“A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.” – Ludwig Erhard
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Business Constituents
Many modern business texts used in MBA programs will tell you the "purpose of a business is to maximize shareholder value."
I think teaching that to tomorrow's managers and leaders is a bit misleading, and maybe misguided.
A business exists to meet the needs of three key constituencies:
- Customers
- Employees
- Owners
It is important that a business has a strategy to meet all constituents' needs.
Read on for my thoughts.
Posted under: The Business World • by Rick on 02/26/2013 at 11:23 AM
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Alex Brings Us Joy
Alex is a funny dog. He is a fairly large (> 100 pounds), intact Bernese male. He has a large beautiful head, massive bone and a beautiful coat. And, he likes to play with toys.
He has about 50 toys, too. He is particularly fond of his hedgehog, his reindeer, a moose, a monkey, pink bunny, and his little chicken. Here he is with his little chicken after a bit of play:
And, a here is a compilation of him playing with toys.
He goes in for minor surgery tomorrow to remove a cyst that is growing on his butt. We will all be happy to see it gone!
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 02/24/2013 at 10:16 AM
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Dilled Shrimp Salad for Lunch
Today, Lynne cooked Dilled Shrimp Salad for lunch:
You can find the recipe here: Dilled Shrimp Salad
It is a very healthy and tasty meal. Sometimes, we just poach the shrimp per this recipe and then have them as a shrimp cocktail with Bookbinders sauce.
Posted under: Food and Cooking • by Rick on 02/23/2013 at 09:12 AM
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Friday, February 22, 2013
The Search for a New Truck
Our 2002 Suburban is getting a bit old, with 120,000 miles now. It seems every month, something needs work. The truck has been a real workhorse for us, hauling us and dogs to dog shows, moving us across the country, carrying as many as 11 dogs to the cabin, getting us back to Colorado each year for a vacation (with at least 3 dogs and 2 cats), providing a "truck" when we need to haul a bunch of stuff.
But, the passenger side-view mirror is busted, the lift gate is not working right, the SES light comes on based on data from a knock sensor (that may or may not be bad).
On the other hand, the truck has new shoes, new brakes, a new serpentine belt. It is in good condition on the interior and only a few scratches on the exterior.
We recently started looking at replacements. Our needs are very specific: we still need to be able carry three dogs, preferably in crates. We need enough additional storage to make our annual migration to the cabin. We'd like to have certain comforts such as memory seats, heated seats, a navigation system, bluetooth phone control, satelite radio, etc. And, it would be really, really nice if a new vehicle was a bit smaller than the Suburban (bought to haul up to 10 dogs), and got better gas mileage. Oh, and it needs some "off road" capabilities like true 4WD and good ground clearance in order to be compatible with life at the cabin.
Not to be found.
We've looked at Jeep Cherokee, Ford Explorer (and Expedition, yikes), and smaller vehicles such as a GMC Acadia or a Mazda CX-9. Today, we even broke down and looked at a new Suburban. These vehicles are either too small for our live cargo, or the seats don't fold down fully to truly give us the cargo space that it seems is there, or the quality and finish just did not seem good to us. Even the Suburban (and Tahoe) have changed the way they fold the rear seats down so that we could no longer get three dog crates in the back! That seems crazy for a vehicle that was the workhorse utility vehicle for so long! The sales guy said it had become a soccer mom SUV instead of working person's utility vehicle.
So, the search is abandoned. Supposedly Chevy will fix the seat issue with the Suburban/Tahoe in the 2014 model (we'll see.) And, we don't plan to always have three dogs, so maybe over time our needs will change.
I must say the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Ford Explorer looked like really nice vehicles that might meet our needs one day.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 02/22/2013 at 02:03 PM
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Saturday, February 16, 2013
The House is Now Wired for a Generator
After losing power for multiple days several times over the past few years (Irene, surprise snowstorms, hurricane Sandy), we decided to buy a generator and wire it into the house. I got a good deal on a 10,000 watt Generac generator -- which can pretty much run the entire house if we shut off truly optional things (like floor heat in the bathroom). And, we had a new electrical panel installed which allows us to switch from grid power to generator power in case of power loss.
The entire electrical panel (which was a bit of a mess from years of some DYI wiring) had to be rewired. And, while the process was a bit scary:
The result is a very clean installation that allows us, with the flip of a switch, to run the house from the generator.
I'll try to remember to take an "after" photo and edit this post with that.
Posted under: New Jersey • by Rick on 02/16/2013 at 06:48 AM
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