Peacock Nine Blog

Chicago Is Shunned By Young & Educated

One of the most fascinating products of the most recent census is the the special report published this month by US Census Bureau. In Migration Of The Young, Single & College Educated (pdf) we learn that Chicago is the eighth most popular major metro for young, well-educated singles to move to. The Bay Area, L.A. and Atanta are the top three metros, followed closely by D.C. and New York respectively. Although New Yorkers are up in arms about the fact that they are not the "first city" for the "hipster" set, they do have the dubious distinction of being the city with the greatest number of singles in the United States.
So what does all of this mean exactly? Why should we care? Well considering that the recent data not only is in sync with Richard Florida's perceptions of Chicago in The Rise Of The Creative Class but also tracks with the Forbes' Best Places List ranking of job growth in American cities, one has to wonder what the future holds for what is arguably the economic "jewel" of the midwest. Neither Silicon Prarie nor Boeing were the magic solution for Chicago. With the educated elite shunning Chicago for sunnier pastures, what is in store for the Second City's economy in the decades ahead?
(Posted originally by BuzzSponge)

Microsoft Merger or Google Gamesmanship?

This morning, reports from the New York Times as well as other sources suggest that Microsoft initiated merger/acquisition talks with Google over two months ago. The pairing of the two companies would marry the world's largest software company with the world leader in search. Is the recent annoucement of a pending IPO by Google a certainty or merely gamesmanship to better their bargaining position with arguably one of the twentieth century's greatest m&a gamesmen? Regardless of the outcome, it has been an exciting week, what with pre-IPO Google-mania on the rise, the very public launch Amazon's creative solution for outflanking Google's squishy ball entrepreneurs, and tody's announcement that Bill Gates has released the hounds on Google.
And we thought that what looks to be the greatest economic rebound in two decades was going to be the most exhilarating sign of things to come. Silly us.

J&J's Three Mile Moment

Now is a Three Mile moment for Johnson & Johnson. Sixty people have died. The FDA is on its case. Its greatest success story of 2003 is on the ropes. And shares in J&J have rebounded slightly from their lowest point in over a year. Sure it may be the "world's largest and most diversified health care company" consisting of pseudo-latinate corporations such as Ethicon, Centocor and Cordis among others, but in the end of the day Johnson & Johnson most powerful perceptual position is less about biotech and more about its role as protector of the "mother-baby" bond. General Robert Wood Johnson intuitively understood this and drafted J&J's famous Credo to insulate J&J's unique focus from the fuzzying effects of multinational delusions of grandeur. The credo has been revised over the years, but the principals remain intact. The credo provided a gameplan to then Chairman Charles E. Burke during the Tylenol Scare nearly twenty years ago. Today's Chairman & CEO of J&J, William C. Weldon is the newest keeper of the credo and he is faced with an issue that may be even more dangerous to the long-term viability of the company than that faced by Burke. Arguably his most valuable constitency (physicians) has been given reason to doubt J&J. We believe that Weldon missed an opportunity live the credo and pre-empt the FDA report by taking the bad news public himself. What could have been framed as the responsible actions of a confident company, has been characterized in the press as just another example of the careless profiteering so common among "big companies". Weldon's next move will be just as critical. Will he make a public mea culpa and take the defective stents from the market (as any responsble mother would do and his credo demands) or will he be influenced by his financial stakeholders (Wall Street) and follow in the footsteps of Coke and another great brand killing moment of late? Only time will tell. We hope that he lets the credo be his guide.