Advice for President Obama on Partnerships with Business

Max's advice for March 19, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Max grew up as the son of a man who knew 'ALL' the answers to the problems of the world. Max's father said so! Many times, his father let everyone know that anyone who didn't know that he had the answers was a turkey or a knucklehead.

The famous Ma Bell, the second most powerful force in the world (next to God of course), thought so much of Max's father's opinions that she made him 'Supervisor of Troubles'. This is true!

The advice Max promised you, President Obama.

Learn how to build federal, state and business partnerships.

Max watched years ago as the Brazilian economy tanked. It wasn't a pretty sight, keeping tabs on it through the news outlets.

Mr. President, hard times can and do affect everyone. Whole nations have gone through tumoil that is at least as messy as what we face. It was nice that it did not affect the whole planet during some of these times.

One thing that did come through from these situations was that governments completely on their own are usually too small to resolve the problem quickly for the businesses within their borders. Many businesses just die or need to be nationalized during the down turn.

On the other hand, there were always a few businesses that somehow seemed to survive in spite of government policy.

Some of those that survived found ways to work interdependently with related industries so that they could share costs or work together on avoiding costs. The bottom line became not worrying about whether the company was acting in a socialistic way or a capitalistic way. The final goal became to work in a realistic and survivalistic manner.

I am sure that many attempts to function within desperate financial scenarios failed. That is the nature of business. Yet there were some who did indeed succeed, at least during the down turn.

Normally government partnering with businesses is not a very good idea. Although they are both bureaucratic, they play by different rules. Business rules have a corrupting effect on government people. Government rules have a surpressing effect on efficent business function.

Still, in dire times where the total number of jobs created is important, it is worth exploring how government can help kick start small business.

Using business incubators, adding resources to the SBA loan programs, providing assistance to displaced executives who want to start their own businesses and partnering with groups like SCORE are a few ideas in this area.

Max wishes you well in all your choice efforts.

Max writes about greenways, rare diseases, timely topics, places to eat, travel and other issues of interest. He encourages you to add your comments.

Link one is to the Internet Public Library.

Link two is to the Service Corp of Retired Executives who can help for free.

Link three is to the central Small Business Administration site.