In my work and personal life, it often seems like we are provided false choices. I am suspicious of people who frame issues as only an either-or proposition. I respect leaders who have the courage and character to speak honestly about the complex challenges facing our world.

Maybe that's why I found Michael Bloomberg's commencement speech at Harvard Business School so timely and refreshing. "Calling on the Harvard Business School Class of 2019 to demonstrate “moral leadership,” and to inv...

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2014 was filled with many experiences, events and articles have stayed with me and continue to make me think about challenges facing the U.S. education system. Here is a summary of major topics and themes that are worth more thought.

During a Young Presidents' Organization luncheon prior to the annual ASU GSV Summit on Education Innovation, I listened to Jeff Selingo (author of College Unbound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students) lead a panel on the challenges facing...

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Most of my career has been involved with affinity marketing. Often the focus has been between affinity - what consumers care about, non-profits / universities and financial institutions such as banks, student lenders and insurance companies.

As a result, it is interesting for me to read, the annual CFPB report to Congress on college credit card agreements. The world of alumni collegiate marketing has changed and there may be implications for other affinity markets as well.

• The number of higher ...

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The entire budget fiasco and inability for the US Government to deal with the budget debt and required compromises is another illustration of what an empire in decline may look like.

At the end of this video - Steve Wynn's quote from Alexis de Tocqueville  is perfect.   Another quote from de Tocqueville that fits today's climates - is "A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it."

Watch this video and ask yourself where are the s...
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Holiday weekends are great moments to reflect and think about our lives.  I am not sure where I heard the following quote, but I think it is profound as we try to make sense of the world around us. 

"we live in an era where we enjoy a wealth of information but a poverty of knowledge."

I often say that the first job of a leader is to define reality - not as they might want - but as it is.   Reality may appear different depending on your perspective, but the leaders who have the time to demon...
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It is strange to watch Social Network, the movie of Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.  The movie was entertaining if not also filled with some mistaken narratives.  

One element that stands to be corrected is Mark Zuckerberg's opposition to advertising on the Facebook network.   I don't recall such hesitation, in fact our company at the time Y2M - Youth Media and Marketing Network - executed an exclusive sales organization representation agreement with Facebook.   I recently found the o...
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A great article appeared in this weekend's NY Times Magazine regarding Gen Y - twenty-somethings.

Read the entire story here or download it here.

Some insights from the article are below.  Marketers beware - serving this market will be more difficult than ever.

"The 20s are a black box, and there is a lot of churning in there. One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven ...
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You may already be aware, but one of our companies is NGI Group which has created GradGuard.   The news release below highlights a new product that is of interest to every full-time student attending every college in the nation.  Read on for why all parents should consider insuring the cost of education.

Tuition insurance is now available to any student enrolled in an accredited higher education institution through the first-ever national group policy made available by GradGuard™, a service ...
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This is a useful insight by the Koffaman Foundation regarding the real source of new employment. For anyone worried about a jobless economic recovery, we should take the focus off of just small business and look to how our nation supports innovation. Today's WSJ article by Carl Schramm, Robert Litan and Dane Strangler correctly points out the facts behind job growth. "The conventional wisdom is that such businesses account for half of the labor force and are therefore the engine of future...
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We are fortunate to live in a nation that remembers the cost of our freedom.  Though our lives are hectic and opportunities are abundant because of the lives that went before us to secure our freedoms.  Our freedoms are so fundamental to the mindset that creates and pursues opportunities. 

It isn't economic freedom alone that defines a great nation, but also the corresponding freedoms that insure our individual liberties.  Freedom of expression and freedom of religion are elements that no amo...
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