The McDowell Memo

Every business person has to have a set of core values that they will not waiver from. These give you the basis to set some lines that you will never cross. These values differ from person to person and from time to time as you learn more about yourself. But they are defined in moral or ethical points of view that you hold. For instance if you believe in free speech you would not endorse a program of censorship . Or if you are a believer in free commerce you would not support tariff or quotas . How do I find my core values ? First you have to define what a core value is, I use this definition. A core value is something that if I change this I change how I am as a person and how I view the world around me. An example of a core value for my is my religion. I am a Christian if I were to change this value I would no longer believe in Jesus or his teachings and would change my views on the rest of the world accordingly. Second you have to look to those you respect for values that you...

Fox Business News: Wm announces new US CEO With today's announcement WalMart acknowledges a lack luster year here in the United States. Why is this occurring? Is it the results of a recession that has ended by official definition but is still lingering on? Is it that the numbers that the Government had brought forth were not accurate either by accident or on purpose? Could it be that the retail market is changing and WalMart's time honored methods are no longer working? I think we need to look at the possibility that it very may well be a combination of all of these. We know that the unemployment numbers are inaccurate because we have so many people that are just not looking for work. We also know that on line retail is taking a larger bite of the market each quarter. We can see where this could have an impact on the US divisions sales. But just possibly a bigger issue is in the lack of staffing in US stores, each store I have entered in the last 3 years has been grossly un...

What is Business? We use this word for many things but they all have some basic essential parts. I define Business as the producer or developer of something sells it for a type of compensation. Such as an egg , the farmer using raw materials and chickens produces an egg this egg is then sold for a compensation in this case of money to the consumer. It applies to several types of “business” such as manufacturing, farming, services, government and education.   Let’s look at each of these and how it meets the “Producer” ---“Sale”-----“Compensation” model.   Let’s look at manufacturing, IBM builds a computer and sells it to Lockheed Martin to use in their products. IBM is the Producer, Lockheed the customer buys it for either money or another product (compensation). How about a service industry, Comcast (a cable company) provides a service (Product) cable service to a viewer in Chicago for a monetary fee per month (Compensation). Government is a little harder to follow but ...

This blog is dedicated to business persons and the issues and methods they are faced with. We will be in essence teaching a class in basic business sense and contemporary issues. We will use in the news examples and common sense decision making methods. We will be starting with the most basic of terms for business as I have found many do not know the basics and therefore struggle with other concepts.  I hope you will all enjoy this blog . Feel free to copy and save for teaching/training  purposes.  Chuck McDowell