2007 Broker-Dealer Conference Blog

"Every Day's the 4th of July at Disney"

The nightly fireworks in the Magic Kingdom can be viewed from the Contemporary's 15th floor observation tower. And you can catch the nightly presentation of the Electrical Water Pageant at Seven Seas Lagoon from the Contemporary's boat dock or the beach at Bay Lake. Watch a video from Google. 

"Discipline, Denial, and Double-Digit Growth"

According to Michael Treacy - consultant, speaker, management thinker, entrepreneur, and author of "Double-Digit Growth" - growth is the oxygen of business. In his keynote address at OneVoice (Monday, January 29, 4:00 p.m.) Treacy will put it bluntly: You're not suffering because of the terrorist threat, a stagnant economy, those darn regulators, or the war in Iraq. The truth is that corporate America has a growth problem - a broad, profound, systemic problem that worsens quarter by quarter because of constant denial. Many corporations, says Treacy, have simply lost the discipline to grow, and growing companies thrive, while shrinking companies die. Scroll down to an earlier post that has a link to a brief audio interview with Treacy.

"Speaking of Growth . . . The Dot Com Bubble Revisited"

Remember Webvan, etoys, Pets.com, and TheGlobe.com? They're in the dotcom graveyard, and probably deservedly so. But what about wrestlinggear.com? It survives - and according to a new study by professors at the University of Maryland it is exactly the sort of demanding niche market for which Web shopping was invented. The University of Maryland has created a Business Plan Archive, a repository for business plans from the Internet bubble days, with some interesting nuggets of information about those heady days. Of note is that nearly half the companies the professors studied were still in business in 2004, although conventional thinking is that just a few percent made it post-crash. The strategic mantra of the era was Get Big Fast in order to dominate a market. Read the rest of the story in The Wall Street Journal.

"The Breakaway RIA"

Who are they? Why are they breaking away? What do they think they're breaking away from? Why should you care? Here's what Brian Murphy, CEO of Woodbury Financial and a member of this CEO-track OneVoice panel (Tuesday, January 30, 9:30 a.m.) says: "Every broker-dealer needs to be thinking about this issue - rep "coaches" are encouraging it and regulations seems to reward it. But misconceptions are common. Advisors are hearing that they'll gain greater independence, more revenue, less regulation, and reduced risk. But is this really in clients' best interests? Will regulators respond with heightened controls on independent RIAs? How should broker-dealers respond? You'll hear directly from an advisor who made the RIA-only move as well as a regulator on what the future  'response' may be to this trend."

FSI has posted two On the Issues pieces on this topic, from John Simmers, CEO of ING Advisors Network, and Eric Schwartz, president and founder of Cambridge Investment Research.Download them from the FSI web site. And check out this interesting article from Investment News about a survey on whether registered reps want to change channels. Not the television kind.

"I AM the Breakaway RIA"

Why would an independent advisor choose to leave a broker-dealer and go out on his or her own in spite of a good working relationship with the b-d? Bill Hart, CFP, one of the panelists for the "Breakaway RIA" session at OneVoice (Tuesday, January 30, 9:30 a.m.) will tell you. Bill, a RIA with his own firm of Retirement Strategies, Inc., in Jacksonville, Florida, will help you learn how an advisor evaluates the value of the relationship with a b-d, what the alternatives are for the advisor, and what you may be able to do to preserve the relationship with the advisor. According to Bill, "It's imperative that broker-dealers learn to maintain relationships with high producing advisors, because these are the individuals that have the scale in their own businesses to break away. These also are the most profitable relationships for your firms. A common misperception about this subject is that the primary reason an advisor might leave is due to increased compliance requirements." And if you're looking for the one question to ask - the one that Bill says he always expects to get about this topic - it's: What would it take for an advisor to come back to a broker-dealer? This is a don't-miss session for CEOs at OneVoice.

"What Do You Stand For? Five Questions for John Kasich"

Former 9-term U.S. Representative John Kasich, now a managing director with Lehman Brothers, will be the closing general session keynote speaker on Wednesday, January 31, 9:45 a.m. Kasich's most recent book is "Stand For Something:  The Battle For America's Soul." Don't miss this provocative and dynamic speaker at OneVoice. Scroll down to the earlier post with a link to a brief audio interview with Kasich.

"A OneVoice Version of Letterman's Top 10 List: Why You Should Come to Orlando in January"

Okay, it's one Top 5 and one  Top 6, but that adds up to 11 good reasons and that's better than Letterman gives you.

From Dale Brown, FSI CEO and Executive Director: 11. January in Orlando 10.January in Orlando  9.January in Orlando 8.January in Orlando 7.January in Orlando

From Jill McKenzie, FSI Director of Corporate Relations: 6.You'll leave the conference with great benchmarking tools and new resources for leading the industry. 5. Play Osprey Ridge, a 4 and 1/2 star golf course, as rated by Golf Digest. 4.Learn how to manage and respond to the "breakaway RIA" challenge. 3.See FSI's version of American Idol - "Advisory Idol" - sans Simon Cowell. 2.Get ahead of the curve on regulatory and legislative issues.  1.You might see Dale Brown sitting on Minnie Mouse's lap.

"Customer Service Pet Peeves: If You Want to Scream, Press . . . "

Leadership in today's company requires a laser focus on customer service, no matter what you're "selling." The most recent Wall Street Journal Leadership Report is devoted to customer service, including trying to define what it is, anyway, and how you measure it. Because many of you fly on airplanes, send packages, shop online, use electricity, read news, make wireless calls, buy gasoline, and watch television (actually, that's just about all of us), you might be interested in the latest customer satisfaction scores for service industries, from the University of Michigan. Ranked #1: express delivery services. Ranked last, at #26: newspapers. The only service providers related to financial services, and their rankings in the list: Internet brokerage (#9) and life insurance companies (#14). And because most every broker-dealer firm has some type of call center for advisors, imperative reading in this report is "If You Want to Scream, Press . . . "

And if you're also wondering why you can't buy a non-proprietary cellphone and use it with any carrier, just like with a land line . . . or why you as an individual can't sell your own personal information since some company is doing it and making money off of you . . . or why - and this is really good reading before you come to Orlando for OneVoice - a candy bar costs $6 in a hotel mini-bar . . . you'll get answers to pet peeves in this article.

Also worth reading in this WSJ Leadership Report is "Good Service Gone Bad" If you have customer service beefs of your own - and want advice on getting results - listen to the podcast interview with Scott Gross, a consultant and a uthor of books on customer service.

"Bernanke's Rookie Year"

So, has the Fed Chairman made things clearer, or is he as hard to read as the famously abstruse Alan Greenspan? See if you agree with this opinion, from the editor of Investment News. Even if you don't agree, we all should care what the Fed's top dog is doing and saying. From an election a long time ago: It's the economy, stupid.

"Baptists and Bootleggers"

In 2005, there were 3,943 new regulations at the federal level. The Federal Register, which tracks regulatory authority, weighed in a 23,041 pages. The Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that regulations cost our nation an astounding $1.127 trillion a year. "Baptists," according to a Clemson University professor, promote regulations for "saintly" reasons, usually restricting the actions of certain groups of people or businesses in order to better society. But "bootleggers" are special interest groups that push for similar regulations, but for financial gain. Regulations, according to this article, from the Buckeye Institute, can go wrong in several ways, not the least of which is that regulators often become captive to those they are supposed to regulate.