• MOST BUSINESS OWNERS HAVE NO ‘EXIT’ PLAN and two-thirds haven’t even considered their readiness for a transition, pouring time & effort into Business Planning without any clear direction of where they want to end up personally. PwC research suggests that three in four owners “deeply regret exiting their business within 12 months, when they find they’d had no life built with which to enjoy the financial proceeds of the sale.” While they probably envisioned retirement activities & hobbies (golf, fishing, travel, grandkids time, etc.), these are not ‘purpose’-driven, and soon for most felt empty. Beyond physiological needs for safety & security, Purpose is what supports the post-exit identity, “experiencing the greatest joy with least effort with and core principles guiding decision making.” Along with strategic financial planning, Dennis has decades of experience in guiding many of the more than 70% of Baby Boomer and 80% of Gen X business owners who have overlooked personal planning dimensions of reality-based readiness for business exit. Let DCG help. [EXIT PLANNING INSTITUTE]
• SINCE COVID 19, CALIFORNIA STATE WORKERS HAVE BEEN REQUIRED TO WORK IN PERSON ONLY TWO DAYS A WEEK. Gov. Newsome at least wants to raise this to four days effective next month, but which unions oppose because members “would rather keep collecting checks at home than return to the office where taxpayers can see them.” Latest absurd argument from the union representing state lawyers is threatening litigation on the basis that additional monthly commutes would require additional car trips adding air pollution from tailpipe emissions, and argues that state agencies failed to conduct Environmental Analysis. “A normal state would laugh this argument out of court, however California built a legal regime that may invite it in; the legislature could fix this absurdity tomorrow by exempting government labor decisions from its green law, as with other exemptions so common that they have come to define how the state does business.” [WASHINGTON EXAMINER]
• THIS WINTER, THE ‘EL NINO’ CLIMATE PATTERN has more than a two-thirds likelihood of bringing widespread and unprecedented effects to California, including: (1) 88% chance of way above average rainfall and risk of large-scale high-tide flooding, raising sea level by up to 10 inches in some communities; (2) record-breaking marine heat waves; (3) increased shark attacks and man-o’-war wash ups on shores; (4) reduction of white abalone, plankton, crab & shellfish, seals, sea lion pups and marine birds. This year “El Nino could become one of the largest on record, with magnitude of effects unprecedented in the modern era.” [LA TIMES]
• AS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TAKES OVER at an ever-increasing pace, the true risk of its implementation is not just replacing employees handling routine work. The real danger – not many years off – is that routine work is how people become experts, developing seasoned judgment from having dealt with that dull repetition. As AI takes over operational decision-making, after years on autopilot, and evolves as decision-maker for action steps with risk of pitfalls, will there be any human with experience & reality-based judgment to be in the seat of leadership or even advising on a company’s Board? This impact will be slow and invisible as those with human judgment skills disappear, but reality is that X years from now, when critical non-anticipatable impacts surface, no one in the Company will have the wisdom to handle the moment when AI cannot.
• THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: Many who derive emotional excitement from competitive sports events as a priority are puzzled by those who simply don’t know or care about which team or person is number 1, or appreciate the roar of a crowd. Here’s why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H2SYuG5-p8
• Across the country, electricity grids are at peak levels and new grids are being approved for regulated utilities to construct billions of dollars on infrastructure, with customer billings increased to provide the operator with a guaranteed return of typically 9 to 11% on capital invested. While a more efficient option is ‘reconducting’ – simply replacing existing tower wire with composite core conductors that carry roughly twice the current, in months rather than years – bureaucrats in state legislators, regulators and trade associations are “systemically rewarded by incentives not to innovate or lower costs, while socialized allocation spreads costs across millions of bills in multiple states, too small on any single bill for customers to notice.” [TOWNHALL]
• AI programs now teach themselves how to blackmail their creators in order to stay functional. What next? https://youtube.com/shorts/Do8hslo0Xzg?si=hONQxe6TsF0Lrqir