Obama Grows into Presidency - FAST

We will BEAT this recession. I believe it and Barack Obama is trying to get America to believe it also. The man has probably had the toughest immediate baptism of fire of any President since Lincoln. He is learning fast and it has to be said his obvious knowledge of so many factors - economic, political, military is quite impressive.

His public performances in the past two days show he has got comfortable with the office very fast. Most people accept he is an inspirational, motivational speaker but some might have questioned whether there was steel there. His first press conference dispelled any worries on that front.

The President explained very clearly and cogently just how much trouble the economy is in. That he was able to recount anecdotes from his visit to Elkhart, Indiana was fortunate for him but also effective. Indeed his visit to the unemployment capital of the United States provided him with a lot of credibility and goodwill. But his overall performance was powerful. He was stately and truly presidential. His command of the speech process is uncanny, something that is not necessarily true when he is involved in Q&A sessions where he hesitates, thinks, pauses a lot before he comes out often with pretty vacuous answers.

He overcame this flaw at last night’s conference by answering many questions with almost mini-speeches. He was also feisty, consistently criticizing the previous administration for the huge debt racked up - "It's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they presided over a doubling of the national debt." Whether this was accurate or not is questionable as the Dems have controlled the House for the past few years, but hey! as most inspirational motivational speakers know there is nothing wrong with a little bit of hyperbole.

Footnote I: Things must REALLY be serious when 37 million people watched Obama’s press conference last night. That is 7 million more than watched American Idol debut in January.

Footnote II : The foot in mouth award of the week must go to Texas Rep. Pete Sessions who suggested the 2010 GOP strategy should be comparable to that of the Taliban – one of insurgency. The irony is that his statement has some validity. You should learn from effective operational strategy in any environment and unfortunately the Taliban are murderously effective. But you’d think Sessions – a six term representative – would have had more political moxy. The Democrats should send him a case of his favorite beverage for providing such a juicy political morsel. Of course I would never suggest that either parties ability to mangle the truth for their own benefit is Taliban-like. That would just be too cynical.

And remember:
WE WILL BEAT THIS RECESSION - But we MUST work Harder. We MUST work Smarter.

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Conor Cunneen is a Chicago based Irish keynote speaker – motivational, humorous, inspirational - on topics as diverse as BEAT the RECESSION, Foodservice, Cancer (a two time survivor), Business Growth and Presentation Skills, who likes to repeat keywords such as motivational, humorous, inspirational, Irish, Chicago based, Motivational Humorist in an ongoing effort to garner search engine attention and BEAT the RECESSION.

His Brand Promise is:
E4 - Energize, Educate, Entertain AND Easy to work with.

Don't Believe Your Own Blarney

The demise of Circuit City is just one more horrible casualty of the current economic climate. In a press release yesterday, the company announced it was filing for Chapter 11 protection – in effect, bankruptcy.

Another example of how the mighty have fallen. Jim Collins, in his excellent book Good to Great referenced Circuit City as a “Great” company. I went back to the book to see just what he had written about the now fallen electronics retailer. The biggest surprise for me was that this was not the only “Great” company cited in the 2001 publication which has fallen on hard times. Would you believe Fannie Mae also passed the “Great” test?

This is not a criticism of Jim Collins’ work. Rather, it shows once again how difficult it is to stay on top.

It is quite amazing how many once really successful companies fall fast and precipitously, either losing their independence or becoming at best also-rans. I don’t know enough about Circuit City to know if it was hubris that brought them down, but it is often a key reason in the demise of companies.

Wendy’s for instance loved to claim it was better than McDonald’s on many key metrics when the burger leader was in the toilet earlier this decade. The only trouble is, the firm Dave Thomas founded believed its own blarney, sat back which McDonald’s did a fantastic re-engineering job and today Wendy’s is no longer independent and basically looking for an identity. Sears, Yahoo, Pan Am (remember them),Yankees, Dell have fallen from grace big time. The lesson – don’t believe your own blarney (which is a key lesson in my book Why Ireland Never Invaded America) and do listen to your market. Failure to do so means – Goodnight, Goodbye (but not Good luck.)

The World's Favorite Airline

One of the most interesting European and Irish success stories of recent years is Ryanair. This low cost airline dominates the low fare market in Europe and is THE largest passenger carrier on the continent. It is also profitable which makes it virtually unique. Half-yearly profits of €215m while down 47% down on last years interim profits are very impressive, this despite the fact that fuel costs doubled from €392.7m to €788.5m. Unlike virtually every other airline, traffic grew by 19% to 32m and wait for it average fares fell - yes that is right, average fares FELL by 4% to €47.

How does Ryanair do it? Primarily because of an unrelenting focus on being THE low cost carrier in Europe. The airline does not mess about. It is not interested in being just a low cost carrier. Its overarching, never deviated from goal is to be THE low cost carrier. Led by Chief Executive Michael O’Leary, Ryanair has grown from being a weak, poorly capitalized airline twenty years ago to an absolute industry behemoth. O’Leary is not your typical suave Wall Street type of CEO. He is foul-mouthed, disdainful of government and European Union officials and an arrogant (normally correct) critic of other airlines to whom he loves sticking it to. Ryanair has literally lifted what was the BA tagline “The World’s Favorite Airline” and now uses it at investor presentations and in financial results, because it can legitimately make this claim based on passengers flown.

O’Leary is also brilliant (or at the very least produces consistently brilliant results.) Ryanair studied Southwest in some detail and has learned a lot from this great US airline. Much of the Southwest financial discipline, aircraft policy - 737s only, low cost airports etc. has been copied from Southwest.

One quite visible difference is customer relations. Southwest has a well deserved reputation for treating customers like gold. Ryanair has a well deserved reputation for treating its customers – well – let’s put it this way – not like gold. O’Leary though will tell you that his airline keeps it customer promise better than any other airline – “We will fly you there and back for the lowest price BUT don’t expect us, to provide you with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit (cookie to US readers) or a smile or a food coupon when your flight is delayed for three hours because of bad weather- because we don't promise that!
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As a keynote speaker, my Brand Promise is E4: Educate, Energize, Entertain AND Easy to work with. Why mention this? Well log onto the Ryanair investor relations site to hear Michael O'Leary at the half yearly conference. I promise you, you will get the first three E’s from this man. No one will ever say he is Easy to work with. But if you want a lesson in focus, clear sighted vision and quality execution, you will find few better examples in the commercial world.

Let Every Nation Know: A book worth reading

Let Every Nation Know is a book and audio CD of John F. Kennedy's major speeches. Written by historians Robert Dallek and Terry Golway, it provides fascinating insight into the speechmaking skills of this nation's first Catholic President. I am sure we all look back with rose tinted glasses, but listening to the 32 Kennedy speeches on this CD makes you wonder about some of the drivel we hear from today's politicians.
Pop it into your iPod for that long journey home. It will be time well spent particularly if you are interested in the craft of speechmaking or you are, like me, a keynote speaker (Chicago based) who just likes to keep learning.