Goals & Ambitions

Be SMART about them.

What are your goals for the coming year? More profit? Less waste?

We hate to break it to you, but those aren't goals. They're ambitions.

You've probably heard this ad infinitum, but it bears repeating: real goals are definable to the detail, as well as measurable and achievable. If the objective is to cross the river, goals become the interim — specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and trackable means tow-crossing.

Applying this to your business life can bring prosperity. Applying it to your whole life can bring your preferred future.

Write them down. Break them into steps. Apply deadlines, performance indicators and measurements. Post them where you can see them and do something toward their end every day.

Our first goal of the year was to check in on your goals for the year. So we can check this one off our list.

The C4:

1. Ambitions are fine. You need goals to make them happen.
2. SMART Goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and trackable (keep score!).
3. One should have long-term, yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals.
4. Each day brings near-infinite opportunities to work on achieving goals.

Hostess With The Leastest

Who'll put the wonder in Wonder Bread?

Last week's bankruptcy hammer-blow: Hostess Brands, down for their second count of Chapter 11.

Hostess wobbled on a two-legged stool, supported by Twinkies and Wonder bread. Hostess rode that stool into an era where people don't eat white bread, and they make jokes about Twinkies.

Having said that, we remember that a few years ago TV chef Tony Bourdain brought his Travel Channel show No Reservations to Cleveland. His stops included an old Twinkie factory, abandoned since the 80s. Therein he found an abandoned supply of creamy filling confection. He opened a valve and drank some.

"Twinkie-licious," he said.

There you have it. Twinkies are forever. Hostess...not so much.

The C4:

1. Relying on signature products as company sustenance is a risky model. Too few organizations have the guts to update their signature products, which means their sustainers are stuck in time.
2. If you cater to tastes, watch and adjust to how tastes change.
3. Is bankruptcy still a process of last resort? Why can't some of these guys try harder to right their own ships before bailing on their creditors?
4. The thirty-first-century archeologists brave enough to bite an ancient Twinkie will find it Twinkie-licious.

Coda for Kodak

The market dun' took my Kodachrome® away-eh.

We're writing too often, these days, of proud old brands that are faltering, fading and failing.

With Kodak, the failure is all the more astonishing because their brand remains synonymous with photography. Indeed, that company is more responsible than any other for putting the tools of picture-taking into the hands of the masses — a goal specifically enumerated by founder George Eastman as early as 1880.

Despite that success, Eastman-Kodak is just days away from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, from the fire-sale liquidation of billions of dollars worth of patents, and from walking away from a mountain of debt, including company bonds and employee pensions.

What killed Kodak? Perhaps they're victims of their own success. Photography is indeed in all our hands now…and in our phones, our computers and all throughout our digital cloud. A company founded on film couldn't seem to manage the shift away from analog. And when they did, belatedly, they were ill-equipped to compete with companies that were digital to their core.

So is this the coda for Kodak? That remains to be seen. They still have the brand that means "camera" to millions. But sadly, it seems as though they have little else.

Hunting For Goodwill

You are far more valuable than your bottom line.

It's only natural, as we bid farewell to 2011 and ring in '12, to look back, take stock and evaluate a year's worth of performance. Were we lean and competitive? Did we beat expectations? Or was our balance sheet a precarious balancing act?

As we pore over the data, though, let us remember that not all is black and white. Certain aspects of our businesses defy definition, resist categorization and are oh so difficult to put a price on.

We're talking about intangible assets.

These include our intellectual property, our unique trade secrets and the marketing power of our brands. They include also the goodwill of our communities, which is a reward beyond value for our participation, our citizenship and our altruistic leadership.

Is this the kernel of a New Year's resolution? That's for each of us to decide for ourselves. Here at Caler&Company, we aim to embrace the intangible and value to the utmost that which has no price.

Here's to goodwill, good times and a happy and healthy 2012 for all.

Cheers!