• “PROBLEM-SOLVERS MAKE COMPANIES WORK; PROBLEM-PREDICTORS MAKE COMPANIES GROW.”  Proactive leaders utilize resources (time, talent, money) to focus on client/customer problems, while reactive managers focus on yesterday’s problems. Both are important, but “dealing with issues before they show up in the results…leads to innovating new products & services that generate more revenue and growth.” After the fact, managers too often “focus on the wrong questions, causing them to misdiagnose the core issue. And instead of asking if the problem could have been avoided, end up rewarding the person who came up with the solution, stayed late, worked ridiculous hours or was hired to fix someone else’s mess – meanwhile, unknowingly strengthening their problem-solving muscles but subtly deteriorating their ability to innovate and grow… Great leaders don’t solve problems; they predict and avoid them entirely.”   [OPENVIEWPARTNERS – Apr 8, 14]
  • TIRED OF ADS SHOWING UP ON MOST EVERY WEBSITE YOU VISIT?  It’s because Google and other browsers “feed your search queries to advertisers…giving access to your search terms and I.P. address (which determines location of the computer)… along with a ‘filter bubble’ which delivers search results tailored to what it thinks you want to see…based on your search history – some of the most personal info you will ever reveal online: health, mental state, interests, travel locations, fears and shopping habits.” To delete Google web history, go to http://google.com/history, click the gear icon to Settings, and turn it off. You can also hit http://google.com/settings/ads to opt-out of targeted & search ads on web and email.  [NEW YORK TIMES – Apr 2, 14]
  • TAX FILING SEASON WAS MOSTLY OVER LAST WEEK for the more than a million American accountants involved in reporting to federal and 43 state government agencies. Many layers of taxes apply – including Social Security & Medicare, sales, property, excise, and indirect taxes embedded in consumer charges for fuel, power, telephone, travel, etc. – but federal income tax is the whopper. //  The federal Code adopted 100 years ago was 400 pages; today it exceeds 75,000 pages with some 3.7 million words (the Bible has about 700,000).  //  The wealthiest 1% of our population collectively earn close to 20% of all reported income but pay 37% of the income tax and the top 10% pay 68% of the tab. The bottom 50% earn 13% of the income, but pay just 3%, and last year nearly half of Americans paid zero. // While the federal corporate rate is 35%, many companies usually pay far less because of loopholes and subsidies. (In 2010, General Electric made over $4 billion in U.S. profits and paid zero in taxes). Fyi, if someone reports their company for tax evasion in the U.S., they can receive 30% of the amount collected.  [LBN E-LERT – Apr 8, 14]
  • AFFIRMATIVE ACTION MAY SOON BE BACK ON CALIFORNIA CAMPUSES. Asian-Americans are the country’s fastest growing minority group and currently represent over a third of the undergrads on Univ. of California campuses – more than double their proportion who graduate from state public high schools. This imbalance, which administrators feel affects the “diversity atmosphere,” along with plummeting admission rates for blacks & Latinos, resulted in a January legislative bill which came very close to passing and exempting universities from Prop 209 – the 1996 law which halted discrimination or preferential treatment on the basis of ethnicity or national origin, along with race, sex or color.   [THE ECONOMIST – Mar 22, 14]
  • CHINA’S AIR QUALITY CONTINUES TO DETERIORATE. “If the smog that has settled across six provinces continues at current levels, the country will experience conditions similar to a ‘nuclear winter’ as it blocks out the sun and stunts crops.” In Beijing, particulate concentration is well above 500 micrograms per cubic meter – twenty times greater than levels considered safe – and “the government has told people to wear masks or stay indoors… Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of the country’s wealthy (with assets over $1.6 million) have left or plan to leave the country.”  [THE WEEK- Mar 7, and BLOOMBERG BUS WEEK – Mar 17, 14]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:       “Reality is an illusion that occurs due to lack of alcohol.”

     The iPhone may well be the future of medicine.  See this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r13uYs7jglg

     “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” – Isaac Asimov

 DUITCH CONSULTING GROUP – UTILIZING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE TO PROVIDE OPTIMAL STRATEGIC, FINANCIAL, OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT PLANNING & POSITIONING