“Pack Light” | Tumi’s CEO, Jerome Griffith

Read the WSJ article here.

King in the Valley

Kobe Bryant may have four championship rings, but it’s the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James who wrangled an invitation to hobnob with moguls at this week’s Allen & Co. media-industry conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

James, who already has ties to the New York investment bank and is busy building his own empire, will be in good company. One would think with the economy in tatters and layoffs and cost-cutting the order of the day, attendance at what’s been described as “summer camp for billionaires” would be down. [ LA Times ]

read article here

Global Corruption

Global Corruption Map

please read anyone or all of these articles on corruption going on around the world from young to old, petty to grand! makes you think!

The Great American Hanger Company

Success Secret:

“To be perfectly honest, I do not consider myself a success. I am a ‘student’ in my first business who has accomplished a few successes since I started the business. Those successes can be traced back to having an incredible team.”

At 25, Rifkin began his company through telephone market research and a global trip to learn about the hanger business. Nine years later, his Miami-based The Great American Hanger Company has revolutionized the industry, bringing high-quality hangers to the public. Each year, 17 million hangers are sold by the $9.6 million business.

Rifkin’s philosophy from day one has been that associates (he never calls them employees) come first. He refers to his company as “ours,” not “mine,” and knows his time is more important than cash when it comes to the community work he’s passionate about.

Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 press release.
Cocktail Talk’s Devon Rifkin interview
Hangers

Business of Basketball

Last season was a rousing success for the National Basketball Association. The league’s two marquee teams, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, met in the finals, and television ratings soared 51% over the prior year. The league’s two biggest stars, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, were on winning teams and getting a lot of prime-time exposure, wowing fans and sponsors.

League-wide revenues hit a record $3.8 billion during the 2007-08 season, 6% more than the prior campaign, and the average team posted a profit (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $10.6 million, the highest amount since Forbes began tracking NBA finances 10 years ago.

i don’t need anymore inspiration for what i do, but if i did… this would be it! And yeah, the business side of basketball from hmb is coming too… the blog and the magazine is just the platform! please please stay tuned, or turn me off lol!

check out the rest of the article

What’s G?

Part 1

Part 2

This is an iconic commercial. Minus Lil Wayne! And here’s why:

a) You have iconic figures like Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali, who did so much more beyond their respective sports for the black community and society at large. They stood on integrity and held closely to their convictions for what was right,  for a cause beyond them and did it with a level of class and respectability that made you appreciate them as men. Lil Wayne has not done anything remotely close to resembling the credibility and integrity of these men who sacrificed their lives and their lifestyles for players like Plaxico Buress and “PacMan” Jones to make millions of dollars and continue being the stereotypic black athletes, who don’t appreciate the legacy of what came before them. Lil Wayne speaks nothing of nor sacrifices anything for a “greater” cause nor does he represent that.

b) Next, you have living legendary figures like Bill Russel, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods who have transcended their respective sports by consistently winning coupled with an off the court/course class and elegance unparalleled at their respective times. Whether it be a classic style, elegant articulation, or pushing the envelope (with some artistic integrity) they have all raised the bar for the next generation to attain. And may i add, they all worked and continue to work extremely hard, mastering their crafts while continuously defering themselves from the limelight! Lil Wayne, again, does nothing remotely close to what i’ve written about any of the aforementioned men. He constantly glamorizes the use of drugs, violence, and alcohol and quite honestly hasn’t transcended any part of hip hop thus far.

Each person in this Gatorade commercial has done something unthinkable, unpredictible, represented their country, represented and sacrificed for something they felt convicted about, gave of their lives, bodies, soul, and mind daily as most world class athletes do, and Gatorade chooses Lil Wayne to be the voice of these individuals?

I’m disgusted because i believe their marketing team went “trend” or attempted to be “urban” to grab the attention of all genre’s, ages, and class with this title, “What’s G?”, which is somewhat disrespectful in my eyes, and the use of Lil Wayne as the voice over. When, the substance of the people in the commercial was more than enough. Because that was not what this commercial interpreted visually.  And since i cannot glaring state my angst with Lil Wayne and not give an alternative here are a few suggestions for the voice of those who are readily identifiable and iconic in their own right:

• Denzel Washington
• James Earl Jones
• Morgan Freeman
• Don Cheadle
• Forrest Whitaker

i know there are so many more i’m missing but i guarantee whoever it is, they’d probably represent these athletes better than Lil Wayne.

Sidenote: i also have a problem with this lower case “god” business because the men which that word was so metaphorically attached to never even gave off that aura of considering themselves as a “lower case god.” And i’m from Pasadena… the home of Jackie Robinson, and i know many of his family members and close friends of his family and that man was as humble of an athlete of his caliber as you could quite possibly be. It’s hard to think of yourself as a “lowercase god” when men, who couldn’t do an ounce of what you’re doing, are denying you food, calling you a monkey, spitting on you, etc. and you patiently show the strength and will of an “UPPERCASE MAN”

The Global Elite

The Power of Ideas

The difference between a good idea and a truly transformative one often comes down to timing. Here are four thinkers whose philosophies seem to have captured the intellectual moment:

ECONOMICS
Joseph Stiglitz
No one foretold the current money meltdown like Stiglitz, who sketched it back in 2003. When enterprises become too big and interconnected, he wrote in his book “The Roaring Nineties,” cockiness leads to risk taking—with dire results. He dubbed the problem “too big to fail.”

CLIMATE CHANGE
Peter Barnes
Making producers of coal, oil and gas buy permits to offset the CO2 emitted from their products would raise energy prices. Barnes would avoid a backlash by paying the fees to every American. If you use less fossil fuel and consume fewer products made with it, you’ll come out ahead.

PUBLIC POLICY
Cass Sunstein
Americans don’t always make the best choices for themselves. (Subprime loan, anyone?) That, Sunstein argues in his latest book, “Nudge,” is why governments need to design policies—like automatic opt-ins for 401(k)s—that push people toward better conclusions. Obama is already a fan.

MEDICINE
Dr. George Church
Taking a page from Wikipedia, Church, who launched the Personal Genome Project in 2006, is asking volunteers to disclose their DNA online, where scientists can correlate genes with diseases. The goal: personalized medicine—sooner than you think. More than 6,000 people have signed up.

NEWSWEEK

Published Dec 20, 2008

From the magazine issue dated Jan 5, 2009

NoWHERE! Soon

i’m probably extremely late here… but Dover Street will be housing NoWhere, Soon! (in their basement, how thorough is that?!)

“15 years ago friends and collaborators Nigo (A Bathing Ape) and Jun Takahashi (Undercover) opened a tiny shop in Harajuku Tokyo called NOWHERE. It was Undercover’s first ever dedicated retail space. The space also had Nigo’s picks of US vintage wear.

During that first year Nigo launched A Bathing Ape in NOWHERE.

NOWHERE will open again for a limited period of time in the basement of DSM from 17th January 2009 selling A Bathing Ape products and exclusive products made by Nigo and Jun together under the NOWHERE name.” – DSM Paper

though, i’m personally not a big A Bathing Ape supporter, wanted to highlight the endurance of a bond. Because in any business it’s difficult to have a working relationship without things getting in the way. And i commend Nigo and Jun for being able, 15 years later, to return to the essence and foundation of where they both jumpstarted their careers, collectively!

“Dover Street is off the Handle” – Lupe Fiasco

Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder and co-chairman of Infosys, the leading information technology and outsourcing company in the world, was featured by CNN’s Andrew Stevens on their ‘TalkAsia’ segment. Infosys was started in 1981 by Nilekani and 6 other partners with $250. Infosys is now reportedly worth $4 billion today.

What was most intriguing and inspirational about CNN’s feature of Nilekani, was Infosys’ and his reputation of doing business ethically. I was mostly intrigued by the orator’s reaction to business being done ethically which goes to show that not many companies (leading companies at that) practice ethics in their business. What inspired me the most is that he stood by it and stands on ethics 27 years later, proving that you can be an upstanding individual, have an upstanding company, and be “grossly” financially successful. Not that i didn’t know that before but to see it, is always inspirational.

please read and view CNN’s full interview and story on Nandan Nilekani and Infosys here. I recommend watching it in it’s entirety, especially the ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ segment of the feature.

OPEC Demise

The fundamental problems of the once-mighty Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are being laid bare by falling prices and production cuts.

to read the full story by Jim Jubak click here.