From: Linda (joelinda1@home.com)
Date: Thu Dec 28 2000 - 21:33:26 PST
Adam wrote:
Here's a handful of stream of conscious thoughts
I would add:
6. TO THE PRESS, CHOOSE YOUR WORDS WISELY. An example from today's
RealMoney.com column by Jim Seymour:
http://www.thestreet.com/p/cc/ColumnistConversations_page_6.html
[snip]
But stories like Simon Romero's in this morning's New York Times,
recounting the grief one NYC DSL subscriber had with her DSL service
-- and the non-responsiveness of all three providers involved --
will continue to hurt DSL vendors, by making the general public aware
of how difficult it can be to keep your DSL service up and running.
Bizarre and unfortunate quote in the story from a Northpoint PR person:
"We don't have time to comment on individual cases like these," said
Marvin Wamble, a NorthPoint spokesman. "Our highest executives are
just struggling to keep the company alive, that is their most important
objective at this point."
Yep, sure, we know. But that ain't the way to do it, folks.... And
maybe next time you could consider how something's going to sound in
print before you spout-off something like that to the NYT....
>
> 1. AT ALL TIMES, BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DO BETTER THAN ANYONE
> ELSE AND WHY THAT'S GOING TO MAKE A LOT OF MONEY. This year
> KnowNow has talked with many institutions, angels, wealthy
> individuals, and venture capitalists (CMGi among them) and they
> all have demanded insanely great -- not just very good --
> explanations. And with excellent reason. Because the public
> markets relentlessly demand outstanding answers to a barrage of
> scrutiny every moment of every day, and only the strong survive.
>
> 2. REDUCE EXTERNAL EXPECTATIONS. It is far better to exceed lower
> expectations than to disappoint when missing higher expectations.
> A company that's doing a poor job of external expectations
> management right now is BEA Systems, which has people flocking to
> its stock in droves under the expectation it will continue its
> hypergrowth for the foreseeable future.
>
> 3. INCREASE INTERNAL GOALS. That said, everyone inside the
> organization should be pushing to be far more productive meeting
> deadlines on time and under budget, and internal incentives should
> consistently reinforce this.
>
> 4. WHAT THE MARKET GIVES, THE MARKET CAN TAKE AWAY. A company whose
> stock goes from 5 to 163 from October 1998 to January 2000 can go
> from 163 to 5 from January 2000 to December 2000. We have proof.
> What's the lowest a stock can go? Zero. Just because a stock is
> down 75% doesn't prevent it from going down another 90% or more.
> No company can ever get complacent about what it does or how it is
> perceived both internally and externally, because the market is
> relentless in its perpetual judgment, and momentum and leverage
> work a company just as much on the downside as they work for a
> company on the upside.
>
> 5. CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES WISELY. You cannot win a war waged on too
> many fronts at once. It is far more important to live to fight
> another day, than it is to be overly brave or bold, or to be seen
> as too bright, or to be ostentatiously beautiful. The qualities
> that make for a great warrior, in my mind, are: willingness to be
> seen as ugly and not-too-clever, while at the same time
> maintaining a demeanor that is steady, stealthy, and tenacious.
>
_____________________________
"I'm not stupid," says the investor. "My financial advisor is stupid."
--K.L. Fisher
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