forgotston.com

In his column today (here) James Gill gives us a glimpse of why, even before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, LA was finding it difficult to attract any businesses.

It is said that one never gets a second chance to make a first impression. That is especially true in sales.

LA’s top salesman

It’s one thing to be inarticulate; most of us graduates of the LA Public Schools are. It is another to embellish the facts (I’m being kind here). If LA’s top business salesman, Mike Olivier will ignore the truth about Big Daddy’s ethical transgressions, it is appropriate to assume that he might embellish the truth about taxes and other things of importance to business people.

However, it is less about embellishing the truth and more about the plain arrogance which Olivier delivers in daily doses to any one who has dealt with him. (Let us not forget his ridicule of MREs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from FL which many right after Katrina were grateful to get.)

Apparently, Olivier is so naive or so arrogant that he believes that the CEOs with whom he meets take his word as gospel. They don’t, that’s why they are CEOs. CEOs before making important decisions do their due diligence.

If anyone has ever dealt with the CEO of a prospective LA business, one knows how they operate. They first listen to the pitches of the Mike Oliviers of the world, then they sit through the wining and dining by the governors and other top politicos. After going through “rush” they then talk to people who actually live and work in LA and particularly other CEOs operating in LA.

Bottom-line, the CEOs quickly look past the “sizzle” being sold by the Oliviers and immediately “cut into the steak.” They find the “gristle” faster than their corporate pilot can lift the jet off of the runway and out of LA.

We’re only fooling ourselves

If Olivier is going to continue to be the first impression that business get of LA he needs to get his Dale Carnegie degree refreshed. He also needs to either learn more about the state he is selling or stop making it up as he goes.

Finally, Kudos to James Gill for allowing us in LA to see ourselves as others see us per Robert Burns poetic suggestion.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:12 am

Things can change, but it won’t come with the current attitude of Louisiana’s people. I’m tired of blaming our elected officials; they are simply a mirror image of us. They are a reflection of our state’s values, hopes, and dreams. They’re us; we’re them. Louisiana is the way it is because we want it that way. When we don’t want it anymore, it will stop.
Chad E. Rogers

The above is excerpted from a commentary by the publisher of TheDeadPelican.com It is not only dead-on accurate, but poetic and prophetic.

Every day we read stories, letters, editorials and opinions blaming elected and appointed officials from the members of the Orleans Levee Board to our Congressional delegation to the Governor for the failure to address the problems we face in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In each case, either we elected the officials at fault or we elect the person who appointed the officials at fault.

Not only can we vote against each of those at fault at the next election, but we have a mechanism for recalling each one and having an election now. The fact that one-third (number needed for a recall election) of the voters in LA don’t choose to exercise that right is evidence that at least a majority of us are either satisfied with the status quo or apathetic.

What LA needs more than FEMA trailers and levees are more mirrors.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 9:48 am

According to the story in yesterday’s Monroe newspaper some Catholic Nuns who evacuated from New Orleans are asking to remain in Monroe permanently.

Could this be a sign?

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:03 am