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Project Management 411

June 18th, 2008

Economic Myths: We’re Immune to Stagflation

Jim Lee’s economic analysis in APICS’ on-line newsletter (subscribe at www.apics.org) covers several myths. The first two are pretty straight forward. Myth number 3 takes a bit more brain power:
Myth #3: The stagflation of the 1970s will not be repeated because economies today are more immune to the effects of rising energy prices.
Jim does a […]

By Bob Turek -- 6 comments

June 17th, 2008

Economic Myths: Food and Energy are Killing Us

Jim Lee’s great perspectives on our supposed economic woes are mythologized in APICS’ on-line newsletter (subscribe at www.apics.org). Myth number 2 of 3 is:
Myth #2: With soaring food and energy prices, the official numbers on inflation (around 4 percent) are grossly misleading.
He reveals that food and energy are 6% of typical household budgets so don’t get […]

By Bob Turek -- 0 comments

June 16th, 2008

Economic Myths: We’re in a Recession

Jim Lee’s economic analyses in the APICS on-line newsletter are a breath of fresh air. I’ve written about his thoughts before because he strips the discussion down to the facts of the matter. His latest demystifies today’s economy by attacking several myths. Here’s the first:
Myth #1: The consensus is that the world economy is in […]

By Bob Turek -- 0 comments

April 17th, 2008

Free Markets and Better Credit Policy Will Help Economy

CFO.com’s survey of CFOs reveals that some are getting beyond energy prices (which probably can’t be changed) and tax policy when it comes to what they would talk about with the next President of the United States:
Kurt Kuehn, CFO of UPS is concerned about “protectionist measures that might impede trade flows.” The incoming president “must […]

By Bob Turek -- 0 comments

April 16th, 2008

CFOs Weigh In on Price of Oil and the War

How does the price of oil and the war affect CEO confidence in the economy? CFO.com’s survey of CFOs reveals:
…the price of oil and war in the Middle East are weighing heaviest on the minds of senior financial executives. By a wide margin, they regard the cost of energy as the most serious roadblock to […]

By Bob Turek -- 2 comments

March 29th, 2008

CFOs Losing Confidence: Is This a Self Fulfilling Prophecy?

CFO magazine’s survey of CFOs around the world reveal a confidence shortfall. I like the analysis because it concentrates on confidence and optimism levels which drive spending patterns of companies:
“Optimism reached its lowest point since the study launched it’s optimism index six years ago. Pessimists outnumber optimists by a nine-to-one margin, with 72 percent of […]

By Bob Turek -- 0 comments

March 28th, 2008

“A Long, Ugly, Deep Recession”??

Jerry York, well known executive, has turned prognosticator according to CFO magazine’s article about York’s advice to CFOs about the possibility of a recession. I found York’s comments lacking in rationale and supportive facts. CFO seems to have embraced York’s musings without challenging them:
“It’s going to be a very bad recession, perhaps the worst I’ve […]

By Bob Turek -- 1 comment

January 26th, 2008

Business Model Innovation is A Key to Surviving in Shaky Economic Climate

“Companies should devote R&D to new business models just as they do to new products. A new CEO today will need to preside over a changed business model three or four times in his career, but no one really knows how to do it. It’s not taught in business schools, and there is much to […]

By Bob Turek -- 2 comments

January 25th, 2008

Innovating Through Competition as the Economy Tightens

Think of a business model where a firm provides services with a global freelance resource base: is it writing? editing? software development? CFO magazine’s article on “Gaming the System” introduces TopCoder, not only as a global freelance software development operation, but one that has participants compete on providing the best code for it’s application work. […]

By Bob Turek -- 4 comments