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Top of Mind Thursday – February 13, 2025: Paranoia
In Catch-22, author Joseph Heller told us, Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. These days, there seem to be lots of reasons for people to be paranoid. If you are an immigrant to the US—even if here legally—you need to worry about being possibly deported. If you are a US federal government employee—even one whose work may be important to the functioning of the country—you may have to worry about your job being eliminated. If, as part of your normal employment duties, you were assigned to work on a case that targeted actions of the current president of the United States, you are likely to find yourself unemployed. If you are the leader of a jurisdiction upon which Trump would like to impose tariffs, you’re likely strategizing how to safeguard your economy. If you’re Ukrainian, you may be worrying what life will be like under Vladimir Putin in the new world. If you believe in the power of modern medicine and vaccines, you may be wondering how you and your family will be kept safe from deadly diseases, including the rapidly growing bird flu epidemic that may be about to make the leap into humans, now that a vaccine denier is heading up the Health and Human Services agency. None of us knows where all of this is heading. Some of these threats may never come to fruition; others may turn out to be minor. And still others may significantly impact our lives. The key is to remain vigilant and not to react to every potential action or perceived slight, but to take appropriate action where necessary. As Intel founder Andy Grove told us, only the paranoid survive. Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
Let us help your business rise to the top. linda@popky.com |
Top of Mind Thursday – February 6, 2025: Pinball Wizard
The 17 days since Donald Trump’s second inauguration have been quite busy.
As promised, the president hit the ground running. So far, he’s signed 54 executive orders, far surpassing any other president at this stage.
Many of these were promised during the campaign: enhance border security, establish the Dept. of Government Efficiency, remove funding for DEI programs, withdraw from the Paris climate accords, pullback from funding solar and wind projects, withdraw funding for schools that allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports, withdraw support for UNRWA and other UN projects.
However, others were surprising, such as asking 2 million federal employees for their resignations, and summarily closing down the US Agency for International Development—firing all 10,000 employees of the government’s humanitarian arm.
And some of his proposed actions are absolutely shocking, to say the least, like temporarily stopping all federal aid and grants programs, giving Elon Musk and his team access to the federal payment system, and proposing that 2 million Gazans be relocated (no one knows to where!) to allow Gaza to be developed as a resort—”The Riviera of the Middle East.”
With all this going on, it’s easy to feel like we’re being zapped around like the inside of a pinball game. Look here, bounce there, but watch out, there’s another ball coming around the corner, up, down, all around.
Already, some of these initiatives have been rescinded and there are lawsuits challenging others. Proposed tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico are now on hold. Still other proposals, like taking control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, and relocating everyone from Gaza to build a high end resort, have been met with such disbelief and outrage on a global basis that they aren’t likely to actually happen.
This seems to be Trump’s MO: Throw out the most extreme option possible with enough firepower behind it that you have to take him seriously. Then do a “deal” with the other side to come up with a much more reasonable option. For example, maybe threatening to build the Trump Gaza Resort will get Arab nations to step up and help rebuild Gaza instead.
If you don’t like what’s going on, how do you fight against so many pinballs being flung at you at once? Instead of trying to avoid all those spinning balls, stop and watch where they’re really being aimed. Wait to see where they land. Only then can we determine what was all a show and what’s really hit the target.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – January 30, 2025: Tragedy on the Potomac
Last night, an American Airlines commuter plane collided with an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington DC, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River.
It now appears that 67 people lost their lives in this horrific accident. Rescuers have found nearly 30 bodies so far, but no survivors.
No one knows yet exactly what caused this disaster to happen. Investigations will take place, most likely led by the NTSB, to understand what went wrong in this incident and how to prevent a disaster like this from happening again.
But amidst the sorrow and the loss, we can’t lose sight of what went right last night.
All responsible government agencies—including those from the federal government, the states of Virginia and Maryland, the District of Columbia, local fire and emergency crew, divers, and others—jumped into action almost immediately. Some of these first responders spent the night combing the murky Potomac waters searching for survivors, and then eventually recovering bodies of the victims.
That’s because, despite what you may hear on the news, for the most part, the government in the US really does work. The mail gets delivered on time, our food is safe, our drugs are regulated and, for the most part, planes takeoff and land safely (This was the first fatal commercial airline accident in 16 years.).
There’s great enthusiasm in Washington right now for dramatically rethinking government operations.
Could some operations be handled more efficiently? Absolutely. Could some processes and procedures be streamlined or eliminated? Quite likely. Does the whole system need to be torn apart and rebuilt from the ground up? Absolutely not.
How many of the people who jumped into action last night to help—as well as those who dropped everything to help fight wildfires in Los Angeles and provide relief to hurricane victims in North Carolina—are in danger of losing their jobs due to government “efficiency” initiatives? How many local government agencies and non-profit organizations had their funding temporarily frozen this week for no good reason?
Breaking the whole system because it doesn’t work perfectly would be akin to closing the runways because two aircraft wound up in the drink instead. That approach just doesn’t fly.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – January 23, 2025: Tick…Tock…Tick…Tock…Boom!
This week, over 150 million Americans held their breath as a critical deadline approached.
No, this was not the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president. It was the possibility that social media platform TikTok might be shut down because it didn’t meet the government-imposed deadline to sell the Chinese-owned company to American buyers.
Congress had imposed the deadline for national security reasons.TikTok collects extensive user data—including location, browsing history, and potentially biometric data. It’s algorithm determines what users see based on their behavior.
Unlike other social platforms, TikTok is closely tied to the Chinese government, who has the right to access this information and could potentially use this data to surveil or spy on Americans. Or, they could tweak the algorithm to promote content favorable to Chinese political interests.
But the people panicking because TikTok might be shut down weren’t concerned about that. They were more worried that their status as social media influencers might be disrupted and their incomes reduced or dissipated.
Donald Trump came in with an eleventh-hour stay to try and find a solution to the situation–even before officially inaugurated as president. One possibility was 50-50 ownership between Chinese and American interests. Unfortunately, this would do nothing to prevent the Chinese government gaining access to sensitive information of. hundreds of millions of Americans.
Here’s the problem. All those social media quizzes, contests, and interactive social posts are designed to get us to give up personal information. Yes, our social platform providers know more about us than we often know about ourselves. But do we really want the Chinese government to know all this too?
Tick, tock, tick, tock. . . Boom!
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com