It's been a while since I've posted a pure business-related post.  Maybe because I've been bogged down in petty office politics lately, or maybe it's just that I don't have an active start-up I'm working on, but whatever the reason I'm compelled to write about what's going on with Detroit.

I watched the Senate hearings with the Big 3 CEOs this evening.  I don't fully understand the auto industry; however, I think I have an opinion on what the U.S. automakers could do to regain their strength and begin to grow again.

Back in the day when Matt Thompson and I used to do The Cubicle Escape Pod, we talked a bit about the book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.  My favorite was the Law of Contraction.  The law states, "a brand becomes stronger if you narrow its focus."

I've been preaching this theory at work amid the credit crisis that directly affects our business.  Our product line is too big, too confusing to customers and too difficult to sell.  The cost of acquisition is way more than it needs to be.  Everything involved in the pitch is twice as long or big as it should be--collateral, sales pitch, etc. I think the same holds true for the American auto manufacturers.

In the book, Chevrolet and Ford are case studies for the Law of Expansion--creating new brands to cross market segments.  But what Ford, GM and Chrysler need to do is contract their brand.  In short, stop making a million different models of cars with a billion options for each model.  Not only is the brand diluted, but the quality of the cars has to be diluted as well.

I have a radical idea (and it most likely will never work)... Ford needs to reinvent itself by devolving.  Go back to basics.  Produce a single hybrid vehicle.  I'd call it the Model H.  Any color you want, as long as it's black.  Pour billions of dollars into creating a single, extremely energy efficient car with roof-mounted solar panels for small electronics and all the advanced technologies we're seeing in luxury cars.  My theory is, if all your R&D spending, production costs, marketing costs, etc. focus on a single brand and model, you can produce them inexpensively, and sell them way cheaper than Japanese and European cars and make it up on volume.

What do you do with fleet sales, trucks, etc.?  Law of Expansion, my friends.  Create new brands and deal with those market segments as entirely different subsidiaries.

Steve Jobs installed a similar strategy when he returned to Apple and look where Apple is now.  Jobs looked at every product in the lineup, made the tough decisions, cutting confusing model lines (Performa, Quadra, Centra, blah, blah) slash popular cult-like products such as the Newton and boil it all down into the famous product quadrant--four products to rule them all.  Apple turned itself around and then branched into consumer devices like the iPod.

Yes, this is a crazy idea that probably wouldn't work with the complexities of the auto industry, but the bottom line is that the U.S. auto makers have to do something drastic and must act soon.  These companies aren't making products people want to buy anyway.

The taxpayers should not bail out these terribly ran companies in the auto and airline industries.  We need to force these companies to become smarter by letting them stare down the barrel of failure.  Every once in a while a business is faced with making big bold moves that changes the landscape of an industry.  All three U.S. automakers are in a position to flip the model upside-down.  Who will do it?

The Space Shuttle launch from the lake shore.

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I've been living on Lake Maitland for about a month now. I've been out fishing nearly every day and tonight, along with Alexandra, we finally caught a dang fish!

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I sat down yesterday morning to compose a post on the election and I failed miserably in translating my thoughts into words on a screen.  Conflicted, perhaps, upset because my pick didn't win, but at the same time it felt good to be an American.  The process worked, as it has for hundreds of years despite what people say about 2000, and that's ultimately more important than any single person occupying the White House.

These are interesting times, indeed.  The world watched the American Way.  As I kept up with the messages on Twitter, some across the pond jested at our style; others were utterly confused.  Our brand of Democracy is different.  It was designed that way and because of it, the United States has risen to the status of the most powerful nation on the planet in a little over 200 years.

Our representative form of democracy, our Republic, is the stabilizing factor in our otherwise unstable concoction of a world in which we live.  Our Republic gives us continuity and consistency and spares us wild swings from left to right and visa-versa.

Mob rule (masses are asses) can't control our government and, even though we will have a single party controlling the Executive and Legislative branches, the system or the people won't allow them to run rampant.  We've seen these patterns of swings many times.  Congress swung right during the Clinton years and now we've swung left.  The American People will give this combination two years to make good on the many promises bandied about during the campaign.

Which brings me to my real point.  Obama's train of promises includes cars full of Hope, Change, government sponsored health care, tax credits (not cuts) for 95% of people, end of Iraq war, a fix for the economy, 10% renewable energy by 2012 and the list goes on.  That train is speeding down the tracks with Obama, Biden, Pelosi and Reid in the conductor's chair and 64+ million people crammed in the caboose, hanging out the windows and running alongside.

I don't agree with many of these policies, hence the reason I didn't vote for Obama,  but I'm comforted by the fact that it is difficult for one president to enact a single promise in one term and nearly impossible to execute on two promises.  Many times throughout the campaign I likened Obama to running for student council president.  "Soda machines in every classroom!"  It's a promise for the ignorant.  If you were astute in high school, you'd know that a student council president cannot put soda machines in every classroom.  He doesn't have that authority to make that change.  But ignorant students--who don't know better--buy that promise.

Obama was selling Hope and Change along with many other soda machines.  It was smart, no doubt.  Like Batman, Obama became a symbol.  The message is incorruptible.  Change and Hope are just words, not policies.  They are words that nearly every human on the planet can get behind.  Who doesn't want Hope?  Who doesn't want some facet of Change in their life?  Whether it's change in economy, political policy, money in your bank account or a new hair style, Change is universally wanted.

In the software world we have a term for selling words.  It's called vaporware.  It's a product that doesn't exist.  But when you're going after that big account and the potential client asks for a feature or product you don't make... "Sure, we can do that, no problem."  You make the sell, get the money and then figure out a way to provide on your promise.  That, my friends (as McCain would say), is what Obama just did to the American people.

And so when you watched Obama give his victory speech in Chicago and you saw the indelible smiles and the tears of relief and, in some instances, validation (rightly so), don't forget that Hope and Change put this man on a pedestal higher than any single President in the history of this country.

And like all other Presidents that came before him, he will be held accountable and judged for the promises he has made.  But this President's platform is much higher than any other's and the fall, if it happens, will be more painful as well.

In the coming weeks as we're introduced to the Obama Administration, we'll begin to see how he'll govern this country.  He'll move to the center, as all leftists do, because that's what we really are.  A nation of centrists that dislikes extremes.  Because, honestly, what we really don't want is extreme Change.  I Hope the next four years are as good to you as my last four years.

Jonathan Brown

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Lisa and I out in the boat for a sunset dinner.

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This year Alex and I decided to do a Yellow Submarine themed pumpkin. I originally wanted to try the shaving technique for shading, but quickly abandoned that idea after I realized how difficult it was going to be to carve these lines. In the end, I think it turned out pretty slick.

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She cracks me up.

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I went down to the beach yesterday evening to capture the sunset. I wasn't pleased with the colors, but I liked the light and shapes of the cloud so I monochromed the shot.

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Parents, please don't use your kids as political vehicles for your myopic views. You're only hurting your kids. Jonathan Brown

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Shells washed ashore at Siesta Key beach after Hurricane Gustav passed by the West coast of Florida.

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I was driving in Orlando on I-4 and spotted this Ford Focus hydrogen fuel cell powered car. I read about the fleet in Orlando some time ago but this is the first time I've seen one on the road. Jonathan Brown

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We are on the plane for the 9.5 hour flight to Atlanta.

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On our way out of the North Shore we stopped back in Haleiwa for lunch at this joint, famous for Kalua Pig sandwiches, burritos and rice bowls. We're trying the sandwich.

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Lisa offers up a slice of fresh Mango.

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We spend the morning at the beautiful Waimea Bay for some swimming and rock jumping..

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I figured out the timer on my Canon 40D was able to finally get a good shot of the three of us together.

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We went to the Waimea Valley across the road from Waimea Bay to check out the botanical garden and waterfall, which was low flow because of lack of water.

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After Pearl Harbor we drove down to Waikiki for lunch, a swim and a cold treat.

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After a tiring morning at Waimea, we headed into Haleiwa for lunch at this sandwich joint.

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Alex met another seven year old named Savannah. They are having a ball at Waimea Bay.

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We got up this morning and headed straight to Waimea Bay for some swimming and rock jumping.

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At the USS Arizona Memorial, some leave their leis.

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Alex views the list of fallen soldiers at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

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We pay our respects at Pearl Harbor.

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We spend our Sunday lazing around the resort and a few North Shore beaches.

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