Welcome to the world of bloggers...

My wife just asked me why a boomer aged male all of the sudden wants to put himself out there to draw criticism from strangers (she said perfect, but who knows anyone that's perfect?). I had to think about that one for a few moments...hmmm, why do I want to do this? The answer came pretty quickly. I think it has to do mainly with frustration. My frustration that I don't have the President of the US asking my advice, that food companies I advise don't always want to hear what they need to hear, that my years of life's experiences might be ignored by my kids, and that my voice get a chance. That's the serious reason...the other reason is that it sounded fun.

So, welcome to my blog...where I get to share my opinions, advice, and experiences with perfect strangers.

I will be writing routinely on things that are currently important to me: work (in the Food and Beverage space), family (marriage-23 years, father of two teenagers), finances (flipping houses), and miscellaneous thoughts that inspire me to contribute.

A little bit about me, so you can decide if this page is worth a second look:

I currently work for a very cool company called Iconoculture, Inc. If you have heard of Macrotrends, then in some small way you have heard of us. Basically Iconoculture is a small start-up that has discovered an awesome niche in the world of trending. That niche is understanding how basic human values (happiness, fear, control) drive consumer behavior. We watch what consumers do (v. what they say they do), gather insights, and share those with our clients. Understanding that leads to all kinds of opportunities for companies, brands and anyone interested in triggering behavior in consumers.

Sounds very psycho, but it is simply about observing basic human behavior. I get to work with some of the smartest people I have ever met, and I get to work in an industry that I love...the food and beverage space. I have spent 23 years developing new and innovative products for a lot of big and small brands, but always on the technical side...Research and Development. Okay, no pocket protector jokes, but yes, white lab coat territory. My MBA in International Marketing was gathering dust, so I jumped from a very safe, comfortable corporate job (R&D Director at Starbucks) to this new opportunity.

I have been happily married for over 23 years, and have two above average teens. My eldest is a boy who just started his freshman year at Ohio State University. My youngest is a girl who is a sophomore in HS. She just started driver's education and will provide much inspiration for future posts, I am sure.

Besides my real job, my wife and I have also started to rehab homes in our neighborhood for resale. Yes, "flipping" houses for fun and profit. I do learn a ton about human behavior from this adventure. Our goal is to help pay our son's out of state tuition, so we use terms like, "Well that one should net us 3 semesters of tuition", instead of "% return". We don't do this because we have to, we do it because we really enjoy it. There is something very satisfying about taking one's imagination and sweat equity, applying it to a piece of crap, and turning it into a cute, functioning dream home.

So, that is where I will draw inspiration to fill a blog...my interesting work, my above average family, and my hobby.

Okay, so some real serious blogging:

I saw a week or so ago an article about McDonald's investing in Drive Thrus in China, with its first one opening two weeks ago in Shanghai, and another dozen or so to follow rapidly. While exciting for McDonald's and all middle class Chinese, I think it symbolizes something very dangerous going on in Asia. Don't get me wrong, I am all for the democratization and growth of the Asian countries, I am just afraid of what we are truly exporting from the US to our eagerly awaiting protege countries (China and India in particular). Almost every corporation I deal with is extremely interested in selling every Chinese consumer just one of something. Hey, with a population of around 3 billion, it looks like a great business strategy. India adds another couple of billion, so the opportunity seems boundless.

Here's the problem as I see it...as we teach our proteges about consumerism, and believe me that is what we are teaching them, we are taking them through consumerism the same way we learned it, and we aren't teaching them the improved model yet...the way we are doing it now. For example, we are just now learning (maybe it is admitting) that there are causes for our obese population. Not that it is just about fast food and laziness, er "convenience", but we are learning that consuming larger than necessary portions of fast food and not getting enough exercise (due to our dependence on our automobiles) might not be the best thing to do for our bodies. So in the US our fast food companies are changing menus, giving away pedometers and exercise DVDs, helping with nutritional counseling, etc. That is the new fast food nation, the one based on all this learning. Our city and state governments are asking for transparency in nutritional information, even our schools are getting more vocal in this area. Yet we investors cheer when we see our brands make small victories in that monstrous market in China. We are taking the fast food industry of the 80's and 90's over there, not the new, better, healthier industry of today. We are exporting the wrong values.

It used to be that America exported values like: opportunity, freedom, loyalty, honesty, integrity, honor, generosity, and equality. If I really looked hard at what messages we are sending our global proteges, what we are "mentoring" these eager countries, I see values based on consumerism: greed, acquisition, envy, selfishness, entitlement, and indifference. No wonder we have become such a target.