At the library was the movie Countdown to D-Day a 2004 movie staring Tom Selleck as Dwight Eisenhower. The movie takes place the 90 day preparation for the Allies to Operation Overload which was the beginning of the end of World War II. In the movie, there are plenty of prima donas to deal with and that including the other generals. The Ike portrayed by Tom Selleck came across as a highly sincere, thoughtful, and good general. One would think the toughest part of the preparation is knowing that the people sent into battle many will not come back. In the movie, Ike would tell his generals go over the plans to ensure the least number of lives will be lost. The lives lost will affect no only the lives they could have lived but the families they leave behind. The actions in the film showed Ike thought long and hard about his approval.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while most companies do not put their employees into life and death circumstances, it is great to know that the senior management is thinking about the junior employees in their decision making. A classic example is it relatively easy to close a plant for strategic and corporate reasons, but what happens to the community when it is closed. The people there did nothing wrong, it could have easily been past managements did not invest into the plant. When a company considers the affects and tries to do something to mitigate them, then you can reasonably take for granted it is doing all the other things well. Doing the same things, means the larger items can have assurance of being done right.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

As the world becomes smaller, all types of factors will affect the markets – from debt in countries such as Greece (and others) to China’s stock market, to something going on in the economy of the world. The questions is what should you do with your investments and John Heinzl writing in the Globe and Mail offered a 5 step plan. Hopefully you have heard many, but they are deserve repeating for part of investing your money is not to lose it.

1. Invest in Quality

You will hear and read about some stocks doubling and going up multiple times in one year; (it was much easier when the world’s markets all fell, but in an seemingly average year, always buy the best or quality companies you can. If you have a reasonably diversified portfolio which gives you dividends, you can ride out the downs and profit even more on the up swings.

2. Thing like a business owner

When you own an asset and it goes up in value do you sell when the price goes up or do you continue with it? It will depend on opportunities but if you own real estate as your home and price goes up do you sell, where do you move to? By ensuring your debt levels are manageable and you have cash flow you do not have to sell when prices are depressed, you can buy more assets,

3. Focus on the long term

Ideally you should buy and hold for 3 to 5 years, which means if today the markets are down, then it is okay. If the market is up today then it is better but you have not hit your targets which allows waiting even better.

4. Count your dividends – not your paper losses.

If you own dividend paying stocks, focus on how well are the dividend paying relative to the other alternatives such as bonds and a bank account. If the companies are doing as expected and continuing to increase their dividends, the market will reward the share prices with a higher multiple. Focus on the cash from the dividends.

5. Keep some cash on hand

The best time to make money on the stock market is after a market had a major correction. This is the time when the quality companies can be bought for less. As the markets improve, the best companies will bounce back fastest and your portfolio assets will increase.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, buying quality stocks which pay a dividend help you ride through the economic cycles of the markets and you will see downturns as great buying opportunities. We all saw bank stocks lose value during the 2008 mortgage back securities fall out, but the best ones have regained and surpassed their previous highs. The market giveth and takes away, but you can benefit from the cycles.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In every company the words maximizing the potential of brands and business is easily found, what is harder is to actually do it. At the moment, the world’s eyes are on a Brazilian company called 3G Capital and for they manage to find profits in the restaurant chain Burger King. The company also owns the beer brewer InBev and they teamed up with Warren Buffett to buy Kraft to combine it intor KraftHeinz. From a financial point of view, 3G creates value by putting dynamic management teams in charge and instilling a culture of cost cutting that incumbent management did not achieve. Part of the process is a zero based budgeting in which managers have to start from scratch in year to justify their operating budgets. The process has lead to higher operating margins (making more money); closing of manufacturing plants and elimination of less profitable product lines. From a financial point of view these are good things to be doing. The big question is can the team from 3G Capital turn around Kraft? for in the past Kraft’s execution of those wonderful words of maximizing the potential of brands and business was not that great. In an article by David Milstead he believes it is not quite the time to buy shares in KraftHeinz.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, Kraft is a large company with a healthy market share but has not been lean and operationally efficient as Heinz. There maybe reasons but times are changing and using the companies resources to the best return for the shareholders is going to be a good thing for the combined company. The results will likely take a number of quarters and then the company can be a long term hold.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Raven Strike is a fiction book written by Dale Brown published in 2011. The book is about drones and what happens if the technology falls into the wrong hands. In the book, there is a new software program which targets very specific individuals rather than a point on the earth. The drone is launched but since it is a test case, a second drone is sent along to monitor it; they accidentally hit each other and the drone goes down. The bad guys find the drones and since the test was in another country all sorts of situations develop. The elite team called Whiplash goes in and uses the latest technology to have an operational advantage of those who do not have the latest and greatest technology. It is interesting to see how a small group can have a large advantage of a large organization.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while the book is fictional, it does create interesting capabilities of the technology – drones, satellites, GPS, communication all within the team setting. Sometimes we expect non fiction companies to do the same thing, and although there is some overlap, it is not quite reality. The real issue is using what is available to your advantage and generally the larger companies because of being large and profitable can experiment or use test situations better. Then the world will change the technology comes to the smaller companies and then they have the advantage and the cycle continues.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

We all know that China has been one of the key economic drivers of the world and with a billion people living within its borders it is not surprisingly that some have gone overseas and become successful. In the book The Dragon Network – inside stories of the Most Successful Chinese Family Businesses by A.B. and Patricia Susanto published by John Wiley & Sons, Singapore,2013 some of the stories are told. Similar to most people leaving their homeland to another country there is discrimination which leads to turning towards people from the family or the same town or province to both get ahead and to succeed. This leads to the organization of the business which is a family run business. In all families some are wonderful, some want to build and some only want the spoils of success. Chinese society goes back thousands of years and within Chinese culture is a core of Chinese ethics, traditions and social organizations. Individuals are members of the family, which translates for you to be successful the family will be successful, to go against the family is not good. The resources of family are grouped together to ensure a self sufficiency. The working for the glory of the family means to live frugal to encourage savings, conserving resources and displaying modesty. Patience and the long run view are important attributes.

The book goes through a variety of concerns for family run or private companies which is useful to anyone who works in such a company.

Linking to dividend producing stocks the attributes for Chinese traditions lend themselves well to business which can lead to many opportunities. Through living frugally which leads to savings can lead to good investments and greater self sufficiency. If you think about a dividend stock, at first you may own a few shares but through the years dividends and reinvestments the number grows and the size of the dividend grows. It is sexy to own shares which double and triple and go even higher, but unless you sell you may end up with little more than started with. Sometimes slow and steady wins the race.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Everyday we are surrounded by processes and things designed to make our lie simpler however somehow it always becomes more complex. In a book The Artist’s Way at Work – Riding the Dragon –  12 Weeks to Creative Freedom by Mark Bryan, Julia Cameron and Catherine Allen published by William Morrow and Company, NY, 1998 a process is described how you turn your life towards the simpler version. It all starts with what is important to you, why do you get up and after having your basic needs what is important to you and why. The 12 weeks has a connection to riding the Dragon which is a metaphor for both looking inwards and soaring in the sky. The process involves some ups and downs and it helps a person figure out what is important in their life and set about making those aspects the focus of your life. Along the way you will may have to be creative to figure out how you will do those aspects first. Most of our lives have ups and downs ideally there are more ups than downs, but we all have to learn to prioritize particularly in the down times.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if our lives go up and down through cycles so does the stocks market. The easy times is to buy a company stock and see it rise, the hardest aspect is to see it fall and not rise for a extend period of time. If the company’s stock falls but the company is paying a dividend, the upside is  the yield rises and it is easy to justify keeping the stock.

When governments decide to go to war, they send in the special forces first and there are many stories of battles. Remembering they have guns with bullets and so does the other side or people lose their lives. In a book written by Mark Owen titled No Hero – the Evolution of a Navy Seal, published by Dutton part of the Penguin Group, New York, 2014, Mr. Owen focuses on the preparation needed to do a successful mission for the SEALS and something many of us non seals can learn. Mr. Owen writes there is no secret sauce – but there is hard work, dedication and drive. The reality is that SEALs do not think of themselves as special. We simply try to do the most basic tasks extraordinarily well.

One of the best leaders I know used to challenge his junior guys to be engaged and part of the team. At what level are you willing to participate, he would ask. All in, all the time was the only acceptable answer.

When the other side shoots real bullets, you have to trust you life to your team. Trust is built slowly through the character of the person, their leadership and being calm to make good decisions in battle. In battle the team is more important than the person, however it is expected not to accept anything but the best for everyone. Everyone works for the team and does their best all the time, then trust will be built.

One of the ways trust is easily broken is how are decisions made, Are decisions made from the top down or bottom up? The answer tends to build or not build trust quickly. If it is top down, although the people at the top have shown they made good decisions in the past, sometimes other reasons will go into their decision making. If you make it bottom up – many of the same visuals the top leaders has is shown to all and decisions will be made relating to getting in and out minimizing the risks.

The SEALs have a debrief or communication or After Action Review (AAR) after every mission. The group gathers and the purpose of the AAR is to teach the lessons to be learnt from the mission. Everyone talks about the mission what was good, what needed improvement, egos are left at the door and everyone needs to take hones criticism. For the SEALs the checklist is Mission Planning; Infil; Actions on the Objective; Tactical Questioning; Exfil; Communications; Intel; and HQ. Everyone is free to talk and encouraged to speak up and offer suggestions for improvements.

The benefits of the exercise is it eliminated any infighting. Everyone has a chance to say their piece and air any concerns. The issues were brought forward and some of the solutions require thinking outside of the box or finding a better way next time. The ability to communicate with complete openness and honestly solved the big and small problems. For the individual the lessons are learned to make the team better and it is not about the individual. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone can learn their mistakes. the team improves.

In the book, the SEALs use the technology and the backup of the military. Information from drones to watch for patterns which most of do. We all tend to follow patterns, for example, we like to sleep inside as opposed to outside. This means lights are usually off when we sleep. We tend to take our shoes off when we sleep. These are clues for patterns and decision making.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, trust and communication are always difficult, if you think about your reviews over the years these two issues came up the most to be improved. We are humans which means some see the big picture, some see the smaller picture and some see the in-between and how they come together will define how the team functions. For stock picking you are focusing on the senior management team.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When governments decide to go to war, they send in the special forces first and there are many stories of battles. Remembering they have guns with bullets and so does the other side or people lose their lives. In a book written by Mark Owen titled No Hero – the Evolution of a Navy Seal, published by Dutton part of the Penguin Group, New York, 2014, Mr. Owen focuses on the preparation needed to do a successful mission for the SEALS and something many of us non seals can learn. Mr. Owen writes there is no secret sauce – but there is hard work, dedication and drive. The reality is that SEALs do not think of themselves as special. We simply try to do the most basic tasks extraordinarily well.

One of the best leaders I know used to challenge his junior guys to be engaged and part of the team. At what level are you willing to participate, he would ask. All in, all the time was the only acceptable answer.

In Mr. Owen’s book which you can read as a management book to achieve success you will need purpose, confidence, handing fear, stress, trust, and communication. Some of the other topics are related to actions of war, but for most of us if we make an error people still live. On the front lines, mistakes costs lives – therefore there is a high degree of preparation and use of available technology and training to minimize lives lost.

For SEALs purpose is easily defined with a very tough barrier of entry, this barrier to entry makes everyone who tries needing to have a purpose why they should be called one of the best. For most companies, the barrier to entry is reasonably low and the company and individual need to find their fit. This is when confidence is needed. There should be some tests or accomplishments which allow you to have confidence in your job, the company and looking forward to the future.

Mr. Owen has a story about confidence and your three foot world or you might say your cubicle or workspace area. Mr. Owen’s example is both rock climbing (concentrate on what you can do or within your 3 foot world) and parachuting. Although the tips of always be aware are useful, more useful is the walk through. If you walk through before you actually put your gear on, you will be more ready. If you are more ready, you will be able to make better decisions and able to control what you can. Preparation is the key before jumping.

In combat with real bullets flying about there is plenty of stress, however the process is always the same. In combat the idea is to keep things as simple as possible. Assess what is there, not what should be but assess the situation, prioritize it and break it down to smaller tasks which you can accomplish or eliminate or fix immediately. Through constant practice, repetition and experience the process will feel like an instinct and when that happens everything starts slowing down.

.Linking to dividend paying stocks, when you examine the management team you are looking to see if they are working together and not fighting for the top spot. Many organizations falter when two or more fight for the top spot – how does the person gets his team working together or do they?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When governments decide to go to war, they send in the special forces first and there are many stories of battles. Remembering they have guns with bullets and so does the other side or people lose their lives. In a book written by Mark Owen titled No Hero – the Evolution of a Navy Seal, published by Dutton part of the Penguin Group, New York, 2014, Mr. Owen focuses on the preparation needed to do a successful mission for the SEALS and something many of us non seals can learn. Mr. Owen writes there is no secret sauce – but there is hard work, dedication and drive. The reality is that SEALs do not think of themselves as special. We simply try to do the most basic tasks extraordinarily well.

One of the best leaders I know used to challenge his junior guys to be engaged and part of the team. At what level are you willing to participate, he would ask. All in, all the time was the only acceptable answer.

The team learned how to excel. Excelling means communicating with each other, testing, listening, studying and teaching day in day out, year after year. Part of the process was letting others call you on your mistakes. In this fashion everyone is examining the decisions made during the mission and learning from your mistakes so that the team can be effectively as possible. The debrief becomes almost as important as the mission because you can out alive. Does your team at work do this? do you?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in Mr. Owen’s book he stresses doing the simple things and understanding the most basic principles perfectly in order to execute them. If you do it you will always be ahead of someone who lacks the fundamentals. The fundamentals of the market is to make money in the market investing in profitable stocks which pay a dividend is going to allow you to be ahead in the long run. There will always be many theories how to beat the market and every one will work in one instance, most will not work outside that one special circumstance. Investing in profitable stocks works throughout the years.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.