Boeing's DEI died

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Boeing's new CEO knew he would have to solve problems when he took the job last August. 

What is the basic goal of the company? Right in the middle of their big troubles (yesterday's post), he focuses them on asking the most important question: "Does this help us build airplanes?" Because that is what they have to do really well.

So, the CEO cancelled their DEI program. According to one insider, "everyone who has had to build things knows that what really drives value is integrity, hard work, and technical expertise." DEI was a distraction, a dilution of focus. It divided their employees--it did not unify them.

"The best culture directly promotes values and results, not identity groups . . . Hiring on merit while truly caring for people, regardless of arbitrary one-dimensional identity- or affinity-group labels, is the way to go. After all, people do not want to be beneficiaries of bias any more than they want to be victims of it."

from City Journal

Sustainable 4

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Global fast food brand McDonald's says that they want to do what's best for people, for our shared planet, and for animals. So they have been working with a "regenerative" farming business in the United Kingdom, working to produce the kind of outcomes that Will Harris had on his farm (see posts last Wednesday-Friday).

CAFO, contained animal feeding operation, is still the system used by most farms. It's cheaper -  but less humane and not considered sustainable. In regenerative systems, the animals are freer while the soil holds more water and is full of microbial life and CO2. (And . . er, meat will be more expensive, but I think global elites already want that.)

McDonald's is under pressure to comply with the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). 

Pressure may be coming from the European Union, too. Remember that Ireland and The Netherlands are moving to kill off cattle, ostensibly in response to the same climate change mandates. Could regenerative farming save European beef and farmers? I hope so.

from The Cattle Site

Sustainable 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Re-post from 2017:

Lots of good things result from the success of the Harris farm . Will's decision to stop following the industrial farming model - and to start the sustainable grazing model - initiated ripples of improvement and prosperity beyond his family.

Originally a beef monoculture, the farm now additionally has goats, chickens, sheep, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, and more. Chickens graze a field after cattle move on, spreading manure and feeding on larvae breeding in it. Small ruminants also follow cattle. Will says the animals are healthier and happier every year.

Land that supported only cows years ago now now supports lots of diverse life - all of which make the land better. There's more microbial life in the soil, it absorbs much more water (instead of letting it run off), and more carbon is sequestered in it.

Animals, land, Harris family, 100+ employees, businesses they buy from - all benefit because the folks at White Oak Pastures create value. It all works because they serve a market niche that is willing to pay the price for these products.

Sustainable 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Re-post from 2017:

McDonald's is looking for sustainable farmers. Here is the story of one.

Will Harris inherited the northern Georgia farm that his grandfather originally bought. It was profitable until the early 1990's, then it wasn't. That's when the land's productivity sank so low that farms couldn't be profitable anymore, and the little farming community died.

Will's dad started using ammonium nitrate fertilizer on his pasture back in 1946. What he didn't know was that, although the grass seemed to love it, that fertilizer was killing "the microbial life that fed the soil."

His "contained animal feeding operation" (CAFO) supported his family for about twenty years. Then came the dark days and he wound up borrowing $7 million to maintain his industrial farm. At the bottom of the barrel, he changed to a system like Joel Salatin's.

He calls himself a grass farmer now, just like Salatin does. His farm has grown from 700 cows in 1995 to 100,000 different animals - all on the same land. It seems like a miracle. They support their family and over one hundred employees.

(cont'd tomorrow)

New credit 3

 (cont'd from last Friday's post)

Max Levchin, that billionaire at Affirm, had some things going for him that helped him succeed.

His mother had to learn computer coding when they lived in the Ukraine, so she insisted that he learn too. He readily grasped the skill, was good at it, and loved it. Coding was central to the companies he started. Then the family moved to America where there's more opportunity to innovate and develop dreams.

But skill and opportunity alone were not enough. They were just raw material. More than skill and opportunity were needed to develop entrepreneurial success. Max had more.

As a college student, he tried to start four businesses. They all failed. Most of us - because I'm afraid that includes me - would have figured it's over, not doing that again. But Max kept trying things. He often failed to convince people with money to invest in his ideas. But he didn't go the pity party route. He kept trying.

It's called Perseverance. It's a virtue.

from Startups

Producing

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Lots of good things result from the success of that one business in yesterday's post, the Harris farm ("White Oak Pastures") of Bluffton, Georgia. Will's decision to stop following the industrial farming model - and to start the sustainable grazing model - initiated ripples of improvement and prosperity beyond his family.

Originally a beef monoculture, the farm now additionally has goats, chickens, sheep, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, and more. Chickens graze a field after cattle move on, spreading manure and feeding on larvae breeding in it. Small ruminants also follow cattle. Will says the animals are healthier and happier every year.

Land that supported only cows years ago now now supports lots of diverse life - all of which make the land better. There's more microbial life in the soil, it absorbs much more water (instead of letting it run off), and more carbon is sequestered in it.

Animals, land, Harris family, 100+ employees, businesses they buy from - all benefit because the folks at White Oak Pastures create value. It all works because they serve a market niche that is willing to pay the price for these products.

Will says, "Technically I work 16 hours a day but I don't feel like I work at all! I would do for free what I do for a living."  That's passion.

Sustainable

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

McDonald's is looking for sustainable farmers. Here is the story of one.

Will Harris inherited the northern Georgia farm that his grandfather originally bought. It was profitable until the early 1990's, then it wasn't. That's when the land's productivity sank so low that farms couldn't be profitable anymore, and the little farming community died.

Will's dad started using ammonium nitrate fertilizer on his pasture back in 1946. What he didn't know was that, although the grass seemed to love it, that fertilizer was killing "the microbial life that fed the soil."

His "contained animal feeding operation" (CAFO) supported his family for about twenty years. Then came the dark days and he wound up borrowing $7 million to maintain his industrial farm. At the bottom of the barrel, he changed to a system like Joel Salatin's.

He calls himself a grass farmer now, just like Salatin does. His farm has grown from 700 cows in 1995 to 100,000 different animals - all on the same land. It seems like a miracle. They support their family and over one hundred employees.

Social capital

Note: for reason/excuse why yesterday's post didn't come up, see Tuesday's post! Same thing, sorry.

Sometimes a young person looking for a toe-up in the job world feels inadequate or unqualified. There's advice offered in this article that could change things, because she/he has something to offer that goes beyond degrees or certificates. Here's how the author leveraged his value:

"I had met somebody . . with whom I kept in touch and I knew was building a company  . . I knew he had a ton of things to get done. He was busy launching a company while working at another company and taking care of his wife and kids.

"I offered to take some work – any work – off his plate.

You make deposits when you create surplus value for others that isn’t captured by cash money.

"In time, I learned new skills about writing copy, doing sales, and organizing content for the product and my role became more specialized, but I started with nothing to offer besides time and an extra set of hands.

In time, I was hired full-time and given equity in the company – something I could never have achieved in such a short time if I made my case based on “qualifications.”

"It is from this position that i've been able to publish a book, appear on major news networks, meet mentors and new business partners I would have never otherwise interacted with on my old track."

"Value-creation is the core of getting ahead. While your peers are busy racking up credentials, you can start racking up social capital."

Uber efficient

Uber is of course an alternative to the taxi industry with lots of advantages - income for drivers, low cost rides for customers, and efficiency for the economy, to name a few. Striving for more efficiency is their business strategy.

Uber investor Bill Gurley says in his blog, "It is hard to imagine a world where Uber riders do not want faster pick up times and lower price points. Uber is 100% committed to leveraging its scale and volume to deliver ever lower prices for consumers."

The more people they can serve in a given amount of time, the lower their costs of providing the service, and the more they can save their customers by dropping the price per ride. 

They're adding 15,000 drivers per month.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not ignorant

Here is that charismatic, number-crunching Swede, Hans Rosling, with a new TED talk (that I just discovered, though it's over a year old), determined to make us all less "ignorant about the world." As usual, his audience loves it.

Answer his survey questions at the beginning of the video for yourself and see how you compare to other audiences including Swedes, Americans, and chimpanzees :)



(cont'd tomorrow)

Reliable

What would it be like to live in a society where everyone had integrity, where you could believe everything they said? A revolution of good relationships and creative productivity. 

Forbes' thought of the day (yesterday, that is):

"Confidence is the foundation for all business relations. The degree of confidence a man has in others, and the degree of confidence others have in him, determines a man's standing in the commercial and industrial world." -  quote from William Boetcker

Good labor

During the Middle Ages (used to be incorrectly called Dark Ages) a new view of human work developed.  Though the Classics of ancient Rome and Greece considered work or labor to be the dirty duty of inferiors, the Bible demonstrates admiration and respect for human work.

Jesus tells this story of the "talents" (large sums of money in that day) in Matthew 25:   A wealthy man gave some employees 1-10 talents to invest.  The ones who used their talent to achieve something were praised.  The timid one who did nothing with his talent was scolded.

"The Parable of the Talents shows us we will be held accountable for what we do while we wait for the return of our King," says Hugh Whelchel.  "Thankfully, we are not held to some arbitrary standard.  What God expects from us is based on what he has given us."  Working and achieving are good things.

Think about what you are good at.  It probably gives you a great feeling to produce good results in your area of giftedness.  I think God is pleased with that.  He gave you the aptitude so you could work it, whatever it is.  All the rest of us are blessed that you do it well.

More corn

According to World Bank, "Innovation plays an important role in creating jobs, generating income, alleviating poverty, and driving social development".

It's easy to see innovation in process by looking at Stine Seed (see yesterday's post) and their vision to double global production of corn.  The strategy is to develop corn plants which can grow closer together (12") and thereby yield an increased number of bushels of corn per acre at harvest.

cornandsoybeandigest.com

Feed the world

Back in the 1970's, The Population Bomb claimed that the goal to feed all earth's people  had already failed, and that there would definitely be millions/billions dying of starvation by the end of the 20th century.

That didn't happen.  Innovative human beings created countless improvements in the production of food.

One of them is Harry Stine of Iowa (not a household name).  He founded the largest private seed company in the world and has 900 patents, all while coping with dyslexia and mild autism.

He thinks he can double the world's output of corn, earth's most popular crop.

"[S]ome of the most impressive and fundamentally important advances on Earth are occurring today in agriculture, and the global epicenter is America’s heartland. . "

Incomes & energy

Increased production of oil and natural gas in America is very good news for American families. Energy prices go down and more jobs provide more income, this we know.

IHS has researched what those results will actually look like in terms of dollars for families:

"Robust energy production will increase wages, cut energy and manufacturing costs and add as much as $2,000 a year to each family's income by 2015 . . . "  In 2013, the value added to an average household was about $1200.

Why is this happening?  Because oil and natgas production has become much more productive, i.e. more energy can be made with less expenditure of resources (money, labor).

Leverage an idea

Luis von Ahn had a wonderfully productive idea - a way to get the web translated completely freely.  It would cost about $50 million to hire professionals just to translate Wikipedia into Spanish, so how expensive would it be to translate the whole web?

The amazing idea has started the project and gets it done for free.  Watch this TED talk to get the idea.  Luis von Ahn is the inventor of CAPTCHA and Duolingo (see the posts of February 13, 14, 17)).

Chinese farming unproductive

Farmers don't own the land they work in China.  The government owns it all.  The land cannot be mortgaged to make large purchases, so small farms use less machinery and are more labor intensive.  

In fact, this article at Business Insider makes the case that Chinese farmers are some of the most unproductive in the world (includes a beautiful photo essay).  The author quotes Deutsche Bank as saying that South Korean farmers are 40 times more productive.

Maybe this non-productivity has something to do with China's plan to take hundreds of millions out of the countryside and put them into cities; maybe there will be a transformation of the whole agricultural picture.  But I haven't yet read anything about a grand plan for agriculture.  I would love to see these farmers own their farming business, make it vastly more productive, and enjoy the results.