The Kmiec Ramblings

Thanks to Brandie for uncovering this one.  I have to ask WTF?  Seriously a Star Trek urn?  At what point does the idea of getting one of these cross someone’s mind?  Personally I’m holding out for a Star Wars Death Star urn.

Well what a day!  I got to celebrate my second Father’s Day today.  It was a great day.  I started off my holiday by calling my Dad and wishing him a happy Father’s Day.  I got him tickets to see Ringo Starr; not too bad if you ask me :)  From there it was on to watching Cora play around the house.  After all that playing we ate some brunch, opened some presents, and then spent most of the day outside before eating grilled turkey legs courtesy of Don.

Cora was completely pooped by the end of the day.  I tell you, when you have days like this it makes being a father the best job in the world; even if I don’t get paid for it.

This last photo is my favorite.  How the hell can you not love a 14 month old wearing a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon shirt on Father’s Day.

I’ve been watching Tiger Woods play the U.S. open on 1 leg and kick some serious ass. Throughout the Open Lexus has been running commercials promoting their full line of vehicles. These commercials introduce us to 4 professional golfers, who all have pithy nicknames, and ultimately ask the watcher/consumer to visit MyOwnPursuit.com to see the full film.

Given that Lexus competes directly against BMW, I found it sad and a little pathetic that they are essentially copying BMW’s playbook from about 8 years ago. If you remember BMW launched a revolutionary campaign called BMW Films that featured James Brown, Madonna, and others.

Not only were the ads from Lexus boring and not create any reason for me to go to the site, they failed to leverage search engine marketing. Let’s assume I didn’t remember the URL, well surely the ad would be so amazing that I’d at least remember the content. Well go to Google and search for Lexus Films, or Lexus Annika, or Lexus U.S. Video, etc. you’ll get nothing except ads for that drive you to Lexus.com. This would be ok, except for the fact they aren’t featuring the ads nor the “film” on the home page.

Oh and their site doesn’t load the home page feature area in Safari. Good job guys.

Priceless.

I’m a life long BMW fan. I worked on BMW while at Fallon. I’ve owned a BMW. I tell anyone that will listen that they should by a BMW over a Mercedes, Lexus, etc. I think BMW should give me a new M3 Sedan. By doing so they’d be making money on me. Don’t believe me? Let’s do the math.

In looking at the math, we’ll use rough numbers, and only look at things that I can quantify easily. So what does that mean?

1. I offer BMW 1 blog post per day, 10 Twitter updates, and 10 Facebook Statuses. I can’t even quantify the verbal offerings This means BMW gets 21 touch points from me per day.
2. Over a 365 day year, they’d garner 7,665 touch points.
3. This site gets about 1,000 visitors a day
4. My Twitter stream is seen by about 4,000 people a day
5. My Facebook status is seen by 100 people
6. So that means my reach (not including overlap) is 5,100
7. That means 5,100 people would be exposed to 7,665 messages for a total of 39,091,500 impressions.
8. Using a VERY conservative $5.00 CPM, BMW would be getting $195,457.50 in paid media
9. Let’s round up the cost of a M3 to $70,000.
10. With a $70,000 investment, BMW would net $125,457.50

That’s the deal of the century because not only would make money on the deal, you’d have an owner for life, and possibly a bunch of new owners…that of course depends on how persuasive I am. For those of you that know me, you know how persuasive I can be

I decided to test my theory and sent a note to BMW.  I’ll eagerly be awaiting their call.

I love watches.  I don’t do jewelry, but I definitely do watches.  I don’t collect them for collection’s sake and I don’t buy based on brand.  For example, it’s doubtful you’ll ever see me with  a Rolex.  My latest pickup is The Oris Artelier Skeleton.  I wanted a skeleton watch for some time, but finding one that looked good, told good time, and was under 10K was pretty damn tough.  There’s really only 3 choices:

1. Corum Bubble Skeleton
2. Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece
3. Oris Artelier Skeleton

I’ve had a Corum Bubble on my list for a while so I didn’t want to kill two birds with one stone.  I actually prefer the look of the Maurice Lacroix more than the Oris, but not 3X the dollar amount more

My old boss and good friend, Kevin Doohan, has finally completely drank the Kool-Aid.  Although this isn’t any ordinary Kool-Aid.  This is the type of Kool-Aid, that’s been expired for 6 years and laced with mushrooms.  It’s the type of Kool-Aid that you should only drink at a Pink Floyd concert.

I think that people’s perceptions generally mask the reality.  When things are great for you, you think they must be great for everyone else.  When things are bad for you, you think they’re bad for everyone else.  Sure, that’s a gross oversimplification, but it gets right to the heart of the situation.  How you view the world is relative to how the world treats you and views you, but it doesn’t mean that your view is how everyone else sees things.  Keep in mind, the world, can be as large or as small as you want it to be.

Here’s something I’m sure of, people don’t leave their job because they love their job.  In my own career, I’ve made good career choices.  ConAgra Foods was one of those great experiences.  As my Facebook page says, “3 years spent in Omaha, NE learning the ins and outs of corporate culture and politics…like who you can email and who you can’t.”  There’s some fun in there, but a lot of truth.  ConAgra Foods really helped me understand how to manage your way throw layers at a company and it prepared me to have conversations with C-level people at organizations.

Every place I’ve ever worked was a beneficial experience and has helped made me what I am today.  But, I can honestly say that whenever I’ve made a choice to leave an organization, it’s been for 1 of 3 reasons:

1. Contributions to the company were not valued or recognized
2. Compensation didn’t equal the peformance I was giving
3. Poor and/or uninspired senior leadership

This is exactly why I left ConAgra Foods.  Specifically, #1 and #2.

Just to make sure I wasn’t crazy, I decided to do some digging (something we do a great job of at Colle+McVoy) and unearthed several links that substantiate my own experiences.  This link, from HR Morning, titled, “7 big reasons people leave their jobs” is probably my favorite.  In that article we’re given the following reasons for leaving:

1. Downsizing or restructuring (54%);
2. Sought new challenges or opportunities (30%);
3. Ineffective leadership (25%);
4. Poor relationship with manager (22%);
5. To improve work/life balance (21%);
6. Contributions to the company were not valued (21%);
7. Better compensation and benefits (18%).

Hmm, kinda interesting.  Just so you don’t think I cherry picking data, I encourage you do a search in Google for, “why people leave their jobs.”  I promise you, you’ll find more of the same insights.

If I was working at Kmiec Inc. and was the man in charge, the company would abide by the following when it comes to employee growth and compensation:

1. Reward on the spot, don’t wait till the end of the year or the formal review.
2. Encourage people to take on more responsibility.
3. Don’t pay employees based on the market, pay them based on their importance to the company’s success.
4. Pay your top performers 10% more than the market rate; it’s hard to find good talent and once you have it, don’t let your competition take it from you.
5. Cut non-performers quickly; there’s no sense in paying someone who is clearly not performing well.
6. Promote people based on their performance not a predetermined timeline.  We should applaud people who climb the ladder quickly, not say things, like “she’s performing like a XXXX, but she’s only got XXXX years of experience so we can’t promote her.”  That’s a recipe for losing talent.
7. Actively listen to their career goals and help them get there.
8. Don’t let so called policies stop you from doing the right thing.  If the policy is stopping you or holding you back, it’s time to change the policy.

Honestly, it’s that simple.  Well to me it is.

Thanks, Kevin for inspiring me to get these thoughts down.  They’ve been in my head for a while and it was your kick in the pants that got me fired up.

Cheryl’s cousin Mike just graduated from college (god I wish I was that young again) and we went over to her aunt and uncle’s house 2 weeks ago for a celebration.  The weather cooperated, which never seems to happen lately, allowing Cora to enjoy the “big” pool.

When you offer to trade your wife for Celtics tickets, well you are either insane or amazingly brand loyal.  I’m leaning toward brand loyal because he somehow got his wife to go along with it.

Link to Craigs List Classified Ad here

Link to Article about the situation here

With Father’s Day coming up this weekend; thought this was appropriate.

This is a great ad.  It communicates the product benefit quickly, effectively, and takes a swipe at the competition.