Are you familiar with the saying “let the punishment fit the crime?”

It’s a valid approach, but it’s just as true that the reward should fit the action.

A friend of mine works for a Fortune 1000 company in a tech support role. He’s well respected lead tech in his group.

Last year he developed an idea on his own time and gave it to his company.

As a result, he was flown to annual dinner and presented with an award and a $5000 bonus.

Sound impressive?

His idea will save his company $5 million or more each year.

Still impressed?

My friend isn’t.

He has a friend who is very impressed, but that’s because his company doe nothing; no recognition whatsoever.

My friend feels that a $5K reward for saving the company $5M or more every year, while being better than nothing, is still just short of an insult.

Other than being disappointed what’s the fallout?

He likes his job and his boss, so he’s not planning on leaving, but…

He has another idea that he’s not going to bother developing.

He’s still one of the most productive people they have, but that extra edge is gone.

What do you think his employer should have done?

Join me tomorrow for another look at how, to quote another old saying, companies keep cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

Stock.xchng image credit: dinny

Yesterday I shared quotes from Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos that focused on entrepreneurial topics, especially stock and its price.

Today, we’re going to look at Bezos’ vision for Amazon marketing.

Let’s start with what you thought of the last Amazon ad you saw. You’re probably scratching your head and thinking that it wasn’t very good, since you don’t remember it.

There’s nothing wrong with your memory or the ad, for that matter, because there was no ad.

That’s right, no giant ad budget, no super-size presence at tradeshows, no typical corporate marketing.

“Instead of shelling out big bucks for lavish trade shows and TV and magazine ads, Amazon pours money into technology for its Web site, distribution capability, and good deals on shipping. … “It is pretty unprecedented that their brand has ascended so quickly without a large marketing budget,” says Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer at brand consultant Landor Associates. “It’s not about splaying their logo everywhere. They are all about ease of use.”

Amazon has done well in the recession for the very reasons that Wall Street lambasted them after the dot com bubble burst.

Wall Street wanted short-term profits, while Bezos focused on the long-term.

When I was looking for yesterday’s quotes, I also found these two and they say it all.

“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.”

It takes enormous strength of character to stay focused on the future when investors are pounding on you to focus on immediate returns.

Too many CEOs sell their company’s future by focusing on keeping investors, analysts and the media happy in the short-term.

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Image credit: TimYang.net on flickr

Here lies Wall Street’s short-term thinking
That trashed our lives without blinking
Ethics and honesty it disrespected
Let’s hope it’s never resurrected!

Are you part of the problem?

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Image credit: Tombstone Generator

(Hat tip to Phil Gerbyshak for leading me to the generators)

Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: JOE M500

I have gas pains, you have gas pains and so we rant.

Rants don’t alleviate gas pain, but they do relieve pressure.

We rant about crude prices and the mean oil producing countries that are more concerned with their own internal economy than with being nice and increasing production.

We rant about the oil companies and accuse them of manipulating prices.

Not that our rants aren’t mostly true, but…

There is something else going on.

Alkylate—or the lack of it.

‘The alkylate shortage has become the most important driver of summer gas prices, said Doug Leggate, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets. “Supply of [alkylate] will set the price of summer gasoline – not inventory levels.”

What’s alkylate I hear (most) of you ask.

“…a little-known and expensive gasoline additive that some in the industry are calling “liquid gold.” It has become a must-have ingredient since refiners stopped using MTBE two years ago…”

Where does it come from?

“Oil companies deny they are purposely limiting production of alkylate, which like gasoline, jet fuel, and asphalt is a byproduct of the refining process. But only recently have some started studying how they can boost output… “

Of course the effort is recent, planning ahead, AKA, strategic thinking, goes against accepted business practice.

Should the oil companies have seen this coming?

Be sure to check out another other Fun Friday post at Talk Stock Trading

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