Ask any ag bank to describe their biggest customers, and you will get some interesting feedback. Traditionally, farmers have shared some characteristics that set them apart from other customers, including other commercial accounts. Ag bankers will tell you that their farmers are conservative, are slow to adopt new technology and are fiercely protective of their… Read more »
Anchor Ideas
If you’ve been paying attention to the marketing messages coming your way in the last month or so, you already know that Diet Coke recently rolled out a host of new flavors: Twisted Mango, Ginger Lime, Feisty Cherry and Blood Orange. In the 35 or so years since the drink’s introduction, it has never significantly… Read more »
If you pay attention to the stock market, you’ve heard the experts talking about a “correction” a lot over the last few years. If you didn’t know what they were talking about, we got to see one firsthand in early February. Common sense finally threw some cold water on the traders who had relentlessly pushed… Read more »
As we make our way through the winter Olympics, I thought I would look at a sport that has something of an image problem – curling. For the uninitiated – or those living south of Nebraska – curling is a winter sport in which the participants slide a “rock” or “stone” (think of it as… Read more »
Talk to a group of business people over the age of 40, and you won’t get a consensus on politics, investment advice or management practices. But mention the “M” word, and suddenly everyone will be on the same page: millennials drive them crazy. The millennial generation is now the most important consumer group in the… Read more »
I like football, however, I’ve never fully invested in NFL mania (I appreciate the strategy more than the spectacle), and as such I’ve become just as interested in studying football fans as I have football games. And when Minneapolis is the closest major city, you find yourself immersed in the purple-soaked culture of the Minnesota… Read more »
Imagine that you are a football coach, and you’ve designed the world’s most clever play. It’s a variation on the classic “halfback pass,” and you call it at exactly the right time in the big game. The center snaps the ball perfectly to the quarterback, who fakes a handoff one way and then tucks the… Read more »
