What are the Pistons doing

I wonder sometimes if Joe Dumars really knows what he’s doing. I watched the draft, which pretty much went according to plan. That is until the trades started to happen. J Rich is now a Bobcat courtesy of MJ and Ray Allen is back on the east coast where he played his college years at.

The Pistons didn’t appear to do anything dramatic to help themselves get better in the draft. It seems the entire eastern conference got better over night…maybe not good enough to better an increasingly better west, we shall see. We have some weaknesses that need to be addressed. The coaching sucks and I now see why Flip Saunder never won with the T-wolves. The Pistons were a defensive juggernaut who would hold teams with machine-like ease. We were never a scoring team, however our scoring margin was always pretty decent.

I know the team is based on the extreme team philosophy but that worked when the east was a lot weaker and the Pistons had the ability to shutdown any team they wanted. I watched Lebron look like the second coming of MJ, but if you took a closer look it revealed that their was a high dependency on Big Ben. One could easily see that they were not on the same page. Chauncey Billups rarely let anyone go by him, now he worries about saving energy for offense. Tayshaun looks like an average defender, so I guess that means Paul Pierce and a host of other superstars were right. Rip never was a defensive factor unless he was chasing Allen Iverson around. And Rasheed can’t stay in the game (and he is by far the best defender on the team).

Joe D had been luck (more like bailed out) to have player drop in his lap because he has totally dropped the ball in drafting talent. Could you imagine if we got Chris Bosh, D. Wade, or better yet Mello who wanted to be here. I guess we shall see what might happen.

Gizmos and Gadgets Web 2.0 Edition

Gizmos and Gadgets Web 2.0 Edition

Since the advent of the internet cyberspace has been an amazing destination for users. Websites were great places where anyone could get countless amounts of information. One could surf the web for countless hours. You could visit sites that give info and weather forecasts at www.yahoo.com. Or learning how an a-bomb works at sites like www.howitworks.com. Many dot.com companies arose in the 1990’s where companies went public and made millions overnight. At the turn of the century the dot.com bubble had finally burst. In the midst of these various firms failing, the strong survived and rebuilt. Enter the web 2.0 regime.

What is Web 2.0 one might ask? According to wikipedia.com’s entry it is a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2003 and popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004.  It refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services. Examples of such social-networking sites are wikis and folksonomies which facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O’Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.  Although there are factions that point to the fact that these particular web structures has existed since the beginning of the internet.

Gone are the days where large companies dominated cyberspace because they had large budgets. Large capital expenditures were once needed to start a good website. Where hit counts were an indicator of a successful website. Now you can have a smaller budget because the cost to start and maintain a site are much cheaper. Public knowledge has grown and sites are more user-friendly when trying to customize to ones personal preferences.

A prime example of the difference between the old and the new is user interaction and collaboration. In the past website mostly were great places to store information. As Dan pointed out in class encyclopedia type information could be accessed on the web. The Web 2.0 version is wikipedia which is an interactive information site. Users can edit entries or ad completely new entries as well. Websites such as myspace and facebook are the new face of social networks. Where users can tag people as friends and send notes to one another. High level interaction and user input is the common theme across a lot of Web 2.0 platforms.

Power has been put in the user’s hand where things are more of a democratic. The web is growing and sustaining and looks like there may be no dot.com bubbles to pop in the near future.

Short-Selling (part 2)

This is a continuation of the weekend article from my prior blog entry about the plight of the Detroit areas high foreclosure rates. As we left off borrowers and the lenders are collaborating to avoid having the property foreclosed on. From a lender’s perspective a foreclosure help them in a many ways. It lowers the delinquency rate within their operations metrics. It also looks better when they approach a prime lender for money and they check the delinquency metrics.

As a debtor short selling is a great to get out of the property scotch free. They can avoid trying to sell a home that might not be competitive due to various factors in the market. Right now it is a buyers market in the Detroit area. A seller has to compete with properties that are already foreclosed. Also the heavy depreciation has affected the Detroit area. In 2006 a majority of southeastern Michigan homes depreciated at a rate of 9% or more. This trend of depreciation I assume may carry on for a few more years. Acting as a leveling off of over inflated appreciation from the 1990’s due to fraudulent appraisals.

Here is a simple example of a short sell. You have a borrower risking a possible foreclosure and the amount they owe the bank is in the amount of $120000. They realize that there property is valued at $100000, which is far less than what the loan amount is. Therefore they cannot refinance or expect a buyer to get a loan for more than the appraised value. The process proceeds along in the following way.

The owner contacts the lender requesting that they consider a short sell of the property. If the lender agrees the buyer must then line up potential buyers. Once offers are made on the property the bank will weigh which offer is the best out of 3-5 offers. Obviously the lender would accept the highest offer. Let’s assume the highest offer was for $83000. Upon sell the bank would then forgive the owner of shortage due to the lower selling amount.

This is a win-win for everyone. The lender finds someone to take the property off of their books. The owner won’t have a foreclosure on their credit report or face the humiliation of being evicted from their home. The new buyer is able to get a great deal on a home and have nice equity off the start.

As Dan Gilbert said to our class “buy when there is blood in the street.”

www.detnews.com

www.freep.com

Bill Emerson: President of Quicken Loan

In the book Good to Great Collins described a type of leader that was synonymous making these businesses great. Bill Emerson fits this persona to a T. Culture is critical as he was quick to point out to our class. The average tenure of leadership of at Quicken is 11 yrs. To be a leader in quicken you must know isms and walk and talk it. Bill has such a commitment and passion to grow quicken that he doesn’t see himself leaving for a while.

How might one grow as an individual who aspires to lead? First the question you must ask yourself is “am I willing to grow.” It is all about seeking personal greatness and pursuing greatness. An individual must be willing to change as a person to grow. Otherwise you fall under the Definition of Insanity (by Einstein)…doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

When making the choice of being a leader one must understand certain factors involved. It is different from being on your own (following leadership). When you become a leader you must transition. As an individual your efforts are all focused on reaching personal goals and performance. One must know how to switch from individual goals to team performance. When you become a leader you are responsible to help people go grow.

Now that you have made this decision to lead a group you must demonstrate these traits that will help you to become an effective leader. First and foremost many new leaders make a critical mistake. Like is what most leaders want when they become new leaders. You should never try to be liked first as Bill told us. Trust and respect must be earned first then they may like you. The easier way to start is to lead by example. An individual must be willing to put in a lot of time at the beginning of becoming a leader.

You have to have genuine interest in your team members. Find about them and their goals and what trying to accomplish. Allow their goals to be what they are aiming to accomplish for easy to buy into). Many times people set goals that are not theirs. They have zero connection to these goals and often they may be too lofty. Remember every person is different in their goals.

What is leadership? Bill had expressed what to him makes a leader in the following statements. A leader needs to have followers (employers); because a leader can only lead when someone is willing a follow. It’s all about knowing how to lead people to accomplish a task/goal. A leader is responsible for developing and helping people achieve their potential. A leader must articulate a vision. Bill summed it up best, the foundation of it all….understanding service. Leaders serve the people that work with them. You work for those that serve under you. Not about the leader, only about serving and accomplishing goals.

How do you make leadership work? Leadership is an Art not a science. It’s a belief system; you must buy in to for it to work. You have to be real with yourself and others. When you take these ingredients and add them together this is will help. What you are trying to ascertain as a leader is building report and credibility. Credibility give you the ability to win trust among your team.

Todd Stern…Small Plates

Todd Stern is an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. He started out at an early age. No body can deny that this gentleman has paid his dues. He throughout his life took the road less traveled and now it is paying huge dividends. Now he is running one of the most successful restaurants in the city of Detroit. With his business opening a Royal Oak location, it is poised to turn in to a national franchising jackpot.

Todd Stern has been an entrepreneur ever since his Bubby said so. Who is Bubby one might ask that appointed this title to the successful Detroit restaurateur. Bubby was Stern’s grandmother and looked up the word in a dictionary to show him. Why she did that? Todd recalls from his early adolescent days that he had told her he would save some money to buy her lunch someday. He earned his money, and tag as an entrepreneur, by raking leaves and shoveling snow. Instead of doing what normal children his age (8) were doing his mind was on ways of generating money.

He would later find his passion (or calling some might say) after his family moved to Georgia at the age 10. At age 12 he found himself working in a restaurant. Stern started as a dish washer and knew everything in the kitchen by 15. He then realized he wanted to learn how to run the store. At age 15 he left the restaurant and worked at Choco Chip, a precursor to Ms. Fields, where he worked the front of the store. At this points Todd aspired to manage a store. While working he still had an itch for running his own business.

He conceived an idea to run a service business for the Atlanta neighborhood he lived in. It involved various tasks/chores such as picking up dry-cleaning to walking dogs. He started our by creating a questionnaire and going door to door in his neighborhood. He got plenty of no’s however he also received some valuable information. As an entrepreneur one most do their due diligence. He saw a need and researched to see if it was a viable opportunity. Though some were interested in his service he couldn’t raise the capital to start his little venture. What he did receive out of his pursuit was what it took to start a business.

Stern’s family was transferred back to Detroit and upon graduation from high school he elected not to go to college. Although he quickly points out that there is value in education. He followed a dream to learn how to cook. He pursued an opportunity to go work in Spain. As one can imagine this is where he developed his idea using tapas style dining. Tapas style dining is like grazing in a family like manner.

After moving back to the states he realized that he needed the necessary tools to help him open his dream restaurant which today is known as Small Plates. He started working in various upscale restaurants, like the Rattlesnake Club, working his way through the ranks as he did as a youngster. After many unfulfilled promises of being made a partner in later pursuits Stern set out to build his dream Business.

He took the sacrifice upon himself and did not take a salary for 5 years and lived out of his catering truck for months at a time. There is so much more to this great story. These were the key points that I received from Todd: What it took…determination the key ingredient of being an entrepreneur. No one knows what you have in you but you. You can’t stop focusing on the prize and goal.

Short-Selling (part 1)

The following articles pertain to recent events in real estate. They are from the weekend edition of the Detroit News and the Freep. It is a 2 part series focusing on the Detroit areas foreclosures and how short selling has become a viable solution to avoiding it.

There is an unfortunate trend of events occurring in Michigan. The number of foreclosures in Detroit are growing at an astronomical rate. Michigan is 8^th in the nation in foreclosed homes at over 10%. According to Arborlaw.com it is said that Detroit on average has more than 10,000 foreclosure filings in each quarter. Detroit documented the highest annual foreclosure rate among the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas.

Foreclosure filings in the city represented 4.9 percent of all households or one foreclosure filing for every 21 households. The city’s foreclosure rate was 4.5 times the national average. A recent statistical analysis showed that foreclosures rose nearly 90 percent from May 2006. The report also shows a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 656 U.S. households during the month.

The question that probably arises time and again is how and why this is happening and what is causing this dilemma. Obviously people are losing their homes because they can’t afford to pay their debts. The following have led to foreclosing of properties. It is speculated amid many reasons these foreclosures have been attributed to a poor economy, high unemployment and brain flight.

Fraudulent property comps by the appraiser resulting in over-inflated appraisals; meaning the mortgage companies and brokers have the clear advantage. Thankfully there is legislation in place now that addresses that. Ironically this unlawful activity has contributed to the collapse of the sub-prime lending market.

Often in the face of a problem arises a solution. Short selling has become a new tactic in avoiding foreclosure. Short selling is when owner sells property for an allowed amount deemed by the lender which is lower than what is owed the lender. One might ask, why a bank would allow this to happen and how might this help the borrower. The answer is simple – for the same reason to avoid foreclosure and make the best out of a dire circumstance.

www.detnews.com

www.freep.com