The Weekend Digest: The worker rebellion, Trump bunker, and a year of drinking beer edition

TV PREVIEW
On this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics, which airs Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Channel 7 in Central Arkansas and in Northeast Arkansas on KAIT-NBC, Sundays at 10 a.m.:

Gov. Hutchinson
Gov. Asa Hutchinson is back from his trade trip to China. He’s also pushing for something new with War Memorial Stadium. And new revelations about the Affordable Care Act could impact Arkansas Works. We’ll go one-on-one.

Survey Says
A final look at poll numbers from this election season’s last and latest Hendrix College survey. Who will win Arkansas and how might some of the ballot items fare?

Talk Politics
With one medical marijuana proposal booted from the ballot, just one remains. KATV’s Janelle Lilley and Elicia Dover join me to explain this political dynamic. Plus, we’ll take a look at political TV ads that are stirring a buzz around the nation.

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics in Central Arkansas on KATV Channel 7, Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and in Northeast Arkansas on KAIT-NBC, Sundays at 10 a.m. Coming in January 2017, Talk Business & Politics will air in Northwest Arkansas on KFSM Channel 5 at 10:30 a.m. following “Face the Nation.”

IT’S THE MILLENNIAL’S WORLD
How do you market to Millennials?

RetailWire posts, “Today, 75 million Millennials now vie for dominance in cultural, political and marketing discourse. Not to mention our consumer economy — the 18-34 cohort wields $2 trillion in purchasing power.”

The recent Shop.org conference brought together retail leaders and a cadre of experts in digital tech and unified commerce. In a presentation, “Beyond the Meme: How to Reach Millennials,” W. Hunter Thomas, a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Gabbi Baker, assistant account executive with OgilvyOne, delivered a Millennial’s eye-view of Millennials.

“We even have our own language,” said Ms. Baker, drawing both knowing and puzzled smiles from audience members when she asked who was familiar with the social media shorthand, “BAE on fleek.” (BAE = before anyone else; Fleek = flawless and sleek.)

“In crisp, tag-team fashion, the two presented observations about how to market to Millennials.” Learn more about that here.

IN NORTH CAROLINA, AN OLD MILL TOWN REINVENTS ITSELF
Marketplace says, “Back when North Carolina was still a textile-manufacturing giant, Kannapolis was the quintessential company town. Right down to its nickname, “city of looms”.

“For almost a century, Cannon Mills — and its successors — defined the small city northeast of Charlotte. At one point the mill was the largest maker of sheets and towels in the world and it employed 25,000 people.”

But the mill suffered a string of management changes and bankruptcies, and had trouble competing as the textile business moved offshore. In 2003, the mill collapsed – along with much of the city it had built.

About 4,300 workers lost their jobs in the largest single-day layoff in North Carolina history.

Now there’s a new Kannapolis.

“We’re not just that old mill town anymore. We’re coming into the 21st century with the research campus,” said 30-year-old David Steele, who embodies the changes that have come to Kannapolis.”

And in the next decade even more modern changes are coming for this city that’s risen from the ashes. For the full success story, click on this link.

LET YOUR WORKERS REBEL
“Employee engagement is a problem. To fix it, encourage your workers to break rules and be themselves. We’ll show you who does it right and how you can too,” says Harvard Business Review.

“Throughout our careers, we are taught to conform — to the status quo, to the opinions and behaviors of others, and to information that supports our views. The pressure only grows as we climb the organizational ladder. By the time we reach high-level positions, conformity has been so hammered into us that we perpetuate it in our enterprises.”

In a recent survey I conducted of more than 2,000 employees across a wide range of industries, nearly half the respondents reported working in organizations where they regularly feel the need to conform, and more than half said that people in their organizations do not question the status quo. The results were similar when I surveyed high-level executives and midlevel managers. As this data suggests, organizations consciously or unconsciously urge employees to check a good chunk of their real selves at the door.

“Drawing on my research and fieldwork and on the work of other scholars of psychology and management, I will describe three reasons for our conformity on the job, discuss why this behavior is costly for organizations, and suggest ways to combat it.”

Learn how to “let your worker’s rebel” at this link.

TWITTER HAS AN OLD MEDIA PROBLEM. HERE’S A SOLUTION
The New York Times reports, “Twitter is a communications marvel, with 317 million active users who instantaneously convey a collective reaction to news.”

“But a business based primarily on advertising needs advertisers. Twitter has not figured out how to attract enough of them to eke out regular quarterly profits. A few potential buyers, including the Walt Disney Company and Salesforce.com, have kicked the tires but decided not to buy the company.”

On Thursday, Twitter reported its latest quarterly results — a net loss of $103 million, only modest growth in revenue and layoffs of 9 percent of its work force — confirming that the company is still stuck in the same unhappy place.

We have a solution: Larry Page, a founder of Google, should buy Twitter. Pull out his own wallet and buy it. Personally.

“It doesn’t literally have to be Larry Page; it could be any civic-minded billionaire who sees Twitter for what it is: a primary source for news and information, not the next Google or Facebook.”

This election has also highlighted Twitter’s capacity to augment coverage of civic events like the three presidential debates as they are happening. Instead of waiting for the predictable reactions of network anchors, guests and pundits, we can use Twitter to see reactions, smart and snarky alike, from hundreds of personally chosen observers while the debate is still on.

“Put another away, if journalism is the first draft of history, Twitter is the first draft of journalism.”

For the complete story, follow here.

OCTOBER SURPRISE REVIVES HILLARY CLINTON’S EMAIL CONTROVERSY
Real Clear Politics reports on the revelations that unfolded on Friday afternoon and evening related to the FBI’s new probe into emails possibly related to Hillary Clinton.

Eleven days before Americans determine the winner of a presidential contest already laden with multiple scandals, the political landscape looked even muddier on Friday with the latest October surprise.

The revelation, immediately greeted by Donald Trump as a political gift, emerged in the form of a letter from FBI Director James Comey to lawmakers.

Read more on the ever-evolving story here and read Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s comments from this Talk Business & Politics exclusive interview.

SENATE DEMOCRATS POISED TO PICK UP 5-7 SEATS
The Cook Political Report posts, ” Senate Republicans had been doing a pretty solid job of maintaining their distance from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump by running their own campaign that focused largely on more local issues or those issues that motivate their base. The strategy was working fine and it looked as if Republicans would be able to keep their losses low. That is until October 7 when The Washington Post reported on the existence of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump described sexually assaulting women. Then things started to unravel, albeit slowly.”

Assuming that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wins the White House, the party needs four seats to tie the chamber, leaving the Vice President as the tie breaking vote. For much of the cycle, we have expected Democrats to score a net gain of between four and six seats. Since the release of the Access Hollywood tape, Senate Republicans have seen their fortunes dip, particularly in states like Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada and Pennsylvania where Clinton has established a lead. In fact, of the Senate seats in the Toss Up column, Trump only leads in Indiana and Missouri where both Republicans are running a few points behind him.

Early voting is underway in 27 states, so Republicans don’t really have much time to turn things around, and Trump won’t be any help, especially his campaign doesn’t really have a ground game to speak of. The GOP’s only hope is to start running a checks-and-balances message, or more blatantly, a don’t-give-Clinton-a-blank-check message to motivate their base, particularly what one strategist called “casual Republicans,” to the polls.”

For an in-depth look at this story, connect here.

INSIDE THE TRUMP BUNKER, WITH 12 DAYS TO GO
“Win or lose, the Republican candidate and his inner circle have built a direct marketing operation that could power a TV network – or finish off the GOP,” says Bloomberg Businessweek.

“On Oct. 19, as the third and final presidential debate gets going in Las Vegas, Donald Trump’s Facebook and Twitter feeds are being manned by Brad Parscale, a San Antonio marketing entrepreneur, whose buzz cut and long narrow beard make him look like a mixed martial arts fighter. His Trump tie has been paired with a dark Zegna suit. A lapel pin issued by the Secret Service signals his status. He’s equipped with a dashboard of 400 prewritten Trump tweets. “Command center,” he says, nodding at his laptop.”

Parscale is one of the few within Trump’s crew entrusted to tweet on his behalf. He’s sitting at a long table in a double-wide trailer behind the debate arena, cheek to jowl with his fellow Trump staffers and Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee. The charged atmosphere and rows of technicians staring raptly at giant TVs and computer screens call to mind NASA on launch day. On the wall, a poster of Julian Assange reads: “Dear Hillary, I miss reading your classified emails.”

“Almost every public and private metric suggests Trump is headed for a loss, possibly an epic one. His frustrated demeanor on the campaign trail suggests he knows it. Yet even as he nears the end of his presidential run, his team is sowing the seeds of a new enterprise with a direct marketing effort that they insist could still shock the world on Election Day.”

Could it? Find out more at this link.

A GOP WOMAN WONDERS WHY MEN IN HER PARTY WON’T DEFEND HER
“As a former communications aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and former senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), I can personally testify that Republican women have, for years, fended off accusations from the Democrats of the party’s allegedly anti-woman beliefs. What did we get for it? The nomination — by way of a largely older, male voting base — of a brazen and unapologetic misogynist,” posts contributing writer Amanda Carpenter for The Washington Post.

I want to ask the men leading the GOP some questions. Why didn’t you defend women from this raging sexist especially after so many Republican women — for so many years — eagerly defended the party from charges of sexism? You must make us out for fools.

Over the course of the GOP primary, it became clear that too many Republicans felt it was too politically risky to do anything that would offend the types of voters Trump was attracting in droves — the types who showed up at rallies wearing T-shirts that said, “Trump that b—-” and “She’s a c—, vote for Trump.”

“Somehow, in some amorphous but unambiguous way, it was decided that appealing to those voters was more important than appealing to women.”

Go to this link for the complete read.

FORBES’ ‘CARTOON OF THE DAY’
“How Clinton and Trump spent $1400m in campaign funds.”

Campaign spending on one of the most negative Presidential elections have reached record levels.

That’s the sad backdrop for Forbes’ “Cartoon of the Day.”

WHATEVER IS HURTING NFL TV RATINGS IS NOT HURTING THE WORLD SERIES
“The NFL’s television ratings are down across the board and the league has blamed the decline on the presidential election. However, if that were the biggest reason, we would expect to see a similar decline in the MLB playoffs and that has not been the case,” says Business Insider.

After posting strong TV ratings during the early rounds of the playoffs, the World Series is off to a huge start with fans, averaging more than 19.0 million viewers through two games, according to Sports Media Watch. That’s up 32% from last year and matches the Yankees-Phillies matchup in 2009 for the top-rated World Series in the past 11 years.

Over the last few years, the average World Series game has drawn a TV audience that was comparable to a “Monday Night Football” game. But while the World Series is way up this year, “Monday Night Football’s” average audience is down 22%, much like the rest of the NFL.

“This suggests that the presidential election can’t be the biggest culprit.”

“So, if the presidential election is not the biggest reason for the NFL’s decline, what is the explanation?” Find out at this link.

MESSAGES COMING FROM THE STARS ARE ‘PROBABLY’ FROM ALIENS
Now that’s not something you hear everyday.

But Independent posts, “‘It is too early to unequivocally attribute these purported signals to the activities of extraterrestrial civilizations,’ a group of scientists looking for aliens have warned – but the signals are encouraging.”

A new analysis of strange modulations in a tiny set of stars appears to indicate that it could be coming from extraterrestrial intelligence that is looking to alert us to their existence.

The new study reports the finding of specific modulations in just 234 out of the 2.5 million stars that have been observed during a survey of the sky. The work found that a tiny fraction of them seemed to be behaving strangely.

Now we know you want to find out what’s going on, right? So warp to this link for all the “strange” details.

WHAT YOU LEARN WHEN YOU SPEND A YEAR DRINKING BEER
“It’s Lucy Burningham’s job to write about the beer business, but she wanted to take her knowledge a step further. Burningham set out on a quest to become a sommelier of the beer world, or a Cicerone, as they’re known,” says Marketplace.”

She chronicled her year learning everything there is to know about the beverage in the new book “My Beer Year: Adventures with Hop Farmers, Craft Brewers, Chefs, Beer Sommeliers and Fanatical Drinkers as a Beer Master in Training.”

What a year! Learn more about her suds heaven adventure by “hopping” to this link.