2013 Will Be Brutal for CEOs
[Originally posted on CNBC.com.] I recently came across some survey data that suggests 2013 will be a tough year for CEOs—or, at least, many of them believe that it will be. Now that the economy’s “green shoots” of recovery are starting to bud into potential blossoms, expectations are up in terms of performance. It’s no [...]
Trendspotting: Debt Sealing
Personal finance will be an “incredibly important” factor for more than half the U.S. (six in 10) during November’s presidential elections. Perhaps that’s because Americans will need the help getting them out of hot water, as consumer borrowing skyrocketed in March—up by $21.4 billion—thanks to auto financing and those locking in low interest rates on [...]
Be Entrepreneurial (But How Much?)
This is the eighth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. There’s a lot to be said for a CEO who manages to keep things on track with measured stewardship. Even in good times, when the media are all jazzed up with tales of business derring-do, there’s something heroic about [...]
Have a Heart
This is the first in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. “If Acme Widgets Corporation were a person, what sort of person would it be? How would you describe the looks, the personality and the style of that person?” Anyone who has attended consumer focus groups has probably heard variations [...]
The New Quarterlife Crisis
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] Now that the recession has retreated just a bit from American shores, we’re being allowed a better look at its aftermath. To be frank, it’s not pretty, especially for millennials and their parents. Many of the latter co-signed on student loans and must cope with the loss of a [...]
Trendspotting: The Paper Trail
Might résumés be going the way of college applications—all digital and no longer printed out on paper heavy with hope? Yes and no. Though some companies are asking for links to a candidate’s Web presence in lieu of a résumé while others are requiring candidates complete online quizzes or challenges, most still anticipate the résumé [...]
Vacation Complications (Think Generations)
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. Remember that stress-envy thing we were all feeling in the late ’90s? You know, talking about how much we were working, how tired we were and how there were simply not enough hours in the day? We wore our stress with a badge of honor. And there was a [...]
Introducing the Mentrepreneur
This is the first in a series of five. See Euro RSCG Worldwide PR’s latest white paper, “Male in U.S.A.,” for more analysis about the state of men in America today. What is going on with men in the workplace? We’re already seeing one of the biggest shifts in the gender pendulum in recent times, [...]
Tapping Minitrends
This is the 11th in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. How does a trend get legs? Some trends start small and grow elephantine as if by force of nature, like the rise [...]
Yes, We Can…Reinvent Ourselves
This is the sixth in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. We hear the word “reinventing” applied to systems all the time: reinventing capitalism, reinventing credit options. Reinventing health care, politics, journalism, food, [...]
Anti-Consumerism Taking Off
Lately I’ve been encountering more and more gestures that feel anti-consumer. The worst offenders include, unsurprisingly, the airlines. Anyone who has been on a plane in the past decade knows that flying isn’t what it used to be, but recently it seems as if it has turned into nothing less than a race to the [...]
Bad News from Europe
The European financial headlines have been nothing but bleak: defaults, a $1 trillion bailout, speculation that the euro might disappear, and discontent and strife in countries from Greece to Germany. The news is definitely not good, but the tone of the media messaging might be making it seem even worse. SmartMoney warned investors that “market [...]
Where Does the Future Lie?
This is the fifth in a series of six. When Barack Obama swept into power, he promised the American people change. Consciously or not, Americans are experiencing a wholesale change, even if its sources are not the landmark legislation and brand-new institutional ideas that, some believed, would quickly usher in a new era. Although there [...]
The Mind and Mood of America
This is the first in a series of six. Things should be looking up. Officially, the recession is over, with economic indicators showing strong upticks in growth in many sectors. The first African-American president, voted in on an overwhelming wave of popular support, holds the highest office of the land. Technology continues to make leaps [...]
Rethinking Teen Rebellion
If you google “teenage rebellion,” you get a gazillion sites that explain how to cope with, prevent or quash it. You even get advice about how to medicate it—a couple of years ago, bloggers began talking about “oppositional defiant disorder,” though most of the response to that diagnosis was highly critical. What seems to have gotten [...]
Rethinking the Presidency
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. President Obama’s latest poll numbers may be decent—a New York Times/CBS News poll found that he has higher approval ratings than the GOP, and that more Americans blame Congress, George W. Bush and Wall Street for our problems than they do him—but we hoped for better than decent from [...]
Is Connecticut the New Illinois?
A little over a year ago, I was arguing that Illinois was the new trend capital. Trendspotters like me had looked at New York and L.A. to death, and the time had come to look at the Midwest. Illinois is, after all, the state that gave us Oprah and Obama. Its residents ranked high in donating [...]
An Attempt to Curb Teen Excess
In the early days of 2010, I am reflecting on weaning two teens from a consumption mindset. It’s been interesting. For starters, there were no allowance increases in 2009. I urged my two girls to share more (as if that would happen, with bickering daughters) and to babysit more (as if the local families with [...]
In Praise of Change
creativecommons.org/daveyninOne of the many lessons from the past few years is that there’s no escaping change. We went from the flush, go-go times of 2007 to the Great Recession in what felt like a heartbeat. Newspapers are fighting for survival, while Twitter and Facebook are signing up millions of new users. And that iPod you [...]
Is It Over Yet?
creativecommons.org/by alancleaver_2000September is a month of reckoning. We just observed two anniversaries that have had a profound effect on the American psyche: the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the fall of Lehman Brothers. While there’s no comparison between the loss of life in 2001 and the loss of wealth in 2008, the recent juxtaposition of [...]
