• MOST TIME-STRAPPED BUSINESS LEADERS “KNOW THEY SHOULD plan ahead and prioritize, focus on the important as much as the urgent, invest in health (including getting enough sleep), make time for family & relationships, and limit mindless escapism. Today’s ‘always on’ work culture is taking a heavy toll on today’s leaders… and compulsively checking email, particularly first thing in the morning, is probably the biggest affliction to grip the modern-day professional – combining electronic overload with a heightened stress response to difficult messages that leads to knee-jerk replies… A helpful technique is to wait & take extra time later in the day to respond to emails in a more considered & deliberate manner.” [McKINSEY QUARTERLY – Feb 16]
  • “PEOPLE BELIEVE WHAT THE INTERNET SAYS MORE THAN REALITY… and voters trust what they think are spontaneous expressions of real people on social media more than experts on television or newspapers.” This fact, according to a master hacker presently jailed in Colombia and now assisting authorities, allowed his teams to manipulate Latin American Presidential elections for eight years – in Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela and Columbia. “Digital interception, attack, decryption and defense,” utilizing Russian smart-phone tapping software, some 30,000 Twitter bots, and “just about anything the digital dark arts could offer… involved stealing of campaign strategies, installation of spyware and manipulation of social media to create false waves of enthusiasm & derision… carefully laundered through layers of middlemen & consultants… usually on the payroll of a Miami-based political consultant who’s been called the Karl Rove of Latin America.” According to Andres Sepulveda, his job was “to do actions of dirty war and psychological operations black propaganda, rumors – the whole dark side of politics that nobody knows exists but everyone can see.” [BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK – Mar 31, 16] 
  • DIGITAL ADVERTISING IS NOW “OMNIPRESENT, nestled in news sites, search results, Instagram… and specifically targeting internet users.” But over a half-billion downloads of AdBlockPlus now keep online ads off PC and Tablet screens; Apple now lets users directly download iPhone ad-blocking software (notwithstanding legalities of ‘network neutrality’ rules and common sense Privacy concerns). Consumers are rebelling against: (1) annoyance; (2) the ‘creepiness’ of being “watched so closely – especially since mobile ads are directly targeted using lots of personal data; (3) the fact that 3rd-party tags can be messengers for malware; and (4) that Ads drain Smartphone batteries and users’ data plans.” Impacting some $17 billion of annual loss to publishers, agencies & branding companies, when fraud and fragmentation are also factored in, “this kind of transformation hasn’t been seen since television came in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s.”  [THE ECONOMIST – Mar 26, 16]
  • “THE LAST TWO DECADES OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY WERE AN ABERRATION – an era when America became so overwhelmingly more powerful than any rival that it got geopolitically drunk and decided that it didn’t just want to be a cop on the beat protecting our nation, but also a social worker, architect and carpenter doing nation-building abroad. It was all done with the best of intentions, and in some cases did save precious lives. But none of the efforts achieved the kind of self-sustaining democratizing order we wanted, which is why neither this president nor the next wants to be doing any more of that — if they can at all avoid it.” [THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN in LEVINE BRIEFING NOTES – April 6, 16]
  • POSTNUPTIAL CONTRACTS ARE BACK IN FASHION, spelling out how a marital estate gets divided or how a particular asset will be treated upon divorce – matters of increasing concern to the elder generation with considerable wealth or a family business, in process of estate planning, or positioning for a capital event. Priorities are usually “ensuring that the family business stays within a bloodline… especially in families with children from prior relationships who have financial expectations of their parents.” DCG has decades of experience in critically important financial planning before a postnup contract is drafted. [GERBER & CO NWSLTR – Apr 6, 16]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: Bureaucracy + Computers = Absurdity!  Fourteen years ago, a guy neglected to return a VHS rental to a (now-defunct) video store which somehow resulted in a civil suit filing. Last month, he was arrested by local police in North Carolina, handcuffed & charged as a criminal case.  [WASHINGTON POST – Mar 25, 16]

      Technology’s impact on today’s culture:  Phones are Wireless; Cooking is Fireless & Food is Fatless; Cars are Keyless & Tires Tubeless; Youth are Jobless & Leaders Shameless; Relationships Meaningless & Attitudes Careless; Babies Fatherless, Children Mannerless; Government Clueless with Politicians Useless & Worthless; Adults: Speechless & Scared Shitless! [INTERNET ANON]

      Millennials in the workforce update:  NEWEST MANAGEMENT TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0o9clVQu8

   DCG: UTILIZING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE FOR OPTIMAL STRATEGIC & FINANCIAL DIRECTION, MANAGEMENT, NEGOTIATION & MEDIATION