Author: CBPS

Peter Mehit is co-founder and Managing Partner of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, a business consulting firm that provides problem solving, planning and process help. He has worked from private equity to the Fortune 100 at all stages. He can be reached at pmehit@wbpllc.com or at 800-741-8444.

The secret handshake | Photographers Blog

~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment

To watch a “challenge coin” being passed from one person to

another is to witness the equivalent of “the secret handshake.” Starting and ending as quickly as a bullet, the ritual is performed out in plain sight and almost always in the presence of others.

Most “civilians” remain clueless as to what they witnessed even though it happened right in front of them – seeing nothing more than a stone-faced soldier or Marine at attention quietly facing a commanding officer, politician, or at best a nation’s President, before reaching out firmly to shake hands.

 Read Article.

An afterword from one of our readers:

Peter,

My daughter was in Navy ROTC at Notre Dame and she received the Secretary of Defense coin from Bob Gates when he officiated at the Navy ROTC Graduation last year. Among other things, that coin guarantees she does not have to buy drinks in a navy bar. The person with the highest ranking challenge coin, does not buy drinks. The only higher coin than hers is the Commander in Chief and they are not given out very often. Nice story…..

Thanks,

Tom Kay,  General Manager,  Outdoor Elegance Patio Center

China Abandons Role of Global Engine as Wen Tempers Stimulus – Bloomberg

~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment

“The government is trying to strike a better balance between stabilizing growth in the short term and adjusting structure in the long term,” said Peng Wensheng, chief economist in Beijing at China International Capital Corp., who worked at the International Monetary Fund and Hong Kong’s central bank. Total stimulus this year may be less than one- third the size of the 5.4 trillion yuan fiscal and monetary firepower of 2009, Peng said.

Read Article.

Jargon Madness | Forbes

~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment

The next time you feel the need to reach out, touch base, shift a paradigm, leverage a best practice or join a tiger team, by all means do it. Just don’t say you’re doing it. Because–and please believe us–all that meaningless business jargon makes you sound like a complete moron.

Read Article.

Hacked companies fight back with controversial steps | Reuters

~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment

Some experts also say executives should identify their most prized intellectual property and keep it off of networked computers and consider evasive action – such as having 100 versions of a critical digitized blueprint and only one that is genuine, with the right one never identified in emails.

“There is a reason that people fly halfway around the world to have a one-hour meeting,” Joffe said of intelligence agencies.

Read Article.

The Enemy is Us | The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation on Venture Capital Investing

~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment
The Usual Suspect

In “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY… AND HE IS US” , Lessons from Twenty Years of the Kauffman Foundation’s Investments in Venture Capital Funds and The Triumph of Hope over experience no detail is spared in a direct, unflinching look at how a $2BN, entrepreneurial foundation under performed the S&P 500 through group think and the willingness to be lead.

A long read, and somewhat technical, but truly worth the time. It makes a lot of what we’re seeing make sense.

Read Report