Victor Lund

A good note is the tenor of great customer service

2012-05-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Omni Hotel,

I travel a lot. As exciting as it may sound, travel is hard work. It is very demanding and every day causes you to deal with some type of adversity. There is always something. A bad cushion on your plane seat, or the person sitting next to you. Canceled flights, close connections, unhealthy airport food. Taxi lines, traffic lines, hotel checkin lines. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.

Life happens, happiness is learning how to roll with it. At 2:54 a.m., the fire alarm went off at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. The alarm was effective, including a loud low horn and a voice that clearly told everyone to head for the stair case. The staff were everywhere, helping anyone who needed help.

When we hit the lobby, we were told that it was a false alarm. Another guest pulled the alarm. Of course, everyone was angry. Some blamed the hotel, which was unfair. It took me more than a few hours before I fell back asleep. I woke up tired and cranky.

As I headed to the door for my first meeting, I was welcomed with a letter from the Hotel Manager:

Dear Valued Guest (a mail merge would have been more impressive),

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience you experienced when the fire alarm sounded this morning.

When the trouble alert was activated, our Emergency Response Team along with the District of Columbia Fire Department immediately responded to determine the cause of the alarm. When teh cause was determined as a non-emergency and the Emergency Response Team was satisified that there was no danger, the alarm system was reset...... and so on.....The alarm was caused by a fire alarm pull station.

Clearly this was not the hotel's fault. They did not need to send the note. But this is the tenor of Omni Hotels. Wherever we go, they somehow seem to do a little something extra I recognize as an effort to make travel somehow more enjoyable.

Thank You Omni Hotels. I liked your note.

Now lets all get together and hang the dork who pulled the alarm.

A super funny ad

2012-05-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

Do I have to share a room?

A recent survey indicates that 99% of consumers did not notice the ship in the background on this ad. Everyone noticed the girl.

Now read the caption again and draw the connection between the girl and the notion of filling rooms on a cruise line.

My Friday Funy

Googles new search engine has wheels

2012-05-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was a profound novel that I enjoyed in boarding school. It was one of those books that prep school kids were forced to read, and public school kids were prohibited from. The book introduced the concept of taking the road less taken, and enjoying the culture of side roads.

Google is definitely on its own side road, and often plotting new paths of its own. Remember when everyone was building search portals - search engines that has weather, news, sports scores? Google blew them all away by focusing strictly on search, and they won.

When everyone began to develop mapping technology and sell it. Google gave it away for free, then they went further. They drove cars down every street on the planet and took video to create Street View. Awesome.
Read more »

Gay Marriage and Austerity

2012-05-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched the news. There were two principle discussions. The first was on Gay Marriage and the second was on Fiscal Austerity.

On Gay Marriage

The media is in a tizzy right now. Hosts and Anchors are beginning each interview with the question: Do You Support Gay Marriage? What an awful and invading question to ask our country's leaders. A more appropriate question is do you support Marriage Benefits? At issue here is the rights of married citizens of the United States.

Rights Extended to Married Citizens

Our structure of government has always been about the rights of citizens. We have gone through social revolution to ensure that the rights of each US citizen are guaranteed regardless of sex, handicap, race, religion, or otherwise. Somehow, our government went off track. The legislature created a special class of citizen called Married People, and granted Married People extra benefits - like tax deductions. Our government should be discussing the question of Marriage Benefits rather than the discussion of who can get married.

A Thesis for Change

Read more »

12 Wise Thoughts

2012-05-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

I did not write this - but I read it in the Harvard Business Review. It was written by a guy named Tony Schwartz. I do not know anything about Tony, but if he is being published in the HBR - he must be brilliant.

This was sent to me by my friend John Heithaus, who I respect and can confirm is brilliant. If you agree that this is meaningful information, add it to your blog, email it to your friends, or publish it on your social media profiles. If more people get on the same page about some of these constructive ideas, I think that we will all grow to be somewhat better people, and the world will be a somewhat better place.

1. The more we know about ourselves, the more power we have to behave better. Humility is underrated. We each have an infinite capacity for self-deception — countless unconscious ways we protect ourselves from pain, uncertainty, and responsibility — often at the expense of others and of ourselves. Endless introspection can turn into self-indulgence, but deepening self-awareness is essential to freeing ourselves from our reactive, habitual behaviors.

Alexandra Lund wins Overall High Scoring Soloist Junior

2012-05-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

Alexandra Lund

Alexandra Lund, a 9-year-old Dellos Performing Arts Center company dancer competed this weekend with nearly 700 other dancers in the Hollywood Vibe Dance Competition. Lund, whose dancer nickname is Sparkles, was awarded the Overall High Scoring Junior Soloist Award for her act, “Whatcha Want.”

Lund’s regional competition success allows her to advance to the National Finals this July 13^th-16^th in Las Vegas, Nevada. There she will compete against other 8 and 9 year olds for the title of National Champion. Lund was one of 5 junior dancers from the Northern California region to be selected to Team Hollywood Vibe in addition to teammate Tyler Riekki, which invites them to join the Hollywood Vibe tour throughout the nation.

Tablets are Tweeners

2012-04-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

I am a researcher. I love data. But every now and then, I have to call BS on some research. In this case, I must disagree with, or caution the bullishness of Forrester Research on their tablet adoption study.

We have three tablets in our family, all iPads. We are also early adopters and gadget collectors. We have boxes full of eReaders, blackberrys, palm treos, and iPhones. We love this stuff. Now here is my view.

iPads are great, but they are not "all that great." To everyone in our family, they are vitamins and not pain killers. For mass adoption, they will need to become pain killers. I would like Forrester to do the following study.

Create a consumer panel of users who have a smartphone, laptop, and tablet. Ask them to rate the usefulness of each of those three devices according to places they use them. For Example:

When you are at your office desk, rank which device would you use the most? For me it would be Laptop, Smartphone, tablet.
Read more »

Mac flashback virus

2012-04-17T07:30:00.001-07:00

Are you a Mac? Are you Sick?

If you have a Mac, you may have bragged to your PC friends about having a computer that is impervious to viruses. That all changed recently. Geeks from shore to shore, continent to continent have been talking about the first real Mac virus. About 600,000 or so computers are thought to be infected with the Flashback virus.

If you think that you have it, use this free tool from Finnish anti-virus company F-Secure. Its free. You can thank them by leaving a note on their facebook page or twitter page. They deserve the kudos.

Another detection tool you can use has been made available by Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky. http://flashbackcheck.com/

Meanwhile, Apple has issued a statement indicating that it is continuing to work on an official detection and inoculation tool.

3 tips if you cannot pay your taxes

2012-04-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have had a rough 2011. In some cases, they are facing a tax bill that they cannot afford to pay. Here are three tips that show the best practice for managing this difficult situation.

1. File Your Tax Return On Time

Do not file an extension unless you are going to pay 90% of the amount of taxes you think you owe. If you fail to file your tax return, the IRS will assess a penalty for ‘failing to file’. This penalty is separate from the ‘failure to pay’ penalty, which the IRS will assess for being unable to pay your taxes, come April 18th. Yes, it's the 18^th, because the 15^th fell on a Sunday.

The penalty for failing to file builds up ten times faster than the penalty for failing to pay. According to the IRS’s ‘Eight Facts on Penalties’, the ‘failure to file’ penalty is assed at the rate of 5% of the tax owed, per month, up to 25% of the tax owed. This is in stark contrast with the ‘failure to pay’ penalty, which is assed at 0.5% of the tax owed per month, up to 25% of the tax owed.

2. Pay as much as you can.

Send a check with your return, even if it is only $20. The act of submitting a payment makes a difference. It puts you in the category of failure to pay tax in full rather than the category of failure to pay tax at all.

Top 10 Quotes from Americas most successful people

2012-04-11T07:22:00.001-07:00

Success is fascinating. It is in our nature to look at people who have accomplished great success in life and study how they did it. It is like looking for the holy grail. Forbes Magazine worships these people like they are demigods. I guess to some degree, we all do. What is interesting about this list is that each of us probably has done business with each of the people on this list in some way.

Here are the top 10 quotes from Americas most successful people:

Steve Jobs, Apple - 'Say no to focus groups and market research'
Bill Gates, Microsoft - 'Find very smart people and create small teams'
Fred Smith, FedEx - 'Rely on 'first-level' managers'
Jeff Bezos, Amazon - 'Take regular mini-retreats'
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google - 'Spare no expense on innovation'
Howard Schultz, Starbucks - 'Always challenge the old ways'

The Local Newspaper

2012-04-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

I have written far too many articles about the demise of newspapers. Like the yellow pages, these monopolistic local voices have held their fingers a little too strongly around the necks of local businesses and local politics. An editorial story with slanted investigative bent could easily spell demise or success at will. To some degree, local television media wields the same power.

It is no wonder that Warren Buffet is treated so nicely by the media. He owns more newspapers than any other american. Newspapers are horrid investments, yet the rich have found them to be excellent tools to forwarding their political and economic agenda. The liberal bias of the Buffalo News wrote an article or two every day that disparaged Carl Palidino - Republican candidate for Governor of New York. According to research performed by the University of Buffalo, there was not a single article written that supported Palidino's candidacy at any time during his campaign. Surely there was some redeeming aspect to a candidate who won the Republican Nomination.

Forcing Americans to Pay

2012-03-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

It is merely a cleaver trick. Since the federal government does not want to raise taxes, they are trying to pass laws that force Americans to pay for healthcare. I suspect that the supreme court will render an interesting decision. Personally, I am not sure how this is any different from taxing Americans for other federal government citizen benefits that they do not want.

Our government is drifting further and further away from the founder's principles. Our country was founded by people who were fleeing from unfair taxes. In reverence, our Boston Tea Party is simply known now as the Tea Party. Unfortunately they strayed from their core mission of fighting taxation and large government. The Tea Party should also recall the beliefs that our founders crafted around individual freedom and religious beliefs.
Read more »

Federal Education Policy is a failure

2012-03-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

I went to private schools from 9th grade through 16th grade. I guess that sounds weird, but I attended Shattuck-St. Mary's Preparatory Boarding School in Minnesota then went on to St. Olaf College, also in Minnesota. It was expensive, and I am very grateful for my parents for supporting me through the process of getting an education. My experience has influenced our education choices for our child.

There are some good schools in California, but they are hard to find. The grammer school that my child would attend is awful. Our only choice was to either move or private school. We chose the latter. I remember my father, a supporter of Ronald Reagan, explaining the idea of the School Voucher program. The construct for the voucher idea was pretty simple. The federal allocation for student education would be placed into the discretionary hands of the parents. Had Reagan been successful, my parents would have been able to off set boarding school fees with the voucher. Unfortunately, our local school got the money even though I did not attend. That is what is happening today in our public schools.

Strangely, higher education is different. The federal government doles out funding and student loans to both public and private schools. Why?
Read more »

The Federal Budget

2012-03-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

According to the White house Administration staff the following budget is being submitted to congress. If passed, we will see continued job loss, and a continuation of laggard economic growth. My daughter will enter the job market in about 2022. At these figures, social security taxes and federal taxes removed from her pay check will double. Moreover, with so much capital going to government rather than savings or investments, the economic climate will be horrid. Worse, our savings that we hope to use to provide her with a good start in life will be decimated by few, if any growth returns over the next 10 years.

Current Proposed budget
Read more »

In remembrance of George Eastman the Kodak guy

2012-03-14T08:08:00.002-07:00

On this day in 1932, a famous man who had amassed a great fortune took his own life. His name was George Eastman and the manner in which he changed the way we live was surely as significant as that of his friend Tom Edison or his other friend Henry Ford.

Eastman made it possible for us to take pictures, nearly everywhere, nearly anytime. And maybe best of all, he found a way for us to take pictures that move....just like we do....its called movies.

Strangely....or maybe not....Eastman used the same discipline that made him a successful inventor to make him a successful suicide. Here's what the New York Times wrote of the event - "....As methodically as he lived his seventy-one years, he penned a brief note, carefully put out his cigarette, placed the cap back on his fountain pen and removed his glasses before firing a shot through his heart..."

The note he left was simple, plain, functional...not unlike his revolutionary "Brownie Camera." The note read - "To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?...G.E."

Life on the Razors Edge

2012-03-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

Allow me to make a point. On this day in 385 B.C. (according to my clay tablets), a man was granted a wish that he later wished he hadn't wished for. This all took place in a place called Syracuse…..which…..this being the B.C. days and all…..not only did not yet have a Carrier Dome; it was not even located in upstate New York. This Syracuse was a colony of the ancient Greeks and was located on the coast of Sicily.

The head guy in Syracuse at the time was a certain "Dionysius." He was the fellow who granted the above-mentioned wish. This was easy for him to do because he ruled all alone without Council or Advisors. The Greeks had a name for such a solitary ruler…..the word was "Tyrant"…..which has taken on a rather negative connotation in recent years…..or so we hear.

Anyway, Dionysius had this associate who kept telling him how lucky he was to be a Tyrant and how great the Tyrant lifestyle must be. After a few years of "Gee, Dion, what a lucky guy you are, I wish I lived like you!"…..Dionysius decided to give his pal a taste of the Tyrant lifestyle business.

St. Valentines Day Massacre

2012-02-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

On this day (+1…..which would be Valentine’s Day, of course) in 1929, a group of executives gathered for a mid-morning get-together. Records do not indicate that coffee or buns were served. Nor do they appear to indicate that the seven men gathered around the water cooler (maybe because there was no water cooler).

Anyway, seven top guys in "Moran Enterprises" were gathered in a non-descript Chicago garage. Suddenly, the regulators appeared. In this case the regulators were dressed in the uniforms of the Chicago Police. So to comply with this surprise audit, these seven men, men who worked for George Moran Enterprises faced the wall and raised their hands (a standard audit procedure at that time).

Lawsuits waste tax payer money

2012-02-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

I have to tell you, our local newspaper is horrible in terms of the volume of articles they produce each day. Our little real estate technology publishing company produces more original content with one person (shout out to my friend Emily Williams!). However, the San Luis Obispo Tribune has been doing a darn good job of following the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisor's efforts to rid our area of plastic bags. I have been following the story (online). Here is a previous post about the San Luis Obispo Plastic Bag Ban. What is killing me now is that the County faces tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills to defend the plastic bag ban against special interest groups - in this case - plastic bag manufacturers.
Read more »

Hot off the Press

2012-02-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1468, one of the most influential figures in the last 2000 years (and maybe all of history) died. To keep things in perspective try to remember a few things: Leonardo Da Vinci was seven years old, Michelangelo had not been born yet and a guy named Christopher Columbus was just a teenage apprentice on a Genovese Ferry.

If it had not been for this guy who died on this day, none of those guys would have become as famous as they are today. In fact, if it had not been for this guy who died, the Dark Ages might have remained dark and 90% of what we know today would be unknown. He had created a revolution that changed the way ideas were processed and began the knowledge revolution.

Monroe Doctrine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2012-02-01T14:19:00.000-08:00

Should the rest of the world consider issuing a Monroe doctrine to America?

Has international trade made the concept of a nation's independence impossible?

For those of you who need a brief history lesson, The Monroe Doctrine was our young country's effort to declare that European involvement of the affairs of our country were unwelcome.

As you will recall at the time, Europeans were actively involved in America and very interested in protecting our valuable resources that Europeans had an interest in.

GE Study Proves Consumers Respond More to Shared Content | Digital - Advertising Age

2012-01-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

GE Study Proves Consumers Respond More to Shared Content | Digital - Advertising Age:

'via Blog this'

Tablet Ownership Almost Doubles and Friends Call

2012-01-25T19:37:00.000-08:00

My iPad setup

If you did not already have an iPad or other tablet before Christmas - you probably do now. Tablet computers were the rage of the holiday. The number of adults with a tablet went from 10% to 19% in less than a month (Pew Internet & American Life Project). If you include e-readers, the market penetration among adults is 29%. Apple was so successful that they overtook Exxon as the largest company in America.

A number of my friends were among the fortunate recipients of the new iPad. I languish away with my iPad 1 - such a slacker! Anyway - I did get a number of emails from people asking about my favorite apps - so here goes:

I use Hootsuite for monitoring social networks including linkedin, facebook, and twitter feeds. It is super handy when I am at conferences or meetings.

I use Evernote for taking notes and capturing webpages.

I have a lot of media apps - CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, ESPN, WSJ, NYTimes, Washington Post, Sun (London and Hong Kong).

I have all of the productivity tools for pdf, word processing(pages), spreadsheets(numbers), presentations(keynote) - love that. By the way - if you want to use your iPad for presentations, you can pick up a connector at any apple store.

I use iCloud to keep all of my contacts and calendars etc. synchronized across all devices.

I like DropBox for storing and sharing large documents and images that cannot be emailed. This is a really handy way for me to save my presentations to my iPad, and make them available at conferences for the audience to download.

I use a number of publishing tools to manage my websites - but I do not suspect that those are important to many of you. For example - I use the Blogger app for this blog and the Wordpress app for WAV Group.

For movies, I use Netflix, but also use the Ted App a lot for inspired videos. I also have HBO Go, which comes with my cable subscription.

For real estate, I use zillow, trulia, Century 21 and Realtor.com's apps. I must confess - I really do not use them a lot - more for research purposes and to watch what everyone it doing.

I like Yelp for restaurant ratings, but also use Foursquare. I make reservations using OpenTable when necessary.

I use the Kindle app for purchasing books - more selection in the amazon store than the Apple Bookstore.

I like TripAdvisor for foreign travel - it was great in Italy last summer.

Our Choice is a really cool environmental app done with support from Al Gore - it is a great tool for teaching children about the environment. It really explores the bounds of interactive magazines.

Whistle turns my ipad into a phone - that is cool.

If you have a company or market a product - you may want to take a look at this article - it has a lot of breakdowns on who is adopting these handy mobile devices. The Men vs. Women may surprise you.
Tablet Ownership Almost Doubles Over Holiday Period:

'via Blog this'

sunrise sunset

2012-01-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

The central coast of California provides its residences with amazing sunrises and sunsets. The Pacific Ocean sashays up to rolling hills and vineyards, reaching up to foothills framed by panoramic mountain backdrops. We like it.

Sunrise this morning was spectacular, but it inspired me to think about perspectives. As I saw the sunrise, someone else on the planet saw the sunset - why the two terms for the same event?

Sunrise and sunset are different from life and death. They are more like two sides of a coin - the same thing, only made different by the side you see.

A long time ago I was the student of a great professor (Charles Talliaferro) of philosophy of religion. My young mind could not help to hold passionately to "my beliefs" until one day, he made me switch. He forced me to argue against my positon; and in doing so, he changed the way I think about so many things in life.
Read more »

Is the media failing americans

2012-01-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

I listened to the coverage of the results of the recent victory of Newt Gingrich had in the recent primary. There was not a single mention of the policies that he will bring to office if elected. The 2 hours of coverage was focused on three topics: Mitt Romney's tax returns; Newt Gingrich's open marriage proposal; and Newt Gingrich's consulting contracts with Fannie Mae. There was no mention at all of Ron Paul or Rick Santurum.

How will the voting American find the real information that will inform their voting decisions?

Here is a history lesson: Many Thanks to UBS financial Advisor - Art Cashin for the valued reminder that the media can be dangerous.

On this day (+1) in 1897, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World featured the first newspaper comic strip called "The Yellow Kid." Among the growing immigrant population of New York, the new comic was an instant success. But William Randolph Hearst's N.Y. Journal wasn't willing to let Pulitzer succeed, so Hearst began a circulation war. The two dailies became aggressive and waged their war over the concept of war - war with Spain - war over Cuba.

Farmers leave San Luis Obispo Farmers Market

2012-01-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

San Luis Obispo Farmers Market

I spoke to an amazing ol fella while buying vegetables at our local farm stand.. You see, I like vegetables from the grower, not some third party distributer or distribution warehouse. The vegetables are fresher, and buying from the grower just feels better to me. Besides, he is a neighbor and his children go to school with mine, he belongs to our local rotary, shows up at the planning commission meetings, see them in church, an so on.

We always chat about business; I talk about real estate technology; he talks about farming, harvesting, and selling vegetables. We met years ago when he had a stand at the farmers market. We still have a great farmers market here – San Luis Obispo may have the longest running farmers market in the country. Its fantastic!

He told me the story about why he does not go to the farmers market anymore.

You see, when his great grandfather got into the family business with his son, they tilled the land, planted the seed, picked the harvest, and would run it into town on Saturday for the farmers market. It was a great time for farmers to talk about farming, and of course there was always friendly competition about who grew the juiciest and sweetest tomatoes, the fullest avocados, the meatiest artichokes, and so on. Some farmers had better crops than others and made more money and got larger farms, some just scraped by, and some failed. Farming is farming; you just do the best you can.