Cutting the cord
I recently took three days off work to spend time with visiting family members. By 9 a.m. on my first day off, I was corresponding with my supervisor and sources via e-mail. My siblings likewise frequently checked messages via cell phone or computer during their visit (to the consternation of our mother).
It’s typical vacation behavior for a wired workplace, and it’s particularly common among executives, according to a recent survey. Fifty-eight percent of business leaders make themselves available to people back at the office on a daily basis, according to a worldwide survey of 235 senior executives and managers conducted by NFI Research. Eleven percent make themselves extremely available, while 47 percent make themselves somewhat available.
While on vacation, the majority (74%) of business leaders check their email,
use a computer (57%), use the Internet (55%) or use a Smartphone/PDA (54%).
According to the survey, respondents said that while while on vacation they generally:
As one business contact sagely advised me after I told him that I was answering his email while on vacation: STEP AWAY FROM THE CRACKBERRY.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Bank on it
Several recent bank failures have made many consumers nervous about their own banks. For the vast majority of depositors, there is little to fear.
FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair recently issued a good reminder of our protections for cash deposited in institutions covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
FDIC’s Depositor’s Bill of Rights
1. You have the right to automatic deposit insurance coverage when you open a deposit account at an FDIC-insured bank, with no additional cost or action on your part.
2. You have the right to separate FDIC insurance coverage for deposits held at different FDIC-insured banks.
3. You have the right to confirm that a bank is insured by using the FDIC’s Bank Find service (www2.fdic.gov/IDASP/main_bankfind.asp) or by calling the FDIC toll-free at 877-275-3342.
4. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of $100,000 for your deposits at an FDIC-insured bank – up to $250,000 for your IRA deposits.
5. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of more than $100,000 at a single bank when deposits are held in different “ownership categories,” such as a single, joint and trust accounts.
6. You have the right to confirm that your deposits are within the insurance limits by using the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator and other online resources at www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits or by calling the FDIC at 877-275-3342.
7. You have the right to be informed when a financial product offered by your bank is not covered by FDIC insurance.
8. You have a right, if your bank fails, to prompt access to your insured deposits.
9. You have the right, if you are an uninsured depositor, to receive distributions from the receivership as the sale of assets permits.
10. You have the right to sleep well, knowing that since the creation of the FDIC 75 years ago, no depositor has ever lost one penny of insured deposits.
Oklahoma Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson this month issued a statement assuring state consumers that our banking system is not experiencing the ills of those in other regions.
“Oklahoma has not experienced a bank failure in 16 years and the industry in Oklahoma is well-capitalized and strong,” Thompson said.
If that doesn’t make you feel any better, here’s a list of “talking points” created by the Oklahoma Bankers Association for its members.
Finally, here’s Roger Beverage, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, producing some of those talking points on camera.
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Business Writer
Thinking inside the box
The work cubicle is 40 years old this month. Anyone want to celebrate that?
Business Writer
AAAAAAAAGGHH!! WHEEEEEEEEE!!
Six Flags used to be based in Oklahoma City, but then Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder bought the company and moved it out. Consequently, we don’t write about the amusement park business much anymore.
But last week, Six Flags had a roller coaster ride of a week. The stock plummeted 44 percent one day and then recovered nearly all of the loss on the following day. So if you want the thrills and chills of an amusement park ride, but don’t like standing in line, buy a couple of thousand shares of Six Flags. And then hang on!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oklahoma is Wally World
If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a few minutes and Wal-Mart will build a store nearby and you can go inside. Well, that’s not exactly how the saying goes, but there’s a kernel of truth in it.
If it seems like we’ve got a lot of Wal-Marts in Oklahoma, it’s because we do. After the company was founded in Arkansas, Oklahoma was one of the first states it built in. Now data analyst Nathan Yau has produced a fascinating look at the explosive growth of the world’s largest retailer.
Like Kudzu, the growth is concentrated in the South.
Other than its native Arkansas, Wal-Mart may be most closely aligned with Oklahoma.
Wal-Mart built its first Sam’s Club in Midwest City. The company employs more than 33,000 Oklahomans as associates. The average wage for Wal-Mart’s regular, full-time hourly associates in the Sooner state is $10.31. The company operates 71 Supercenters; 14 discount stores; 16 neighborhood markets, eight Sam’s Clubs and two distribution centers in Oklahoma.
In it’s most recent fiscal year, Wal-Mart spent more than $655 million on merchandise and services with Oklahoma suppliers. In that same period, the company collected more than $483 million in sales taxes in Oklahoma, and paid more than $23.1 million in state and local taxes in Oklahoma.
I would add that despite the thousands of Oklahoma associates, only about 5 percent of the cash registers seem to be in operation at any Wal-Mart I visit even during the busiest shopping times.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oh, it’s a profit deal
I love me some bargains. When you clothe four kids, shopping can be more of a mission than a chore. So the first time my wife and I wandered into Steve & Barry’s at Crossroads Mall, we felt like we had found the Holy Grail of back-to-school savings.
Three T-shirts for $15? Sure, they were a bit thin, but the kids loved the graphics and snarky catch phrases.
A winter coat for $12? It only has to last until she outgrows it because there are no other girls to accept pink hand-me-downs.
$15 for sneakers? I think I welled up a bit when I first saw the Starburys.
But Steve & Barry’s has filed for bankruptcy, and although the company plans to reorganize, the Wall Street Journal reports that finances may force a liquidation.
The newspaper also explains how the company may have been able to sell its apparel so cheaply — they didn’t make any profit on their sales. Steve & Barry’s produced much of its revenue from incentives paid by mall owners seeking anchor clients.
For the 2003 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31, 2004, when Steve & Barry’s had 31 stores, tenant-improvement payments totaled $17.5 million, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The payments jumped to $58.6 million the next year, the documents say. The peak came in the 2006 fiscal year, when the company received $122.3 million in payments, but spent only about $59 million to build out new stores, leaving about $63 million in unused cash, the documents indicate. From fiscal years 2004 to 2007, the company received $380 million of payments.
The company says it will keep its stores open for now, honor all its gift cards and continue selling the same merchandise. But if I had a Steve & Barry’s gift card, I might redeem sooner rather than later. Holy cow, the Starbury’s are marked down to $9!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
What’s the buzz?
Are you leveraging your resources to deal with challenges on a going-forward basis?
Is your team leader getting granular about incentivizing your platform’s 2.0 capabilities?
Do you actually understand any of this nonsense? Unfortunately, many of us can decipher this “office-speak,” most of which is designed to obscure or impress rather than communicate.
BBC News readers recently shared some of their least favorite office-speak phrases. Elsewhere, Investopedia provides a handy buzz word glossary for financial and investing terms such as “click and mortar,” and “gazump.”
If you’ve got a particular phrase that sets your teeth on edge, share it in the comments. I’m getting tired of “at the end of the day,” which almost always refers to something other than “the end of the day.”
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Two for the show in San Diego
Ran into a couple of familiar faces soon after I arrived in San Diego late Monday afternoon.
After I checked into the hotel, I walked over to the San Diego Convention Center to register for the BIO 2008 International Convention that begins here on Tuesday. Just inside the doors to to the massive building and engaged in conversation were Robert Floyd (left in above photo), a scientist with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and William Paiva, manager of the Oklahoma Life Science Funds.
So, I asked them to pose and took a snapshot.
Both are among the Oklahoma scientists who will be part of the team staffing the Oklahoma pavilion at all times when the exhibition is open this week. Read Wednesday’s editions of The Oklahoman for insight on the strategy to ensure that an Oklahoma scientist is always available to speak with visitors to the state booth at the biotechnology show.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
Yahoogle
Techcrunch reports that Yahoo! is trying out some new logos. Can’t say that I care much for the purple. The red one below is Yahoo!’s longstanding symbol.
Meanwhile, Yahoo has cut off talks — again and for good — with Microsoft. The company also has signed an agreement with Google.
Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will select the search term queries for which – and the pages on which – Yahoo! may offer Google paid search results. Yahoo! will define its users’ experience and will determine the number and placement of the results provided by Google and the mix of paid results provided by Panama, Google or other providers.
Could this mean a completely new Yahoo! logo?
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
A bad day
I don’t know if this is legitimate or just a staged YouTube performance, but most office workers have felt this way occasionally. We just don’t act on it.
Business Writer
