Noise is a constant, it is around us and sometimes the noise is something we like and we want it loud, others times the noise is something we do not want and we want it quiet. An interesting book which looks at the subject is the book Noise – A Human History of Sound and Listening by David Henry, HarperCollins, NY, 2013. The book is based on the radio program which ran on the BBC in England. To start at the beginning during prehistoric times – the noise was largely from nature. Every animal makes a sound, people tended to live in caves and they resonate. Where they resonate more is where the art is to be found. Nobody is certain if the artists knew the principles of the sound and where the art is but the theory works where art and caves are to be found.

The desire to talk and listen to people is the reason for the world to keep using mobile phones, long before the invention, people in Ghana were communicating with drums. They would send out the equivalent of a Morse Code to talk to others for both safety and normal conversation. Once the tones of the drum are learnt, the drums can send out multiple messages.

If you been to a forest and spent a little time, you will quickly learn the sounds of the forest. If you been there for a longer time, you can develop where you are by sounds you hear. There is a distinctive sound based on the geology, climate and wildlife. Added to the sounds is the wind which changes as the wind increases and decreases.

From nature we move to people and story telling. One of the methods we learn our values and principles is through story telling. Whether it be a story teller in school or the library or at home to going to the market and listening to storytelling at coffee houses. An interesting story is the one about the ancient theatre at Epidaurus in southern Greece. The setting is beautifully symmetrical gently sloping auditorium which could seat 14,000. The open air building cuts out the risk of interfering reverberation. This means voices from the stage roll up to the audience and high frequency sounds of the actors are amplified as they go. The juicy part of the story is the plays depended on the listening of the audience, and the actors had to be very good to keep the audience engaged. If they were not, the audiences would become restless and be disruptive. Audience participation was as much as part of the performance as the actors on the stage.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in many of the examples noise is seen as background but in reality it is integral part of the landscape. For example, we look at the hills and trees changing but with the trees is a whole host of things happening and noises being made. For a company to continue to pay a dividend it has to be getting the little things right, as well as the big ones. It takes the understanding the noise of the consumer to offer feedback and to continuously improve the business. A book such as Noise offers us the ability to think about a section of life and how it can play a bigger part in our everyday life.

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

Everyone in the world has done some event planning, as soon as you get more than two people together you are event planning. Most of the world does plan million dollar events, but something less. Often one of the biggest events is a wedding, but birthday parties or neighbourhood parties all go through the same checklist. The book event planning by Judy Allen, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, 2000 is a great guide as the price of the event rises. For most of us, except for the Wedding or Anniversary party, we do a lot of stuff in our heads because the budget is relatively low. For example in the coming week is Halloween – you may go out for trick or treating or stay home and have the kids come over. It is not a great decision to do it at the last moment, otherwise you will be running around for all the little things you forgot. The book event planning features gala events and conferences but the same process goes for any size event.

The reason the purpose of the event is paramount is who is the targeted audience. If you watch the movie or read the book The Great Gatsby – the target audience for all the parties was a lady who live across the bay – Daisy. Why are you choosing the guest list? The event will determine what you hope to do. Questions include who needs to be there? The higher the profile of quest, the higher the need to go “first class”. Do you want media to be there? who is free or complementary?

At every event food and beverage needs to be offered. What kind of food and how it is presented is as varied as food. Many years ago, the author used to go to a lunch meeting and the main course was roast beef, the audience has changed and now roast beef is rarely on the menu. Food preferences for people change over time, but food is needed.

Other considerations consider entertainment. Plan it carefully knowing who your audience is. What kind of event it is and the age range. Make it appropriate and fun for the audience. Use good judgement. When you have entertainers they need to set up.

Photographer – do you wish a official photographer? people will take pictures with their cell phones.

In terms of themes and programs as long as they complement the purpose, use your creative spark to enhance the event. If you have tables, the guests need to see over the centrepiece. The décor can be anything you wish – there are amazing number of things to be rented.

The wrap up is most important because you have both learned things for next time as well as have a go to list for suppliers. It gets easier each time you do it. Send thank you notes. Remember each event is filled with people and with that there will be magic in the details and magic of memorable events to come.

The book appendix has many check lists for you which can be modified depending on the size and scope of the event. The list helps your attention to detail.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, with the planning of the event, the success is the purpose of the event being fulfilled. With dividend paying stocks, the success is the continuing payment of the dividend to your account. With the money, you can reinvest, live off it or make new investments, the choice is yours. In addition as time goes by the value of the holding tends to rise. Profitable stocks will trade at higher multiples than non profitable stocks, which means you have two methods to fulfill the purpose.

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

If you ever read the books or seen the shows about Sherlock Holmes, you were likely amazed and how he solved the case. In a book called Mastermind – How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova, published by Penguin Group, NY, 2013 there are methods to be learned. Most of us are more interested in one subject or another and when asked about it can offer many insights. For example an experience home inspector will be able to look at your home and try to see into the framework of the house, however the same person may not be able to do the same for an automobile.

The Holmes method has 5 points:

1. Know Yourself  – and Your Environment   

Prior to making specific deductions, pause and reflect to and look at the bigger picture which allows you to put the details into context.

2. Observe – Carefully and Thoughtfully

Asking your yourself about the context and what is there? what should be there and is not? Try to examine the clues from different perspectives to see other clues. Give your self some time or patience to come up with ideas.

3. Imagine – Remembering to Claim the Space You May Not Think You Need

Imagination and creativity is used to think and pause about various options which can be rejected to move on.

4. Deduce – Only from What You’ve Observed, and Nothing More

We are people and we have biases and desire specific results, but are the clues really telling you that? try not to bring your biases into the conclusion.

5. Learn – From Your Failures Just as You Do from Your Successes

Practice, Practice, Practice and you will begin to make fewer mistakes, but learn from your mistakes.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in choosing which investment to make you will need to continue to narrow your process and the method helps you narrow the choices. This blog believes by focusing on dividend paying companies, you will lose less money because those companies are profitable and although the stock market goes up and down in the long run profitable companies do better. Along the way, it is very good to receive income or a dividend.

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

Today is Halloween and some people celebrate it more than others. Generally the author is in the second category, but there have days when it has be celebrated. One Halloween it was noticed the homes with lights on, there were a lot more than normal which meant the streets were lighted up and seemingly safer. There were more people than normal on the streets which made the street seemingly safer. The notion of giving candy away, is still lost on me, although my cynical side says the candy companies somehow enhanced this tradition which should be an expected boost to their revenues. When they report their October financials Halloween should give a bump in their sales.

This is one method which as a consumer in your everyday life you can gain insights into how the company is doing. There are a number of companies that do better during the national celebrations and the holidays. Do you see evidence that people are buying stuff to enhance their celebrations? In the US, the federal reserve is trying not to stimulate the economy because things are getting better. Holidays or celebrations are a great time to see if things are getting better or how much better they are getting. Are people spending little amounts or larger amounts to celebrate? We all collect evidence of how things are going? what should be and can be and the next step is look towards possible opportunities with that knowledge. Included in the step is to narrow your focus and do your homework to verify what you see is seen by the financials to determine if you do something or nothing.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as the dividends continue to flow you can celebrate on a regular basis. The economy or the economy of the stocks you have picked is doing well, the management is doing its job and from a financial point of view things are going good. With dividend paying stocks, if the dividend comes under pressure, it is time to look at other alternatives. One of the hardest thing for most investors is when to sell, with dividend paying stocks, since you expect to hold for a period of time, the thing to focus on is the dividend payment. If it continues to grow every year, it is keeper. If it begins to fall, there are other alternatives in the marketplace.  If you celebrate Halloween have fun.

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

Everyone in the world has done some event planning, as soon as you get more than two people together you are event planning. Most of the world does plan million dollar events, but something less. Often one of the biggest events is a wedding, but birthday parties or neighbourhood parties all go through the same checklist. The book event planning by Judy Allen, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, 2000 is a great guide as the price of the event rises. For most of us, except for the Wedding or Anniversary party, we do a lot of stuff in our heads because the budget is relatively low. For example in the coming week is Halloween – you may go out for trick or treating or stay home and have the kids come over. It is not a great decision to do it at the last moment, otherwise you will be running around for all the little things you forgot. The book event planning features gala events and conferences but the same process goes for any size event.

In Ms Allen’s book there are a variety of chapters after you have picked your event and have a budget to pay for it. Next comes the organization of the event. Being organized and paying close attention to detail are two of the most important elements of running a successful event. You will need to constant check to ensure the guidelines and dates things that are needed are finished. For example when you do a mailing send it to your home address, that way you will know it has arrived in time for decisions to be made. If the event is a hotel or restaurant, if you keep them updated as numbers change, they can often accommodate it, otherwise it will be more costly. The other key element of organization is time and date of the event. There is always something going on in people’s lives, pick a date that fits into the purpose of the event and if necessary tie it into major events.

The next step is location, location, location – where is the event to be held? Before the event ensure you have gone there and visualized your event on what is to happen and you are comfortable it will work. If the event is to raise money, ensure the costs allow that to happen. Ms. Allen’s book looks at things to consider about hotels, restaurants, theatres and tents.

Transportation to the event. How do people get to the venue(s)? Limousines, Buses, Cars – parking? valet parking?

If the event is over more than one day? what to do with the guests?

Thinking about the purpose of the event what should the room look like? What audio visual or staging is required? how is the room organized? is there security needed? if there is a dance afterwards is there a good floor for dancing?

Linking to dividend paying stocks with most things in life once you have answer one question there are more. If you are event hosting, there are the easy parts and parts  that will ask more questions. As you do more than one, the decisions become easier but the basic reason or purpose remains. Why are we doing this? what is the expected outcome? If you expected outcome is to make money, then buying profitable stocks which pay a dividend is a good thing to do. Dividends just mean the company has enough profits to both reinvest in the business as well to give money back to the shareholders. Every company has a balance act which is best to do – take advantage of greater opportunities or give money to the owners or both? This blog likes the both part and if the company is consistently raising the dividend over the years so much the better.

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

Everyone in the world has done some event planning, as soon as you get more than two people together you are event planning. Most of the world does plan million dollar events, but something less. Often one of the biggest events is a wedding, but birthday parties or neighbourhood parties all go through the same checklist. The book event planning by Judy Allen, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, 2000 is a great guide as the price of the event rises. For most of us, except for the Wedding or Anniversary party, we do a lot of stuff in our heads because the budget is relatively low. For example in the coming week is Halloween – you may go out for trick or treating or stay home and have the kids come over. It is not a great decision to do it at the last moment, otherwise you will be running around for all the little things you forgot. The book event planning features gala events and conferences but the same process goes for any size event.

After you have decided to do an event, the next step is planning and budgeting. Remember once the event starts, there is no rewind and there is a rule which you need to prepare for and hopefully not experience too often – Murphy’s Law of whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. If you manage people in your job, event planning is an extension of the skill set. Remember all events cost some money and even if you buy at the dollar store, there are expenses. The organizers need to write a cheque and as a planner you need to try to stay within the budget, knowing the tighter it is the more alternatives you will need to go through. If the budget is okay, continue.  The next element of thinking is the purpose of the event – why is the event being held and all the rest of the planning should feed into the why.

As the event planning begins to unfold, there are more elements which need to be settled including time requirements? when does the event take place? always work backyards from the date of the event which enables the checklist to be ticked off when they are done. The more checkmarks there are before the event, the better the event. As the event is to occur – try to visualize it. Walk yourself through arrivals, to doing the event and ensuring the purpose of the event is fulfilled. Why would the event be a success? is there a wow moment? what perception did you leave?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are many methods to picking stocks – there are textbooks with great and no so great ideas, one easy method to start with profitable companies that pay a dividend. There can be wide opinions on each stock, but we know that profitable companies stock performs better than non profitable stocks, those that can afford to pay a dividend means you can worry about other things. A successful event will leave a good feeling about the company or the people you have meant, a profitable company with a dividend will continue to enhance your pocket book.

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

Chances are if you have travelled you have seen or maybe even stayed at a Hilton hotel.The Hiltons owned the chain of the hotels which was founded by Conrad Hilton and among the books which document the success of the family is The Hiltons – The True Story of an American Dynasty by J Randy Taraborrelli published by Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2014. The book describes the family from the early days in Texas to one of the better from Conrad to Baron and Nicky to their sons to Paris Hilton. The chain was eventually sold and the family runs a large foundation.

While most of the book is about the personal lives of the family, there is an interesting story and lesson concerning Hilton Hotels. As hotels were built by the airports there was a natural inclination to team up with an airline to make the steps of airline booking and hotel reservation seamless. Conrad Hilton decided to team up with TWA on its international side, there were a variety of really good reasons. TWA was one of the biggest airlines in the US that flew many flights outside the US borders. The competition in those days was Pan-Am. The money received from TWA would allow the company to increase its presence in the domestic market. The consequences which were rejected by Conrad Hilton was TWA had competition, lots of it. Once Hilton formally joined with TWA, the other airlines made it harder to book a HIlton hotel on their system. Not everyone that flew TWA stayed at HIlton International, so growth was slowed. In addition, in Japan Hilton had a joint venture with a hotel company which was eventually connected to Japan Airlines or the competition. The joint venture was wound down and Hilton was left with no hotels in Japan and had to rebuild. The worse part of the TWA venture was the airline was at its peak when the Hilton contract was signed, in a few years TWA shares had gone from $60 to under $ 5 or it was not the best partner for Hilton.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the eyes of Conrad Hilton linking to an airline made good sense, the consequences of tying Hilton to TWA turned out to be a bad decision for Hilton. Every decision has positive and negative attributes which can be seen looking back, but not so clear looking forward. The lesson to learn is when a company joins another as a partner, it may not control the partner and the reasons why the company was a good partner changes. It is important to have influence on the partner or be able to get out of the partnership if the reasons for the joint venture changes.

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

Chances are if you have travelled you have seen or maybe even stayed at a Hilton hotel.The Hiltons owned the chain of the hotels which was founded by Conrad Hilton and among the books which document the success of the family is The Hiltons – The True Story of an American Dynasty by J Randy Taraborrelli published by Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2014. The book describes the family from the early days in Texas to one of the better from Conrad to Baron and Nicky to their sons to Paris Hilton. The chain was eventually sold and the family runs a large foundation.

After world war 2, the United States emerged as the most important country in the world and with a growing middle income group who wanted to travel.Conrad Hilton and his team began to build hotels beside airports for travellers convenience and they were generally profitable operations. Another area of growth was international – in the 1950’s the State Department and Department of Commerce encouraged hoteliers including Hilton to open a hotel in Purerto Rico. The government of the country would build the hotel, then lease it to an American business who would use American knowhow and technology to run it. This was hoped to cause tourism to increase. Hilton won the contract and tourism did increase, because the expectation all the conveniences expected in America would found in the Hilton. The Hilton followed the trends in the hotel industry with hotels in Las Vegas (for a while they were the most profitable ones as they are connected to a casino). Buying older hotels that had been and could be prime hotels again meant real estate values increased. As well as every business knows keeping costs down and trying to make it easier for a hotel user to transition to other add on such as credit cards, to airlines, were part of the Hilton legacy.

Linking to dividend paying stocks similar to 1950’s government can help, in Hilton’s case the Department of Commerce played a role. Now days it will be the city or state level which will help bring a hotel to the city. For once a hotel opens it can be considered a small or medium sized business (depending on the size of the hotel). Each hotel typically has a market it is segmenting – the airport traveller, the downtown business person, banquets, conferences. ideally somebody who does repeat business. Repeat business is similar to receiving a dividend payment on a stock – as long as the company is doing well and staying profitable it can pay a dividend. There are always many variables in the marketplace which makes staying profitable over a long period of time a great achievement, and as an investor you can share in the good management by receiving a dividend.

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

Chances are if you have travelled you have seen or maybe even stayed at a Hilton hotel.The Hiltons owned the chain of the hotels which was founded by Conrad Hilton and among the books which document the success of the family is The Hiltons – The True Story of an American Dynasty by J Randy Taraborrelli published by Grand Central Publishing, NY, 2014. The book describes the family from the early days in Texas to one of the better known names in the hotel business. One of the keys in surviving the depression because Mr. Hilton managed to pay enough to keep the creditors away and when the depression ended as occupancy rates rose, the same bankers offered credit to the company and Hilton expanded. Similar to many luxury hotels, to stay at the top of the market, it helped Mr. Hilton enjoyed the parties and galas at the hotels. In every industry, people admire various assets or wished they could own. To a hotelier there are wonderful, large hotels in every city and some were built by people who eventually had to sell. If the company is profitable or has assess to credit, trophy properties can be acquired for less than the cost to build. The owner then has to do a renovation to regain the lustre in the limelight or to be considered as the meeting place in the city.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, similar to Mr. Hilton as he slowly acquired properties to fix them up and gain higher occupancies, the key is slowly acquired. The chain did not start with the best properties, it took time to build and time to acquire. If you have patience investing, while gaining a return (dividend) can be very rewarding. Mr. Hilton’s chain took time, he expanded as opportunities arose and soon the company was the biggest hotel chain in the world as well as a profitable concern.

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