Today is the long anticipated Apple WWDC event, being held at Moscone Center to begin promptly at 11 a.m. PST.  Already, the halls are filling up, the bloggers have begun to post videos and blogs about what is anticipated.  The odds on favorite, obviously, is the announcement of the new Apple 3G iPhone.  There is speculation about the possibility of multiple versions and a lower price.  Certainly the markets will not react favorably if there is a delay in the release of the highly anticipated 3G model.

There were some interesting video posts late last week showing FedEx trucks entering and exiting Apples third party DC facility, with many pallets of unmarked boxed… speculated to be the 3G phone bound for authorized retail locations across the country in anticipation of the “Big Release” today.

It will be less than an hour before the event begins and I certainly wish I had a front row seat to the highly publicized and anticipated event.  There is certain to be some great reporting and further speculation coming out of the event.  Hopefully the results will not be the same as Big Brown’s bewildering performance at Belmont on Saturday.  Anything short of the new 3G iPhone release today would be the equivalent to Big Brown not winning the Triple Crown.

The enclose website is a great basic overview of many of the essential elements of effective Estate Planning. This will give you some great advise on things you should and must consider, as well as giving you some basic information to help you formulate additional questions you may want to have answered by an Estate Planning expert or attorney.

http://estate.findlaw.com/estate-planning/estate-planning-overview/

There are many marketers today who are concerned about slowed revenue growth, or even shrinking revenues, as well as fleeting customers. What can you do to truly recession proof your business… Listen To Your Customers. I have often been bewildered by how many marketers will rally their teams in a war room to strategize on how to increase revenues, acquire new customers, gain greater revenues per customer, by adding a new feature or function, price changes, new ads, etc., but they often neglect the most important part of the equation: talking with and listening to their customers before making changes. It is o.k. to develop concepts from an inside out perspective, but they must be market tested or vetted by those who pay for the salaries and overhead of our companies - The Customer.

A critical customer segment, Mavens, as defined in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, are twice as likely to talk to others about their experiences with our brands. Not only are they twice as likely, but they tend to have very developed social networks that listen to them, trusting in their opinions. It is critical to fully understand and respond to the opinions of your Mavens in advance as they can play a significant role in the successes and failures of our brands. A good practice for all marketers to embrace on a daily basis is to ensure their products and services appeal to people’s aspirations and their dreams. As marketers, we must inspire prospects and consumers alike as we move them from awareness to trial and hopefully loyal customers.

When trying to decide what the next new product or service is you should be focusing on developing, I would suggest trying not to be one of the many “me to” products and services that exist today, unless you have a unique hook that can gain you share. A better approach, however, is to focus on creating products and services that are game changers, that can be tomorrows market leaders not followers. Don’t be afraid to think big, break the rules, challenge the current conventions within your industry and kill some “sacred cows”. Develop your products and services from the point of view of the customer. What latent need is not being met efficiently today. How many times have you thought, “boy I wish I had thought of that, it is so obvious”. Focus on differentiating yourself. As you think about your business, focus your product development on the needs and wants of your current Mavens and those you would like to attract to become Mavens. If you haven’t done so in the past, begin to spend a disproportionate amount of time focusing on keeping these key individuals happy. You can do this by providing them with exceptional service and the products they are demanding. Do not attempt to do this by sitting in an ivory tower, speculating on where your next share gains can come from, but go to the source, the Mavens, for your answers. It is also important to always be extremely respectful of their time and privacy. That said, you still must not forget to solicit feedback from them whenever possible, preferably before undertaking actions that might affect their future experiences with your brand. Always avoid, at all costs, going to market with new products and/or services without first engaging with your customers (those who pay) and, if appropriate, their end users (those who use). Establishing a simple customer feedback loop or echo chamber, before implementation or product launch is an essential element to maximize the chances of success .

If you can follow these simply rules and make it part of your operating disciplines, you are assured of having better success at keeping your custommers through all seasons, as well as attracting new ones.

The trench that separates the current U.S. political divide is getting both deeper and wider. At a time when this country needs a uniting force and a uniting message, both parties are doing their part to put fear in the hearts and minds of American voters, as well as passing blame on the current administration. Granted, there is much the current administration has done wrong, driving us to unacceptable levels of national debt, poor economic performance and consumer confidence.

There was a time when the U.S. was the leader of the Free World in every measurable category. We were the land of opportunity, the land of the free and the home of the brave; one nation under God… The U.S. was the envy of the world and Ellis Island was a dream for most and a reality for many.

What has happened to us as a nation, what has happened to our political system, what has happened to our moral compass, what has happened to our value system, our education system, our willingness to lend a helping hand rather than having a hand out as a people.

The current obesity level of our nation has become symbolic for our nation and our political system as a whole. We have become fat, lazy, consumed with fast food or quick fixes - over spending and over consumption with unacceptable results. This fast food mentality has put our nation in a crisis. When do we stop the political rhetoric and get back to basics. We, as a nation, have created this mess and we must fix it together. It can no longer be the left blaming the right and visa versa. We, as citizens, have to get up off our lazy butts and take responsibility for our actions, the actions of our children and the actions of our neighbors. It is time to say no more, it is time to get healthy again, it is time to become a leader again and to set an example for the world. To do this, however, we must work inside out and not outside in. We have to fix our own problems before we can fix the worlds problems. Is a safe Iraq our primary concern or is it the safety and well being of those living within our borders. After all, one day we supply Saddam with arms and the next we want his head… (another post for another time).

We are a nation that innovates and we must focus on innovation our education system, giving our children the skills they need to compete in this global economy. What ever happened to tough love. As a teenager in an all boys Jesuit high school, I knew better than to misbehave. If we “goofed off” we did push ups or sit ups in front of our classmates or got detention; if we showed up to school unshaven, we were sent to the office to shave with a 5 year old rusty razor; if we did not do our homework, we stayed after school until it was done and a note was sent home to our parents to sign; if we cut class, we got detention. There were rules and we respected authority. Why are we so afraid to discipline our children in school today. What kind of message are we sending our children today. Why are teachers allowing this, why are our teachers so apathetic, why does anyone want to teach today, or do they… it seems to me, many teachers spend a lot of time doing anything but teaching and leading. What does all of this have to do with politics? It has less to do with politics and more to do with the social crisis we have ALL created and are feeding. Our apathy at the polls and our willingness to let this country get away from us is being evidences in all facets our our life and our country.

What of the environment, what of the future of our children and our grandchildren and the families of future generations. It is time to stop treating this nation and this planet as a garbage dump where we continue to destroy it through our words, our actions and our example. It is time we all stop the insanity and take responsibility for our actions. What our we leaving future generations to clean up.

I am calling out McCain, Obama, Clinton and all other politicians to worry less about crafting a message that will get votes and to focus on creating a platform that unifies our nation, that gives us something to to rally behind as a united nation, as a world leader. It is time for tough love again. Let’s end the litigious society we have created… you sue and you lose, you pay. We need real tort reform; get rid of the backlog in the legal system. Clean up the messes in our jails - no more Mr. Nice Guy; you do the crime you do HARD TIME and think twice about doing it again. While in jail, let’s force our inmates to learn a trade, to get their education, to work to pay for their stay. Jail is supposed to be a penalty and it is supposed to rehabilitate. Let’s make our politicians work as well, let’s expose the programs that our lining their pockets, let’s make them accountable for their performance, let’s put them on an MBO program, let’s demand bi-partisanship, let’s take the politics out of politics, let’s get rid of the entitlement programs, let’s demand the fat be cut in Washington. Why are so many people losing jobs in corporate america because corporations have no loyalty to co-workers and are only focused on returning shareholder value while our political system continues to become more bloated and they are not held accountable. Let’s run the lobbyists our of Washington, or at least be sure American’s are better informed about what they are really doing and expose the perks they are giving to our leaders on Capital Hill. Let’s clean up our health care system; we need insurance reform, drug reform and a simplified approach to the entire healthcare process that will drive costs out of the sytem and improve the quality of our healthcare. Let’s clean up our entitlement programs… why do we have illegal aliens doing legitimate blue collar jobs while we have lazy americans sitting on their butts eating chips, drinking beer and watching TV with the money they are getting from unemployment. If you can work, you should work, if you can’t work, we should require people to go back to school and get passing grades in order to collect unemployment checks.

We need to take the Hate out of politics and take the finger pointing out of all we do. We are all in this together, we live in the greatest nation on this planet. We have opened our borders to people from around the globe who have come here to prosper and build a better life for themselves. There are so many incredible american success stories that this country was built on. Let’s get that pride back and return our global status to that of best country on the planet. Let’s do it, however, with regard to future generations, let’s all vow to leave this planet a better place than when we got here; let’s clean up the messes that have been created before us and we have contributed to until now; let’s hold each other accountable; let’s end our debtor nation status; let’s get the dollar back to being a leading global currency; let’s set a goal of making our nations literacy rate the highest in the world; let’s unite our political parties, letting them each have their own idealogy, but stop the attach adds and unwillingness to unite in the halls of Congress; let’s stop our greed and self absorbed, reckless approach to how we live our lives (it is o.k. to celebrate our successes and enjoy our wealth, but let’s do it responsibly); let’s find a solution to our dependency on oil; let’s green up this planet; let’s continue to innovate and have fun doing it.

Let’s all just get along, from the top down and the bottom up, we are all in this together.

Once a darling of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, is Yahoo! the latest of wanna be Good To Great casualties. As Jerry Yang and the Y! Board respond back to Microsoft with a “thanks, but no thanks” reply because the “price” was too low, what happened with the denominator of the P/E ratio… The current Y! bloated P/E of 63.5, compared with an industry average of 44, sector average of 24 and S&P average of 18.5, it seems to me that it is less about price and more about earnings. What is Y! doing to return value to its shareholders, has it lost its way. Has it tried to become all things to all people, making it a bloated company without a vision or mission. As the #1 trafficked site on the web today, how has Y! not figured out how to better monetize its assets. Should one call into question the assets Y! has built. I subscribe to the adage of quality over quantity. It should be less about all the things Y! is doing, or has tried to do, but more about the quality of its execution. At best, I give Y! a C- in execution.

I love the brand and I love what they are capable of doing, but they just are not getting it done. How has Google been able to eat their lunch over the past 5 years, stealing significant share and seemingly making more strategic acquisitions, and most importantly better monetizing the assets of their acquisitions. I submit, however, that Google is not immune to the problems of Y!, they are just not as old. They too must not lose sight of who they are and they too must be sure to be strategic in their future strategy and business direction. For both Y! and Google, it is not all about a land grab of who can acquire more and spend the most, but who can make the right, or best, investments based on fit, scale and future value. Once acquired, who will succeed best at integrating and maximizing the enterprise value of their conquest. To date, the scorecard seems to heavily favor Google. They have been more aggressive, more opportunistic, seemingly had a better and bigger vision and stayed closer to their core.

But what of Y! and Microsoft. Will Microsoft go hostile, does Microsoft win if it goes hostile. A fellow Facebooker, Jason Goldberg, made the following thoughtful post yesterday which raises several valid questions in that regard.

An excerpt from Jason’s post:

I’m sure that there are many rounds of this to still be played out.

Having lived through the aftermath of the AOL-Time Warner merger as a manager who was charged with helping integrate the companies post merger, here are my top reasons as to why I think this deal should not happen.

1. Microsoft is going to F*ck it up. See reasons 2 - 8.
   
2. Microsoft does not have any sort of merger integration of this scale in its DNA. Microsoft likes to build not buy. Sure, Microsoft has done some small acquisitions in the past, but most of them were to acquire talent or a technology, nothing of this scale. Only the aQuantive acquisition comes anywhere close but that was a small small fraction of a buy compared with this.
3. Integrate aQuantive and Yahoo at the same time? No way.
   
4. Microsoft is in Seattle and Yahoo is in Silicon Valley. Microsoft is very much a Redmond or bust sort of company. Yahoo will be the bastard step-child in a post merger world.
5. Top Yahoo talent are going to flee immediately and Yahoo innovation will be stifled.
   
6. Microsoft does not have consumer Internet in its DNA. Microsoft is a software company, not a web company.
   
7. Microsoft is an arrogant company. Managers at Microsoft are not going to mesh well with the team at Yahoo, especially when the mother ship is telling the silicon valley office what to do.
8. This was a hostile takeover! For Microsoft and Yahoo to work, they would need the teams to be jazzed up and excited to make it work. I don’t see how that happens with a hostile takeover as it will always be Microsoft in charge.

The question of whether Microsoft can pull this off is valid. Certainly Microsoft has the cash to get the deal done and can easily up its bid and likely win a hostile bid, but is that winning. Can Microsoft and Yahoo co-exist, can they team up to beat, or at a minimum grab significant share back from Google. I applaud the very bold move of Microsoft, which Michael Arrington hypothesized less than one week before the announcement, however the very relevant observations of Jason Goldberg cannot be ignored. It is not likely that Google will become a White Knight and the discussions of a deal between Y! and AOL make no sense, so what will it be. Y! as we know them today will be no more, they have been outed and must do something, either by choice of by force. Kevin Johnson of Microsoft seems to be the mastermind behind the notion of MSFT bidding to acquire Y! to bolster its position against Google. With all that is on Kevin’s plate, does he have the horses, and the leadership support, to not only get the deal done, but the ability to make it work. Only time will tell and it should be a fun ride. I am anxious to see how the landscape shakes out and if the shareholders of the ultimate acquiring and acquired company(s) win.

At this point, I think something needs to and will happen, however I am concerned of the stakes, including acquisition cost, resulting enterprise value, integration and monetization, morale and shareholder value. This is certain to play out over the coming months, but I am not seeing anyone else raising their hand to make a bid, perhaps others think that if they add some of their ingredients to the current Y! secret sauce they will make it worse and not better.