Social outsiders valuable in workplace
You know that person that everyone in the office thinks is a little odd — just a smidge off-center? The Dwight Schrute of the workplace? (If you can’t identify this person, it may be you). Turns out, that guy or gal is helping you get work done, according to a recent study.
(A)ccording to new research co-authored by a Brigham Young University business professor, better decisions come from teams that include a “socially distinct newcomer.” That’s psychology-speak for someone who is different enough to bump other team members out of their comfort zones.
Researchers noticed this effect after conducting a traditional group problem-solving experiment. The twist was that a newcomer was added to each group about five minutes into their deliberations. And when the newcomer was a social outsider, teams were more likely to solve the problem successfully.
Perhaps those folks just make us want to get out of the room more quickly, cutting down on the cross-chatter and lame jokes that can bog down a meeting.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Commuting close calls
I’m a regular participant in the annual “Bike to Work Day” activities in these parts, which is coming up on May 1. For bikers, it can be a fun, but sometimes terrifying, adventure. Cyclists must rely on motorists’ knowledge of local traffic laws, which give bicycle riders the right to use public streets and require vehicles to stay at least three feet away from cyclists.
Every bicycle rider can share tales of terror regarding vehicles that have violated those requirements. But Cyclist Jeff Frings of Milwaukee, who also is a photographer, decided to document his close calls. A Milwaukee television station used Frings’ video to produce the following report. (via Jerk Ethic)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
2001 AIG commercial
When you look up “irony” on the Internet, this is what should appear.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Tasty chatter from Sonic Corp.
Oklahoma City-based Sonic Corp. stages some of the most interesting conference calls of any of the state-based companies we cover. Perhaps I find them interesting because I eat there from time to time. But they’re also intriguing because they discuss real meat and potatoes issues — literally. For instance, during Monday’s discussion with analysts, the company revealed a new product will be unveiled next month at the drive-in restaturants.
Sonic President Scott McClain:
Well, one of the things that we are doing in April is we are introducing a new product, a new premium chicken product, a chicken bacon club sandwich on whole wheat bread, which is a premium product, which will be featured very prominently on-lot, as well as on television, and many markets and on national cable as well.
Sonic’s value menu, which features several $1 items, has been successful, executives said. Many customers who visit the drive-ins during their afternoon “happy hour” to purchase half-price drinks have been adding the cheaper food items to their orders, Chief Executive Officer Clifford Hudson said.
Meanwhile, Chief Financial Officer Stephen Vaughan, responding to a question about whether advertising rates have fallen due to the economy, noted that the company has been able to place its TV ads in more attractive spots:
…we’re able to get more prime spots. In some cases, for example, we were able to get some local spots with the Super Bowl. And also I think with the Academy Awards, some spots came available with some of those more prime shows that previously we hadn’t been able to get access to. So I think in terms of the dollars may not be increasing, but we do believe they are going further in terms of their reach, but also the quality of the buys that we’re are getting.
Speaking of advertising, here’s a little something from the 2 Sonic guys.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Southwest Airlines safety rap
Most folks in these parts have flown Southwest Airlines, and are familiar with their employees’ unique way of dealing with customers. Generally, it’s nice to be treated like an actual human being even as you’re herded like cattle into a shiny metal tube.
Here’s a recent demonstration of that attitude from the airline’s Web site:
Houston Flight Attendant Sandra helped make a homecoming special for a returning veteran from Iraq and his wife. On the final leg home to Long Island of a journey that began six flights earlier in Iraq, Sandra asked the deplaning passengers to remain seated while the solider and his wife deplaned. As the couple made their way forward, Sandra gave a detailed account of his service to the nation. Once they deplaned the aircraft, the couple found our Long Island Employees ready to greet them with a bottle of champagne. To add to the welcome, everyone waiting in the gate area stood and applauded. Sandra was the catalyst for what his wife calls “our treasured memory.”
But David, recorded on this flight bound for Oklahoma City, takes customer service to a new level.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
FDIC collected no premiums from 1996 to 2006
The Boston Globe reports that the FDIC, which recently boosted banks’ fees to replenish its fund that insures our deposits, collected no premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006. Because bank failures had become rare, the FDIC with Congressional approval suspended the collection of insurance premiums paid by many banks.
But a recent spate of bank failures, especially large ones such as Washington Mutual and IndyMac, have seriously depleted the insurance fund. No Oklahoma banks have failed in recent years.
Roger Beverage, president of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, reacted with anger to the new FDIC assessment of 20 basis points (0.20 percent) of every dollar of deposits.
“To say the least, this is outrageous,” Beverage said. “Our member banks have played by the rules, done things appropriately, made a profit, served their communities, and stood by while the Wall Street gang has gotten away with murder. They’ve stood by patiently, in an effort to be supportive of their regulators and their government while their reputations have been trashed by the media and the general public has increasingly lost confidence in their profession. They’ve been painted with the ‘bad guy’ brush, and now they get to pay for the sins of the clowns that took the banking system in the United States to the edge of the abyss? I mean, this is crazy.”
“As long as we’re on a spending spree in Congress and ‘bailing’ everyone else out, how about bailing out the good guys, the Oklahoma banks and the banks around the country that did it right, were honorable, played by the rules and stuck to their mission of trying to help their customers and their communities? Why are these guys the ones that are being punished and being painted as the bad guys? This is just incredible. I don’t know what we’re going to do yet, but we have to do something.”
Here’s a “60 Minutes” report on the FDIC’s closing of a Chicago-area bank, which includes an interview with FDIC Chair Sheila Bair.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Here’s some outrage we can believe in
Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America chairman, CEO and president.
This, I think, is exactly the kind of action that many Americans have been asking for as the government spends ever-more of our tax dollars to prop up flailing U.S. corporations. It may be a cheap political stunt, but it reflects the anger that is simmering among taxpayers.
This letter to Kenneth D. Lewis, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Bank of America Corp is signed by New York Attorney Gen. Andrew Cuomo and Barney Frank, chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee:
Dear Mr. Lewis:
We write to demand on behalf of taxpayers that Bank of America immediately disclose individual bonus data for all individuals at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America who received 2008 bonus awards of $1 million or more.
We believe that as a matter of transparency and disclosure, taxpayers have a right to know where their tax dollars go once received by TARP recipients. Accordingly, all TARP recipient institutions should disclose individualized executive bonus information to taxpayers.
As you know, late last year Merrill Lynch moved up its planned date to allocate bonuses and then richly rewarded many of its executives. Merill Lynch did this knowing full well that they were going to suffer huge losses for the fourth quarter and the year. At the time of the bonus awards, Merrill was in the process of being acquired by Bank of America, a TARP recipient. Moreover, Merrill Lynch also knew at the time that they had received a credit line of billions of dollars in TARP funds.
As a result of Merrill’s huge losses, taxpayers were forced to help Bank of America acquire Merrill by providing billions of additional TARP funds as well as insurance against losses from Merrill’s toxic portfolio. In short, the combined Bank of America-Merrill Lynch entity received $45 billion in taxpayer funds as well as $188 milllion in taxpayer-funded insurance.
Despite this massive infusion of taxpayer money, Merrill Lynch paid out bonuses totaling approximately $3.6 billion and Bank of America distributed a pool of more than $3.3 billion.
Taxpayers who are footing the bill obviously demand accountability and want to know who received these funds and why.
Our mutual goal is to stabilize and enhance our country’s financial institutions and system. The taxpayers of this country have given mightily to that cause. They deserve to know where their money is going and how it is being spent. Furthermore, we all agree that trust and confidence in our financial system must be restored. Transparency and disclosure are the building blocks of that trust and confidence.
Your refusal to reveal compensation information fuels distrust and cynicism at a most sensitive time.
Very truly yours,
Andrew Cuomo
Attorney General of State of New York
Barney Frank
Chairman, House Financial Service Committee, U.S. House of Representatives
cc: Bank of America Board of Directors
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
More proof of global nature of recession
The latest proof that the recession has reached just about everywhere: abandoned luxury cars at the Dubai airport. The Times Online recently reported that expatriate workers are parking their cars at the airport and boarding planes to escape their debts and the area’s fading fortunes.
Many Westerners invested in Dubai’s skyrocketing real estate market, buying and reselling homes before building was even complete. But, as the recession took effect, property and financial companies made thousands of workers redundant and banks tightened lending. Construction companies have delayed or cancelled projects and tourism is slowing.
There are increasing signs that the foreigners who once flocked to Dubai are leaving. “There is no way of tracking actual numbers, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. Dubai is emptying out,” said a Western diplomat.
However, The National makes the situation sound less dire.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Photos of people at work
A worker walks over steel bars at an iron and steel plant in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on November 1, 2008. Moves by China to restrict steel exports may push trade distortion problems into other industries down the line and run counter to world rules, a U.S. trade official said. (REUTERS/Stringer)
The Big Picture blog (definitely worth a visit if you’ve never checked it out) has gathered a collection of photographs of people around the world in their workplaces. Laborers measure gunpowder, decorate minature train sets, monitor nuclear power plants and make sneakers. Kim Jong-Il even makes an appearance at a candy factory. Click through for the complete post.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Manure value calculator
It’s from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association in Amarillo.
I’m thinking it might have more than the obvious use, the politics of the day being what it is.
http://www.tcfa.org/forms/ManureVsFert/ManureVsFert.htm
Richard Mize, Real Estate Editor
