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3 GOOD STRATEGY BAD STRATEGY THE DIFFERENCE AND WHY IT MATTERS Richard P. Rumelt Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd v
4 Copyright 2011 by Richard Rumelt All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Crown Business, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. CROWN BUSINESS is a trademark and CROWN and the Rising Sun colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Crown Business books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions or corporate use. Special editions, including personalized covers, excerpts of existing books, or books with corporate logos, can be created in large quantities for special needs. For more information, contact Premium Sales at (212) or Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request. ISBN eisbn Printed in the United States of America Book design by Robert Bull Jacket design: TK Author photograph: TK First Edition Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd vi
5 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION OVERWHELMING OBSTACLES 1 PART I GOOD AND BAD STRATEGY 9 CHAPTER 1 GOOD STRATEGY IS UNEXPECTED 11 How Steve Jobs saved Apple Business 101 is surprising General Schwarzkopf s strategy in Desert Storm Why Plan A remains a surprise CHAPTER 2 DISCOVERING POWER 21 David and Goliath is a basic strategy story Discovering Wal-Mart s secret Marshall and Roche s strategy for competing with the Soviet Union CHAPTER 3 BAD STRATEGY 32 Is U.S. national security strategy just slogans? How to recognize fluff Why not facing the problem creates bad strategy Chad Logan s 20/20 plan mistakes goals for strategy What s wrong with a dog s dinner of objectives? How blue-sky objectives miss the mark CHAPTER 4 WHY SO MUCH BAD STRATEGY? 58 Strategy involves choice, and DEC s managers can t choose The path from charisma to transformational leadership to fill-in-the-blanks template-style strategy New Thought from Emerson to today and how it makes strategy seem superfluous CHAPTER 5 THE KERNEL OF GOOD STRATEGY 77 The mixture of argument and action lying behind any good strategy Diagnosing Starbucks, K 12 schools, the Soviet challenge, and IBM Guiding policies at Wells Fargo, IBM, and Stephanie s market The president of the European Business Group hesitates to act Incoherent action at Ford Centralization, decentralization, and Roosevelt s strategy in WWII Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd ix 3/22/11 3:06 PM
6 x CONTENTS PART II SOURCES OF POWER 95 CHAPTER 6 USING LEVERAGE 97 Anticipation by Toyota and insurgents in Iraq How Pierre Wack anticipated the oil crisis and oil prices Pivot points at 7-Eleven and the Brandenburg Gate Harold Williams uses concentration to make the Getty a world presence in art CHAPTER 7 PROXIMATE OBJECTIVES 106 Why Kennedy s goal of landing on the moon was a proximate and strategic objective Phyllis Buwalda resolves the ambiguity about the surface of the moon A regional business school generates proximate objectives A helicopter pilot explains hierarchies of skills Why what is proximate for one organization is distant for another CHAPTE R 8 CHAIN-LINK SYSTEMS 116 Challenger s O-ring and chain-link systems Stuck systems at GM and underdeveloped countries Marco Tinelli explains how to get a chainlink system unstuck IKEA shows how excellence is the flip side of being stuck CHAPT ER 9 USING DESIGN 124 Hannibal defeats the Roman army in 216 B.C. using anticipation and a coordinated design of action in time and space How a design-type strategy is like a BMW Designing the Voyager spacecraft at JPL The trade-off between resources and tight confi guration How success leads to potent resources that, in turn, induce laxity and decline Design shows itself as order imposed on chaos the example of Paccar s heavy-truck business CHAPT ER 10 FOCUS 142 A class struggles to identify Crown Cork & Seal s strategy Working back from policies to strategy The particular pattern of policy and segmentation called focus Why the strategy worked CHAP TER 11 GROWTH 151 The all-out pursuit of size almost sinks Crown A noxious adviser at Telecom Italia Healthy growth Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd x 3/22/11 3:06 PM
7 CONTENTS xi CHA PTER 12 USING ADVANTAGE 160 Advantage in Afghanistan and in business Stuart and Lynda Resnick s serial entrepreneurship What makes a business interesting The puzzle of the silver machine Why you cannot get richer by simply owning a competitive advantage What bricklaying teaches us about deepening advantage Broadening the Disney brand The red tide of pomegranate juice Lawsuits, oil fi elds, and isolating mechanisms CH APTER 13 USING DYNAMICS 178 Capturing the high ground by riding a wave of change Jean-Bernard Lévy opens my eyes to tectonic shifts The microprocessor changes everything Why software is king and the rise of Cisco Systems How Cisco rode three interlinked waves of change Guideposts to strategy in transitions Attractor states and the future of the New York Times C HAPTER 14 INERTIA AND ENTROPY 202 The smothering effect of obsolete routine at Continental Airlines Inertia at AT&T and the process of renewal Inertia by proxy at PSFS and the DSL business Applying hump charts to reveal entropy at Denton s Entropy at GM CHAPTER 15 PUTTING IT TOGETHER 223 Nvidia jumps from nowhere to dominance by riding a wave of change using a design-type strategy How a game called Quake derailed the expected march of 3-D graphics Nvidia s fi rst product fails, and it devises a new strategy How a faster release cycle made a difference Why a powerful buyer like Dell can sometimes be an advantage Intel fails twice in 3-D graphics and SGI goes bankrupt PART III THINKING LIKE A STRATEGIST 239 CHAPTER 16 THE SCIENCE OF STRATEGY 241 Hughes engineers start to guess at strategies You can only use deduction if you already know everything worth knowing Galileo heresy trial triggers the Enlightenment Hypotheses, anomalies, and Italian espresso bars Why Americans drank weak coffee Howard Schultz as a scientist Learning and vertical integration Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd xi 3/22/11 3:06 PM
8 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER 17 USING YOUR HEAD 257 A baffling comment is resolved fi fteen years later Frederick Taylor tells Andrew Carnegie to make a list Being strategic largely means being less myopic than your undeliberative self TiVo and quick closure Thinking about thinking Using mind tools: the kernel, problemsolution, create-destroy, and the panel of experts CHAPTER 18 KEEPING YOUR HEAD 276 Can one be independent without being eccentric, doubting without being a curmudgeon? Global Crossing builds a transatlantic cable Build it for $1.5 and sell it for $8 The worst industry structure imaginable Kurt Gödel and stock prices Why the 2008 fi nancial crisis was almost certain to occur The fi ve parallels among 2008, the Johnstown Flood, the Hindenburg, the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, and the gulf oil spill How the inside view and social herding blinded people to the coming fi nancial storm The common cause of the panics and depressions of 1819, 1837, 1873, 1893, and 2008 NOTES 299 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 311 INDEX 313 Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd xii 3/22/11 3:06 PM
9 INTRODUCTION OVERWHELMING OBSTACLES In 1805, England had a problem. Napoléon had conquered big chunks of Europe and planned the invasion of England. But to cross the Channel, he needed to wrest control of the sea away from the English. Off the southwest coast of Spain, the French and Spanish combined fleet of thirty-three ships met the smaller British fleet of twenty-seven ships. The well-developed tactics of the day were for the two opposing fleets to each stay in line, firing broadsides at each other. But British admiral Lord Nelson had a strategic insight. He broke the British fleet into two columns and drove them at the Franco-Spanish fleet, hitting their line perpendicularly. The lead British ships took a great risk, but Nelson judged that the less-trained Franco-Spanish gunners would not be able to compensate for the heavy swell that day. At the end of the Battle of Trafalgar, the French and Spanish lost twenty-two ships, two-thirds of their fleet. The British lost none. Nelson was mortally wounded, becoming, in death, Britain s greatest naval hero. Britain s naval dominance was ensured and remained unsurpassed for a century and a half. Nelson s challenge was that he was outnumbered. His strategy was to risk his lead ships in order to break the coherence of his enemy s fleet. With coherence lost, he judged, the more experienced English captains would come out on top in the ensuing melee. Good strategy almost always looks this simple and obvious and does not take a thick deck Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 1
10 2 RICHARD P. RUMELT of PowerPoint slides to explain. It does not pop out of some strategic management tool, matrix, chart, triangle, or fill-in-the-blanks scheme. Instead, a talented leader identifies the one or two critical issues in the situation the pivot points that can multiply the effectiveness of effort and then focuses and concentrates action and resources on them. Despite the roar of voices wanting to equate strategy with ambition, leadership, vision, planning, or the economic logic of competition, strategy is none of these. The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors. A leader s most important responsibility is identifying the biggest challenges to forward progress and devising a coherent approach to overcoming them. In contexts ranging from corporate direction to national security, strategy matters. Yet we have become so accustomed to strategy as exhortation that we hardly blink an eye when a leader spouts slogans and announces high-sounding goals, calling the mixture a strategy. Here are four examples of this syndrome. The event was a strategy retreat. The CEO had modeled it on a similar event at British Airways he had attended several years before. About two hundred upper-level managers from around the world gathered in a hotel ballroom where top management presented a vision for the future: to be the most respected and successful company in their field. There was a specially produced motion picture featuring the firm s products and services being used in colorful settings around the world. There was an address by the CEO accompanied by dramatic music to highlight the company s strategic goals: global leadership, growth, and high shareholder return. There were breakouts into smaller groups to allow discussion and buy-in. There was a colorful release of balloons. There was everything but strategy. As an invited guest, I was disappointed but not surprised. A specialist in bonds, Lehman Brothers had been a pioneer in the new wave of mortgage-backed securities that buoyed Wall Street Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 2
11 GOOD STRATEGY/BAD STRATEGY 3 in the period. By 2006, signs of strain were appearing: U.S. home sales had peaked in mid-2005, and home price appreciation had stopped. A small increase in the Fed s interest rate had triggered an increase in foreclosures. Lehman CEO Richard Fuld s response, formalized in 2006, was a strategy of continuing to gain market share by growing faster than the rest of the industry. In the language of Wall Street, Lehman would do this by increasing its risk appetite. That is, it would take on the deals its competitors were rejecting. Operating with only 3 percent equity, and much of its debt supplied on a very short-term basis, this policy should have been accompanied by clever ways of mitigating the increased risk. A good strategy recognizes the nature of the challenge and offers a way of surmounting it. Simply being ambitious is not a strategy. In 2008, Lehman Brothers ended its 158 years as an investment bank with a crash that sent the global financial system into a tailspin. Here, the consequences of bad strategy were disastrous for Lehman, the United States, and the world. In 2003, President George W. Bush authorized the U.S. military to invade and conquer Iraq. The invasion went quickly. Once the army-to-army fighting stopped, administration leaders had expected to oversee a rapid transition to a democratic civil society in Iraq. Instead, as a violent insurgency gathered momentum, individual units of the U.S. military fell back on running search and destroy missions out of secure bases the same approach that had failed so badly in Vietnam. There were numerous highsounding goals freedom, democracy, reconstruction, security but no coherent strategy for dealing with the insurgency. The change came in Having just written the Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, General David Petraeus was sent to Iraq, along with five additional brigades of troops. But more than the extra soldiers, Petraeus was armed with an actual strategy. His idea was that one could combat an insurgency as long as the large preponderance of civilians supported a legitimate government. The trick was to shift the military s focus from making patrols to protecting the populace. A populace that was not in fear Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 3
12 4 RICHARD P. RUMELT of insurgent retaliation would provide the information necessary to isolate and combat the insurgent minority. This change, replacing amorphous goals with a true problem-solving strategy, made an enormous difference in the results achieved. In November 2006, I attended a short conference about Web 2.0 businesses. The term Web 2.0 purportedly referred to a new approach to Web services, but none of the technologies involved were really new. The term was actually a code word for Google, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, and various other new Web-based businesses that had suddenly become very valuable. At lunch, I found myself seated with seven other attendees at a round table. Someone asked me what I do. I briefly explained that I was a faculty member at UCLA where I taught and did research on strategy and that I was a consultant on the subject to a variety of organizations. The CEO of a Web-services company was sitting directly across from me. He put down his fork and said, Strategy is never quitting until you win. I could not have disagreed more, but I was not there to argue or lecture. Winning is better than losing, I said, and the conversation turned to other matters. The key insight driving this book is the hard-won lesson of a lifetime of experience at strategy work as a consultant to organizations, as a personal adviser, as a teacher, and as a researcher. A good strategy does more than urge us forward toward a goal or vision. A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and provides an approach to overcoming them. And the greater the challenge, the more a good strategy focuses and coordinates efforts to achieve a powerful competitive punch or problem-solving effect. Unfortunately, good strategy is the exception, not the rule. And the problem is growing. More and more organizational leaders say they have a strategy, but they do not. Instead, they espouse what I call bad strategy. Bad strategy tends to skip over pesky details such as problems. It ignores the power of choice and focus, trying instead to accommodate Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 4
13 GOOD STRATEGY/BAD STRATEGY 5 a multitude of conflicting demands and interests. Like a quarterback whose only advice to teammates is Let s win, bad strategy covers up its failure to guide by embracing the language of broad goals, ambition, vision, and values. Each of these elements is, of course, an important part of human life. But, by themselves, they are not substitutes for the hard work of strategy. The gap between good strategy and the jumble of things people label as strategy has grown over the years. In 1966, when I first began to study business strategy, there were only three books on the subject and no articles. Today, my personal library shelves are fat with books about strategy. Consulting firms specialize in strategy, PhDs are granted in strategy, and there are countless articles on the subject. But this plentitude has not brought clarity. Rather, the concept has been stretched to a gauzy thinness as pundits attach it to everything from utopian visions to rules for matching your tie with your shirt. To make matters worse, for many people in business, education, and government, the word strategy has become a verbal tic. Business speech transformed marketing into marketing strategy, data processing into IT strategy, and making acquisitions into a growth strategy. Cut some prices and an observer will say that you have a low-price strategy. Further confusion is created by equating strategy with success or with ambition. This was my problem with the Web-services CEO who claimed Strategy is never quitting until you win. This sort of mishmash of pop culture, motivational slogans, and business buzz speak is, unfortunately, increasingly common. It short-circuits real inventiveness and fails to distinguish among different senior-level management tasks and virtues. Strategy cannot be a useful concept if it is a synonym for success. Nor can it be a useful tool if it is confused with ambition, determination, inspirational leadership, and innovation. Ambition is drive and zeal to excel. Determination is commitment and grit. Innovation is the discovery and engineering of new ways to do things. Inspirational leadership motivates people to sacrifice for their own and the common Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 5
14 6 RICHARD P. RUMELT good. 1 And strategy, responsive to innovation and ambition, selects the path, identifying how, why, and where leadership and determination are to be applied. A word that can mean anything has lost its bite. To give content to a concept one has to draw lines, marking off what it denotes and what it does not. To begin the journey toward clarity, it is helpful to recognize that the words strategy and strategic are often sloppily used to mark decisions made by the highest-level officials. For example, in business, most mergers and acquisitions, investments in expensive new facilities, negotiations with important suppliers and customers, and overall organizational design are normally considered to be strategic. However, when you speak of strategy, you should not be simply marking the pay grade of the decision maker. Rather, the term strategy should mean a cohesive response to an important challenge. Unlike a stand-alone decision or a goal, a strategy is a coherent set of analyses, concepts, policies, arguments, and actions that respond to a high-stakes challenge. Many people assume that a strategy is a big-picture overall direction, divorced from any specific action. But defining strategy as broad concepts, thereby leaving out action, creates a wide chasm between strategy and implementation. If you accept this chasm, most strategy work becomes wheel spinning. Indeed, this is the most common complaint about strategy. Echoing many others, one top executive told me, We have a sophisticated strategy process, but there is a huge problem of execution. We almost always fall short of the goals we set for ourselves. If you have followed my line of argument, you can see the reason for this complaint. A good strategy includes a set of coherent actions. They are not implementation details; they are the punch in the strategy. A strategy that fails to define a variety of plausible and feasible immediate actions is missing a critical component. Executives who complain about execution problems have usually confused strategy with goal setting. When the strategy process is basically a game of setting performance goals so much market share and so much profit, so many students graduating high school, so many visitors to the museum then there remains a yawning gap between these ambitions and action. Strategy is about how an organization will move Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 6
15 GOOD STRATEGY/BAD STRATEGY 7 forward. Doing strategy is figuring out how to advance the organization s interests. Of course, a leader can set goals and delegate to others the job of figuring out what to do. But that is not strategy. If that is how the organization runs, let s skip the spin and be honest call it goal setting. The purpose of this book is to wake you up to the dramatic differences between good strategy and bad strategy and to give you a leg up toward crafting good strategies. A good strategy has an essential logical structure that I call the kernel. The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstacles called out in the diagnosis. It is like a signpost, marking the direction forward but not defining the details of the trip. Coherent actions are feasible coordinated policies, resource commitments, and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy. Once you gain a facility with the structure and fundamentals of a good strategy, you will develop the parallel ability to detect the presence of bad strategy. Just as you do not need to be a director to detect a bad movie, you do not need economics, finance, or any other abstruse special knowledge to distinguish between good and bad strategy. For example, looking at the U.S. government s strategy for dealing with the 2008 financial crisis, you will see that essential elements are missing. In particular, there was no official diagnosis of the underlying malady. So, there can be no focus of resources and actions on a cure. There has only been a shift of resources from the public to the banks. You do not need a PhD in macroeconomics to make this judgment it follows from understanding the nature of good strategy itself. Bad strategy is more than just the absence of good strategy. Bad strategy has a life and logic of its own, a false edifice built on mistaken foundations. Bad strategy may actively avoid analyzing obstacles because a leader believes that negative thoughts get in the way. Leaders may create bad strategy by mistakenly treating strategy work as an exercise in goal setting rather than problem solving. Or they may avoid hard choices Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 7
16 8 RICHARD P. RUMELT because they do not wish to offend anyone generating a bad strategy that tries to cover all the bases rather than focus resources and actions. The creeping spread of bad strategy affects us all. Heavy with goals and slogans, the national government has become less and less able to solve problems. Corporate boards sign off on strategic plans that are little more than wishful thinking. Our education system is rich with targets and standards, but poor in comprehending and countering the sources of underperformance. The only remedy is for us to demand more from those who lead. More than charisma and vision, we must demand good strategy. Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 8
17 PART 1 GOOD AND BAD STRATEGY The most basic idea of strategy is the application of strength against weakness. Or, if you prefer, strength applied to the most promising opportunity. The standard modern treatment of strategy has expanded this idea into a rich discussion of potential strengths, today called advantages. There are advantages due to being a first mover: scale, scope, network effects, reputation, patents, brands, and hundreds more. None of these are logically wrong, and each can be important. Yet this whole midlevel framework misses two huge incredibly important sources of natural strength: 1. Having a coherent strategy one that coordinates policies and actions. A good strategy doesn t just draw on existing strength; it creates strength through the coherence of its design. Most organizations of any size don t do this. Rather, they pursue multiple objectives that are unconnected with one another or, worse, that conflict with one another. Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 9
18 2. The creation of new strengths through subtle shifts in viewpoint. An insightful reframing of a competitive situation can create whole new patterns of advantage and weakness. The most powerful strategies arise from such game-changing insights. These two essential aspects of good strategy are explored in chapter 1, Good Strategy Is Unexpected, and chapter 2, Discovering Power. The leader of an organization lacking a good strategy may simply believe that strategy is unnecessary. But more often the lack is due to the presence of bad strategy. Like weeds crowding out the grass, bad strategy crowds out good strategy. Leaders using bad strategies have not just chosen the wrong goals or made implementation errors. Rather, they have mistaken views about what strategy is and how it works. Chapter 3, Bad Strategy, presents evidence for the existence of bad strategy and explains its hallmarks. Having marked the nature of good and bad strategy, chapter 4 answers the obvious question: Why So Much Bad Strategy? Chapter 5, The Kernel of Good Strategy, provides an analysis of the logical structure of a good strategy a structure that acts as a guide on reasoning and a check against generating bad strategy. Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 10
19 CHAPTER ONE GOOD STRATEGY IS UNEXPECTED The first natural advantage of good strategy arises because other organizations often don t have one. And because they don t expect you to have one, either. A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions, policies, and resources so as to accomplish an important end. Many organizations, most of the time, don t have this. Instead, they have multiple goals and initiatives that symbolize progress, but no coherent approach to accomplishing that progress other than spend more and try harder. APPLE After the 1995 release of Microsoft s Windows 95 multimedia operating system, Apple Inc. fell into a death spiral. On February 5, 1996, BusinessWeek put Apple s famous trademark on its cover to illustrate its lead story: The Fall of an American Icon. CEO Gil Amelio struggled to keep Apple alive in a world being rapidly dominated by Windows-Intel-based PCs. He cut staff. He reorganized the company s many products into four groups: Macintosh, information appliances, printers and peripherals, and alternative platforms. A new Internet Services Group was added to the Operating Systems Group and the Advanced Technology Group. Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 11
20 12 RICHARD P. RUMELT Wired magazine carried an article titled 101 Ways to Save Apple. It included suggestions such as Sell yourself to IBM or Motorola, Invest heavily in Newton technology, and Exploit your advantage in the K 12 education market. Wall Street analysts hoped for and urged a deal with Sony or Hewlett-Packard. By September 1997, Apple was two months from bankruptcy. Steve Jobs, who had cofounded the company in 1976, agreed to return to serve on a reconstructed board of directors and to be interim CEO. Die-hard fans of the original Macintosh were overjoyed, but the general business world was not expecting much. Within a year, things changed radically at Apple. Although many observers had expected Jobs to rev up the development of advanced products, or engineer a deal with Sun, he did neither. What he did was both obvious and, at the same time, unexpected. He shrunk Apple to a scale and scope suitable to the reality of its being a niche producer in the highly competitive personal computer business. He cut Apple back to a core that could survive. Steve Jobs talked Microsoft into investing $150 million in Apple, exploiting Bill Gates s concerns about what a failed Apple would mean to Microsoft s struggle with the Department of Justice. Jobs cut all of the desktop models there were fifteen back to one. He cut all portable and handheld models back to one laptop. He completely cut out all the printers and other peripherals. He cut development engineers. He cut software development. He cut distributors and cut out five of the company s six national retailers. He cut out virtually all manufacturing, moving it offshore to Taiwan. With a simpler product line manufactured in Asia, he cut inventory by more than 80 percent. A new Web store sold Apple s products directly to consumers, cutting out distributors and dealers. What is remarkable about Jobs s turnaround strategy for Apple was how much it was Business 101 and yet how much of it was unanticipated. Of course you have to cut back and simplify to your core to climb out of a financial nosedive. Of course he needed up-to-date versions of Microsoft s Office software to work on Apple s computers. Of course Dell s model of Asian supply-chain manufacturing, short cycle times, and negative working capital was the state of the art in the industry Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 12
21 GOOD STRATEGY/BAD STRATEGY 13 and deserved emulation. Of course he stopped the development of new operating systems he had just brought the industry s best operating system with him from NeXT. The power of Jobs s strategy came from directly tackling the fundamental problem with a focused and coordinated set of actions. He did not announce ambitious revenue or profit goals; he did not indulge in messianic visions of the future. And he did not just cut in a blind axwielding frenzy he redesigned the whole business logic around a simplified product line sold through a limited set of outlets. In May 1998, while trying to help strike a deal between Apple and Telecom Italia, I had the chance to talk to Jobs about his approach to turning Apple around. He explained both the substance and coherence of his insight with a few sentences: The product lineup was too complicated and the company was bleeding cash. A friend of the family asked me which Apple computer she should buy. She couldn t figure out the differences among them and I couldn t give her clear guidance, either. I was appalled that there was no Apple consumer computer priced under $2,000. We are replacing all of those desktop computers with one, the Power Mac G3. We are dropping five of six national retailers meeting their demand has meant too many models at too many price points and too much markup. This kind of focused action is far from the norm in industry. Eighteen months earlier, I had been involved in a large-scale study, sponsored by Andersen Consulting, of strategies in the worldwide electronics industry. Working in Europe, I carried out interviews with twenty-six executives, all division managers or CEOs in the electronics and telecommunications sector. My interview plan was simple: I asked each executive to identify the leading competitor in their business. I asked how that company had become the leader evoking their private theories about what works. And then I asked them what their own company s current strategy was. These executives, by and large, had no trouble describing the strategy of the leader in their sectors. The standard story was that some change Rume_ _2p_all_r1.indd 13
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text:
Skip to comments.Indecent Wire Service Pictures of Sarah Palin
Posted on 10/09/2008 7:42:25 AM PDT by WilliamReading
click here to read article
I assume you mean the "stripper shot" pictures? According to Fox news, yes, they are Reuters.
"Are these appropriate pictures from major wire services? Would women's groups tolerate these kinds of pictures if this was a Democrat candidate?
No...I don't think so either."
Their jealousy and hatred is laughable.
How many views will this thread get I wonder?
Well, you know... I don't really WANT to see similar shots of Joe Biden...
...but to each his own, I always say.
I don't know about you but, I have been noticing a lot of this lately. A push to may Sarah as just another skirt.
Greg Gutfeld from Red Eye was on Fox and Friends this morning discussing this. He said "you know they arent' Hillary's legs because you can see the kids face"!
They're pissed 'cause she has no cankles.
Don't hate her because she's beautiful...;-)
I don't get the "perspective" of that photo? I mean what is it supposed to portray other than the fact Sarah and Cindy have legs most women (including myself) would kill for!
While your point is a valid one, and while I agree with all you said; I think the 'Rats just have a case of the green-eyed-jealously that NOT ONE 'Rat woman has a set of pins like Sarah's.
Thank God we aren't subject to endless pantsuits that could stand on their own.
Call me a chauvinist if you must, but she has some damn nice legs.
Heck yeah she does. She has a nice everything.. LOL
We never saw shots like this of Hillary when she was running...............
I know it's controversial to notice the fashion sense of women candidates, but doesn't Sarah seem like she dresses much more nicely that Hillary? Hillary made those pantsuits her trademark. I don't think Hillary wears those pantsuits when she's in the Senate.
I know this is woman's cross to bear, as far as clothes and image and all that. Men seldom if ever are called to task on their appearance.
We're forgetting about the real issue here...who is closer to the Constitution's intent?
If she were a RAT, someone would have been fired.
the left wants everybody to associate sarah palin with sex, preferably kinky sex - recall the purient smearing they have been doing. This tends to reduce people's opinion of her and diminish her effectiveness.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
(Part 2 - coming soon)
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
8 Comments:
- Ryan said...
The suck effect totally doesn't suck. I think it's the best one. I changed it to that when I first got OnyX and I haven't changed it back since.
- Jimmy said...
I don't understand why apple gives us the other cappy two and leaves this one hidden.
- liagiba said...
i don't understand either, but this one is pretty awesome....thanks!
- Philip said...
If you don't wish to install OnyX.
You can get the suck effect by opening up the Terminal application an execute this command;
defaults write com.apple.dock mineffect suck
Then logout of your account, and login again.
If you don't like the effect, just change to genie or scale effect like you normaly would do.
Found on CNET; http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10165_7-5583993-1.html
- kushpatel21 said...
What does OnyX do?
- MacGeek said...
OnyX is a software for customization and maintenance. There are many options to change the behavior of your Mac (such as this minimize effect). You can also repair permissions right in OnyX.
- Matt said...
Don't forget you can also make windows minimize slowly by holding shift while clicking minimize. You can make them go even slower by holding shift and control.
- person said...
I downloaded Onyx and everything worked fine. But the suck effect does not work. I tried restarting my computer but it still didn't show up. Also, I chose a different background from Onyx and after I restarted my background it was back to my normal background. Help please! (I have an iBook G4)
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- Sold Date:
- Source: eBay
Welcome to my ebay store !!! This is a good condition jade,the carved work is very amazing as you seen the picture.This is a fish and coin carved pendant.In China,we think fish and coin are symbol of wealth.We have an idiom which means every year we have a lot of food to eat.Fish and coin express richness.Take it with you can drive away evil and bring wealth and success.the approx size is 2.2" X 2.2" X 0.7", Please note that the actual color might slightly differ from the picture.please understand.One reason is that different computers have different displayers,second the same item is taken picture in different time,so,there might be some difference. *Purchase Reminder:to buy one item you will get a gift if you have a large demand you will also get more presents.I only accept paypal,your orders will take around 7 to15 days to get to you.If you have any questions,please contact us.We strive to answer all questions and resolve any problems as quickly as possible.
We encourages the buyers buy more articles at one time,in this way,combined shipping will save the shipping cost for you, you can a 20% deduction of combined shipping cost if you put subter-10 items in a same parcel.I will give you a 30% deduction of combined shipping cost if you put more than 10 ones in a same parcel.If you have any questions need us to answer,... read more


text:
A new beginning for the band.
After a year's hiatus from shows, and diligent work on our new album, we are very happy to announce that we will tryout a new bass player in a few weeks. Our hope is that we can make an official announcement regarding a new member of the Profane Saints by the end of August.
A few more bass guitar tracks and a few more guitar solos followed by the last vocal sessions are all that remain. We are very optimistic we will have this released this Fall. With the strong prospect of a new bass guitarist - we will be getting the band ready to return to the stage - and return we will!
For all of the fans, friends, bloggers, DJs and other bands we've worked with out there - we want to thank you all sincerely for your kind comments, your enthusiasm and dedication to our music. Kurt, Jeff and Mat are all certain that once you hear the new album you will feel it has been worth the wait!


text:
Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) for managers: making returns to HM Revenue and Customs
How and when to submit annual returns and claims to HMRC if you're an Individual Savings Account (ISA) manager.
Annual returns and claims
As an ISA manager, you must make an annual return and claim for all ISAs and Junior ISAs (JISA) to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by 5 October following the end of the tax year to which they relate.
Annual returns and claims must be sent to HMRC on form ISA14.
You can also make interim claims for one or more tax months within a tax year. Interim claims must be submitted on form ISA10.
What can be claimed
You can claim UK Income Tax deducted from ISA investment income. If you receive interest payments from corporate bond funds you'll normally receive them without tax deducted.
Interest payments and interest distributions
Managers receiving interest distributions from corporate bond funds should normally be receiving them without deduction of Income Tax.
Finance Act 2002 increased the number of tax-exempt bodies entitled to receive interest without deduction of Income Tax 'if at the time the payment is made, the company (making the payment) reasonably believes that one of the conditions in Section 349B (Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988) is satisfied'. The payer has no choice in the matter; where it reasonably believes the recipient is in one of the gross payment categories it must pay the interest without deduction of Income Tax.
ISA managers are one of the gross payment categories. Consequently, companies paying interest to ISA managers should pay the interest without deduction of Income Tax where the manager operates a single nominee in which all the underlying beneficial holders are eligible to receive gross interest because, for example, they are all ISA investors.
However, if the manager operates a mixed or pooled nominee in which there is a mixture of beneficial holders - some entitled to gross interest because, for example, they are ISA investors and others not so entitled, the payer will pay the interest after deduction of Income Tax and the manager will have to claim the tax in respect of the ISA investors from HMRC.
Any ISA manager that operates a single nominee in which all the underlying beneficial holders are eligible to receive gross interest, but receives interest distributions from corporate bond funds after deduction of tax should contact the payer(s) to ensure that interest is paid without deduction of Income Tax in future.
Property Income Distributions
UK Real Estate Investment Trusts (UK-REITs) make Property Income Distributions (PIDs), which normally have basic rate tax deducted at source.
However, where a PID is paid directly to an ISA manager it will be paid gross where the manager:
- operates separate nominee accounts - one for those beneficial owners entitled to gross payment (because, for example, they are ISA investors) and one for others not so entitled
- gives the registrar acting for the UK-REIT a declaration of entitlement to gross payment in respect of the 'gross account'
If the manager operates a mixed or pooled nominee, or doesn't give the registrar a declaration of entitlement to gross payment in respect of the 'gross account', the PID must be paid after deduction of Income Tax at the basic rate.
As an interim measure, managers receiving a PID net can reclaim the tax in respect of their ISA investors from HMRC.
Managers will have to make adjustments in relation to PIDs where the ISA has been made void or where the investor has died. As an interim measure the treatment of PIDs will be aligned with the existing arrangements for corporate bond interest payments. This means that where the manager:
is using an undesignated mixed nominee account, the PIDs will be received net of basic rate tax and the manager will then reclaim the tax in respect of ISA investments from HMRC - where adjustments are required for deceased and void cases the basic rate tax should be deducted by the manager and repaid to HMRC by adjustment of their next claim
has received the PIDs gross and later adjustments are required for deceased and void cases, the manager should make not make deductions but should instead notify the estate or the holder of the void ISA that they're responsible for accounting for tax on the payment(s).
Insurer managers (and insurers that provide policies to other ISA managers)
ISA managers who are insurer managers (and insurers that provide ISA policies to other ISA managers) can claim UK tax deducted and foreign withholding tax from income referable to ISA business from their tax office.
Guidance for insurers will be included on the claim form R19 and in the notes sent out with a CT61 return form.
Before claims are made
If making a claim for the first time you must provide HMRC with the following details in writing:
- full name and status of up to 5 individuals authorised to sign claims on your behalf
- a copy of your authority for each signatory
- an original signature for each signatory
- bank account details including:
- full name and branch of the bank repayments are to be made to
- sort code
- account number
- account name
- any special form of identification given to the account
You must advise HMRC in writing if any of these details change to avoid delays in payments.
Annual return of information
You must also make an annual return of information to HMRC. Returns must be completed and returned within 60 days of the:
- 5 April of each year
- date on which the manager ceased to qualify or act as a manager
All managers submitting a return for 2017 or a subsequent tax year must use the new spreadsheet or text file specifications.
Returns for 2016 and earlier years must be submitted using the previous specifications.
If you need to submit a ISAComm100(OCS) 'ISA annual return of information' for an earlier tax year you should email firstname.lastname@example.com stating the year and whether you require a copy of the text specifications or spreadsheet (or both).
The preferred submission method is by electronic text file. To ensure successful submission, your text file must conform to the specification and format detailed in the ISA annual returns: electronic text file specification. If your text file is rejected you could be regarded as either having failed to make a return or as having made an incorrect return.
You can also make your return on a spreadsheet provided by HMRC. To use the HMRC spreadsheet:
- click on the link above to open it
- save it to your computer
- complete it following the guidance in the yellow comment boxes
The most common cause of spreadsheet failure has been the inclusion of excessive characters (including spaces).
We've therefore updated the spreadsheet (attached per above) to include conditional formatting that will detect if more than the permitted number of characters has been entered in a cell. If you enter more than the permitted number of characters the cell on row 1 will turn red and will stay red until all the excess characters have been removed. The formatting will now detail the number of errors and position of the first error on row 1. As you correct the errors this information will update.
Spreadsheets with a red cell on row 1 will not process and you will be required to correct the error(s) and resubmit your return. The formatting will not check the accuracy or suitability of the data and the return could still fail.
The spreadsheets are Excel version 2003 (.xls), capable of accepting 65,536 rows. They will not convert to the later version of Excel (.xlsx), capable of holding in excess of a million rows.
If you require the larger (xlsx) version of the spreadsheet please e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com detailing which spreadsheet you require.
When you have created your text file or completed the HMRC spreadsheet you can submit the return by one of the methods detailed in the notice.
Returns on permitted media should be sent to the address detailed in the notice.
If you have any queries regarding submitting your return please contact the Centre for National Information (CNI):
Email: email@example.com
Telephone: 03000 582 413
What must be returned
You must report details for all ISAs (and JISAs) managed during the return period, including ISAs transferred in, and ISAs that have been closed.
You should exclude details of ISAs transferred out in full, made void, or not proceeded with or cancelled within 30 days of opening in the return period.
Where an investor holds more than one ISA with the same manager (for example, a cash ISA and a stocks and shares ISA), managers must report details of each ISA separately.
Annual return of statistical information
ISA managers must also make an annual return of statistical information to HMRC. Returns must be completed and returned within 60 days of the following reporting dates:
- 5 April of each year
- the date on which the manager ceased to qualify or act as a manager
What must be returned
Managers must make returns in relation to stocks and shares ISAs, the aggregate market value of investments under their management, together with separate figures for:
- qualifying shares listed on a recognised stock exchange (including shares which are dual listed on a recognised stock exchange and listed/traded on another market)
- shares admitted to trading on a recognised stock exchange in the European Economic Area (EEA)
- qualifying securities issued by such a company where the:
- the securities
- the shares in the company issuing the securities
- the company issuing the securities is a 75% subsidiary of a company whose shares are officially listed on a recognised stock exchange - included here will be securities of investment trusts that are so listed
- qualifying securities issued by a company where the:
- securities
- shares in the company issuing the securities
- company issuing the securities is a 75% subsidiary of a company whose shares are admitted to trading on a recognised stock exchange in the EEA - included here will be securities of investment trusts that are so admitted.
- gilts
- units in qualifying authorised unit trusts
- shares in qualifying open-ended investment companies
- shares in qualifying investment trusts
- units and shares in qualifying non-UK collective investment schemes
- the surrender value of qualifying policies of life insurance
- cash
- the total aggregate market value of all investments held in the ISAs
In relation to cash ISAs, the aggregate market value of investments under their management, together with separate figures for:
- the surrender value of qualifying policies of life insurance
- other investments (these will be investments that failed the 5% test before 1 July 2014
- cash, including cash in share and deposit accounts
- the total aggregate market value of all investments held in the ISAs
Any investment represented by Depository Interests (DI) should be included in the category representing the underlying investment. For example, the market value of a DI representing qualifying shares should be included in the total for qualifying shares.
In relation to innovative finance ISAs for 2016 to 2017 and later years, the aggregate market value of investments under their management, with separate figures for both:
- the outstanding principal balance of peer-to-peer loans under management (that is, the capital amounts outstanding plus any interest due but unpaid on the loans(s) at the reporting date)
- cash
You can make:
- a single return of subscriptions and market value details - using form ISA14a(stats) for 'adult' ISAs and form JISA14a(stats) for Junior ISAs
- separate market value and subscription returns - using forms ISA14(stats) and ISA25(stats) for 'adult' ISAs and forms JISA14(stats) and JISA25(stats) for Junior ISAs
Returns can be submitted by post to HMRC or by email: email@example.com.
If you don't provide the information on time or it's incorrect you may be charged a penalty.
Getting help from HMRC
ISA managers can contact CNI if they have questions about how to submit annual information returns. You can email CNI or call them on Telephone: 03000 582 413.
If you have general questions about returns and claims, please email: HMRC's Savings Schemes Team.
Last updated 2 March 2018 + show all updates
- Guidance added to the page to help customers complete the Annual return spreadsheet for ISA managers spreadsheet.
- Additional text the added to the Annual return of information section.
- First published.


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We now live in a declared war zone.
That means something — and not necessarily what Lindsay Graham and John McCain intended — or maybe they did. But one thing we do know is that Obama signed it — after making sure he had complete AND SOLE authority to implement it.
Doesn't establishing in law that...
Read more »


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15 January 2006 16:00
Photobucket.com Free Image Hosting - Online Photo Albums - Photo Sharingby macroron & 45 others
Provides image hosting for MySpace, eBay, blogs, message boards, and online photo albums. Photobucket is reliable, fast and very simple to use. Give it a try! Valid file types: jpg, gif, png, bmp, tif, swf Images larger than 512 KB are automatically resiz
1 (1 marks)


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This unique floor lamp was made with stereo-lithography 3D print, cnc cropping of pierced beams, snap-fit assembly with LED and lead batteries 12V addition.
Damiano Spelta's work is conceived in an articulated artistic way, an art that first of all has to be an idea and consequently a functional piece, assemblages, design, airbrush paintings on surfaces of all kind, boat shells, helmets, cars and more. His art is inspired by the ideology of Dadaism and can be considered as pertaining to Pop Art for its unholy irony.View designer's page
Item Code : 20466


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Great location on Stockton Hill Road just past northern. Very high traffic with highway frontage. Front lot is 34700 sq ft and zoned C3, Back lots are approx. 26000 sq ft and zoned C2. Property has office building with 3 offices and handicap restroom. Outer cargo box is set up with washer, dryer, water heater and soft water machine. Large covered area for parking cars or equipment. Seller may also lease, submit all offers.,
Thank you for visiting today. If this is your first visit, take your time and look around. I have plenty of information and resources available to you. If you are a return visitor, thank you. I would love to hear from you and tell you how I can serve all your real estate needs. Why not Register on my page?
This will allow you to save specific listings, searches, or property information so you can come back later and review. You can also sign up to be notified when new listings come onto the market that meet your requirements. This registration also helps me stay in communication with my clients and allow me to offer the best service possible.
**This information is NOT submitted to 3rd party marketing sources, my eyes only


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This is the speech that radiologist Dr. Rachel Connor presented to the wind farm protest rally at Perth
It's very heartening to see so many people here today.
The first time I ever attended a protest march was at this rally last year, and now here I am addressing you all- promotion indeed! I had a quiet teenage life, I was not a wild child – no ban the bomb or peace on earth marches for me. I've been a pacifist until now!!
But this is a march and a protest with a difference. This is a protest by people who love their country and countryside and the grey haired brigade (although perhaps disguised with Grecian 2000!), it is a protest by families, by people who are established and settled in their way of life, not testosterone fuelled activists wanting to change the world and board oil rigs in the Artic.
We're not fighting to change the world, or even save the world; we're fighting for our homes and our way of lives.
We're fighting against our exploitation by Windfarm companies that are hell bent , not on saving the planet or farming the wind, but on farming the lucrative subsidies paid for by every man and woman in this country.
But we are the little people – not because everyone is my size! – but because Our Government, our ELECTED representatives , as well as Commercial wind farm Developers think that they can tread us underfoot.
Well the tide is slowly turning and we are growing in stature, but only because of people like you, who do have a voice and can be bothered to show Mr Salmond and his Government what this rural industrialisation of one of the most spectacular countries in Europe is doing to its landscape, it's wildlife and it's peoples.
Every man's home is his castle, but for most of us it's not a castle, but a cottage or house we call home.
It's the biggest investment we ever make; our nest egg; our life savings.
But it's more than that, our homes in the country have treasured memories of rural tranquillity, open outlooks and community life. Wind turbines next to your home WILL devalue your home.
So, if a thief stole thousands of pounds from your savings in the bank, would it be tolerated? Of course not!
If a bank stole our money by investing unwisely and going bust, would the government tolerate it? Of course not, they would bail out the bank! That's why we've been in an economic mess for the last five years.
But here we have a situation where house owners next to windfarms lose a quarter or more of the value of our homes, simply because our elected government has encouraged that development at our expense, without proper regulation.
We receive no compensation , no free electricity and our homes may become millstones we can't sell.
We are the 'collateral damage' of this government's fixation on Renewable Energy regardless of the cost.
So why is this Government so fixated on Renewable Energy?
After all, Scotland will have a miniscule contribution to reducing the world's CO2 emissions. The Government is probably the largest land owner in Scotland with the Scottish Forestry Commission and Scottish water alone owning almost 700,000 Hectares.
In 2010 Alex Salmond introduced a bill to give Scottish Water statutory authority to partner with other firms to build a wide range of renewable energy projects, such as wind farms, on its 80,000 Hectares. This is expected to generate over £300 million a year and Scottish Water hope to increase the amount of renewable energy generated on its land by fifteen fold by 2020 – in seven years' time.
And that doesn't include the millions of pounds also being reaped by The Scottish Forestry's 600,000 Hectares which contain some of the largest windfarms in Scotland.
So, this would be a good reason why Mr Salmond could be fixated on getting as many of those 25 year, water tight contracts for billions of pounds of subsidy revenue as is possible on our, Publicly owned land – with that lucrative green turbine rent paid for by every electricity consumer in this country.
No wonder windfarms on Government land are attractive; no wonder so many windfarm schemes, opposed by Local residents and turned down by Local authorities are approved by Central Government.
No wonder so many, huge, greater than 50 MW schemes, such as Whitelee are granted directly by central government.
No wonder this SNP government are now trying to get round Lady Clark's ruling that so many windfarm consents could be unlawful.
The Scottish Government must be one of the biggest landowners to directly benefit from windpower
So where is this money going? Isn't it time the British Public knew how much the Government is earning from wind?
Isn't this the biggest conflict of interest in the Planning process that the UK has ever seen?
And what about the effect on us, the hapless rural peasants living next to these industrial cash cows being farmed by Foreign Multinationals on our once green and pleasant land?
Well, this is where I live ( T shirt). Right in the shadow of Whitelee, the largest on shore windfarm in Europe. What effect has this had on our lives?
This house ( T shirt) has been devalued by £150,000. Last year one of the Scottish Power managers saw this T shirt and said " I know Whitelee, it doesn't look that that" Well here's the camera that took this picture. That man doesn't live next to Whitelee; we do!


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DSS, Inc. is a dynamic company specializing in the integration, development and innovation of healthcare technology with offices located in Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, and Virginia. We are staffed by an amazingly talented team of intelligent, creative and bold thinkers who thrive on breaking new barriers to make the impossible, possible.
At DSS, product innovation and development are driven by the pure passion of our people. We're always looking to add more nimble-minded and inventive types to our growing team. If you've got the skill set to go with the imagination needed to contribute to the development of innovative technology that help make healthcare delivery systems, stronger, better and faster, we'd like to hear from you.
Opportunities at DSS
To view current opportunities at DSS, please click here.
If you are experiencing technical difficulties with the Job Listings link, please notify us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Life at DSS
You don't become a world-class integrator, developer and innovator of health information technology overnight. DSS has become one of the leaders in the HIT space by attracting team members willing to put in effort to build world class technology solutions that transform healthcare.
DSS understands that our employees are our most valuable asset, and we pride ourselves on creating a relaxed work environment that provides opportunities and rewards achievement. Suits and ties aren't required at DSS—we enjoy a relaxed atmosphere and outstanding benefits to fit your lifestyle.
Benefits at DSS
DSS offers competitive salaries and a generous benefits package that includes:
- Company Matched 401(k)
- Educational Assistance
- Ongoing Professional Development
- Paid Holidays
- Paid Time Off
- Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
- Employee Assistance Plan
- Casual Dress Environment
Equal Opportunity
DSS, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and strives to comply with all applicable laws prohibiting workplace discrimination throughout the entire employment process. We recruit, select, promote, compensate, train and provide benefits without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristics as protected by federal, state or local laws. DSS, Inc. promotes workplace diversity.
DSS, Inc. is a drug and alcohol free workplace (DFWP).
DSS, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity (EOE), Affirmative Action (AA) employer
that invites and encourages minorities (M), women (F), veterans (V), veterans and individuals with disabilities (H) to apply.
We are ADEA and ADA compliant.


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On that historic day, Imam Mohammed faced the threatening winds of emotion that swirled around the inevitable changes to his father's "nation" and bravely commenced transitioning the community toward a mission to uplift all of humanity with the dignity, understanding, and universality of traditional Islam. He told the audience confidently, "This is a house built on strength, divine strength.let your winds of emotion come against this house, it stands forever!"
I was born one month after that defining moment, and it was Imam Mohammed's teachings that incubated the desire within me to become a scholar of religion and champion of peace. I recall fondly how my siblings and I would listen to the imam's radio broadcasts or attend his Friday sermons in Chicago. I remember we had great fun with a statement in one particular sermon when the imam shouted, with force and severity, "How you gonna try to hypnotize my child with a pair of Mickey Mouse socks!" Long after that day, we repeated those words over and over, imitating the imam's voice with great delight.
These are the little things that shape a child, make her strong, remind her not to worship images, to be a leader, not a follower, to not give in to subliminal seduction, and to understand the importance of recycling the dollar within a community that had been "downtrodden through the muck and the mire" of America's racism.
Among his supporters are great contributors to the betterment of America and the global community. They include, but are not limited to, judges, doctors, engineers, state representatives, mayors, filmmakers, scholars, successful entrepreneurs, Olympic gold medalists, professional athletes, and men and women in every branch of the U.S. military.
Muhammad Ali once described Imam Mohammed as "a peaceful warrior, using his wisdom and kindness to fight for the betterment of all African Americans as well as Muslims." Malcolm X described him as an objective, strongly spiritual man with whom he shared exceptional closeness and trust. Even with all these praises, Imam Mohammed has an outstanding level of humility. I have witnessed him prostrate himself to God in front of audiences of thousands when excessively praised in order to remind those who laud him that the praise belongs to the Almighty Creator alone. His revolutionary vision is based in his belief that "the salvation of society and the survival of civilization depend upon establishing and preserving healthy, sound, truthful, and charitable leadership."
I often marvel at his courage.
These accomplishments prove his oft-repeated message to his followers: "It only takes a few good people to continue the productive lifeline of a people."


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Variety reports that Cartoon Network has pulled the plug on their youth-oriented sketch comedy series, Incredible Crew, after just 1 season, the latest failure in the current network administration's continuing effort to emulate rivals Nickelodeon & Disney Channel in developing live-action programming, which, of course, goes against the definition of the network when it was launched 21 years ago.
Incredible Crew was the brainchild of one of the busiest men in show business today, former Nickelodeon star Nick Cannon, currently the host of NBC's America's Got Talent. Cannon knows something about sketch comedy, having debuted on Nick's All That in the 90's. It seems that Cannon, who also at last check was involved in programming Nickelodeon's sister network, TeenNick, and had developed & hosted Wild 'N' Out for MTV, was trying to do some emulating of his own, in this case, another ultra-busy TV personality, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who apparently needs to have a 30 hour day with all of his radio & TV responsibilities.
I digress. While the article doesn't say why the Crew was cancelled, it does continue a pattern at the network, which has developed a number of live-action series over the last 7 years, only to see them all fail. The only live action programming still on CN is on their [adult swim] overnight block (i.e. Children's Hospital), which seems to be a different animal altogether.
The problem that exists, which executives Stuart Snyder & Rob Sorcher refuse to acknowledge, is that viewers don't want live-action on Cartoon Network. However, even though reruns of Family Guy have been shared between [adult swim] & sister network TBS, the latter wasn't interested in getting back into children's programming. The corporate mentality at Time-Warner seems to be, we've got Cartoon Network for the kids, so why put children's programming on our other stations?
Real swift, no? Of course not. CN has been used as a receptacle to air live-action, non-cartoon-related movies (i.e. Jack Black's "School of Rock") in order to help its sister networks fulfill pre-existing contracts. So why can't the repurposing go the other way once in a while? Only Snyder & Sorcher know the answer to that one, and they're not telling.
A few years back, CN tried an all-live-action primetime block, under the umbrella of "CN Real". Other than Dude! What Would Happen & Destroy Build Destroy, the block was a failure. They've tried a sitcom (Out of Jimmy's Head, which was a hybrid---1/2-live-action, 1/2-cartoon) and 2 1 hour adventure series (Unnatural History & Tower Prep), all of which were cancelled after 1 season. While it hasn't been confirmed, it doesn't appear as though the half-hour Level Up, which has gotten through 2 seasons, will be returning, either.
What this says to me is that the fanbase has spoken loudly enough to convince Time Warner higher-ups to stop shoving live-action into the CN schedule. There is room for greater diversification, but preferably, if to give some aid to sister network Boomerang, which could use the help. Live-action need not apply.