. This man created a dragnet in the store. He was convinced that a cashier had planned on stealing the money and they were staging it. I explained that the registers were acting horribly since we began liquidation because of the crazy discounts. He told me it was better to be $400 short in cash than $400 over! To this day, I still try to work the logic through on that one.

So I will end this post today by saying my heart goes out to the 34,000 Circuit City associates. I actually interviewed with them for a position 3 years ago. I wound up declining the job offer when they wanted to pay me $10,000 less a year than what I was currently making, and work a minimum of 50 hours per week. Today, I’m relieved I turned the position down or I would be repeating history today. Rest in Peace Circuit City, I used to enjoy shopping in your stores years ago before you began all of the cutbacks in service and other areas. I can’t say your a complete victim of a bad economy, but you made yourself very sick before things started getting bad. At that point, there was no hope left.

I for one will not be picking over your cadaver. I deplore liquidation sales. I would rather remember you in a happier time and not on your deathbed.

Keep Moving Forward!