Mylan CEO Should Resign (And Take Her 'Coupons' With Her)

I recently wrote a Huffington Post piece demanding that embattled Mylan CEO, Heather Bresch, cut the price of EpiPens and resign. After days of media coverage regarding Mylan’s price gouging of the EpiPen auto-injector, Bresch finally took an interview with CNBC that could, at best, be described as a friendly exchange. There were no hard hitting questions. This wasn’t journalism; it was public relations’ version of tee-ball. I am writing again to reiterate my demand that Heather Bresch cut the price of EpiPens and resign immediately.

When Bresch finally broke her silence, it was to offer coupons and an increase in a program that gives low-income families free access to EpiPens. Coupons! I can’t make this up. This gives us more perspective on how important the systematic EpiPen price increases are to Mylan and its CEO.

Bresch and her fellow Mylan executives undoubtedly have spent dozens of hours over the past few days hunkered down in a conference room with a public relations crisis team, lawyers and other advisors. After days of public outcry over yet another case of extreme corporate greed and indifference for human life, they decided to offer us coupons.

After days of public outcry over yet another case of extreme corporate greed and indifference for human life, they decided to offer us coupons.

Heather Bresch’s comments on CNBC’s Squawk Box were a distraction. Bresch didn’t even consider cutting the price, stating, “Had we reduced the list price, I couldn’t ensure that everyone that needs an EpiPen gets one.”

Look closely at what she is actually saying in this statement that was clearly drafted with legal expertise. Bresch is saying that if she cut the price, she could not guarantee that every single person who needed an EpiPen gets one. This statement is true to the extent that if she lowered the price and even a single person wasn’t aware that they could now afford this life-saving drug, that one person might not receive an EpiPen. This statement was artfully crafted to make it sound as if Bresch has no ability to increase access to EpiPens for millions of people who need them. But Bresch knows this isn’t true. The best way to increase access to this life-saving medication is to cut the price.

Bresch also offered to increase the income threshold for lower-income families who have free access to EpiPens. This is also calculated. In my professional role, I work with many lower-income families. I know from experience that these families are the more likely to be unaware of complicated programs that may require forms, a visit to the doctor, and other obstacles. It’s often very difficult to increase awareness of programs that benefit these lower-income families. Bresch and Mylan are making an offer that appears to be more altruistic than it really is. They know that many of these families will still pay for EpiPens or go without them because they won’t have an awareness of this program and any changes to it.

You can keep your coupons, Heather! Cut the price of EpiPens and resign.

What happens when the national public outcry dies down because Mylan has appeared to appeased people just enough so that our short-term memory news cycle moves on to the next big scandal? The coupon and the program for lower-income families can be cut or eliminated altogether. And Mylan still has a virtual monopoly in the national epinephrine auto-injector market.

Why is Bresch even offering coupons and additional access to a free EpiPen program? Bresch and Mylan have lost billions of dollars in stock value in a number of days due to the negative press about their systematic price gouging. If they act quickly and quiet the national fervor, they will disappear from the national media spotlight, the waters will calm and their stock may continue to gain back those billions.

The really disgusting part of all of this? Mylan’s stock could actually gain value as a result of Bresch’s sleight of hand comments and offers to customers. The only way that real change will come to Mylan is if our nation’s media outlets - and all of us regular hardworking Americans – continue to demand price cuts and Bresch’s resignation.

The calculated response and “fixes” that Mylan CEO Heather Bresch offered people like my two-year-old daughter are further evidence of a culture of greed that employs deceit and misdirection to maintain its extortionate prices and profit margin.

The most despicable part of Bresch’s theatrical CNBC comments was that she claimed, “No one’s more frustrated than me.”

I’ll bet you your $19 million salary that I’m more frustrated than you! You can keep your coupons, Heather! Cut the price of EpiPens and resign!

Related...

• The CEO Who Raised EpiPen Prices Should Resign
• Mylan Executives Got Pay Increases As Price Of EpiPen Soared
• EpiPen's 500 Percent Price Hike Leaves Patients Scrambling

Why An Outsized Number Of Blondes Are Leading The Country

Blondes. They’re stereotypically portrayed as ditzy. They famously have “more fun.” But here’s the head-turning part: women with blonde hair disproportionately hold positions of power in the U.S.

A stunning 48 percent of female chief executives at S&P 500 companies and 35 percent of female senators are blonde, according to findings presented by two business school researchers earlier this month at an Academy of Management annual meeting in Anaheim, California.

The first women to get a major party nomination for president? Blonde. First woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court? Blonde. First women president of Harvard. You guessed it. 

Blond male leaders are far less common. (Sorry, Donald Trump.) Just 2.2 percent of male CEOs had blond hair, a 2005 study found. That’s more in line with the hair color’s natural occurrence. Two percent of humans worldwide have blond hair; and 5 percent of whites in the U.S., according to the researchers.

Stephen Lam/Reuters

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer -- 48 percent of female CEOs on the S&P 500 sport blonde locks.

If you include women and men who dye their hair, certainly, the blond population rises, but probably not anywhere near 50 percent, Jennifer Berdahl, who coauthored the presentation, told The Huffington Post. “If women are choosing to dye their hair blonde, there’s something strategic about the choice,” Berdahl said.

The prevalence of blonde female CEOs doesn’t contradict the stereotype of the dumb blonde ― it plays into it ― Berdahl and her coauthor Natalya Alonso, of the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, explain in their presentation.

In addition to incompetence, light-colored hair is also associated with youth, attractiveness, dependence and warmth. All of these traits counter-balance the more aggressive, dominant ― and stereotypically male ― characteristics required to run a large organization, the researchers explain.

Andy Katz/Pacific Press via Getty Images

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) -- 38 percent of women in the Senate are blonde.

“If the package is feminine, disarming and childlike,” Berdahl told The Huffington Post. “You can get away with more assertive, independent and [stereotypically] masculine behavior.” 

The researchers didn’t consider TV news anchors, but it seems anecdotally true that Fox News ― a conservative network with somewhat antsy views on the role of women ―  employs an awful lot of blonde anchors. Consider Megyn Kelly and, until recently, Gretchen Carlson, who certainly played up a “dumb blonde” image to counterbalance her background as a Stanford educated violinist.

Berdahl and Alonso don’t claim that women are consciously going blonde to disarm their overwhelmingly male colleagues. But their work, which includes three studies where men were asked various questions about photos of the same woman, with either brown or blonde hair, shows this disarming factor is very much at play for women leaders.

Researchers from Northwestern University school of business discovered a parallel phenomenon with black male leaders, who are more likely to have a roundish “baby-face” than their white counterparts. In studies, black leaders were also rated as warmer and less threatening. While it’s fairly acceptable for white male leaders to get angry (see: Bernie Sanders/Donald Trump.) Black men are judged harshly for displaying that kind of emotion.

Berdahl and Alonso also found that male CEOs are more likely to be married to blondes: 43 percent of the highest-paid male CEOs have a blonde spouse.

The blonde thing is likely a natural reaction to the racist and sexist notions that underpin the dominant conception of what a “leader” looks like. White. Male. Conduct a Google image search for CEO, you’ll get a lot of pictures of caucasian dudes. Or just look at the faces of the CEOs on the Fortune 500.

Very few women make it to the CEOs office and those who do are overwhelmingly white. After Ursula Burns steps down from her perch at Xerox later this year, there will be no black women CEOs in the S&P 500. It’s worth noting that blonde hair is a caucasian trait. It’s also more common in children.

For their presentation, Berdahl and Alonso conducted three studies, using about 100 male participants, to see how they felt about women CEOs who were blonde and brunette. The first two studies confirmed stereotypes: Respondents rated blondes and brunettes equally attractive, but blondes were found to be less competent and independent.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

IBM chief executive Virginia 'Ginni' Rometty. Nearly half of the (very few) women on the S&P 500 have blonde hair.

Then, participants were shown a picture of the same woman ― with blonde and brown hair and asked who they’d recommend for a CEO or Senate position. The majority of participants voted for the brunette because she is “intelligent, professional and serious,” the presentation quotes a respondent saying. 

The third study is where “the blonde paradox” lies: Men were asked to rate female leaders who displayed a dominant leadership style ― they read a quote where the CEO says “I don’t want there to be any ambiguity about who’s in charge,” and “My staff knows who the boss is.” When this came out of the brown-haired woman’s mouth, she was rated very harshly on warmth and attractiveness.

The blonde did much better.

“The same woman changes her hair color from blonde to brunette, and she’s seen as a bitch,” Berdahl said.

David Giesbrecht/Netflix

Claire Underwood, played by Robin Wright, didn't stay brunette for long on "House of Cards."

Fans of Netflix’s “House of Cards” may recall that the first lady on that series, the ruthless “ice queen” Claire Underwood, dyed her hair back to its natural brown during Season 3 of the show in a fit of rebelliousness.

It didn’t play well and her handlers were soon urging her to go back to blonde: “Iowa voters love the blonde,” she’s told by an advisor.

Of course they do.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified Natalya Alonso’s surname as Alfonso. 

The 7 Best Social Media Channels for Business Marketing

By Justin Sachs

Social media has been the game changer in almost everything that surrounds us. With the birth of social platforms, custom targeting of prospective customers is easier than ever. One of the greatest innovations of technology is social media, not just in our ability to communicate but in our ability to market directly to those we want to reach.

At my company, we are so specific with whom we target that we even identify our prospect by the books they are reading, the movies they are watching, and the industry experts they are a fan of. We guide our clients on how to significantly expand their reach to those that best match their customer profile. One of the best features social media marketing has for businesses today is its low barrier to entry. Gone are the days where a business is required to spend thousands of dollars on advertising to reach its prospect. You can now reach your audience spending as little as five dollars per week!

But which platforms are the best for businesses to use? In order to create a successful social strategy, you have to be familiar with how they work. We've provided a list of our favorite platforms for marketing our business and acquiring new clients.

1. Facebook

With more than 1.59 billion users, Facebook comprises of the largest blend of demographics of any social platform. It provides an extraordinary medium for your business to connect with your prospective customers all around the world. And from an advertising perspective, it's the easiest to manage and allows for the best possible targeting. We use Facebook Ads to match our current buyers with over two million similar prospects who possess similar characteristics. We then push them to an opt-in page where we can capture their name and email.

2. Twitter

Twitter's value lies in its ability for your posts to go viral: the more people share your posts and "retweet" your content, the more followers you will attain. We post recent news, updates and articles we have in major media. Hashtags make a big difference in building momentum for your posts, so pay attention to what is trending today and include relevant hashtags. We also retweet people who have many followers to increase the likelihood of them following us back.

3. LinkedIn

If you are working in a B2B field, this is the social media network for you to focus on. Connecting with business professionals in any industry is easiest with LinkedIn as it allows you to target them by industry, job title, etc. As with all social media, LinkedIn prioritizes relationship building more than any other. Don't lead with a sales pitch; start by building a connection. One of the best features for businesses are LinkedIn Groups. Businesses should establish Groups in your target niche or industry and invite others in your target market to join.

At my company, we focus on building new relationships with key prospects whose professional titles we've identified. For example, we'll search "CEO Speaker" to find people who are the heads of their companies and who also are active speakers.

4. Instagram

We use this popular photo-sharing platform at events and tradeshows. Whenever we're hosting events, we always have an incentive for the attendees to post photos to Instagram using our event hashtag. We'll also offer a free giveaway or raffle for those who participate.

5. Pinterest

Only use this channel if you have great images to share. Quality images are likely to go viral on this site due to its visual nature. If your image is pinned by a highly-followed member, it has the potential to be viewed by millions. It's also great for promoting products. We post photos of book covers and images with quotes accredited to our authors to promote their books. Adding the Amazon link to their books also helps boost sales.

6. YouTube

Aside from being the second largest search engine, YouTube is owned by Google. So when it comes to search engine optimization, videos are more likely to appear in search results than other websites. With Google's acquisition of YouTube, we use Google Hangouts On Air to do interviews with our authors and industry leaders. Then our interview is automatically posted to YouTube under our account for added visibility.

7. Yelp

Yelp is critical for businesses today. If you don't have an active strategy to build reviews on Yelp, your customers may do it for you soon enough. All it takes is one poor review to harm your abilities to build your social platform. Asking your customers to review your business on Yelp prevents any negative review from standing out. We hold campaigns to get our authors to post reviews about us on Yelp in return for a reward. For example, if they post a review, we'll offer them 10 percent off their next order or give them an added service.

It's up to you which among these platforms will likely be a marketing paradise for your business. Just remember that it is not just the social media site that you have to check, but the compatibility it has for your business.

Justin Sachs is a highly-sought-after business and marketing expert and CEO of Motivational Press, an industry-leading book publishing company.

Can't Boards Find a Better Use for Capital Than Buybacks?

Just like the rest of us, corporate executives and board members have some tough choices to make about how to spend the company's money. Or, I should say, our money.

A public company sells stock to outside investors, meaning those of us with pensions and 401(k) plans and mutual funds. Its primary obligation by law and presumably by market forces is to find the best use for that money to create long-term value for shareholders. Of course, they cannot create that value over the long term without attending to the needs of customers and employees and being careful about obeying the law. With that in mind, the executives and directors design the strategy. They have to decide whether the money will be spent more effectively on research and development of new products or on marketing the old ones.

Recently too many companies have opted for a third option -- buying back their own stock. A report issued this week from the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute and Tapestry Networks found:

S&P 500 companies acquired $166.3 billion of their own shares in the first quarter of 2016, more than in any other quarter since the financial crisis....In each of the last nine quarters, at least 370 S&P 500 companies repurchased shares, and over the last three years, S&P 500 companies spent over $1.5 trillion on buybacks. Between 2003 and 2013, S&P 500 companies doubled their spending on share repurchases and dividends while cutting their spending on investments in new plants and equipment. According to data from McKinsey, buybacks have accounted for 47% of US companies' income since 2011, up from 23% in the early 1990s and less than 10% in the early 1980s.

There are valid reasons for companies to buy their stock, especially when they have excess cash and the stock price is substantially below their internal valuation. If the executives do not have a better use for the money, they should return it to shareholders and let them invest somewhere else. But stock prices are high right now. In buying back their own stock, CEOs are telling us that they can think of no better place to spend the company's profits than buying their own shares while prices are at record highs. Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times calls the positive impact on the stock price a "growth mirage."

The increase in buybacks is a warning sign for three reasons. First, it should be a concern that executives do not have any better operational or strategic ideas for creating sustainable, organic growth. We'd rather have them return capital to investors than to overspend on acquisitions. But we invest in these companies because we believe in their business plans and if they cannot find a use for the capital, they owe us an explanation that has to go beyond financial engineering tied to quarterly numbers.

The second concern is that buybacks suggest that boards of directors have approved incentive compensation plans that promote buybacks even when they are not in the interest of shareholders. If they set performance goals in terms of earnings per share, there are two ways to hit the number: higher earnings or reduced number of shares. Boards should make it clear that they reward only higher earnings. The IRRCi/Tapestry report found "Although a number of directors mentioned that their companies project how buyback activity will affect EPS and adjust targets accordingly, only 20 S&P 500 companies disclosed that they did so."

While compensation consultant Ira Kay acknowledges that executives with more stock options implement more buybacks, he insists that it did not diminish the returns to shareholders over the four-year period he studied. Over the longer term, however, the effects may not be as benign, as the money used for buybacks is not being used for improving operations.

Between 2003 and 2013, S&P 500 companies doubled their spending on share repurchases and dividends. But, at the same time, companies cut spending on investments in new plants and equipment.

A third warning sign is the shift in where the money for these buybacks is coming from. Increasingly, it is not excess cash but debt. David Ader writes in Barron's:

The bond market should be concerned about stock buybacks, but not because of their bullish effect on share prices. Instead, bondholders should be anxious about where the cash to pay for them comes from. It isn't widely appreciated that the money has been borrowed in the credit markets, and that the borrowers have taken on a large amount of debt to support the buybacks.

It is one thing to return excess cash to shareholders if executives have no strategic ideas, though it raises questions about management's judgment and the company's future prospects. But it is harder to understand a decision to take on debt to purchase the company's own shares, a maneuver with short-term gains but significant long-term risks.

Directors interviewed for the IRRCi/Tapestry report justified using debt to buy back stock because US tax policies and low interest rates have made cheap and easy to borrow money.

The large build-up of capital in non-US affiliates means that companies have an emergency fund to draw upon should it become necessary. As a result, creditors offer very attractive loans to companies, meaning some corporations are able to engage in almost costless borrowing to fund buyback programs.

The directors IRRCi/Tapestry interviewed insisted that "their companies can afford both buybacks and adequate investment. They listed the usual justifications for buybacks,

• To return capital to shareholders
• To invest in the company's shares
• To offset dilution from using equity as currency
• To alter the company's capital structure

Many directors said that they would be unlikely to find enough good opportunities to invest all their companies' available capital in today's low-growth, low-interest-rate environment, and that it was often better to return capital to shareholders than to hoard capital or invest in projects with less-than-desired projected returns. Directors also said they tend to prefer buybacks to dividends because they believe a buyback program offers greater flexibility over time.

IRRCi executive director Jon Lukomnik says, "A trillion and a half dollars in buybacks over three years certainly returns capital to shareowners and reduces the number of shares outstanding. That's why buybacks are popular. But, some view buybacks as financial engineering to juice short-term corporate performance at the expense of investments that would better grow companies and the economy over the long-term."

The report's most significant recommendation is for improved disclosures about share repurchase programs, noting, "Few companies publicly disclose details about buyback decision-making and very few state the reasons for a specific buyback program." Concerns about misaligned incentives and the increased use of debt shift the burden of proof to require much more specific disclosure about the process and calculus used to quantify the benefits of buybacks. Shareholders need to know whether they are getting their money's worth from buybacks and from the executives and directors who approve them.

Are Tesla Investors Getting A Raw Deal In SolarCity Merger?

On August 1, Tesla Motors, whose chief executive officer is Elon Musk, announced the acquisition of another Musk brainchild, SolarCity, a rooftop solar panel company for which he servers as chairman, in a $2.6-billion all-stock deal. “It’s really all part of solving the sustainable energy problem,” Musk said when the merger was announced. “That’s why we are all doing this — to accelerate the advent of a sustainable energy world.” Maybe, but was that the real reason for the merger?

Started in 2006 by Musk’s cousins Peter and Lyndon Rive at Musk’s suggestion, SolarCity had a simple plan: Lease solar panels to homeowners on a long-term basis but retain ownership of the panels, allowing the company to rake in hefty incentives from state and federal governments. At first, hyped by Musk, whose showmanship skills rival those of P.T. Barnum, SolarCity flourished. Its stock peaked in February 2014 at $85 a share. Investors who bought the initial public offering at $8 a share 14 months earlier were ecstatic.

But things changed dramatically. The first sure sign of trouble came in August 2015 when Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates revealed he had shorted SolarCity because its business plan made it a “subprime financing company.” Later that year, SolarCity suffered another blow when the Nevada Public Utility Commission passed rules ending net metering, which allowed a homeowner with solar panels to sell unused electricity back to the power company. The decision prompted Lyndon Rive to admit that without net metering rooftop solar “makes no financial sense for a consumer.” If other states followed Nevada’s lead, SolarCity would be hit hard.

In early 2016, SolarCity stock was downgraded by Barclay’s, then JP Morgan. In May, CNBC’s Jim Cramer declared: “This is a company that I regard in a first-class crisis that acts as if everything is fine.” That same month, after the stock price had plunged more than 60 percent from its peak, Chanos became even more vocal in his criticism, saying, “They’re losing money on every installation and making it up on volume, and that’s a problem when you have a levered balance sheet.”

By June, there was talk of bankruptcy, so Musk had to act. The solution: Tesla, a company with a promising future, would buy SolarCity, a company in precipitous decline. Once again, Chanos warned of problems: “[SolarCity] is burning hundreds of millions in cash every quarter, a burden that now Tesla shareholders will have to bear, at a cost of over $8 billion.” Even so, the boards of directors of both companies approved the deal; now the shareholders of both companies must consent to the merger, a vote that will likely occur during the fourth quarter.

In the press, the deal has been described as more of a bailout than a purchase. Consider The Motley Fool’s commentary: “Maybe SolarCity was in need of a bailout more than investors thought. If that’s the case, it could be a terrible merger for Tesla if SolarCity was in such dire straits in the first place. [I]t could destroy a lot of shareholder value [at Tesla].” And this from The Los Angeles Times: “The deal has been fraught with criticism since it was first proposed….with critics calling the move a bailout.”

Tesla stockholders, then, know they are assuming SolarCity’s financial woes, but what else? For one thing, they may be inheriting regulatory liability. Over the last year or so, the Federal Trade Commission has received complaints from consumers about unscrupulous business practices carried out by solar panel companies. It has also been pressured by the United States Congress. “As a very new industry with a limited track record and little regulatory oversight,” a group of congressmen from Arizona and Texas wrote to the FTC, “the solar leasing market may pose a considerable risk to the increasingly large numbers of American consumers that commit to the leasing product (not to mention the American taxpayer, who heavily subsidizes each rooftop solar project).” As a result, the FTC recently announced its intention to expand its reach over the solar panel industry. Because SolarCity is the nation’s largest provider of solar panels, it is clearly in the FTC’s sites.

There will also be increased scrutiny of SolarCity on the state level. “The recent proliferation of new solar projects brings the potential for a new kind of deception,” Attorney General William Sorrell of Vermont has said, echoing a growing sentiment shared by attorneys general across the country. Indeed, six attorneys general have publicly expressed concerns about the solar industry’s unethical business procedures, among them predatory sales practices and providing consumers with inaccurate leasing information and false promises of lower energy bills. This could potentially lead to a class action case similar to the one filed by attorneys general against Big Tobacco in the 1990s. That would be devastating for an industry already bleeding money.

In short, SolarCity shareholders know what they’re getting with this merger — an unexpected bailout. Tesla shareholders are not so fortunate, and SolarCity’s bad balance sheet may be the least of what they have to deal with. 

This Woman Lived In A Tent, Car And Boat To Escape Insane San Francisco Rents

Here’s one way to deal with the insane housing costs in California’s Bay Area: ditch your home altogether.

That’s exactly what Kristin Hanes did for four months last year. The outdoorsy 35-year-old slept in a “cozy” Toyota Prius as well as in a tent in various campgrounds, all the while working full time at KGO, an AM radio station in San Francisco. Hanes wrote about being “intentionally homeless” in an essay published in online magazine The Bold Italic last week.

Hanes gave up her studio apartment in Mill Valley, a city north of San Francisco, in May 2015. She also gave up her $1,800 monthly rent. For the next few months, she spent about $400 a month on living expenses: $200 for a gym membership; $150 for a storage space for extra belongings; and about $50 for various camping costs.

Reducing her costs by more than 75 percent allowed her to save money and pay off thousands of dollars of debt, her main goal.  

In September, Hanes ended her “intentionally homeless” experiment and found a houseboat for rent with a roommate. She stayed there until spring, when she was laid off from her job. In May, she moved into her boyfriend’s 41-foot sailboat, which they are restoring. In the meantime, they do not have a working toilet and cook on a camping stove.

She currently spends a few hundred dollars a month on living expenses while working as a freelance voiceover artist and writer.

“Yes, I could have spent half my income on an apartment and lived a fancy life, but I would have always had debt, and possibly would have gone into more debt to do so, especially after being laid-off,” Hanes told The Huffington Post in an email.

Credit: Kristin Hanes

Kristin Hanes and her boyfriend live in a small but homey vintage sailboat in the Bay Area, but forgo modern plumbing and a functional kitchen.

Hanes takes pleasure in the non-fancy life she shares with her boyfriend in the close quarters of the boat. She also found unexpected joys during her months living without a roof over her head, she explained in her essay:

We had a blast, roasting salmon in foil over campfires, playing guitar and drinking beer under the pinprick lights of a thousand stars. We heard the deep-throated hooting of owls and the pitter-patter of rain on our tent, and breathed in fresh pine air. On weekends, we’d get out of town and backpack Lassen Volcano and Yosemite National Parks. Unfettered by rent or the need to clean, we both felt so free and closer to both nature and each other than we’d ever felt before.

The lifestyle also came with challenges ― imagine not having a kitchen or a bathroom. Sleeping in a car, which they did most nights, was particularly nerve-wracking.

“It was also hard always being on alert, not wanting to be caught,” Hanes told HuffPost. “Sleep could never be fully relaxing.”

While Hanes refers to that time as being intentionally homeless, she also thinks of it as an adventure, like “playing an adult game of ‘fort.’” She was quick to distinguish her experience ― a choice she had the luxury to make, made easier with amenities like a gym membership and evenings spent at happy hours ― from the forced homelessness that’s a systemic issue in San Francisco.

More than 6,800 adults go without shelter on any given day in San Francisco, according to volunteers’ citywide count on a single night in January 2015. However, the San Francisco Chronicle notes that the figure may exclude a significant portion of the homeless population and  could actually be much higher.

A lack of housing and an influx of tech workers have helped rents and housing costs skyrocket in the Bay Area, pushing out less affluent residents and minorities. More than 2,000 San Francisco residents were evicted last year, as advocates call for more affordable housing and anti-displacement initiatives.

Read more:

• There's A Profoundly Simple Explanation For San Francisco's Housing Crisis
• Scathing Resignation Letter Nails Silicon Valley's Housing Crisis

Hanes’ response to high rents might seem unusual, but others have also created offbeat homes rather than spend a few thousand dollars each month for a cramped apartment.

An engineer at Google received attention last year for his choice to live in a truck he purchased for $10,000 ― just five months’ worth of rent at his previous apartment. Earlier this year, a San Francisco resident built and lived in a small wooden pod in a friend’s apartment, paying $400 a month. However, he was soon forced to dismantle his makeshift room, which violated housing codes. Others live in garages or share bedrooms with multiple roommates.

“I think the wealth of many is pushing others out onto the streets,” Hanes told HuffPost. “Many people are getting evicted and have to move out of the Bay Area or to a different part of the Bay. Others end up living in a tent under a freeway, or in their cars.”

“It’s probably the biggest social issue in the region today,” she added.

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Kate Abbey-Lambertz covers sustainable cities, housing and inequality. Tips? Feedback? Send an email or follow her on Twitter.   

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Bouncing Back After Your Lay-Off

It's natural to sit back and think that others have it easy in their career. A free pass to a cushy career. A continuous flow of promotions, status, influence and money. But what I've learned as a leading Career Coach is that nobody has a free pass. Nobody. Everyone has breakdowns, meltdowns and throwdowns. But I love the quote by Zig Ziglar, "It's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts."

So how can you bounce after you've just been laid off? My last article in Huffington Post, 2016 Best Career Apps and Websites to Land Your Dream Job, helped many of you find your dream job. Now let's focus on the next step which is how to land your dream job, even after you've been laid off.

Here are 3 tips from my book, "The Bounce Back" -

1. You are the storyteller of your own career.

The way you think is everything. Getting your next job heavily depends on your mindset and how you frame your career story. If you're sending the message that you've been short-changed, passed over or stepped on in your career, then hiring managers are sure to see you as someone who gets short-changed, passed over and stepped on. But if you send a strong, clear message that you're a key contributor with some big successes under your belt, then hiring managers and Sr. leaders will take notice.

Write down 2-3 of your biggest achievements over the past three years. Now, practice saying out loud in a sentence or two how you contributed to those successes and what the impact was to the organization. For example, "I was the technical lead for a new internal tool that was launched on the SAP platform. The tool is now saving the organization $500,000 a year." Or, "I was on the creative marketing campaign for the XYZ product which gained 3% more market share and generated one million dollars in new revenue."

Quantify your results in terms of dollars, numbers and percentages. The key to getting more job offers, leads and opportunities is talking about your results and accomplishments. Nobody will hire you unless they know what you can do.

2. Network strategically.
You may feel like crawling under the covers, but now is the time to get out and start talking with others. Eighty percent of jobs are going to those job candidates who have a referral within the organization. That means, you need to know someone inside the company who can put their stamp of approval on you. Who do you know who could recommend you to the hiring manager?

Start by re-connecting with past managers, colleagues and customers. Networking isn't one-sided. It's two-sided. It's about having a professional relationship that is mutually supportive of each other's career. Ask how you can support them. Offer to send those in your network information that might be helpful in their job, write a recommendation for them on LinkedIn, or connect them to someone in your network who could potentially become a new client.

I understand that you had a setback, but that was just one experience with a small handful of people. Connect with others you have worked with who know the value and impact you bring to an organization. Ask if they would write a recommendation for your LinkedIn profile, or send a letter of recommendation to a hiring manger. Ask if they know of any job leads they could give you. Building a strong network of supporters will pave the way to landing your next job.

3. Framing your story after a setback.

Earlier in my career I was laid off at a small advertising agency, and within a few months bounced back as the new Regional Marketing Manager for a Fortune 100 finance company. I believe that a large part of the reason I was hired was because of the way I told my career story to the Vice President.

During the interview, the VP asked why I left my last company. I talked about how it was a great company and how much I loved my role and responsibilities. Then, I addressed the reason for my layoff which was, "I didn't realize when I took the position that I was expected to fill the shoes of two employees. Even though I had some big results and was good at my job, I just simply couldn't fill both of their shoes." That was it. Enough said. Calm, confident and succinct. The VP didn't ask any follow-up questions about my previous situation. Two days later he hired me.

It's not the setback that holds you back, but how you internalize the setback that is pivotal to bouncing back. Everyone has setbacks in their career. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. Don't let a negative experience stop you from moving your career forward. The key is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, tap your network, and frame your career story with confidence.

Your next career opportunity is out there - now go get it! :)

The Olympics Are Over...But The Story Tail Is Long

I've admitted to being a sucker for the Olympics.

But, truthfully, I am a sucker for those moments that, to me, are redolent of what the Olympics are supposed to stand for, whether they are incredible feats of prowess by individuals or teams or whether they are moments that rise above sports and enter into the realm of the truly transcendent...the almost spiritual.

Let's be clear: for every transcendent moment, there is a Ryan Lochte, who apologized for his behavior in Rio on Instagram.

There are athletes who dope and otherwise cheat to stay ahead:

TIME: "Team USA Is About to Be Kicked Off its Doping High Horse in Rio"
The Guardian: "Darya Klishina, Russia's only track and field athlete in Rio, banned"
Daily Mail: "Two Olympic Athletes in Drug Shame..."

And there are the countries who forfeit rather than play, bringing hatred and sectarian strife into the games.

Newsweek: "Saudi Judo Competitor Forfeits Match to 'Avoid Israeli' in Next Round"

But don't be fooled: none of this is endemic to our era with our heightened media coverage, our digital social sharing and our celebrity obsessions. Nor is it the result of our world being out of control or some growing lack of values--even if that might true, to some, in a macro, global sense.

In fact, these issues are as old as the games themselves, as old as Athens:

Cheating, bribery and scandal: how the ancient Greeks did the Olympic Games

While in antiquity instances of bribery remained the exception - and were heavily punished - there's plenty of evidence to suggest that attempts to manipulate the outcome of the competitions are as old as the Games themselves...

Attempts to influence the outcome of the Games confirm that the competitive streak ran strongly through ancient Greek culture. In a world where few believed in an afterlife, this-worldly glory mattered immensely. And what better opportunity to show off than competing with others before an audience from all over the Greek world?...

From 776BCE on, the Greeks gathered every four years to celebrate the Olympic Games and compete in a number of disciplines, including the foot race, boxing and various equestrian skills.

Such attempts to influence the outcome of the Games confirm that the competitive streak ran strongly through ancient Greek culture. In a world where few believed in an afterlife, this-worldly glory mattered immensely. And what better opportunity to show off than competing with others before an audience from all over the Greek world?

The Alexandrian boxer Apollonius arrived at the Games too late and was banned from competing. He claimed that bad weather had made it impossible for him to arrive on time. This was a straight lie: it turned out that Apollonius was late because he had secured himself a nice payout at some other Games.

What happened next was even more outrageous. In the words of the author Pausanias:

In these circumstances the Eleans shut out from the games Apollonius with any other boxer who came after the prescribed time, and let the crown go to Heracleides without a contest. Whereupon Apollonius put on his gloves for a fight, rushed at Heracleides and began to pummel him, though he had already put the wild olive on his head and had taken refuge with the umpires. For this light-headed folly he was to pay dearly.

Even then!

I'm not sure it makes me feel all that much better but at least I know we are not alone...

Now back to Rio.

I mentioned the symbol of the worst of the games--entitlement brought on by faux celeb status...

The moments of competitive greatness are yours to call--for me it's Usain Bolt, the US Women's Gymnastics Team, Phelps, Ledecky and on and on.

But there was that one transcendent moment that balanced out--if even for just a second--Lochte, the Egyptian judo player, and all the other sore losers, cheaters, and entitled asses who collectively create cynicism around the event.

New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin was lying on the track, dazed after a heavy fall and with her hopes of an Olympic medal seemingly over. Suddenly, there was a hand on her shoulder and a voice in her ear: "Get up. We have to finish this."

It was American Abbey D'Agostino, offering to help.

I loved it. I teared up...yup...Debbie, my wife, did the same. My kids. My friends...in fact, everyone I spoke to had the same reaction. D'Agostino's sportsmanship became a symbol of what could be...what should be.

Then I read the following from Slate:

This is the Olympics moment industrial complex at work. A woman helping another woman on the track becomes "everything that is good and righteous about international sports' grandest competition." It would have been an extraordinary gesture if front-runner Almaz Ayana had stopped, backtracked, and helped Hamblin and D'Agostino across the finish line. It would have been extraordinary if either runner would have come back to win the heat; if they had endured great danger and hardship to get to the Olympics in the first place; if, I don't know, they had been Israeli and Palestinian, respectively, and their actions had bridged a social chasm. I'm not trying to say it wasn't a nice moment. It was quite nice! But why do so many in the media need it to be more than that?

WOW...

It's hard to read, for me, because it does it hit a nerve. Of course the author is right! Of course it's true! In fact, it's almost sad and pathetic that such a small gesture caused such a huge visceral response. But it did.

And, frankly, rightly so...

That little ripple spread out...that's a fact...and who knows what tsunami of good just might be created by people who get inspired by what can be. Next time, maybe someone will bridge a social chasm or greater...maybe someone will be motivated to transcend some narrow thinking and reach out for the greater good...

Who knows?

But I do know that if we get cynical--and it is so easy for that to happen--we will never change the status quo, and a thousand years from now someone will add our stories to those of the Ancient Greeks around "Cheating, Bribery and Scandal."

A little more than a year ago, I attended the opening of the Special Olympics in Los Angeles. I am still in awe of what I saw and inspired by what I experienced.

In light of the Slate piece I share what I wrote then:

And unlike the Olympics, where politics hold sway and where one country will forfeit a game rather than play against another they somehow hate, despite all the Olympic oaths and such, these games are about inclusion...about a unified world...about a vision of a world where we don't discriminate against anyone, no matter their intellectual or physical abilities.

There is no race, color, religion, national or gender bias anywhere to be found here...

In fact, see the lineup of who passed the torch to whom as it entered the stadium (my family and I carried a portion of the journey in New York together with some close friends)...

Horieh Golchin, a table tennis player from Iran, passed the torch to Eliyahu Somer, a basketball player from Israel, who in turn passed it to Darianny Urtado of Cuba who is competing in badminton...

And there you have it.

#changetheworld

It can be done.

Beware of cynicism when our very souls are at stake. Listen:

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. -- Oscar Wilde

In my opinion, Slate is right about the price but is missing the point...the true value.

And then of course there is this from The Washington Post: "The real Ryan Lochte outrage: Matt Lauer not wearing socks for their interview."

What do you think?

Read more at The Weekly Ramble

Follow David Sable on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DavidSable

Entrepreneurs: How to Avoid Screwing Up Your Most Vital Relationships

Best way to wreck your business?

Easy: sabotage your most promising relationships.

Yes -- it boggles the mind. Entrepreneurs will go to extraordinary lengths to connect with people who can help them -- potential investors, mentors, partners, employees, customers -- and then permanently damage these relationships with unnecessary mistakes.

What mistakes are these? I give you three of the worst -- and better yet, I talked to two expert relationship builders to show you how to fix them.

First up: meet Ryan Westwood, founder of a software company called Simplus, contributing writer on Forbes, and organizer of Evening on the Terrace -- an event which brings together people from many different backgrounds, to take part in a meal and talk about anything except their work.

Turns out, the foundation of valuable conversations is simple: stop and listen.

1) Don't pitch. Listen as if your life depends on it.

Never made sense to me: an entrepreneur finally manages to reach an experienced person in their field, and then talks over them. Worse, they even try to pitch. Yikes.

Westwood suggests the exact opposite. While interviewing people for Forbes, he realized the value of such conversations.

"I feel like I've accelerated my growth as an entrepreneur by doing these interviews better than any school I did, or anything else."

"It was the best way for me to get educated as quickly as possible and with the smallest number of mistakes by simply listening to people with experience."

And hence, he founded Evening on the Terrace, to take this personal and business growth to the next level.

The point? The atmosphere of trust and cooperation at these gatherings made it easy for people to discover new ways to attack old problems.

For instance, at one such event, when Westwood put a problem into play in the conversation -- something he and his staff at Simplus struggled with for some time -- it gave him a fresh look on his business. Novel angles to a current problem, discovered only because he listened like crazy.

Same for you. Take this to heart: when the other person talks, you listen. Mouth closed, ears open. Full attention on their words and message.

Make sense? Good -- because if you fail at this, you lose on two counts. Once, because you can't learn anything, and then again by wasting the other person's time.

2) Do not let relationships die. Nurture them.

Sad fact: many entrepreneurs connect with influential people once, and then never again. Huge waste of potential.

Our second expert, Cheryl Snapp Conner, founder of SnappConner Public Relations, shared a powerful story with me.

While running her firm, she connected with Tom Post, who at the time ran the Entrepreneurs content channel on Forbes, and asked if she could have a column on his platform.

He agreed. Several years later, she made him a job offer...and now Post acts as SnappConner PR's "feet on the street" in New York.

How did this happen? Conner had a gut sense Post was ready to become an entrepreneur himself. Plus, due to internal changes at Forbes, Post now faced a long daily commute. And Conner was attuned to all of this.

See the point? To nurture a relationship, you need to tune into the other person's world. To continually support them on their journey. You must ask yourself: since they live in their world, and you in yours, where can the two connect such that the other person gains from it?

Try this: pick 10 people you respect and would love to build relations with. Now go and see what they've been up to for the past couple months. Can you spot an opportunity to be helpful to some of them?

But look -- you can touch base in small ways. Congratulate them on a recent achievement, thank them for something they helped you with, or just take the time to thoroughly read something they wrote and then tell them about it -- any of these count.

Once you identify a way to provide value for them, go for it -- and better yet, don't expect to get anything in return.

3) Take the self-interest out of it.

Conner nailed this one. She told me:

"When something is genuinely given, nobody has to keep score."

True. To constantly keep score means you did not truly commit to giving.

As an entrepreneur, you need to "take the self-interest out of it," as Conner puts it. She sees this in many of her clients: they set out to get published on various platforms, to achieve their own business goals, rather than provide value for readers.

Bottom line? Sounds strange, but it rings true: you rise above the noise when you genuinely help another person. Barriers vanish which you couldn't even see before.

Westwood sums it up for us. The most valuable asset is not money, but human relationships:

"My view: relationship capital trumps actual capital. If you have the right relationships, it will pay immense dividends in the long run."

Now -- guess what? When you do all the above with diligence, things change. People start to take you seriously. The strength of your relationships will no longer take a nosedive every time you talk.

Should You Get A Real Estate License to Invest?

Whether to become a licensed real estate agent/broker in connection with your real estate investing is a question many new investors ask. To help you in getting to an answer, let's just look at what a real estate investor does in the course of their investing business.

First though, let's take one state's requirements and memberships to get an approximate cost to maintain a license. Because real estate is licensed by state, the cost to hold one can vary a lot. However, in most states, these are approximate costs annually after the cost to get education and pass the licensing test:

• Annual renewal, not including any requirements for new fingerprinting or background checks, can run around $100. In the state for this study, the license is renewed every three years for $270.
• Errors and Omissions insurance is required in this state as in many others, and the premium in this case is $310.
• Local MLS, Multiple Listing Service annual membership renewal in this case is $100.
• The local MLS charges the agents $30/month for access to the MLS, so $360/year.
• Many MLS locals require membership in the National Association of Realtors, currently a $120/year cost.

Right now this adds up to $960 per year to maintain the license, but then there is another cost. Every state requires ongoing Continuing Education to renew licensure. In this state it's 30 hours, plus an additional mandatory class that you pay for but is not credited toward the 30-hour requirement. An education package from one provider runs $269, but divided over three years for renewal, that's $90. So, now we're at 1,050.

Okay, that's not terrible, but it is a cost of doing business. Now let's look at what a typical investor doing some flipping, wholesaling and rental property investing does and how a license may help.

1. Buying homes for your own rental inventory - If you're buying from another investor, a license doesn't help at all. If you're buying through a real estate agent and can get the buyer side commission, this would add some dollars to your profit.
2. Wholesaling to investors - Here you get no advantage with a license, as it isn't needed and there are no commissions involved.
3. Buying & rehab to sell to investors - Again, no advantage here for holding a license.
4. Buying & rehab to sell at retail - Here you'll either have to list with a real estate agent and pay a commission or list yourself if you have a license. You'll still have to pay the commission to the agent who brings a buyer though. And, you'll have to market the home, so you'll have an expense there.

Overall, there really isn't much of an advantage financially to hold a real estate license for your investing. There is a definite negative aspect as well. In most states, holding a license places you in a different category of buyer or seller, someone with extra expertise. This means you pick up more liability and must abide by certain rules and regulations not a burden on an unlicensed buyer or seller.

Make your own decision, but all considered a real estate license isn't a big addition to your investor business.

The Dreaded Annual Review -- 5 Ways To Fix Them

While reviews come and go, all too often behaviors, and performance, don't change. So it makes sense that companies are now asking, why continue this painful and often pointless exercise? Companies of all sizes, but certainly noticeably industry-leaders like Gap, Adobe and Deloitte are eliminating them altogether.

SAP recently made its own headlines on this as we pilot using our SAP SuccessFactors continuous performance management capabilities. The headlines have been pretty provocative, but what I've written here is our reality. It's less about "ditching" an annual process completely and more about ongoing and in the moment feedback. I like to think of it as similar to taking golf lessons. The point is to keep making the adjustments you need to improve, and not having your instructor wait six months to tell you your swing is all wrong.

The answer to effective performance management in my view is not doing away with reviews altogether. It's institutionalizing effective, actionable feedback - something managers and colleagues should contribute to throughout the entire year. Here are five ways to make it work.

Understand the motivation
Before you start to appraise an employee's performance, you need to understand both their behaviors and your role in shaping them. People don't always do things just because you ask. Most people do things because they have the capabilities and confidence to be successful at them. So your job as a manager, and even more so as a leader, is less about developing people and more about creating an environment where they can develop themselves. Head into the review process with the knowledge that being a great leader is not about what you do, but rather what you inspire and enable others to achieve.

Get on the same page
The foundation of effective feedback is establishing clear goals and expectations. It may seem obvious that people need to understand expectations in order to meet them, but it's easier than you might think to cross signals on what someone's job goals are. Discussing goals and progress should be a regular event or you'll likely find you're nowhere near on the same page. A good way to measure whether you are aligned is to ask people on your team what their top five priorities are and compare that to what you think they should be. Is it a match? Make this exercise a jumping-off point to discuss where your expectations align and where there may be inconsistencies - and then agree on what to do about it. 

Look ahead, not just back
Resistance to feedback is natural when we don't believe it comes from someone who has our best interests at heart. Make knowing what people on your team want, what they are good at and where they want to go in their careers a priority when assessing performance. Look for ways to tie your assessment not just to performance, but to future development.

No surprises
As a manager, you are failing your employees if you hold out until an annual review to level-set on things that are detrimental to their career. If an employee is on the wrong path, don't wait weeks or months to let them know. Most of us don't see our own shortcomings. Don't only focus on the negative though, or you'll lose your audience right away. Talk about what is working, and encourage employees to focus on those areas. I think we've moved away from worrying about how to improve what people aren't good at; instead, focus on having them spend time on what they do well so they'll get even better.
 
Support success
I talked about development being an individual responsibility with leaders owning the creation of a culture that supports learning and growth. Make sure people on your teams have access to resources, training, coaching or other things you can provide to help them improve their performance and develop in their careers. Today we are all lifetime learners and teachers. Connect people to each other and to resources.

Today we have the technology to support effective, "always on" feedback loops. Think about how much more successful you are when you have a chance to course correct along the way and not have to wait until an entire year is behind you to find out if you were doing the right things and doing them successfully. Ultimately though, it's about the old adage that says "people don't leave companies, people leave managers." Those of us who lead have the responsibility to enable all-in - committed, motivated and inspired - people. If we fail, it's our own performance review we should dread.
 

Who's Responsible For What Happens To Your Broken iPhone? Some Say Apple.

The tech giants that manufacture mobile phones should provide the means for consumers to recycle old devices, according to a survey released Monday of about 6,000 people in six countries.

The research, conducted by independent polling service Ipsos MORI on behalf of Greenpeace’s East Asia branch, polled adults in China, South Korea, Germany, Mexico, Russia and the United States. Nearly half of respondents overall agreed that it’s up to companies ― as opposed to the government or network providers, for example ― to help consumers recycle their devices. Many manufacturers, like Apple, do give consumers those means. But their practices aren’t perfect.

More than half of respondents also said companies are releasing new phone models too quickly. Environmental groups argue that the constant stream of upgrades encourages people to buy a new device instead of repairing their existing ones. As a result, tossed-out iPhones and Androids make up much of the 3 million metric tons of hazardous electronic waste generated each year, according to a 2014 study by the United Nations.

“The humble smartphone puts enormous strain on our environment from the moment they are produced ― often with hazardous chemicals ― to the moment they are disposed of in huge e-waste sites,” Chih An Lee, a campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, said in a statement. “Over half of respondents across the countries surveyed agree that manufacturers are releasing too many new models, many designed to only last a few years.”

Issues with recycling modern electronics aren’t new: Tech companies across the board appear to be focusing on smaller, slimmer products over recyclability, as The Huffington Post reported in June.

For example, many of Apple’s designs for iPads, MacBooks and iPhones make it hard ― and even impossible ― to repair them or recycle them safely. The company has been fighting a secret war in the States over legislation that would force it to hand over schematics and instructions ― and, much to Apple’s chagrin, proprietary information ― to recyclers.

And while Apple offers refurbished models of its products and has a recycling process in place, the company has long been against third-party repair shops. There’s also little way of knowing whether your iProduct is being recycled responsibly in the first place.

Apple didn’t return a request for comment, but the company has maintained its dedication to recycling programs. It told HuffPost this year that it helps recycle millions of pounds of electronics equipment every year. Samsung, the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer, also did not respond to a request for comment.

The inability of the average consumer to recycle or repair their devices in the way they want, along with an ever-increasing frequency of new products, helps create a consumer base that’s more likely to buy a new item than go through the process of recycling. But surveyed consumers seem keen on that option.

Greenpeace’s answer to the problem is the same one HuffPost has reported on for months: We need products with a design that allows for recycling in the first place.

“The new product design,” the Greenpeace report concludes, “should take recycling into consideration from the beginning of the production phase, using the recycled materials instead of virgin materials, and making the products easier to be dismantled at the end.”

Starbucks: Changing the World One Barista at a Time

"Our role as leaders is to celebrate the human connection that we have been able to create as a company, and to make sure people realize the deep level of respect we have for the work they do and how they act. That is the legacy of the company. It's not to get bigger or to make more money."

--Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks

I met Ashley Peterson, a barista at my local Starbucks, over six years ago during my morning ritual--stopping in for a grande extra hot soy latte on my way to taking my three kids to school, and myself to work. Ashley's big, totally genuine smile was truly comforting in the midst of my morning wrangle. And she looked like she meant it when she looked us in the eyes and said, "Good morning. How is everyone today?"

It wasn't long before Ashley learned all of our names, our favorite drinks and breakfast items. One Fall, my daughter Caroline developed a taste (read: obsession) for Starbucks' pumpkin scones, and then was crushed when Ashley explained that they disappear after Halloween. On our next visit, Ashley handed Caroline a bag with a gingerbread cookie in it, thinking that since she loves pumpkin, she might like this, too. In other words, Ashley just gets it; customer service is second nature to her. Not surprisingly, she was recently promoted and moved to a different Starbucks further uptown. Manhattanites all up and down Broadway have changed their morning migration patterns to get their morning fix from her.

Which is to say, when I began researching companies that are dedicated to creating a human workplace, I immediately thought of Starbucks, i.e. Ashley.

I recently sat down with her to learn more about how she works her magic. And she shared with me three sage bits of advice: Focus on Interactions, not Transactions; Love it, or Let me Know; and Provide Feedback. It Makes People Feel Human. The ideas are a combination of her own smarts, and Starbucks', but the words are hers.

Focus on Interactions, Not Transactions

One of Starbucks' values is treating our customers like family. They want us to get to know them, interact with them, and to connect with them. While we get training on different customer service scenarios, no one can really teach you how to connect...that has to be something that you want to do. I do it because of the atmosphere, because of the neighborhood. I see the kids grow up. One minute the mom is pregnant, and the next year the kid is walking into the store. As a customer, I wouldn't come into a place where I didn't feel welcome or where the people were not trying to get to know me. I love what I do and everyone that works for Starbucks loves what they do. It's a business that's so -- it's different than any other business. We want to actually connect with our customers, we want to better the experience.

Love It or Let me Know

At Starbucks, we are empowered to make the customer experience the best we can. We can say, "Listen, love it or let me know. What can I do to fix it?" I want to teach the baristas around me that customer service is the most important part of our business. Without the customers, we wouldn't be in business. So I really want them to take that seriously. And if that means going above and beyond for the customers, then that's what I want [them] to do. I want everybody that comes into Starbucks to leave happy. I don't want anyone to leave unsatisfied; I don't want anyone to leave upset. I don't want anyone to leave with the thought in their head that they're not coming back.

Provide Feedback: It Makes People Feel Human

I always want to make sure that the baristas feel appreciated, so I always recognize them. To do that, we have green apron cards, where we just write a little note, and let them know what it is that they're doing well. Starbucks wants everyone -- baristas, shifts, assistants or store managers to feel appreciated. You don't have to be a store manager to write these things; baristas write them to each other. So you don't have to be in a certain position to write these things.

In case I haven't been clear, I think the world of this young woman. And so when I heard that Howard Schultz and his wife Sherry were going to be awarded a Public Leadership Award from the Aspen Institute, where I just happened to be for the summer, I made it my business to attend. After Howard and Sherry's inspiring talk on values-based leadership, I was able to hand-deliver this note from Ashley.

Hi Howard,

My name is Ashley Peterson and I've been a partner for 6 years. I recently got a promotion to become a store manager, which I'm really excited about. When I first started at Starbucks, it was just a job for me. Before my Starbucks career, I was on my way to college, but life happened. I was expecting a child, my daughter Mckenzie, who is now five years old. Within a year of being at 81st & Broadway, I knew that Starbucks was for me. With so much I can write, I just want to thank you. Thank you for sharing such a great company with me. Thank you for allowing me to provide for my child. Thank you for the opportunity to work for Starbucks. I will continue to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time.

Ashley Peterson

Here I am, giving Howard Schultz Ashley's letter.

Some of us might feel funny expressing such gratitude to the CEO of a multinational corporation as mighty as Starbucks. But not Ashley, whose first job in the food industry was as a manager at White Castle when she was I5. This girl knows how to work. And Howard Schultz does, too. And he knows how to make the workplace a place for humans like Ashley to thrive. In his words, "We are living in a society where there is a need for human connection and a sense of community. And what we do every day is bring people together."

Me at my local Starbucks in Aspen.

I would be lying if I said I don't miss Ashley since her move uptown. Or that I don't feel a little sad each time I walk by her old store and don't see her beaming smile in the window. But I know this an amazing opportunity for Ashley and for the company. She is excited to use her skills and experience to build a strong culture within her new store. And we will all reap the benefits of the work she'll do, spreading the Starbucks gospel, helping other baristas bring their human to work.

5 Steps To Analyze Risk In Your Business

Success is not something you protect. It's something you risk.

A lot of cheerleaders in the business world preach that success involves throwing an intention out into the universe, with the physics of optimism as your sole force of forward motion, to achieve a specific goal or objective. While oftentimes effective, this school of motivational philosophy often overlooks other critical areas of business that many people avoid or disregard altogether, including a thorough analysis of risk within their organization.

Successful people enamor me. I spend a lot of time watching and observing countless entrepreneurs I know personally, as well as those I admire from afar. I love to study their behavior to better understand what they do differently, why they do what they do, and what makes them tick. In this process I've identified a pattern in many of them, which is their ability to constantly look into the future, contemplating what-if scenarios in their business, and always looking for what lies ahead, especially when it comes to the risk they face in their business. Assessing risk is sort of like budgeting for the downside. The key is to not only use optimism for reasons to take action, but to also utilize risk factors you uncover to guide your decisions. Yes, you must have courage to bet on your ideas, but you must also have the ability to take a thoughtful, calculated approach. It's nearly impossible to remove all risk in any scenario, but what's important is to make sure these troublesome areas are always considered and understood. This ensures that no opportunity you embark upon is executed naively and without thoughtful consideration. Understanding this concept is absolutely critical if you aim to build something great that will sustain for many years to come. Entrepreneurs are known for their ability to take on large amounts of risk that would make most people sick to their stomach, but successful ones don't do it blindly.

Try taking a stoic approach in your business by being honest, realistic, and open about the kind of risk you face in your business. This enables you to look ahead of you, behind you, and in all other directions, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to do this. Your biggest vantage point will always be the one on which you can envision the full panorama of potential successes - coupled with their corresponding potential failures.

A pivotal piece of building a solid foundation is built for your business is to conduct a risk analysis on a regular basis. I like to do this at least once a year for each business I run; for startups (or established businesses in rapidly changing industries such as tech) I recommend doing this at least twice a year or more because the environment around you will be shifting rapidly. To protect and empower your company to grow successfully, it is extremely important to stay on top of new risk factors as they emerge.

The easiest way to do this is to conduct a risk audit on your business by compiling everything into a spreadsheet. Once it is completed I like to print it out and place it somewhere in my office where I will see it often. I recommend setting up an Excel or Google spreadsheet with five columns, labeling each one with the steps below:

Step 1: "KEY RISK": What is the risk factors facing your business? Risk factors should include your competition (rising costs, lower prices, surplus inventory), the economy, your industry (how susceptible is it to change?), technological changes, consumer preferences, rising costs, key personnel within your organization (what if you lost your top producing sales agent?), industry regulations, etc. Don't forget to also consider burnout as a risk factor if you're a founder. Trust me, it happens.

Step 2: "RISK SCORE": How do I weigh this risk on a scale of one to 10? After careful consideration, you should score each risk factor you identify so you can sort by rank once you are done. This does not mean a risk factor you rank as a two is to be neglected for the risk factor you assign a score of nine. This simply allows you to prioritize which risk factors you should be engineering a contingency plan for first (queue step 3 below).

Step 3: "CONTINGENCY PLAN": What is my contingency plan for this risk? Ask yourself, "What can be done if this does actually happens?" and then begin to compose the steps you think are necessary to alleviate or deal with the risk. Keep in mind some risk factors are out of your control and have terrible mitigation plans (e.g. if your company is AAA Taxi and your obvious risk is technological advances via Uber, you might be facing a bigger uphill battle).

Step 4: "PERSON ACCOUNTABLE": Which person in my organization is responsible for this risk? Some risk factors may not be something any one person can be accountable for, such as economic downturns, or a major change in technology, but regardless, try to identify a key person to assign to each risk factor you identify in your business. This will help you visualize how the risk management is spread throughout your organization. If you have too many risk factors falling on one person's plate (HINT: it's usually the founder), then that itself is also a risk factor. Can the founder delegate any of these areas of responsibility? What happens if the founder gets burnt out, or become sick? In that scenario, the company will have an even bigger problem on its hands.

Step 5: "DEADLINE": What is the deadline for executing a mitigation plan for this risk factor? Putting an "If then, then what" action plan into place will help serve as a guide if and when the risk factor surfaces. Some risk factors can be completely wiped out from your organization (such as safely removing toxic or litigious people from your organization), so if that is the case, your mitigation plan could include the steps to take to eradicate it completely.

I often tell my employees that asking for feedback is a valuable way to improve your skills in business, and it's one of the only ways we can see our blind spots. Asking for feedback is an uncomfortable thing to do, and conducting a risk analysis and assessment on your business can be just as tough. You will see things you might be aware of, but have been avoiding for quite some time. You'll also discover other areas you haven't noticed until now. Be prepared to touch the place that hurts, because that is where you will create the most growth.

Take some time to thoughtfully evaluate the risk you face, and understand, again, that risk is an inherent part of business. To me, risk is a necessary motivator that keeps me moving. It's part of what gets me out of bed every morning, ready to conquer any way I can. Well thought out and calculated risk is not foolish, it's strategic; it's a daily opportunity for improvement. Imagine what you will be able to learn in the process about your business, and maybe most importantly, about yourself, too.

Between calculated risk and reckless decision-making lies the dividing line between profit and loss. - Charles Duhigg

Remember, jumping out of an airplane and expecting to grow wings before you hit the ground is hopeful at best, but guaranteed fatal. Are you doing the same with your business?

Why I Don't Want to Grow My Business

Yes, that's right, you read it correctly. I stopped caring how arrogant or controversial I sound. This is what I want, or rather what I don't want. I'm a woman entrepreneur and since the start of my jewelry brand Lucid New York in 2004, I've been constantly offered unasked for advice on how I can grow my business. I was told that I needed a larger office, hire more staff and incorporate. I kept hearing there was potential and was being told inspiring stories of jewelry brands such as Pandora or Alex and Ani.

I was receiving email invites to GrowthCon, Growco - conferences focused on growing the business. Business coaches and consultants were approaching me with their "let me tell you how to grow your business" pitches.

I didn't want to hear any of that. I look at growth mindfully. To me it's more about growing deeper than broader. This holistic perspective is in alignment with my values and my idea of how I measure my life. Looking at growth multidimensionally, I've been aspiring to have a meaningful business that is profitable and makes a difference. Instead of focusing on how to make it even more profitable, I recognized the sweet spot of enough and refocused my energy on growing in other areas of my life. I focused on connections and friendships. I learned cooking delicious meals and have been offering them during dinner parties I organize. I learned how to sail. I took trips for a cause participating at conferences and working at orphanages in India and Sri Lanka. I saw orangutans in the wild on the island of Borneo. I became a co-active certified life coach and started making a difference sharing my business building expertise and inspiring transformation. I started writing a book on being a successful creative entrepreneur.

Growing deeper instead of broader has been very fulfilling and energizing. My jewelry business has been thriving as I fuel it with all the energy I get from the projects and ideas I'm involved in. I've been alive on so many levels. Getting rid off the obsessive pursuit of business growth has been liberating and rewarding.

My growth approach was inspired by Clayton M. Christensen book How Will You Measure Your Life? Read it, be immune to social conformism and pressure, show your true self and have your own answer. So... how do you measure your life?

Anna Sabino is a co-active certified business growth and life coach. She is writing a book on being a successful creative entrepreneur. You can find out more at AnnaSabino.com