Times have changed!  The company no longer needs the help of government officials.  They have the contract and apparently do not feel a need to honor the commitments that they made to get the support of the Kansas congressional delegation.  This should send chills down that back of  politicians everywhere.  They depend on being able to steer contracts and bills through Congress to award (or payback)  local companies.  This a big plant with a very skilled work force in a city with deep aviation roots.  It a plant this size can be moved to another state, it should be relatively easy for others to do the same.

Boeing has spent over $3.2B with more than 475 local suppliers in 2011.  Many of these suppliers will continue to supply parts and services to other Boeing facilities.  But chances are good that many of these suppliers will also relocate in an effort to remain competitive with other potential suppliers.  When building a product as large as Boeing does, a lean and efficient supplier network is crucial.  Location will make the difference in the awarding of future supplier contracts.  Kansas stands to lose 2 – 3 times of indirect jobs as a result of this decision by Boeing.

The Human Rights Campaign has latched onto the controversy as a way to bully the company into participating in its annual Corporate Equality Index.  This is an annual survey put together by the gay rights activist organization that rates companies on their policies as they relate to LGBT issues.  The report lists rates each participating company and provides a numerical score that can be used to compare companies against a each other with regard to non-discrimination policy, domestic partnership benefits, etc.  This useful information for both employees and customers.  However, the annual report is often used to bully and intimidate companies into expanding support of gay rights in the corporate community.  The organization has a history of using strong arm tactics and threats to get executives to support their goals.  

Regardless of your thoughts or opinion on gay rights or workplace equality, what is at issue here is something else.  We have a privately held business that is being harassed and intimidated based upon their Christian identity.  As a private entity, Chich-fil-A has the freedoms to operate the business according to their values.  Reading the comments on the CNN article and other internet sites, we can see that many on the left see tolerance as a one way street.  Mr. Cathy has affirmed his families belief in the Biblical definition of marriage and expressed their “love and respect for anyone who disagrees”.  Should they be tried with the same love and respect?

As individuals we all the have the right to choose where we eat and spend our hard earned dollars.  However, HRC should be using the situation to try to force participation the the annual Corporate Equality Index.  Their participation serves no purpose other than providing a tool to attack the company.  Given the stated values of the founders and the corporation, any reasonable person would expect that they would score lower than larger, public corporations who have given into the the pressure from HRC in the past.

With over 7000 employees in the KC metro area, this is a fantastic and free opportunity to reach those employees.  Sprint has participated in the corporate perks program for a number of years.  This benefited the employees with discounts at mainly national chains.  With the Hometown Proud program, sprint customers can list special offers and discounts to Sprint employees.  Kind of like a private label groupon!

This is a win – win for both the small business owner as well as the Sprint employees.  Something everyone should take advantage of.

Call it what you want.  Poor planning on my part. Bad Luck. An on-going recession.  Their are a number of excuses but by the time I got to this point, I just needed to see what I could do to keep my house.

I submitted all the requested documents in Augusts and waited to hear something.  I was told that they needed additional documentation.   Remember, this was just after the program changed to the point where the lenders were required to get all documentation verified prior to entering into a trial program.  I submitted the additional documents in September and again waited.

This is when it began to get really interesting.  And where I began to believe all the horror stories that I was seeing in the press.  Big Banks losing documents.  Servicers stalling in order to force consumers into foreclosure.  Pretty stressful stuff when you are a Father with 6 kids still living at home and one in college.  Plus the additional fatigue of looking for full time employment on a regular basis.

Part of my issues were a result of my changing employment picture.  I was receiving unemployment which could not be considered income since it was not expected to last another 9 months,  In addition, to that, my wife started a new position in which she was paid monthly.  This meant a 2 month wait to get payroll verification.  Myself, I was working as substitute teacher in 3 different school districts plus another part-time on-call position.  Since each of these was variable, it was difficult for me to communicate exactly what my income will be in any given month.

After 60 plus calls, I received the call on Christmas eve that I had been waiting for.  My contact at Wells Fargo called to let me know that we qualified and would be entering the trial modification phase.  The Interest rate and the payment amount are going to be very good and will allow us to remain in our home.  The incentive for making on-time payments for the first five years will allow us to gain additional equity.  The one downside is that the term is going to be greatly extended.  However, once the economy turns around and I am able to increase my income, we plan to increase our payments to a point where the house is paid off before we retire.

I wanted to share this story so that others my see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I still have several more months until I can reach a point where the permanent modification in put place.  But I am getting closer.

Assange has indicated that the next round of secret documents to be released with target large US banks.  At first glance moving from the US Government to the financial industry would seem fairly easy; moving from one hated and despised target to another.  However, the financial institutions have the means and the fortitude to fight back.  We have seen a rash of organizations rush to disassociate themselves from WikiLeaks.  PayPal, Visa and Mastercard all took actions to stop the flow of money to the organization citing violations of terms of service.  Amazon joined the parade by kicking them off of the servers.

The attacks by the hacker supporters has not persuaded Bank of America from taking the same action.  The large US bank has recently stopped processing payments that it identifies as headed to WikiLeaks.  This has led to the charges of  being “attacked” by Assange.   His latest choice of targets is going to do more damage then even the allegations of sexual assault have done to date.

Usability is key to reaching this group.  Sprint can offer all the lessons in the world on how to text but it is not going to make a difference until the handset makers realize that their current line up of phones is not going to cut it with this group of consumers.  95% of the devices currently on the market today has small buttons requiring good eye sight and dexterity in order to operate effectively.

While their kids and kids may be pushing the older generation to “get with it” and start texting and using social media, it is not going to happen in great numbers without the industry starts waking up to the fact that not every consumer is looking for the newest, smallest and most feature packed device.

Just an easy way to communicate like they had with “Ma Bell”.