• IN FAMILY-OWNED COMPANIES, AN ‘ADVISORY BOARD’ IS OFTEN THE MISSING LINK to optimizing stability, growth and risk protection, where leaders are supported by a team of independent experts to periodically focus and coordinate strategy on high-level issues, as distinct from the daily operational activity. The most relevant criteria for selecting an Advisor involves: (a) respect for their business acumen, (b) absolute reliability for integrity to protect confidences, and (c) capacity for honest and effective communication. The fundamental objective is to best ensure a process where leadership obtains balanced perspective and feedback to ensure ‘reality check’ before critical business decisions get made and actions get implemented. Advisors typically provide one-on-one response as called upon, meet periodically, and are typically compensated by nominal retainer, meeting fees, and/or incentive compensation related to achievement of specified objectives (e.g. levels of volume or profitability, effectuation of certain goals, deals, financing, etc.). DCG facilitates Board development and effectiveness. Call for courtesy consult.

• AS ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY CONTINUES, SMALLER BUSINESSES FACE TOUGH DILEMMAS in light of budget challenges – especially about how to retain good employees with a culture to satisfy Millennial and X Gen workers. Strategies which can help retain talent include: (1) Being transparent about the scope, scale, challenges and priorities facing the company, and including the top thinkers in co-creating solutions; as well as (2) Maintaining training budgets to meet their expectations for development opportunities. Additionally, important strategy may include prompt renegotiation of contracts with suppliers, since “an overarching theme of small company culture is respect & teamwork not only for employees but also for vendors and other external stakeholders, particularly suppliers who also need to stay in business.” [SMARTBRIEF]

• WHAT FEELS LIKE INCREASING INSANITY IN TODAY’S SOCIETY is evidence of America being on path towards a generational cultural ‘reset,’ consistent with a global pattern over the past five centuries, where societies enter a new Era every generation or so, with the population changing how they feel about themselves/ culture/ nation/ and future. Called ‘Turnings,’ the cycle goes full circle roughly every century. The 1st Turning is when prior chaos subsides and individualism weakens (here, after WWII); 2nd Turn becomes an era of spiritual upheaval with civic order coming under attack from new ‘Values’ (viz the 60s Hippies); 3rd Turn evolves to a period of strengthening individualism and weakening institutions, with young adults becoming hostile toward the corruption of civic life (Millennials); the 4th – where we are today – becomes a crisis, a “decisive era of secular upheaval, when a new ‘Values’ regime propels replacement of old civic order.” Today’s Activist Progressive views have been shaped predominantly from social media texts/ tweets/ blurbs – on gender & racial diversity, social consciousness, marriage & religious irrelevance, corporate avarice, income inequality, environmental concerns, world order – with little, if any, perspective on life before the Digital World. Historical patterns suggest the likelihood that we’re soon headed to an evolution commensurate with the American Revolution, and Civil War. [THE FOURTH TURNING – Strauss & Howe]     https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D4Yi0lXbKzU 

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

• Latest research by City of Hope has identified the “cellular culprit behind age-related belly fat. While most adult cell’s capacity to grow wanes with age, a new type of cell – Age-specific (CP-A cells) evolve and enhance production of new fat cells, especially around the belly. Future research will focus on blocking or eliminating the cells to prevent age-related fat gain and obesity.” [SCIENCE DAILY]

• “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” [GEORGE ORWELL]

• 81% of Americans think the government is corrupt. The other 19% probably work for the government. So says a new survey from prominent pollster YouGov, which asked 1100 Americans if corruption is a problem.