Memo to Big Oil

 

Memo to Big Oil

Diversify your perspective.

Here is the metaphor:

If people think that the Moon is made of green cheese, then Galileo didn’t explain things properly. The solution is not to explain things to the people. The solution is to explain things to Galileo.

For years, Urban Legend has been saying that the Big Oil is impeding the efforts to develop high mileage automobiles and alternative energy sources. This does not mean that Big Oil did these things. However, if this is the perception there will be a big pushback.

The solution is not to explain things to the people. The solution is to explain things to Big Oil.

To begin with, do not say, “Slim, telling us what we should have done is 20/20 hindsight.”

It is. Don’t waste time saying it. Not because you are enlightening anyone, but because you are deluding yourself.

Why is this?

Because I will say, “Now that you have 20/20 hindsight, your mistakes should be a guidepost not a hitching post.”

Your strategic planning failures of the past do not excuse your strategic planning failures for the future.

Here is a four-point plan to guide your strategic planning.

1. Invest your profits in high-mileage technology.

Why?

Because as it becomes increasingly more important, you will hold the patents. Intellectual property has value.

2. Invest in active solar power technology.

Why?

Because you will become the energy suppliers of the future.

3. Invest in electric filling station technology.

Why?

Because having gas stations all over the country, you can leverage your capital investment. This is called revenue enhancement.

4. Invest in the geothermal heating industry.

Why?

Because diversity in your portfolio and revenue enhancement are vital to continued growth.

Bon chance!

Sincerest regards,

Slim

If you find any of this information helpful, please feel free to send me on of those tricked out Apple laptops—and do please include a little WAM in the envelope along with the thank-you note.

I don’t want to be paid for what I do.

I don’t want to be paid for what I know.

I don’t want to be paid for what I think.

I want to be paid for the way I think.

Regards,

Slim

Mail: slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2011 Slim Fairview

Having Problems with Foreign Direct Investment?

Having Problems with Foreign Direct Investment?


What are some of the barriers?

Leverage. ROI.

It is easy to see that start up costs in some countries are much lower than start up costs in another.

If the other country does not have the physical plant for example, it will be cheaper to build that plant in the other country.

Currency considerations are another factor

Incentives from a country with little industry are greater than they are from a country where you will compete with the locals.

Market penetration. Would people in countries in the region be more inclined to buy from countries in the region or from western nations.

Partnering. It is easier to partner with business in some countries where western technology is not readily available by making that technology available.

Just a few thoughts.

Regards,

Slim

mail slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview

It's Enough to Turn you Green

Green energy, forgive me for saying this, appears to have been co-opted by those I refer to as the empowerment and dignity crowd--people who embrace symbolic gestures over substantive gains.

For example: We talk about electric cars.


 Electric cars have to be plugged in to charge. They need energy. There must be a source for this energy.

Now, if we embrace nuclear power--called the atomic bomb of Damocles hanging over our heads back in the days of my youth--we have not adequately shifted our paradigm.

If we set up solar energy fields, we are shifting land use. (Remember when running cars on corn seemed like a good idea? Remember the emission claims? Remember the skyrocketing costs of food due to land use shift?)

If we develop solar power cells to install on the roof of every homeowner who owns an electric car, we are moving forward. (Fast enough to neglect people who cannot afford their own homes, but that is another issue.) If we install solar panels on the roofs of our cars, then, then...!

A larger solution would be a massive upgrade to a more convenient and marketable public transportation system. (I am not going to quibble about whether the Government or Private Industry can do a better job building it.)

This, however, calls to mind some of the factors that quelled our passion for public transportation.

One factor was that our enthusiasm for public transportation ran contiguous with the rise in crime. Saying things like 'aggressive panhandler' instead of 'subterranean terrorist'.

Add to that the factors of inconvenience and higher costs.... Let's face it. Our economy is structured to promote one person in one car going from one place to another; or going from place to place throughout the day. This is a far cry from the days when I got up early for 'take your grandson to work day'.

My Grandfather and I took a bus to the city. Then, our cities were large enough to accommodate enough office buildings to accommodate all the workers. Today we have suburban campuses.

However, be hopeful. What we are doing here at Linkedin is a fore-teller of our business communities of the future. (With the exception that none of us appears to be getting paid for what we do here.) But, I digress.

Petroleum is the raw material for the products we use in our society. And though we admit to or concede or recognise what I am about to tell you to be true, we behave as if the situation does not exist.

When I was a youngster, there were 150 million Americans. Today, there are 300 million Americans.

Bio-degradable garbage bags are no solution.

Low flush toilets are no solution.

And certainly, the mercury vapor grenades coming to your home are, well......

Each fad that comes down the pike serves only to placate the public. (We could have a bake sale.)

I call it THE EBENEZER EFFECT.

Each holiday, many of us watch the movie "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghosts: Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas yet to Come. He repents his evil ways. We breathe a great big collective sigh of relief, and go on our happy way exonerated vicariously of our greed.

(Did someone say, "Carbon Offset"?)

We can buy bio-degradable trash bags, install mercury vapor light bulbs, and forget the difference illuminated by Scrooge's question:

"Are these the shadows of what will be; or are these the shadows of what might be?

Regards,

Slim

Commentary on Global Political and Economic Events by Slim Fairview
Please also see also http://sidestreetjournal.blogspot.com  Please do click the follow button for The Journal--and please email a link to your friends.  Thank you.

Slim

Armed only with an analytical mind and the ability to speak in metaphors, I attempt to explain the events of the day as I view them through the magic glasses my parents gave me over 50 years ago. Regards, Slim

 

Now,  I am not Paul Harvey. 

However, I am open to becoming a paid commentator, columnist, or blogger.

If you’ve found anything I said to be helpful, please don’t hesitate to send me one

of those tricked-out laptops and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with

the thank you note.

Sincerest regards,

Slim

RR #2

Route 390

Cresco PA 18326

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2011 Slim Fairview