• WHEN A NEW HIRE FAILS, nearly 90% of the time it’s because of “attitude – which, along with belief systems and biases, are far more determinative of job success than skills.” The best employees are optimistic (“the mother of all good attitudinal traits”) and reflect the “strengths that make an organization special and unique.” DCG has decades of expertise in hiring the right people for the right job; we can help you recruit, motivate and retain better people. [GLOWAN CONSULTING NWSLTR – May 14]
  • “THE LEFT NOW HAS ITS ‘JOHN BIRCH’ MOMENT… The Obama administration has issued a federal hunting license (more like a fatwa) to deputize fanatics at any university in America.” In mind-numbing detail, “guidance” now applies to 55 colleges “under investigation for possible Title IX violations” – relating to vague interpretations of things like gender-based harassment, which pits “the lawyer brigades at the Holder Justice Department against some 19-year old student or an assistant professor who didn’t post a course’s ‘Trigger Warning’ required to avoid traumatizing students… In truth, every school in America is effectively on the list”… The left has hit ramming speed against people fingered as out-of-line with the Far Left’s increasingly bizarre claims.” This year’s commencement speaking invitations have been withdrawn for disagreement with liberal views on affirmative action, ‘radical Islam’ and Iraq. One college now proposes that its teachers “be aware of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism and other issues of privilege and oppression.” A Harvard Crimson column recently took offense to a conservative government professor, proposing “Let’s give up on academic freedom in favor of justice!  When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue.”  [WALL STREET JRNL – May 8, 14]
  • BACTERIA IS FAST EVADING MEDICAL TREATMENT. “Antibiotic resistance could set medicine back a century, to a time when infections often led to amputations.” The problem is global – particularly in America where, according to a recent World Health Organization report, “a standard antibiotic for treating infected wounds fails to work over half the time in hospitals…leading yearly to some 23,000 deaths directly and many more from complications to other illnesses.” Cause is mostly from (1) overuse for situations where antibiotics are ineffective – especially farmers who feed them to animals to “promote growth” (80% by weight of all antibiotics dispersed); and (2) patients who fail to take their full prescription, “leaving alive the bacteria with greater resistance which then breeds and further spreads… So the bugs are beating the medicine.”  [THE ECONOMIST – May 3, 14]
  • MEANWHILE, our wallets “may be a Petri-dish for more than 3000 types of bacteria found on dollar bills.” Genetic analysis at New York University found that “bacteria – including some from fecal matter – are picked up from the dirty hands of people, then microbes feed on the waxy residue of skin & oils that collect on bills in circulation.” About half of the DNA was human, with most common microbes being “those that cause acne, along with other bacteria linked to gastric ulcers, pneumonia, food poisoning, staph infections and antibiotic resistance.” Genome sequencing was unable to identify 80% of the non-human other half. Whatever you do, keep those bills away from mouth, sores or cuts.  [THE WEEK – May 9, 14]
  • DIGITAL CURRENCY TO THE RESCUE?  In addition to avoiding money-handling logistics, paperwork and government oversight, e-money also avoids health risk. ‘Cryptocurrency’ is a virtual piggy bank, based on technology involving “digital protocols that move beyond information security practices to a more complex integration of mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering and data confidentiality, integrity & validation – i.e. encryption on steroids.” Bitcoin and its knockoffs utilize this technology to provide a “peer-to-peer payment system where digital currency and military grade cryptography control the creation & transfer of their branded currency, without central authority or banks,” to serve a global community in both legal and illegal transactions for those amenable to substantial risk and concerns – including “money laundering, embezzlement, fraud, theft, price manipulation and more, similar to currency & investment risks before Federal regulation,” but no germs.   [CALIFORNIA CPA – May 14] 
  • THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:   2014 National Assessment test scores for 12th graders show absolutely no improvement in the past five years – still averaging 51% in math skills and 57.5% in reading skills – with a widening margin between races, as black student reading scores consistently decline. The federal education bureaucracy is a useless waste.

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