Eric D. Colburn, PLS

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

In this week’s PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY I’m asking the question:

Does Your Company Share Its Financial Data?

Is your firm one that has an open book policy and readily shares the financial health of the business? Or, perhaps, if they do share financial data, maybe it’s only a small portion or sanitized version or reality.

Open or Closed Book

I’ve worked at several companies, none of which shared much, if any, financial data. One reason why those companies kept closed books was because they didn’t want the employees to see the finances when times were good. In some respects, that’s understandable. I have been on both sides of the employee/employer paradigm. I now know that when I was an employee I didn’t understand what my bosses went through on a weekly basis to keep the ship moving in the right direction, to pay the employees and to pay all of the bills. As an employer, you fear that in keeping open books all an employee will see is revenue and not all the bills that chip away at those revenues, leaving little if any left over for you the boss.

Read the rest of this entry →

A new survey from Selftrade reveals a marked shift is taking place in people’s attitudes to money – as major life changes during the recession in 2009 create a society intolerant to debt and less likely to trust others to manage their money.

London (PRWeb UK) April 14, 2009 — With the economic slowdown forcing many to refocus their career and domestic goals, the Selftrade research of 2,095 UK adults discovered that around 50% of British adults have been forced to make a ‘Plan B’ in the last year, as their lives have taken a surprise turn in a different direction. In 87% of these cases, a life change drove a major shift in financial outlook and habits.

50% of Brits forced to make ‘Plan B’ during recession

Read the rest of this entry →

A moderate price reduction but no risk of a property crash

The last market review published by the Fédération Nationale de l’Immobilier (FNAIM), which is the French National Federation of Real Estate Agents, confirmed the general trend with price reductions during the 1st quarter of 2009 but emphasise on the fact there is no risk of a property crash.

According to an internal survey carried out by the FNAIM (260 estate agents participated to it), their turnover for the 1st quarter of 2009 is down by an average 30% compared to the 1st quarter of 2008. An article published in the French newspaper “Le Monde” (mentioning the FNAIM market report and a report from the French notaires) indicates that the notaires activity in 2008 decreased by 20% compared to the previous year. The whole resale market decreased by 17%, from 802,000 in 2007 to 667,000 in 2008. New build sales dropped by 37.6% (79,400 in 2008 against 127,300 in 2007).

As a consequence, the major French property developers decided price reductions on most of their developments during the 4th quarter of 2008 and the 1st quarter of 2009 by 10 to 20%. Read the rest of this entry →

Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse (Lynn Sonberg Books)

Product Description
The economic tipping point for the United States is no longer theoretical. It is a reality today. The country has gone from the world’s largest creditor to its greatest debtor; the value of the dollar is sinking; domestic manufacturing is winding down – and these trends don’t seem to be slowing. Peter Schiff casts a sharp, clear-sighted eye on these factors and explains what the possible effects may be and how investors can protect themselves. For more than a decade, Schiff has not only observed the U.S. economy, but also helped his clients reposition their portfolios to reflect his outlook. What he sees is a nation facing an economic storm brought on by growing federal, personal, and corporate debt, too-little savings, a declining dollar, and lack of domestic manufacturing.
Crash-Proof is an informed and informative warning of a looming period marked by sizeable tax hikes, loss of retirement benefits, double digit inflation, even – as happened recently in Argentina – the possible collapse of the middle class. However, Schiff does have a survival plan that can provide the protection that readers will need in the coming years. Read the rest of this entry →

The Halo Effect: … and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This tart takedown of fashionable management theories is a refreshing antidote to the glut of simplistic books about achieving high performance. Rosenzweig, a veteran business manager turned professor, argues that most popular business ideas are no more than soothing platitudes that promise easy success to harried managers. Consultants, journalists and other pundits tap scientifically suspect methods to produce what he calls “business delusions”: deeply flawed and widely held assumptions tainted by the “halo effect,” or the need to attribute sweeping positive qualities to any company that has achieved success. Following these delusions might provide managers with a comforting story that helps them frame their actions, but it also leads them to gross simplification and to ignore the constant demands of changing technologies, markets, customers and situations. Mega-selling books like Good to Great, Rosenzweig argues, are nothing more than comforting, highbrow business fables. Unfortunately, Rosenzweig hedges his own principles for success so much that managers will find little practical use for them. His argument about the complexity of sustained achievement, and his observation that success comes down to “shrewd strategy, superb execution and good luck,” may end up limiting the market for this smart and spicy critique. (Feb. 6)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
“In “The Halo Effect,” Phil Rosenzweig has done us all a great service by speaking the unspeakable. His iconoclastic analysis is a very welcome antidote to the kind of superficial, formulaic, and dumbed-down matter that seems to be the current stock in trade of many popular business books. It’s the right book at the right time.”– John R. Kimberly, Henry Bower Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

Should AIG employees get bonuses?

I’m not sure why AIG employees working (?) for a company that would be bankrupt without our hard earned paid taxes would deserve a bonus! If you’ve got the nerve to ask for and receive a bonus when you screwed-up the company in the first place, then you are a despicable excuse for a human being and deserve to go to jail. It’s fraud plain and simple, says me. And while I understand that crooks, like the people who ran AIG, have no shame in stealing another person’s money, it’s ultimately our politicians’ fault for this mess!

How is it possible to get a base bonus of millions when the company is failing. Think about this. These AIG employees, from what I understand, took a salary of $1 in exchange for performance bonuses at the end of the year. As their performance was dismal and their only success was to exist for a one year period of service (or lack thereof), then these bonuses must be based upon complete and utter failure as an outcome. Imagine how much these AIG employees would have earned (I use this term loosely) if they performed successfully!

Regardless of the hubris displayed by AIG, I, for once, would like to see our politicians’ stand up and admit that a lot of the financial crises and mismanaged recovery efforts, is their fault. In my opinion, it’s time for every single one of our politicians’ to step down, join the unemployment lines, and let’s start over with all new politicians. They’re all the same, but with a whole new set of politicians it will take them a while to screw things up and figure out how to screw us, the taxpayers.

Take the following survey and visit the Professional Land Surveyor Forum: Should AIG Employees get Bonuses?

 Loading ...