Weekend Digest: The Spock, Yuccies & Doug McMillon Edition

TV PREVIEW: THE INTERNET OF THINGS

This week on Talk Business & Politics, which airs Sundays at 9 a.m. on KATV Channel 7:

Sen. Tom Cotton. The state’s junior senator weighs in on the growing Presidential field sprouting from the U.S. Senate, and he’ll share his thoughts on the motivation behind a strategy on ISIS.

Plus, TB&P contributors Jessica DeLoach Sabin and Wes Brown join host Roby Brock to discuss the open carry debate, the governor’s trade trip to Europe, and the economic impact of the LR Air Force base.

And, our IT roundtable. What exactly is the Internet of Things and how will it change your worldview? Verizon Wireless’ Kristi Crum; Mainstream Technologies John Burgess; and Lee Watson from The Venture Center discuss this plus STEAM education and more fascinating topics on what’s right around the corner in the tech world.

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics Sunday at 9 a.m. on KATV Channel 7.

THE MAN REINVENTING WAL-MART

Fortune magazine has a deep profile of Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillion, now more than a year on the job.

As many know, McMillon started as a stocker at Wal-Mart and has held a variety of positions in the company.

In his more than two-decade career at Walmart, Doug McMillon has unloaded trucks in a warehouse and helped lead a $2.4 billion acquisition in South Africa. He has been at various times one of the world’s biggest buyers of teen sportswear, Halloween candy, and potpourri.

He has discovered and sold off excess apparel inventory stored in an underground bunker. And he’s been a champion for private-label baby formula. Through it all he has rarely, if ever, appeared flummoxed. And never at any point can anyone recall him struggling.

Until, that is, his first day in the office after officially taking charge as CEO of the world’s largest retailer on Feb. 1, 2014. The problem: He wasn’t sure where to sit.

There is some solid insight in the article on the challenges McMillon faces, but there’s also a lot of face time with the 48-year old CEO. He opens up about the pressures of being in charge, his personal life, and there are comments from former Wal-Mart leaders and his international peers.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sanderberg had this to say about McMillon, “Usually when you meet leaders, you get a sense that they’re focused on one or the other: execution of their current business or innovative ways to grow… What’s interesting about spending time with Doug is that he’s clearly on both. His conversations, his questions — he’s on both.”

Read this interesting profile here.

ONLINE VIDEO VS. DVDs AND THEATERS

In case you missed it, online video revenue is poised to pass two major milestones, according to this Bloomberg report.

Spending on movie downloads and video streaming subscriptions in the U.S. will surpass purchases and rentals of DVDs for the first time this year, according to a report Tuesday from PricewaterhouseCooopers LLP.

Electronic home-video revenue will climb 13 percent to $9.5 billion this year, while physical sales drop to $7.8 billion, the consulting firm said. By 2017, the electronic revenue will reach $12 billion, at which point it will exceed the U.S. film box office, according to the report.

Think that may have some ramifications for the future of programming, movie-making and distribution? Read more here.

HERE COMES THE DISRUPTION

VentureBeat takes a look at how technology is disrupting five core industries in America (and globally too). What’s right around the corner for manufacturing, finance, healthcare, energy and communications?

It’s a quick-and-easy read and more food-for-thought than deep analysis. Still, check it out at this link.

HOW TO WIN AN AUTO FACTORY

Arkansas has tried for nearly two decades to land a highly-vaunted auto assembly plant, and it may win one with the Lockheed Martin JLTV military vehicle. Last month, South Carolina was the winner of a new North American Volvo assembly plant.

The Charlotte Business Journal takes a behind-the-scenes peek at what made Gov. Nikki Haley’s and local economic developers’ effort so successful:

“Do whatever you have to do to make this happen,” an S.C. county official told his economic-development director.

From separate sources and not included in the Charleston Regional Business Journal story, an update on how much in incentives the Volvo plant cost S.C.: $200 million-plus. That’s up from the $150 million figure reported on the day of the announcement.

Read more here.

ROMNEY OUT TO ELIMINATE CHAOS

From Politico, there is news that former GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney is working to improve the prospects of the eventual 2016 Republican Presidential contender:

Mitt Romney is working with an unlikely collaborator — Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who bankrolled Newt Gingrich’s 2012 campaign — in the hopes of ensuring that the GOP primary produces a mainstream conservative without any of the mayhem that marked his own race.

The two, who speak monthly, aim to convince the wealthy contributors bankrolling various candidates to work together to avoid the kind of primary election chaos that Romney believes laid the seeds for his defeat in 2012. The former Massachusetts governor is also considering endorsing a candidate to achieve his goal.

Read more at this link.

HOW HILLARY AIMS TO WIN

The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman analyze Hillary Clinton’s path to the Presidency from an Electoral College strategy. She won’t be following Bill Clinton’s 50-state strategy.

Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be dispensing with the nationwide electoral strategy that won her husband two terms in the White House and brought white working-class voters and great stretches of what is now red-state America back to Democrats.

Instead, she is poised to retrace Barack Obama’s far narrower path to the presidency: a campaign focused more on mobilizing supporters in the Great Lakes states and in parts of the West and South than on persuading undecided voters.

What are the ramifications of such a strategy? Read more at this link.

GOP DEFENDING SENATE SEATS IN 2016

Real Clear Politics looks at the challenges Republicans face in 2016 tied to holding (or gaining) U.S. Senate seats.

In last year’s Senate elections, Democrats were forced to defend a number of vulnerable seats, ultimately losing their majority as a wave of Republicans cruised to victory in states that President Obama had lost in previous elections. Next year, however, the script will flip, with Republicans defending swing-state seats during a high-turnout presidential year and trying to maintain their control of the upper chamber.

Still in the early stages of formation, this political storyline will no doubt see more ink and digital attention in the coming months. Read the full analysis here.

A KANSAS REPORTER STANDS HIS GROUND

National Journal reporter Ron Fournier interviews Kansas capitol reporter John Hanna over a recent event involving a closed door meeting that Hanna stumbled into.

Kansas lawmakers and the governor’s budget director assembled in an unscheduled, private meeting to look at how to make up a $800 million budget shortfall. Hanna happened into the meeting on accident and was told he couldn’t stay.

But he did. What happened next? Read the backstory at this link.

HIPSTERS ARE OUT, YUCCIES ARE IN

David Infante writes a self-deprecating but insightful piece for Mashable on the rising Millennial class of workers and entrepreneurs known as Yuccies – Young Urban Creatives.

This generational shift, he contends, means the end of “the hipsters” and the beginning of this new term. Some characteristics?

What do we call me? I’m a 26-year-old writer who lives in a gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. I’m a straight white man with a single-speed bike and a mustache. I studied liberal arts in college, and I have ideas about stuff, you guys.

Millennial? Hipster? Yuppie? All of these, or none? We don’t have a term that quite encapsulates this corner of the despicable millenn-intelligensia. And like any other privileged member of a so-called “creative class,” being called a hipster offends me for its inaccuracy. I demand to be snarked in precise terms.

Let’s consider something new: Yuccies. Young Urban Creatives. In a nutshell, a slice of Generation Y, borne of suburban comfort, indoctrinated with the transcendent power of education, and infected by the conviction that not only do we deserve to pursue our dreams; we should profit from them.

It’s a funny piece, but also full of insight regarding the admittedly over-generalized attributes of the 20-somethings hitting society and the work world. Do you know any Yuccies who fit the description? Read more here.

QUIT ‘SPOCKING’ THOSE FIVERS

Canadian banks have a problem and their latest request is likely to create more problems than solve them.

Bank of Canada is pleading with Star Trek fans to stop “Spocking” its five dollar bills. Since Leonard Nimoy’s death, Canadian folks have been “Spocking” the hell out of the five dollar bill that features a portrait of Canada’s seventh prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

Sir Wilfrid now sports, on certain bills at least, pointy ears, the signature Vulcan haircut and eyebrows and Spock’s mantra “Live long and prosper.”

It actually is messing with some of the security features on those bank notes, but it may be too much fun to pass up. Here’s the link to read more.