99.9% of people recognize the power of WIIFM (meaning “what’s in it for me” in deference to the .01%).

Even to an early adopter/cynic like me its power can boggle the mind, especially when it moves economic behemoths to switch sides in a bitter debate like climate change.

The latest example of WIIFM in action is Coke.

Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke’s balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force.

Ya think?

Of course, I can think of hundreds of more serious consequences from the global water shortage than a lack of soda pop.

WIIFM also fuels government fraud and, barring sales to the military, there is no fraud target more appealing than Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

This is also an area where corporate fraud transcends individual fraud by orders of magnitude.

While politicos love to point to illegal immigrants as a large source of fraud, because blame is most easily placed on those with the least lobbying power, it is, in fact, organized citizens, doctors and the corporate medical world like the HMA hospital chain, which grades its emergency room doctors based on daily hospital admissions—whether needed or not.

Physicians hitting the target to admit at least half of the patients over 65 years old who entered the emergency department were color-coded green. The names of doctors who were close were yellow. Failing physicians were red.

Never underestimate the power of WIIFM.

Flickr image credit: SueKing2011

I have some eclectic offerings to start your Labor Day weekend right; a bit of this and that, with no unifying theme.

First up is a gift for my women readers.

Goldman Sachs and Knowledge@Wharton have teamed up to create a portal for women entrepreneurs in emerging economies as part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative. The portal will feature articles, case studies, podcasts and videocasts highlighting 10,000 Women scholars’ businesses in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In addition, the portal will provide women entrepreneurs around the world with business insights that can help them grow and lead their enterprises.

Next, two new articles in the Your Brain on Computers series running in the NY Times. The first looks at five neuroscientists who spent a week in late May in a remote area of southern Utah completely unwired—no cell phones (except one for emergencies), no internet, no watches. The second looks at the polar opposite—constant stimulation.

Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He said he believed that when the brain was constantly stimulated, “you prevent this learning process.”

Since we’re on the subject of social media, I’m sure you heard about Mike Wise, a sports columnist at The Washington Post, who was suspended for tweeting made up information about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback to see how fast misinformation would spread online. Wise thinks the suspension is fair, not an overreaction.

“I’m paying the price I should for careless, dumb behavior in the multiplatform media world.”

Finally, a comment in response to ways to help Social Security survive really grabbed me.

Charles Jaecksch, a 65-year-old retired IRS agent in Millersville, would tax all income, including stock options and executive golden parachutes.

“Imagine, for instance, if the outgoing executive of Hewlett-Packard was required to pay Social Security withholding and Medicare on his [$40 million plus] buy-out,” Jaecksch says. “Multiply this by all executives and employees earning millions of dollars per year, and it would go a long way to boosting the Social Security trust fund.”

I wasn’t aware of the exemptions Jaecksch mentions, but now that I know I am really pissed—sorry, that is the technical term for my reaction.

What do you think?

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/

Sometimes it seems as if the economic crisis is acting like an earthquake that’s turning over rock after rock and all kinds of icky things are crawling out much to our dismay. A few months ago I wrote about the mindset that seems to be so prevalent these days.

“These days” aren’t all that recent whereas the executive bonuses causing so much rage are just a blip.

Enron was eight years ago as was the phen-phen settlement rip-off, although the two lawyers were only convicted this week.

For decades, the Feds have been scamster heaven and that hasn’t changed, “about 32 percent of the combined monies paid out by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are fraudulent”—often enabled employees—and by 2007 more than $100 billion was spent on contractors for the Iraq war (you can outsource anything) and you can bet your bottom dollar there’s been plenty of fraud there. Just business as usual.

Of course lying, cheating and fraud aren’t new, but what’s depressing is that they seem to become more and more acceptable. Worse, all the signs are ignored until the situation blows up causing massive damage to thousands of people.

Maydoff and the other hedge fund scamsters operated for years with everybody ignoring the warning signs until the Wall Street bomb blew up and investors wanted their money back. At that point all those houses of cards came tumbling down.

Yet as recently as last August Congress was seriously considering turning over the private pension funds to these same people responsible for the financial crisis—even as those funds were crashing.

Remember when you were young and some boring older person told you that “if it seems too good to be true it probably is”? The problem is that as people grew up they tacked two words onto that phrase and those two words helped get us where we are today.

Do you know which two words?

But me.

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I hate leaving things on a down note, so here is something to raise your spirits and your skills.

Dan McCarthy over at Great Leadership hosts a terrific leadership carnival and the latest one just went live today. Click on over and check it out, I guarantee that there’s something there for everyone—and probably more than one something. Enjoy!

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: flickr