Learners Live

Division Isn’t So Bad by Andy Kessler of Wall Street Journal

American culture is built on division. Left vs. Right, Coke vs. Pepsi, Ohio State vs. flag-planting Michigan, Classico vs. Rao’s, Red Sox vs. Yankees. Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift.

Maybe you’re tired of it, but you can’t get rid of division. Donald Trump has said, “The discord and division in our society must be healed.” Good luck with that. Then again, Joe Biden said we have to choose “between unity and division.” It never happened because it isn’t in any politician’s interest to heal divides. So we get “the vast right-wing conspiracy” and “own the libs.” Division is here to stay. The rest of us need to learn how to deal with it. The Biden years encouraged division by identity for the pursuit of power. It ended up costing Democrats the election. The Trump 2.0 years will probably be about division by nativism—we were here first. Or we made stuff here first. Yes, “decentering whiteness” vs. tariffs. Voters chose. Hey, you can’t have it all. Sadly, anxiety often wins out.

Former comedian Ellen DeGeneres, perhaps stressed by Trump trauma, moved to London. Cheerio. Others have reportedly threatened, in her designed-in-California iPhone. Plus, sprinkled throughout her dialogue were familiar expressions: “Bada boom.” including America Ferrera, Sharon Stone, Cher and Sophie Turner (isn’t she British?). Fine, they can read daily New York Times tantrums on their iPads from Saskatchewan. I hear it’s nice this time of year. Others have retreated to comfortable echo chambers. Former Elon Musk fanboys— now haters—have debarked for Bluesky, a Twitter alternative, which almost advertises in its name: No red rhetoric here. Some simply unplug.

CNN and MSNBC audiences are plummeting. Many will play Wordle for four years. But it’s better if everyone stays engaged. Despite, or maybe because of, our differences, America is still the greatest country and pulling away. We’re so free we can argue about our differences without the threat of being arrested. Our envious stock market has left the rest of the world in the dust. China seems to be languishing. In the European outdoor museum, few work. They sit at cafes and caffeinate all day. The U.S. sets the tone for the rest of the world. Not only by paying for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations but culturally. Even spiritually. On a visit to Kraków, Poland, my wife and I used the very American Airbnb to book a food tour. Highly recommend. Our guide was an engaging and overcaffeinated 20-something who couldn’t let go of “What were you thinking?” “Could I be any more hungry?” It took a few minutes before I realized her words and mannerisms were straight from the American TV show “Friends.” It’s the new “Sesame Street” for learning English. dd

When disagreeing, learn to move on from the argument and think ‘let them.’ Yes, the world devours our culture and incorporates it into their own. Same for the internet. Detractors like to call this “digital colonialism.” (Of course they do— anything to have America as an oppressor.) But no one forced our guide to speak “Friends.” This country is strong precisely because we don’t all think the same way. New ideas come from new ways of thinking. When you vote, you get some of what you want but not everything. Life is about compromises. The extremes of the left and right make the most noise, but we’re still governed from the center. Our political divisions today might seem like the Grand Canyon, but pre-1989 Berlin was about real and quite literal divides. Ours are wafer thin in comparison. For those who don’t like Donald Trump: Get over it. Stop threatening to leave.

Many didn’t like the Obama years. I cringed with every utterance of the socialist concept of equity during the Biden years. People dealt and moved on. You can too. Think of saying to yourself, “Let it be.” Yes, words of wisdom. Or as billion-view podcaster Mel Robbins suggests, say “Let them.” She describes it as a “life-changing mindset hack.” Hey, who doesn’t want that? I watched (briefly), and her theory is best summed as “stop trying to force other people to do what you want them to do, and so much more peace will come into your life.” Peace out.

When disagreeing, the impulse is to say something else besides “let” before “them.” But as long as you’re not threatened, not competing on a woman’s swim team or being told what to do, let them talk. Let them use up their hot air. Let them wallow in their own BS. If you’re right (of course you are) it will only take time for your brilliance to be exposed. Then you always have the age-old “Toldja!” in your back pocket. You’ll be itching to use it, but don’t. It’s less divisive and way more effective if left unspoken.  NniSiroqyArrvZvRK6Ne-WSJNewsPaper-12-23-2024.pdf Write to kessler@wsj.com

My Opinion:  It’s the venom and hate that’s the problem…just tired of it!

Launch of LearnersLive.com in 2025 – A Passion for Learning by Bill Attardi

Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi

In every environment, in every company, in every department, in every office, in every classroom, on every team, there are inequities.  Men and women come in all sizes, all levels of acumen, all degrees of competency and talent. In management, many times, not of your choosing, you get a diversity of high achievers, good performers, weak contributors, and those that do not contribute a dime to the performance of the team.  I call them the deadbeats!

College students are there to learn, to prepare for a life of success in a leadership role with an organization of their instigation or rather, maybe one of their choosing, and that may happen a few times.  In my undergraduate classes, especially when they are mostly seniors, and certainly in my graduate classes at Monmouth University, I congratulate them for the progress they have made so far in their collegiate work and no matter the future, each and every one of them has earned the right to be called highly competent individual…..…as long as they nourish the learning process. But I explain, that’s only the start of a successful career, do they have the talent and dedication to learning, all the time, to move on…

Learners possess certain attributes that distinguish them from the Learned. They anticipate rather than react to change.  Some call that vision. They become essential facilitators of change within their altered environment. They can skillfully communicate the new and technically esoteric with a clarity that leads to understanding and advocacy. Organizations that don’t value learning and the change that springs from learning will struggle to stay relevant in this fast-paced ever-changing marketplace.

The world is changing rapidly.   

For the timid, change is frightening; for the comfortable, change is threatening;                            

for the confident, change is opportunity…….and confidence comes from competency.       

Nido Qubein, President of High Point University

 There’s that word competency again. That’s why most individuals even go to college, to develop their competency. Learners are just highly competent individuals that influence change in an organization and, in turn, as leaders, allow others to adapt to that change.  As an Educator, my ambition here is to express my view that education, the learning process, is not a one-time event but rather, something you do right all the time.  Sounds a lot like Vince Lombardi when he talked about doing things right, not once in a while but all the time……remember that? I believe learning is something you do all the time!

 Launch of LearnersLive.com in 2025

I have a passion for teaching, for learning……been doing it most of my life and for the past 20+ years at Monmouth University. Want to continue doing it as long as God allows.

Here’s the plan:

  • LearnersLive Objective: to learn something you do not know; to confirm what you already know!
  • To post something for you to learn, every single day…a continuing learning experience.
  • Focus will be on topics of learning…..I have a dozen courses we can add to the curriculum right away…..all virtual……from 5 minute to 30 minute sessions.
  • Marketing & management sessions I teach at Monmouth University….
  • Will invite other educators………already talked to Jim Benya, Deb Burnett, Mark Rea, Chris Brown, Bernie Erickson, others ………
  • Interviews with industry leaders…
  • Also access to industry training websites and videos
  • DISC assessments

 Will keep some of EnergyWatch……..2025 will be a celebration for your humble correspondent: 60 years in the lighting business.  Whoooooah! Will continue to post on LearnersLive.com:

  • The monthly blog on a variety of subjects
  • The monthly newsletter recap
  • Industry news and new product information but only if you learn something
  • Published articles that focus on teaching something, not just about lighting…
  • Industry research………including other training courses offered by the industry

 What do you think?  Need your help with any suggestions you may have to make this effort meaningful as an ongoing contributor to your personal learning activities.

AI & the Annual SWOT Analysis – Time to Adjust to the New Normal by Bill Attardi

The SWOT (Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats) Analysis is an important tool in the strategic marketing planning process and is taught in every graduate and undergraduate business course in academia.  My view is that this should be an annual event, to spend the time during the planning process to ask your key people the select critical questions in each quadrant because it starts us to gather the most viable internal and external information to plan and run a successful business.  How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose.  Bill Gates.

 

Crucial: today, you win or lose if you do not understand and use artificial intelligence.  Let me explain…

 

The lighting industry has been my life and something happened that just does not happen ever in any industry. Seven major lighting categories will soon be one: LED!  Every lighting source out there will be replaced by LED over the next 5 to 10 years.  Everything!  That means every Taco Bell, every Home Depot, every Olive Garden, every Walmart, every home, office, hotel, hospital, streetlight, supermarket, et al will be upgraded to Intelligent Lighting and to all the advanced technologies that connect everything we do. When your customers learn about the advantages and benefits of the new technologies, and there will be many, will they buy them from you?  Why not?  What are you telling them? Where do you want to dominate?  Not just in a leadership position but in a dominant leadership position….

 

Well, in my travels in the lighting world, I offer a shortcut guideline to effectively conduct a SWOT Analysis that could help us maneuver through the intelligent lighting combat zone and be on the winning side.  This is directed to your Sales Force.  What happens here at the sales level is where we keep score……..face-to-face with the major income generating source of any business, the customer.  Important then that we understand Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats (SWOT) at the Sales level.

 

SWOT Categories

1. Strengths – INTERNAL – inside your business

  •  What are your core competencies? Those unique strengths, embedded deep within your business that allow you to differentiate your offerings so profoundly that they create higher value for your customers than anyone else.  Identify them…  Can you identify SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES, those not easily duplicated by your competitors.
  • What’s motivating your customers to buy from you?  The focus of all your marketing activities is the customer.  When they understand the advantages and benefits of the new technologies, will they buy them from you?  Why?
  • What are you doing to your existing competitors that’s working for you?   Not just in a leadership position but in a dominant leadership position…

 

2. Weaknesses – INTERNAL – – inside your business

  • What weaknesses are holding you back? Can they be corrected / overcome? If they cannot, what must you do to compensate?
  • Identify and address internal limitations.
  • What are your existing competitors doing that’s working against you?  Your first responsibility is the day-to-day operations of your business to win in a very competitive market. What’s holding you back?

 

3. Opportunities – EXTERNAL -what’s happening in the marketplace

  • What business opportunities tie right into your strengths? Short-term and long-term?
  • What are the key technologies shaping your industry? Every lighting source out there will be replaced over the next 5 to 10 years.  Everything!  Where do you want to dominate?

 

4. Threats – EXTERNAL -what’s happening in the marketplace

  • What changes in the marketplace offer the most significant challenges?
  • Who are your major competitors?
  • Who are the new entrants in the industry that are a key threat?

 

 

Artificial Intelligence – Is AI an integral part of your strategic thinking? Why not?

It’s important to recognize that AI technology will be, if not already, the most significant development to aid businesses to solve problems and make sound decisions. In fact, my students, future decision-makers, will absolutely need to become proficient in using such tools as they enter the workforce after graduation. Fact: 64% of marketers are more likely to hire a new employee with AI certification compared to someone without?  You have to use it….you have to get better at using it….you must be exceptionally skilled at using it.  It’s the most powerful search engine ever developed.  If there are or will be problems with AI, let them figured it out. Progress can be painful.  In today’s hyper-connected world, we have at our finger-tips the computer, the internet, social media, cell phones, email, text messaging, now AI, ChatGpt, Claude, on and on and on. (I’m not going to explain ChatGPT or Claude….if you don’t know, you should.) Sometimes taking advantage of opportunities is a choice.     AI is not going away. So where do you want to address AI: under opportunity or under threat?

 

Guidelines for Conducting a SWOT Analysis for a Sales Team

1. Individual input, everyone participates:

  • Include all levels of sales responsibility
  • For small businesses: conduct at a national level
  • For multinational businesses: conduct at local sales level (Branch / Region / District…)
  • Email input to the Team Leader – five or six points for each SWOT category

 

2. Assign a Team Leader that is AI-proficient……AI Certified if possible.

  • Responsible for gathering input from all participants
  • Prompts AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT or Claude) to consolidate and prioritize the input
    • Highlight most important points for each SWOT category
    • Remove duplicates

 

3. Final Document – two-page report (it’s really that simple)

  • Page 1: Strengths & Weaknesses (Internal)
  • Page 2: Opportunities & Threats (External)

 

4. Team Review:

  • Conduct a meeting with all participants (virtual is fine)
  • Review the consolidated report
  • Reach consensus on the final SWOT analysis

 

5. Implementation:

  • Use the finalized SWOT analysis for strategic planning and decision-making

 

 

If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside,

the end is near.  Jack Welch

 

 

The Whole Customer Value-Added Proposition by Bill Attardi

Let me define what I mean before I relate it to the lighting industry. Much has been written about the value proposition, the almost holy value proposition.  It’s a simple question: tell me what value you bring to the market; what makes you better than your competition?  We have to teach it at the under-graduate and graduate level in any marketing course and I have often wondered that maybe we place too much emphasis on it.  Well, we don’t.  A compelling value proposition is the essence of all our selling efforts.  In its simplest terms, a value proposition is a positioning statement that explains what benefit your product or service provides for your customers and how you do it uniquely better than your competition. It’s what you actually provide that is tangible and/or intangible and everything else your customer needs to make it acceptable to them as a solution (solving a pain point).  Well, that does sound like VALUE!  Warren Buffet tells us that we sell on price while customers buy on value.

 

With that said, let me justify why we must sell on the Whole Customer Value-Added Proposition, with emphasis on value-added.  In the high-tech digital world that we now find ourselves, my view is that we must expand the concept and must address three (3) distinct / essential offerings and they must all work together in a uniqueness that you own:

  1. The Product
  2. The Solution
  3. The Service

 

Now let’s look at the transition happening in the lighting industry…..and the Whole Customer Value-Added Proposition necessary if you intend to play in this new game. Yes, NEW GAME! “It’s a whole new world out there, with new playing fields, rules, and players. Your choice is to either learn this new game, or continue to be the very best player in a game that is no longer being played.” Larry Wilson

 

Let’s first deal with THE PRODUCT…..tangible lighting products.  Back in 1879, we experienced a disruptive innovation called the Edison light bulb.  Disruptive innovation because it would eventually replace every kerosene lamp in the marketplace, and lead to the life changing electric power industry.  For the first 50 years, it was all about quantity of light, then and who really knows when, quality of light became a focus.  Quantity and quality of light for over 100 years was the value proposition. Then innovation took the form of longer life; then energy efficiency.  All contributing to the evolution of a vibrant lighting industry.  Disruptive innovation is happening again, right now, as every lighting source commercially available will be replaced by solid state lighting.  Think about it…….most of us grew up with seven (7) major lighting categories: you know, incandescent, fluorescent, HID, etc.  We are now moving to one (1): LED: ONE MAJOR LIGHTING CATEGORY FOR EVERYTHING! The value-added value proposition is back to quantity and quality of light.  Long-life and energy efficiency are off the table as it is intrinsic with SSL.  When the possibilities are 300 lm/W efficacy and 100K hours of long life, let the innovators do their work on quality of light and we get the benefit.

 

Next, THE SOLUTION: it’s not just about light anymore, right?  Light has always had ancillary benefits but now, we are talking about allowing us to manipulate the timing / intensity / tuning of light leading to incalculable benefits in our living and working activities. To explore how lighting products can solve a pain point……  We are in the evolution stages of light becoming a value-added solution to many industry problems, dealing with improved productivity and increased performance in this “new” normal, even as a disinfectant solution…..thank you COVID.  Indoor farming is happening all over the world thanks to LED lighting.  We are finding lighting solutions wherever lighting is found and it’s everywhere:

 

  • Office
  • Retail
  • Healthcare
  • Human Centric
  • Education / Institutional
  • Horticulture
  • Automotive
  • Outdoor / Streetlighting
  • Sports
  • Specialty
  • Many other market segments: home, hospitality, commercial, industrial, on and on……
  • Where there is light, there will be a value-added solution, maybe for the first time.

 

THE SERVICE: if it’s not about light anymore then what is it about? It’s about AI, IoT / IoE / PoE / VLC / Li-Fi / VoIP / SAE / Big Data / Big Networking / LaaS and much much more… It’s the LaaS, I want to address now.  Lighting as a Service! If lighting has the potential to be the core connector to every electronic / digital device you own, we are not talking about traditional customer service: having the right product; in the right place; at the right price. That’s so yesteryear….If we believe the solution to today’s lighting systems must be a managed solution, dependent upon correctly designing / building quantity and quality of light, that requires intelligent specifications, competent installation, ongoing accurate measurement and monitoring, then we have no choice…… expanding services will play a more significant role, value-added and ongoing.  It will include a financial service as well that offers intelligent control, connectivity and data collection.  We will be asked to guarantee both the savings and performance for the entire design life of the solution, beyond providing just illumination. LaaS is a game-changer, a chance to create new user services.  All aboard… the value train is leaving the station.

 

pain point + targeted solution = loyal, happy customer

Remember the Movie “The Last of the Mohicans”? by Bill Attardi

Well, that did not end well for them… To my friends and cohorts that run successful small businesses and are in the market everyday fighting the good fight. You are the doers. You compete in a very competitive marketplace and have my deepest respect. My goal is not to tell you how to run your businesses but rather to contribute to your strategic thinking going forward. I offer my thinking to provide you with some encouraging guidelines in order to disrupt your existing business model for success in disruptive times…

  1. Milk your traditional lighting business as long as you can but maybe you heard of Jack Welch and I quote: If the rate of change outside is greater than the rate of change inside, the end is near.
  2. Create a new SMART lighting business model or acquire one….a separate business. If lighting is not about illumination anymore, then it must be about something else, so call it something else…..
  3. Consider a business model that can satisfy the basic turn-key needs of your customers…… it’s so obvious: they want SMART buildings:

– Project management from the audit to ongoing monitoring of the result

– Supply of the most advanced electronic technologies, not just lighting

– Installation & maintenance – as technologies change so does your value proposition

  1. Don’t put traditional people in charge – hire those that are not hampered by the good ole days: it ain’t your grandfather’s lighting business anymore. You do not need those who constantly want to justify what they did yesteryear but rather, leaders with vision that demand taking an uncharted and maybe alien direction going forward.
  2. Hire qualified Millennials, those that understand the transition to Smart Lighting and more importantly, to WHERE IT IS GOING – TO INTELLIGENT LIGHTING……….a systems approach and they can work your social media activities as well. Millennials are disruptive tech adopters—they grew up with a phone in one hand and a tablet on their laps and are proficient in the use of disruptive innovations. Most are technologically enabled in unprecedented ways. Tap into the Millennial World……proceed with caution as they do need to be competent and taught practical supply and demand disciplines.
  3. Customer mining – dig deep into your existing customer files and determine what they buy and why they buy from you. Remember, every single one of your customers will upgrade to a SSL system. Either you will sell them or your competitors will. LED lighting is now 70% of the market; will be 90% by 2030.
  4. Dominate small niche markets first. A big fish in small pond strategy that seems to work with high-tech companies. The old traditional strategies that worked well in the past will certainly not work going forward. Serve those niche markets you know best. You cannot be all things to all people when change at this magnitude happens. Do what you do best…
  5. Create a new business development department with a competent leader, to continue to look at the disruptive innovations that will continue to evolve and change course when necessary.
  6. Put someone in charge of Content Marketing – the core of effective communications these days. Even traditional marketing disciplines are changing…..remember the four (4) Ps, well now it’s the four (4) Cs:
    – Product………………..Customer solutions
    – Place…………………..Convenience to buy
    – Promotion……………..Communications
    – Price……………………Cost to satisfy
  7. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) – the expansive variety of advertising and promotional venues to reach existing and potential customers continue to increase and so does the noise level. It requires innovative approaches to communicate in a clear voice with a consistent message, integrated for maximum impact on customers, employees and stakeholders.
  8. Focus on social media and e-marketing as a means to enhance CRM (Customer Relationship Management)… keep your business fresh in the minds of your customers and entice them to reconnect with your new business model. Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.
  9. Lighting as a Service (LaaS) – stay plugged in to your customer’s lighting / data service needs on an ongoing basis and charge them accordingly, why not. Look for neoteric, word of the day, ways to service your customers and service the hell out of everything you sell.

 

One last thought: about AI, Artificial Intelligence; and ChatGPT; and IoT, Internet of Things; and POE, Power Over the Ethernet; and all the rest. At Monmouth University, I encourage my students to use ChatGPT as a writing resource.  Why: because they have to get good at it when they go to work for you.  It’s not going away, so it must be an integral part of your strategic thinking. Understand it all as it will drive the direction of your new business model; and more importantly, it will allow you to be more connected to your customers than ever before. Tanti Auguri!

What I’ve Learned Over Many Years Trying to Do the Right Thing by Bill Attardi

As a follow-up to my inquiry about creating LearnersLive.com, I offer the following

  

  1. I have to start with what some say is the first commandment of success: Get a good education / develop a skill in something you really love to do and work hard at it. It really is that simple.

 

  1. Never worry about your next job……work hard at the job you have and the promotions will come. A sports lesson: athletes understand that the best are playing in the playoff games. They just cannot worry about the next team they may play if they want to beat the team they are playing.

 

  1. If you have a manager title, your primary responsibility is to develop the people who report to you…….don’t just manage, teach.

 

  1. Critical: develop both your oral and written communications skills at the highest level of your capability. No matter your job or position, your ability to communicate effectively will determine your relationships and your success in those relationships.

 

  1. When you are asked to present / teach what you know and give to others. Be sure to entertain as well as inform. In today’s electronic information age, it’s the only way they will listen.

 

  1. If everyone agrees with you then you are doing all the thinking. Encourage others to debate the issues and make decisions based on divergent intelligent thoughts.  Education happens when you learn from others.

 

  1. Love your family and your friends and don’t hate your enemies. Hate gets in the way of doing a good job as a parent, as a loyal friend, as a successful person.

 

  1. Never stop learning. It should never be final.  I’m learning something new every day, learning more and more as we go through life.

 

  1. Make time to read for information and for pleasure too. It really helps to escape the pressures of everyday living.

 

  1. Go to church or your chosen house of worship and give just one hour a week to God to thank him for your blessings. It may not have to be more than that.  It can be that one hour when you can pray and meditate and feel a sense of calm that refreshes your thoughts and better prepares you for life’s struggles.

 

  1. Never retire! Why would you want to stop what you love to do and are good at it?

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Hire – While most of us have heard the term artificial intelligence, few could predict the explosion of GenAI technologies in the public sphere over the last two years. In the work setting alone, Microsoft and LinkedIn reported that “75% of knowledge workers use AI at work” and “66% of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills”.                 

So how did this all happen:

1956, August: At the Dartmouth Conference, researchers discuss creating machines capable of intelligent behavior and the term “Artificial Intelligence” is introduced.

2017, June: Google researchers introduce the Transformer architecture, the foundation for generative AI (GenAI) models. (GPT = Generative Pre-trained Transformer)

2022, November: OpenAI unveils ChatGPT, a conversational GenAI model, marking a tipping point in public access and accelerated adoption.

2024 NOW: Commercialization is accelerating. Globally, the GenAI solutions market is expected to exceed $50 billion by 2028 with over 60,000 GenAI companies already doing business (Horban, 2024).  The biggest tech/communications companies are all involved in a very big way to drive and influence our lives now and in the future with their GenAI models:

  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT
  • xAI’s Grok
  • Google’s Gemini
  • Microsoft’s Copilot
  • Anthropic’s Claude
  • Apple’s Apple Intelligence
  • Meta’s Llama
  • Coming: Orion by OpenAI 

Plan for your future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life. Mark Twain