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The Beauty of the Marketplace
The first time a person tries out a new idea, a new marketing approach, a new product, or even a new business, he or she will almost invariably fail. This is because whenever a person attempts to create a new value, unforeseen, disruptive variables occur as soon as that new value is injected into the competitive marketplace.
When studying the history of America's greatest entrepreneurs, in most cases each great entrepreneur got extremely excited about an idea or an invention, only to have it fail the first time out into the marketplace. But, in each such case, the entrepreneur studied that situation to learn what caused the failure, corrected mistakes, and then pushed forward. In fact, an underlying trait of all successful entrepreneurs is that they achieved success via learning from their mistakes. They did not achieve success via an initial "great idea."
Most individuals, at some point in time, come up with "great ideas." They get all excited about their ideas and envision success. But, when they first inject their ideas into the real world, they usually fail. The key is to understand that a person must work through the practical problems that the competitive marketplace throws up against new ideas. It is almost impossible for a new idea to work completely right the first time it is injected into the real-world marketplace.
People naturally become disappointed and demoralized when their new ideas don't work. But, it is at this point that a person must say, "I now have the rare opportunity to uncover my mistakes and correct them." That is the beauty of the marketplace. It allows people to uncover their mistakes and correct them. In other areas of life, such a mechanism seldom exists to reveal a person's mistakes. Outside of business, people can go through their entire lives making the same mistakes over and over again. Those mistakes can cost them dearly -- financially and emotionally. And they may never uncover those mistakes or uncover them only after many years.
Mistakes in business, on the other hand, can be positive events. Business mistakes make themselves obvious via their bottom-line results. A person then has the opportunity to roll up his sleeves and correct those mistakes. He can then go on to succeed. Outside of business, people do not have the opportunity to so clearly identify their mistakes and get rid of them. That is why those who exert consistent effort and persistency in business succeed so handsomely over time.
New Phishing Scam Alert
Government IT News is reporting a new phishing scam targeting debit-card accounts used to deliver government benefits payments in 15 states.
The report said e-mails, phone text messages and so-called vishing voice-mail messages ask recipients to confirm or update EPPICard account data, directing them to a phony Web site. Once the scammers have gathered the account information, they can drain money from the benefits account.
“They are apparently targeting government payments” such as food stamps and child support payments, said Marc Salomon, a researcher at Cloudmark, an anti-spam company in San Francisco that noticed the attacks earlier this month. “It is the taxpayer who is footing the bill” because the compromised accounts are held by states, not financial institutions.
EPPICard is a magnetic-stripe debit card branded by MasterCard or Visa to access benefits accounts. The cards are used by Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Each state uses the card to deliver the types of benefits payments it chooses. When a payment has been credited to the account, the holder uses the debit card for purchases and the payment is deducted from the account. Holders also can get cash back from a purchase and withdraw cash at banks and automated teller machines.
According to the report, the e-mails apparently come from the address customeralert@eppicard.com and direct victims to a phony Web site. “They are hosted on servers around the world,” Salomon added.
EPPICard has posted a warning on its Web site of phishing and vishing attacks. “We will never request your personal information, such as a Social Security number, card number or PIN through any of these methods,” the company said.
Cloudmark has spotted about 20 of the phishing e-mails and described that number as probably just the tip of iceberg. There is no indication the e-mails are specifically targeting EPPICard users, said Adam O'Donnell, Cloudmark’s director of emerging technology. But he said this type of attack against a niche target is likely to become more common as larger targets such as banks and services such as PayPal become over-phished.
U.S. Department of Labor proposes rules to modernize and increase protections under H-2B program
In a news release, The U.S. Department of Labor yesterday proposed rules to modernize the application process and enhance worker protections under the H-2B temporary labor certification program. The changes respond to the administration’s Aug. 10, 2007, promise to review and update foreign worker program regulations.
“These proposed improvements will give the department additional tools to protect workers and remove duplicative bureaucracy,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L Chao.
When a shortage of U.S. workers is demonstrated, the H-2B program makes it possible for employers to apply for temporary, non-agricultural foreign workers to fill their temporary or seasonal needs.
The proposed rule would reform the application process so that employers would attest, under threat of fines and other penalties, that they have complied with all the program’s requirements. These proposals would alter the current certification process, following a model similar to that adopted in the successful re-engineering of the permanent labor certification program in 2005. The proposed rule also would eliminate duplication of effort by state workforce agencies (SWAs) and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA). Instead of applying first with their SWAs, employers would file their H-2B applications directly with ETA under the proposed process. Furthermore, employers would obtain from the Labor Department instead of SWAs the applicable prevailing wage determinations for their specific job opportunities. In addition, the department seeks to enhance protections for U.S. and foreign workers. For instance, employers would be prohibited from passing along application and other costs to foreign workers participating in the H-2B program. The Department of Labor also proposes to debar for up to three years employers, attorneys and agents found to have committed fraud or willful misrepresentation concerning the H-2B employment-based immigration program, or failed to cooperate in Labor Department audits or investigations.
Finally, the proposal contains a new Department of Labor enforcement program for H-2B in the event the Department of Homeland Security delegates its statutory authority for enforcing the H-2B program to the Department of Labor. Congress vested the Department of Homeland Security with H-2B enforcement authority in 2005.
The proposed rule appears in today’s edition of the Federal Register and can be found at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-11214.pdf. The period for public comment will close July 7.
Bill Gates Asks Congress to Act Now to Maintain U.S. Innovation Lead
At a hearing to commemorate the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology 50th anniversary, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates focused on the future of innovation and U.S. competitiveness, including education and work-force development, the need for immigration reform to allow highly skilled workers to remain in the U.S, and the need to continue to invest in basic research.
“I know we all want the United States to continue to be the world’s center for innovation. But our position as
the global leader in innovation is at risk,” Gates said. “If this nation is to continue to be the global center of
innovation, Congress, the current administration and the next president must act decisively.” Full
Three Opportunity Zones for our Community
Opportunity Zones are a combination of three programs already in use in the State of Georgia. They are State Enterprise Zones, Urban Redevelopment Areas/Plans, and Job Tax Credits. Alone, each of these programs provides strong incentives for local economic development.Together, the blend is a powerful draw for local economic development that is good for business and good for the neighborhood. Â
Enterprise Zone Incentives
• Ad valorem property tax abatement for both commercial and residential properties, excluding taxes imposed by school districts and for general obligation debt, not to exceed the following schedule:  Yrs 0-5: 100% Yrs 6-7: 80% Yr 8: 60% Yr 9: 40% Yr 10: 20%(schedule may begin any year of designation, i.e., may commence with taxpayer location) Â
• Local government may abate or exempt occupation taxes, license fees, building inspection fees, and other local taxes and fees exclusive of sales and use taxes (abatement or exemption can occur at time of zone designation or at a later date).   • Local government may waive ordinances within enterprise zones unless such ordinance is expressly required to implement or enforce statutory provisions.Â
Urban Redevelopment Law Benefits
  • Gives cities broad powers to redevelop blighted or threatened areas of the community.
• Allows communities to use eminent domain to buy and assemble property for revitalization and resale.
 • Does not require a referendum.
• The required Urban Redevelopment Plan (URP) is fairly easy and inexpensive to prepare and amend.
• Can be implemented either by a Downtown Development Authority (DDA) or a Redevelopment
 • Authority appointed by the city.
• Encourages involvement of private enterprise/public private partnerships to redevelop neglected areas of the community.
• Permits use of tax exempt bonds for redevelopment purposes. These may be secured by loans and grants.
 • Lets the public know what is being planned for the redevelopment area.
• Guides City investments in infrastructure to support redevelopment.
• Allows the City to negotiate variances and wave many requirements of its existing zoning and development requirements in order to achieve the optimum economic and aesthetic results in the redevelopment area.Â
Job Tax Credit Program
 • Provides Tier 1 benefit of $3,500 per job created for Opportunity Zonebusinesses.
• Applies to “any lawful business.â€
• The $500 per job bonus for businesses within the boundaries of a joint development authority applies only to “business enterprises†as defined in O.C.G.A. 48-7-40(a).
The changing face of private equity
 The credit crunch has resulted in fewer financing options for big buyout firms. Now they're having to reinvent themselves. David Ellis, CNNMoney.com staff writer reports more
Where is the Global Economy leading us?
In many ways the United States today is experiencing a global transition that mirrors the regional transition the country experienced in the 1960s. Then, parts of the Northeast and Midwest were able to adapt and reinvent their economic bases around higher value-added goods and services. For example, over the course of several decades, the Boston region shifted out of textiles, leather and routine metalworking into higher wage defense, electronics and financial services industries. For a variety of reasons, other regions, like upstate New York and parts of Pennsylvania, could never fully make this shift, and as a result, suffered relatively slow economic growth. As economic transformation once again leads to a dramatic expansion in the effective size of the economy – this time on a global scale – the key question is which path the United States will follow: that of Boston or upstate New York?
The former implies moving aggressively into next-generation industries, including advanced IT, robotics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and high-level business services, while at the same time maintaining a smaller share of highly efficient and competitive traditional industries. The latter implies sticking with our existing economic base at the risk of slow overall growth and even slower income growth. The path we follow will depend, in part, on the strategies that states and the federal government adopt, and how aggressively they implement them.
THE 2007 STATE NEW ECONOMY INDEX report issued by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation outlined a progressive, innovation-oriented public policy framework designed to foster success in the new global economy. It discussed the nine key strategies that states can adopt and implement. They are: (1) Align Incentives behind Innovation Economy Fundamentals (2) Co-Invest in an Innovation Infrastructure (3) Co-Invest in the Skills of the Workforce (4) Cultivate Entrepreneurship (5) Support Industry Clusters (6) Reduce Business Costs without Reducing the Standard of Living (7) Boost Productivity (8) Reorganize Economic Development Efforts (9) Enlist Federal Help.Â
States that focus their policy efforts in these areas will be well positioned to experience strong growth, particularly in per capita incomes. And that is the true objective. Developing a vibrant New Economy is not an end in itself; it is the means to advance larger, progressive goals: higher incomes, new economic opportunities, more individual choice and freedom, greater dignity and autonomy for working Americans, and stronger communities.
Welcome
Welcome to the Atlanta Privately-held Companies IncBizNet blog! This forum will hopefully become a collective space where executives from privately held companies can talk about specific issues that affect their business. We can identify and understand emerging challenges to our competitiveness; we can generate new ideas and concepts that will help improve our competitiveness. Finally, we can forge new relationships and galvanize actions to translate policy into action and change. These are just few of the issues that I feel is worth considering.
But before we can begin, I’d like to introduce myself – your moderator – and Arete Media Associates, Inc., the company I work for. My name is Waylee George and I am a President/CEO for Arete Media Associates, Inc. We are a Privately-held Economic and Leadership Development Consulting firm, in Alpharetta, GA, with a focus on workforce development.  Consider this! America’s regions and communities face new challenges from our competitors around the world. Experts believe that competing in the global economy requires creating regional or community-based innovation ecosystems that drive growth and prosperity. They also believe that the challenge for us is to optimize our assets—human, capital, institutional and intangible—around the innovation imperative. The problem is many regions and communities have yet to fully understand the competitive value of their asset base. Only a few have actually implemented a systematic process to identify their innovation assets or developed strategies to ensure that these assets are sufficiently linked and leveraged. Arete Media Associates, Inc. has been committed to helping communities drive increased productivity for the past seven years. Through our thought leadership in federal and state innovation policy and our on-the-ground efforts to assist communities, Arete Media Associates, Inc. is poised to become a key partner in enhancing the value and reducing the burdens for the members of our communities. We’ve partnered, teamed, and/or collaborated with a variety of firms and agencies including Microsoft, Cisco systems, Oracle, US department of Labor, Georgia Department of Administrative Service, The Executive Office of Management & Budget, FSS Center for Acquisition Excellence, GSA ITSS, etc. We are committed to working with executives in this community through dialogue, collaboration, and strategic focus to help revitalize our economic position and increase our competitive edge. To begin our dialogue and discussion, I like to post the first question: What environmental/cultural/business factors are important to, or have an impact on, innovation in our community or region? Has this changed from the past?I encourage you to share your ideas and post thoughts of interest to you and the community at large. I’d like to continue this dialogue to help us identify and understand emerging challenges to competitiveness. Keeping our competitive position depends on our collective effort.  Please feel free to share openly about your business issues and topics of interest for us to read and discuss. I’ll be posting some serious questions as well as some fun questions in the coming days and weeks. So stay tuned….
Welcome to the Atlanta Area Privately Held Companies Community on IncBizNet!
Welcome to the community for executives from privately held companies in the Atlanta metro area! Your business is successful, and you’ve learned a few things on your professional journey. Why not become the moderator of this community? Community moderators are senior managers who lead discussions that take place via blogs and discussion boards here on IncBizNet.com.
Moderating an IncBizNet community will provide additional exposure for your company and offer an excellent opportunity to share your knowledge and interact with an expert audience. As a moderator, your time commitment would consist primarily of leading by posting occasional two to three-paragraph posts to this community’s blog and posting/answering questions to the discussion boards. Executives from executives on IncBizNet are able to post follow-up questions, comments, and other reactions. We also strongly encourage monthly gatherings either in person or via phone (we'll help set up the calls).
We’re excited to provide a collective space where executives from privately held executives can talk about specific issues that affect their businesses! If you’d like to be considered as a moderator for the Atlanta metro area community, please contact Twanna A. Hines at thines@inc.com.
