Mark Kolier’s Blog

The housing news of late continues to be dire for the most part. There are some indications that the bottom may have been reached as some areas of the U.S. are experiencing an actual uptick in new and existing home sales – some of this attributed to low interest rates but mostly due to depressed prices.
Having been an aficionado of Amazon’s recommendation system for years I wondered if the real estate market could ever adopt an organic recommendation system.

At first thought it did not seem like such a bad idea. I envisioned prospective home buyers visiting homes for sale and commenting on what they liked and what they did not. A homebuyer recommendation bulletin board could prove to be helpful for other prospective buyers having access to information on the house itself, the surrounding neighborhood, the schools and their proximity to the house itself, size of rooms etc.

But then I thought again. What home seller would want to allow strangers to come into their house and then write about what they saw? A home is a very private thing and the way it is decorated and kept is a truly personal decision. A comment like ‘The pink bathroom was awful and what were they thinking about when they put in the light fixtures in the kitchen??’ Or ‘needs a new roof and a paint job as well’ In fact I surmise that the lion’s share of comments would be negative since if a buyer was truly enamored of a house why would they want to put up information that might draw MORE buyers and therefore MORE competition, (remember the good old days of bidding wars for houses back in the 90’s and early 00’s?).

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow for community conversations about a myriad of subjects. Restaurants and other PUBLIC spaces seem to fit well with recommendation systems. Private homes and private car sales should and I expect will never fall into that kind of scrutiny. And that’s a good thing.

What do you think? Could it happen? Will it happen?

My wife, family and I have been to Mexico a half a dozen times over the past 11 years. As a vacation spot Mexico has much to offer and it has only gotten better. Many of our American friends react in similar ways when we mention we are going back to Mexico for vacation from ‘don’t drink the water’ and more recently ‘watch out for swine flu’ or worse yet ‘don’t get shot by the drug lords’.

There is a great deal of American ignorance when it comes to Mexico. As a vacation spot aside from the great weather it has a tremendous amount of beautiful coastline and beaches. The resorts vary but many are top notch with ‘A’ quality food, beverage and accommodations. Oh and then there’s tequila – and a lot more than Cuervo exists – more than 100 varieties.

Mexico has more than 110,000,000 people making it the most populated Spanish speaking nation on the planet. And the stereotype of the lazy Mexican is so hackneyed and is simply incorrect. I’ve met some business people from Mexico and they are among the hardest working people I’ve met. And on the resort side I see only people that are pleasant, hard-working and want nothing more than to help the guests have a great time. There are plenty of lazy people all over the world and the United States has its fair share without a doubt so can we drop that one on behalf of Mexico?

President Felipe Calderon has taken on a huge task in attempting to control the flow of drugs in Mexico and the strife along with kidnapping and general unrest in the highly impacted areas is serious business. But he is to be admired for his courage in taking this on – it is no doubt a key aspect of continuing to help make Mexico move forward on its way to becoming a more significant power in the world.

Mexico has a vast array of natural resources like petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber, and water. (fresh and salt) Mexico has no glaciers, all the water is melted). As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country, considered as a newly industrialized country and has the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity, and also the largest GDP per capita in Latin America according to the International Monetary Fund[19]. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. (Source – Wikipedia)

Maybe you will look at Mexico a little differently now. I know I do.

I move around a lot. More and more I rely on my PDA to communicate. But here I am in a Starbucks in NYC having finished a meeting and preparing for another one. I don’t have a Wi-Fi access card ($ 50 or $ 60/month is way too much as far as I am concerned for something that I will use maybe 5-10 hours per month.

Yet today when I wanted to get on line I was able to access AT & T’s Wi-Fi network for 2 hours for $ 3.99 (plus tax of course). I did not have quite 2 hours but that was a reasonable charge for a la carte internet access – $ 1.50/hour.

Over the weekend I flew Delta and was able to access the internet on the flight for the first time. It worked well and was pretty cool in general. The good news is that for the time being VOIP calls from the plane are blocked – I was worried about that.

Since I also ride the train to New York City frequently I would really like Wi-Fi access to be available. It is said that this is coming but I wonder at what cost? For a trip that takes about an hour and costs $ 10.00 or less it will really bug me if the charge is even $ 5.00! And if you are traveling by car there should be an inexpensive service that allows internet access from wherever you are whenever you want.

It’s more than time for a national Wi-Fi system to be put in place that works cross carriers. The cost to maintain these networks continues to drop and the overall rise in people’s productivity makes this a no-brainer. The cost to the user should be MINIMAL – not $ 50 or $ 60 per month but $ 10 or less.

In the meantime when on the road I will (like most others) hope to catch a signal for free, and then upon failing to do so will pay by the hour or 2 hour session. But I am more than ready for Wi-Fi access 2.0 – aren’t you?

‘It’s like painting a bridge.’ I like and use the expression quite a bit. The metaphor accurately depicts finally completing something only to have to begin all over again. That’s the way bridges are reputedly painted. Start at one end. Paint the whole thing to the other end. Rinse and repeat. Painting is a cool thing since it offers immediate gratification in the sense that you can see exactly what has been painted and what has not.

Our agency has had some really good success recently. Things we have been working toward and on have come to fruition and new clients are in the fold, projects have been completed and we all have (or so I like to think) a sense of satisfaction that we are contributing to our clients and to our team. But that was so last week or even two weeks ago. Now that those challenges have been met I am ready to take on new ones – do new work, bring in new clients and continue to help our clients have success and grow our company at the same time.

For some people this might be aggravating. The feeling that enough is not enough. Yet that is exactly how I feel. Like most people I love finishing a project, landing a new client etc. But I think I more enjoy the unchartered challenges of the future. And I don’t feel the need to bask in the glory of success for more than a few days. Because then I get the urge to do it all over again.

With so much to do and learn it’s easy to sometimes forget where you are on the bridge in the first place. I also know that I have felt on many occasions that I am the poor sucker whose car broke down in the middle of the bridge. There are no breakdown lanes on bridges either. Not only is that not a good place to be you tick off all the people stuck behind you and watching them go by makes you feel even worse. However in order to get where you are going you have to get right back on the bridge.

Not only am I ok with that but I have learned to embrace and enjoy it. Am I compulsive? People that know me would probably say yes. Are you? Is it a bad thing?

I have been a patron of a medical practice in my hometown for more than 17 years. The office is conveniently located to my house and office which for me is a top priority. The location is the only consistent thing about the practice. I have had three different doctors up and leave the practice over the years while I have remained loyal to the location.

Last week I went to the doctor essentially to extend a prescription and interview one of the ‘new’ doctors as I had not been in the office for over a year (kind of missed my annual checkup when my previous doctors up and left). The doctor mentioned he had been with the practice for more than two years. Who knew? Not me for sure.

I have no intention in this post to write a diatribe on the medical profession in general. But I do think the aspect of customer service (or lack thereof) is notable when discussing one’s health. All my previous doctors in this practice have left and entered the world of ‘concierge’ care. This is where each individual family member pays a flat yearly fee for 24/7 access to a doctor with no waiting. It works outside of insurance for many of the consultations and the reason the doctors enter into concierge care in the first place is their nightmare of dealing with healthcare insurance in general.

One problem with concierge care is that my family is healthy. Between the 4 of us I don’t think there have been more than two total visits to the doctor in over a year. So aside from the substantial cost of engaging in concierge care it would be total waste of money.

So what are we left with? A medical practice that is conveniently located for my life, as well as one that has all of our medical records. When I call even during what they term as normal business hours I get a voice mail system. I really don’t like this when it comes to my health. I often have to call multiple times to actually talk with someone who has a clue. I find the people in the practice (receptionists, nurses, and doctors to be a bit detached and distant). This could be just the practice I go to but I sense it might be endemic of the entire situation as a whole.

At one point I had to wait ‘five’ minutes for the doctor to come in. Twenty minutes later the nurse walked in and said sorry the doctor was running late. Really? The doctor seemed ok and devoid of other better options I will likely soldier on with doctor #4 in this practice.

Why couldn’t the doctors reach out to patients to tell them of the changes and their interest in retaining me and my family as patients? This new doctor had never seen anything regarding my history until he opened the file while I was sitting in the room. However I had done search on the doctor before I walked in and had an idea of where he went to school, his history and credentials.

I talked to a new client prospect last week on the phone for the first time. Their first question was had I looked at their website. I said yes of course and wouldn’t they have been disappointed had I not done so? They liked that a lot and we had a great and productive conversation since they did not have to spend unnecessary time explaining the business model.

It’s no secret that President Obama has taken on a major issue with regard to healthcare reform. The question is can he do anything about reforming the behavior of the medical profession in general. It borders on the outrageous as far as I am concerned.

Am I wrong here?