•  “CHARISMA PLUS EGOMANIA MINUS COMPETENCE IS A DANGEROUS FORMULA… People tend to assume that confident individuals are competent, when there is no actual relationship between those two qualities… In Leadership, it is competence far more than confidence that is important… starting with setting a good example, since subordinates notice what behavior gets rewarded and which standards are set by the person at the top… Managers need enough presence to persuade their teams to follow the business plan, but should think in terms of coaching rather than inspiration… Team leadership also requires having sufficient empathy to understand the concerns of others, and when things go wrong – as they inevitably will – the flexibility to adjust strategy… which does not suit the style of overconfident or narcissistic people.”  [THE ECONOMIST – 3/30/19]
  • SUCCESSION PLANNING FOR FAMILY BUSINESSES is typically procrastinated, which can have critical impact when a key owner, manager or employee passes away, becomes ill, retires, resigns or gets fired – especially when there are few key people involved in the business and available to take over functional roles & responsibilities. Beyond maintenance of operational controls, customer services and key supplier & financing relationships, succession planning is the critical factor in effortless (or not) transition. DCG has decades of experience in assisting owners & business leaders to ascertain strategies in development and implementation to ensure optimally effective succession for business protection, productivity, profitability, stability and valuation.
  • MOST RECYCLED TRASH IS NOW ENDING UP IN LANDFILLS OR INCINERATORS. Asian countries purchased over 40% of American waste (plastic, glass, metal, paper) until 2018 when China banned imports of “loathsome foreign garbage.” Problem is that the U.S. recycling industry cannot now handle our trash – since a quarter is “contaminated with food waste and non-recyclable materials, including bowling balls, used syringes and pizza boxes/cans/bottles, with residue which wreaks havoc on the automatic sorting equipment.” Some cities are now burning the refuse and converting waste to energy, but most municipalities “have been forced to suspend or cancel recycling programs altogether and send everything to landfills… The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that recycling & composting prevented approximately 186 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere in 2013, the equivalent of taking 39 million cars off the road.”  [THE WEEK – 4/5/19]
  •  ELECTRIC VEHICLES POSE ACCIDENT CHALLENGES FROM ‘THERMAL RUNAWAY’ FIRES – a “self-accelerating chain reaction in which their lithium-ion batteries explode, releasing energy that further increases temperatures as high as 900 degrees that is likely to ignite other batteries, taking up to 24 hours to extinguish requiring thousands of gallons of water… A standard 12-volt battery is used by most gas-powered engines, but a typical Electric Vehicle operates closer to a potentially deadly 400 volts (and the newest Porsche boasts 800 volts).” Well over three-quarters of a million electric and hybrid plug-in vehicles are currently on U.S. roads with few such incidents so far, but the battery pack fires which have occurred created infernos that firefighters were incapable of stopping before total destruction of vehicles and surrounding buildings.   [BUSINESSWEEK – 4/1/19]
  • NEWEST CALIFORNIA TAX SURPRISE: Legislation was proposed last month to re-impose a 40% inheritance tax of lifetime gifts & estates, up to the $11.4 federal exclusion level (inflation adjusted), less $3.5M state exclusion = $7.9M, beginning 2021. The tax would be administered by a new CA Social Inheritance Accounts department to “directly address and alleviate socio-economic inequality, to counterbalance the uneven effects of international wealth transfer.”  [GREENBERG GLUSKER ALERT – 3/29/19]      

        Two or more ‘sugary drinks’ daily contribute to premature death – 25% more likely for women and 12% greater for men, according to studies involving nearly 120,000 Americans. Harvard’s School of Public Health suggests the double rate for women could be “physiological or metabolic differences, or methodological, where they tend to underreport energy intake.”

        An inspiring story on the history of America’s SR71 spyplane – still the most sophisticated aircraft in the world after six decades — and the powerful motivational impact of Attitude: https://youtu.be/3kIMTJRgyn0