I have been in a (blog related?) existential conundrum for the last few weeks brought on by the election and financial crisis and amplified by some reading/viewing/thinking I have been doing. I never intended this blog to be (or become) a personal historical zeitgeist. I have been troubled since beginning my blog that it had no editorial vision, as my twitter feed clearly does.

The trouble is that I currently am not, and do not wish to become, a pundit, commentator, or advisor on political, economic, or similar issues. I do not have the degree of education (formal or informal) on any of these subjects that I feel is necessary to be a responsible writer on the subjects. This isn’t to say I have no thoughts on the subjects as they stand, or that it takes a degree and a “mainstream” opinion to make a valuable contribution, far from it.

The question I pose to myself every time I attempt and fail to write a coherent post about a topic like the presidential “debates” is “What the hell am I doing?” As a cynic, it goes without saying that I doubt my tiny, paranoid rants will be effective in making a difference. I’m not writing for kudos or to change the world, I’m writing because I’m a frustrated, overly-critical cynic and if I don’t vent that steam somewhere: kaboom. If I can make a difference in the thinking of a few readers, great.

But that still leaves my question unanswered. I could write this all in a obscenely titled text file found only after my death as my children sort through my affects trying to make sense of my life, but that isn’t what i am doing. So why?

I don’t have an answer to that question yet. I am a little closer to an answer to the how/what questions for this blog, which is the opposite of how I like to work, but at least it’s something.

Aside: For those of you interested in a post on the “debate,” it is coming.

I thought this site was worth noting even though I doubt that I agree philosophically with the creators (I consider myself a Free Radical). Check it out: PrintTheTruth.

I am not an economist but I do have some thoughts on the present crisis and ideas that could generally be applied to the situation.

The Problem Is Not a Shortage of Rope

People that made poor, sometimes negligent, sometimes fraudulent decisions got us here. How will giving them more money get us out? How can those selfsame people now contribute to a solution?

Past Inaction Is Not a Qualification

Giving more coercive power to people who were in place to foresee and act on problems early and totally failed to do so is not a wise strategy.

Broad Based Failure Is Endemic of Fundamental, Systemic or Prevailing Problems

In an example germane to my life, patching cracks in a wall that sits on sinking foundation solves nothing. Likewise, trying to patch up broadly floundering economic system and tack on ancillary regulation doesn’t address the underlying problems that created the immediate situation.

Unknown Problems Cannot Have Known Solutions

I’m not claiming to understand the scope of the problem myself, but if someone asked me how much money it would take to fix a problem, I would make sure I understood within a reasonable amount of certainty what needed to be done before I quoted a number.

Are You Negligent or a Liar?

Even last week, there were a lot of people in power, ostensibly intelligent, who were claiming that the current crisis was isolated and controllable. Now, however, many of the same people claim that without immediate, unquestioned granting of unprecedented power and money that the sky will fall. While much has happened since last week, the only two explanations are that previous statements were either intentionally false or made in ignorance. Neither are qualities I desire in those overseeing our economic system.

I doubt congress reads my blog, so all of this thinking is probably in vain. Big companies have lobbyists and rich CEOs have friends, but the taxpayer has nothing.

And people ask me why I’m a cynic.

Other than my recent tirade I have been unable to post here as frequently as I would like. It’s not for lack of anger or indignation. Rather I have been using my writing powers for good (for a change?) over at the NoiseTrade blog.

Knowing is half the battle.

…that other gaming companies don’t.

Gaming isn’t primarily about graphics or speed or blu-ray. It’s about experience. (It doesn’t seem interesting at first…just hang in there.)

…try and buy a house.

Disclaimer: I’m no Godin. Really I’m not even a branding or marketing dilettante but I do some thing to say on the subject. I may be wrong, but I don’t think so. I’m not often wrong.

The criticisms and counsel is this brief article are for small to medium business that have a broad front of customer interaction: retail, consumer services, and professional services with a 1:1 or 1:Few model (meaning business happens when people, not websites, interact). Some of it may translate to other areas, but if it does, I’m not particularly interested. At least, not presently.

With some notable exceptions, big companies tend to “get” branding, at least to the point that they are able to construct systems that allow consistent presentation and messaging across time and media; if I blindfolded you, took you into a Best Buy (God forbid), and removed the blind fold, it wouldn’t take you long to figure out where you were. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), however, just don’t get it.

The proliferation of “branding” consultants/bloggers/idiots, the availability of cheap/asinine/meaningless logos via elance-types, and the high price of actual brand services have convinced SMBs that branding is about a “cool” logo, a catchy “mission statement,” and, if they are extraordinarily sophisticated, consistent font usage in the Microsoft Word-generated letterhead/business cards/website.

Branding is not any of those things. Truly, your branding is only a name for the perception of your organization by your prospects, customers, and even employees. Brand is a one-word name for Your Message and How You Communicate It. And, to be clear, I do not mean your tortuous, insipid mission statement (trust me, your mission statement is insipid). I mean the message that your business communicates holistically, in every action, decision, and communication it makes.

You brand is not what you say it is, it is what your business executes, all day, every day. You probably think you agree, but it’s easy to find ways your business lies about its brand to customers:

Leave Trash in your Parking Lot.

People expect trash in WalMart’s parking lot because everyone knows WalMart doesn’t care. Trash in the parking lot of a business with local ownership communicates that your brand is: Not Caring About The Community. Seriously.

Hassle Customers About Payment Types

Most consumers think all payment types are equal. Tough. Here are your choices:

• Ask the customer briefly and politely if he or she could pay by your preferred method, while apologizing and downplaying the difference. This makes you seem needy, but if you want to fight this battle, it’s your only choice.
• Refuse to allow your (now former) customers to pay for your products or services in a method convenient to them.
• Charge your customers extra for payment types that cost you more.
• Suck it up and do what is right for the customer. This is your only option that does not subliminally suggest to the customer that do not want his or her business.

Think about it. Amazon’s prices are probably lower than yours, and they process a lot more transactions than you do, and they don’t hassle customers about how they want to pay. Your brand is: We’re In Business To Make Our Lives Easier, Not Yours.

Acquire Your Fixtures Piece-mail

It’s not hard to have a decent-looking environment:

1. Rent a van.
2. Go to ikea.
3. Pick out a furniture collection.
4. Count how many employees you have.
5. Buy that many of the collection.

If you want to do more than that, do it, especially if you’re in retail. But having as many kinds/sizes/colors of desks, chairs, lamps and filing cabinets as you have employees communicates the brand: We Might As Well Work in a Dump.

What Your Employees Are Doing

If customers enter your business and are not immediately greeted by an employee who communicates both verbally and non-verbally that they want to help, you’re in deep trouble. Employees need to communicate to customers that you want their business. Asking “How are you?” while sitting at a desk checking gmail does not qualify. Simply smiling at a customer does not qualify. Answering the phone as a customer approaches does not qualify. Failing to return voicemail or email does not qualify. Standing around watching as a customer on crutches struggles to get in the door does not qualify. These things communicate that your brand is: Not Giving a Damn About Your Customers.

Hire Poorly

Management may think they have control over branding, but employees will interact with far more people than management. In fact, the first interaction customers have with your business is probably the lowest-paid employee. How those employees act, the words they choose, and their attitudes will reflect the actual brand. Poor morale, poor communication, and poor customer service are not the fault of employees. They are 100% the fault of management. There could only a be few reasons you don’t have good employees:

• Management makes poor hires or poor placement.
• Management pays low wages/benefits.
• Management has poor policies, procedures and training.
• Management does not provide the tools employees need.

That’s IT. If you’re employees suck, then your business sucks, and you do the hiring, training and paying. This communicates the brand: We’d Rather Do Nothing Than Get Better.

Don’t Give Employees Business Cards

Business cards are quickly, cheaply, and easily available. If you can’t spend 10 minutes to get a new employee’s name and email address on a business card, then you are communicating the brand: Our Employees Are Nothing Special.

Treat Employees Poorly

If you don’t have family-friendly vacation and sick time policies, you won’t have long term, stable employees. If you don’t pay employees enough to afford your products, you won’t have highly knowledgeable enthusiasts. If you don’t allow employees to make decisions, you will be pestered all day long. If you create an environment of mediocrity, you will drag everyone down to that level or drive them away. Your brand is: Give Us Everything For Nothing In Return.

Manage Poorly

If you promote employees to management because they are good at sales, or accounting, or shipping/receiving, or whatever field you are in, then you are going to end up with your best “technicians” wasting their time and talents. Managers need to be capable in their field, but also need vision, leadership, and the ability to think strategically. If someone cannot figure out how to appropriately manage projects and tasks, get that person out of management or your brand is: We Don’t Know How To Solve Our Own Problems.

Allow Unprofessional Behavior

This is a very broad category, and the hardest place to affect change; management is unable or unwilling to admit “soft” problems in the workplace. Primarily because this kind of behavior trickles down from management: if it happens, then management is contributing to or allowing it. Period. There is no justification for preferential treatment, discrimination, sexual harassment, or disparaging/insulting conduct in the workplace. However secret, harmless, or “subtle” you think this is, it will seep into your culture and reach customers. Your brand is: We Exploit People For Our Own Enjoyment.

There You Have It

I could go on, but if this doesn’t strike a chord, then nothing else will. It takes a lot of guts to look at your business this way, because even $50-100 million/year businesses face huge challenges in the area, and too many managers are so isolated that they are incapable of judging business performance objectively. But what was OK in business 10 years ago isn’t going to fly forever. You heard it here first.

I discovered via the local coffeeshop that a local troupe, The People’s Branch, is putting on a production of Sam Shepard’s True West at The Belcourt. While I can’t speak for the troupe-having never seen their work before-I can vouch for True West: it’s a great play, and has one of the single most detailed sound piece instructions of any play I’ve ever seen or read.

Here’s the synopsis from The People’s Branch which is pretty accurate:

Austin is a stable, successful Hollywood screenwriter, Lee his menacing vagabond brother, and True West is the story of their attempt to trade lives.

Their tragicomic quest to change identity ends in a stalemate, but along the way this Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes gleeful potshots at Hollywood, the myth of the frontier, and the escape fantasies that drive the American imagination.

Today I sold my faithful Mac Pro, known internally as “quadruple_threat,” via craigslist. It’s been a great machine, but I’ve been using it so little since moving to Nashvegas that I can’t justify keeping it around anymore just because it would it would be great for something that I never use it for.

So now, apart from The Collection and the media credenza, I’m officially laptop only.

Common words in song titles from my iTunes Library at work.