Summer Ends, School Begins

Old Main at North Park University

     Today was the last Sunday of August. For the past 18 years, the last Sunday of August have been special. While living in Connecticut, I would attend and occasionally play at the St. Gregory the Enlightener Church Picnic in White Plains, NY. Upon moving to Chicago, that tradition continued at the St. James Armenian Street Fair. For all but three of these Sundays, the weather has been spectacular, perfect to be at an Armenian Picnic, listening to music or performing, having some delicious kebab and other Armenian delicacies, and chatting with friends.
     Today, we played at the St. James Street Fair. It was not the typical glorious weather but rather hot and muggy. Even the welcome breezes coming off Lake Michigan were hot. But, it was a great day of playing the music we love for our people. We sounded great, everyone enjoyed, so overall the day was glorious. It was a beautiful way to end the summer.
     Of course, summer doesn’t officially end until September 20th. I am well aware of this. But, the day before school begins is the unofficial last day of summer. When I was growing up, Labor Day was the unofficial end of summer as the Detroit Public Schools always started the Tuesday or Wednesday after Labor Day. Somehow today, schools and universities seem to start before Labor Day. To the kid in me, that seems so wrong and unfair. It is wrong and unfair to the point where I think Congress should enact legislation making it illegal for schools to start earlier. Of course, that will never happen.
     My children never experienced the after-Labor Day start of classes. They always started classes on the last Monday in August. Hence, the wonderful picnic day of the last Sunday in August has become my new unofficial end of

Set-up and ready to play at St. James
in Evanston.  Mike Adajian photo.

summer.
     I am starting my 5thyear as a full-time faculty member at North Park University. We always start classes on the last Monday in August. So, tomorrow is my first day of school and I excited for it. I get to meet incoming freshmen and other students who will be in a course of mine for the first time. I get to greet students who I already know who are taking a second or third class from me. It is exciting for them and equally exciting for me… that same kid in me.
     I am excited because this is the best job I have ever had. It is far from being the best paying job, but it is the most fulfilling. It is where I feel I belong and enjoy it more than any other position I have held. My friend, colleague, and our interim Dean in the School of Business and Nonprofit Management, Professor Ann Hicks, was clearly thinking along the same lines and posted the following in Facebook:

Tomorrow I begin my 17th academic year at North Park University. Over the last couple of weeks, people have asked me if I was ready for the new year. Each time I responded with a resounding, “Absolutely!” (Note that I took that as meaning was I emotionally and mentally ready, NOT were all my classes prepped and ready to go! Otherwise, my answer would have been quite different.) 

These conversations have made me realize how truly lucky I am to LOVE what I do for work! Is it sometimes frustrating? Of course! Do I always agree with the decisions that my institution makes? Of course not! That is life! More importantly: Do I thrive on being able to influence the lives of my students - both inside and outside the classroom? Without doubt! For that privilege, I am and always will be thankful!!

I do believe Ann perfectly captured the essence of why I am excited for the first day of class.

#blogworthy

     My friend Ara, yes that one, always tries to find ways in Facebook to get under my skin. I must admit that he is world class at this. For example, for years, he takes jabs at my singing which for the record is quite an easy target. Lately, on any post I make be the topic smallish or benign, he asks if I am going to blog about it and adds #blogworthy. I think the first time he did it, I responded with “already working on it.” Almost every other time, the topic he jabbingly suggested held no interest with me… and he knew that. I do have to thank him for planting the idea of #blogworthy in my head which has turned into this bloggy bit. No doubt, he will take credit for this and provide some humorous zinger in the comments.
     Over the years, people suggest I blog about this subject or that. My cousin David gives me the most and best suggestions. Certainly, others have provided suggestions here and there. I take these suggestions as compliments. The person making the suggestion either feels that they would like to hear my take on the topic or they think the topic fits my particular tone and style of bloggy babbling.
     For the most part, I have not acted on many of the suggestions. Most of the suggestions are good ones. Even some of Ara’s ideas, made in jest, were good ones. Yet, I almost know immediately if a suggested topic is something I will write about. The ones I write about are those that resonate with me. They are something I have already mulled over, and I feel I have something to say on the subject. Others strike my fancy because I want to or need to think about the subject to the point where I have something to say on the matter. When the topic doesn’t resonate, I simply say nothing or mumble something akin to “I’ll think about it” which really means that I am not interested in that at this time.
     Would I have made a bad newspaper reporter because I am basically shunning assignments? Not really. My blog is a labor of love. It is not a job, nor do I get any financial gain from it. Thus, I do not feel that I have a choice about what is #blogworthy. In business, at the university, or when I was a student, I certainly took assignments seriously and cranked them out on-time. Therefore, in this regard, I feel that I can pick and choose.
     Consider my latest blogs. I have written about my love for the music Ara and I play. I have written about it before and I wrote about it again because I had just heard some great musicians perform. I wrote about the closings of Carson’s, Brookstone, and some Sears stores. Why? I am fascinated about the changing retail landscape as e-commerce grows. I even teach a course about it. I also wrote about Turkey and the free-falling Lira against the dollar. Duh… that was a no brainer.
     This blog? Well I already explained that in the first paragraph. Now, I will wait for Ara’s comments and phone call.

Where Ya Gonna Go with this Recep?

Stratfor.com

     I have tried several times to write about the popular and enigmatic President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I did get one decent piece out two years ago, July 2016: Turkey.
     My opinion of Erdoğan has not changed much since then. I thought he was a bad actor then, I am even more firm about it now. Most of the Turks I know in the country feel the same way. They are adherents of Attaturk and devoted one of his principle tenets: the secular state. Erdoğan is an Islamist and envisions himself as an Ottoman Sultan. I really question if he didn’t stage the coup attempt in 2016 just so he could crackdown on his opponents and move his Islamist agenda ahead at a faster pace. It seems to be well documented that corruption in his governments has made him an incredibly wealthy man. The extravagances of the palace that he built are well documented. His thuggish bodyguards attacked Armenian and Kurdish protesters on May 16, 2017 in Washington, DC.
     Most of the time, Turkey seems to get their way with the US. Seriously, there were no repercussions for the attack of US citizens protesting in Washington, DC… we let them off the hook. The Turkish government blocked the making of The 40 Days of Musa Dagh in the 1930s. So much for freedom of expression. We were fighting ISIS in Syria and our allies were both Turkey and the Kurds. The Turks probably attacked the Kurds more than they did ISIS… and again we never reacted the way most Americans thought we should have reacted. When Erdoğan’s poll numbers dip and it looks like an upstart party might gain influence, there are miraculous act of terrorism attributed, of course, to the Kurds which allows him to crack down on them while stoking the flames of national fervor so that he wins the election and keeps his grip on power. I tend to believe the terrorism is was staged and the elections were rigged. Since the coup, he changed the constitution a la Russia and Venezuela to suit his holding onto power.
     Yet, they were our ally. They have been since Admiral Mark Bristol shunned the Armenians in favor of Attaturk and the Republic of Turkey. We talk about the Incirlik Air Base like it the global lynchpin in our military strategy. And yet, we needed it to attack enemies in the Middle East, Turkey has been quite resistant in letting us use Incirlik for those purposes. We seem to be an ally when it suits Erdoğan.
     After all of the US Presidents, it is President Trump that has finally taken Turkey to task for only being an ally when it favors them. The issue with the ongoing detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson triggered President Trump into action. Erdoğan, naturally, is claiming this is a conspiracy of the West, fake news, and whatever else might play well to his support base in Turkey.
     An article in today’s Wall Street Journal, Debt Powered Turkey, Until it Backfired, took a different stance. It claims that Erdoğan, in essence, “decided to turn Turkey into something resembling China on a smaller scale, a world-class economy under one man’s firm control.” To facilitate a faster recovery from the Great Recession, he eased the access to foreign loans. It worked but, according the WSJ, the amount of loans were exorbitantly out of hand. The problem is that Turkey is not China. It did not have the economic clout, the home market, nor was it able to become an exporting juggernaut like China.  President Trump’s actions may have only hastened what was inevitable. There might not be a quick fix to this.
     So, the US relationship with Turkey is fading. Turkey may quit or be dropped from NATO. They may move more into Russia’s or China’s sphere of influence. Their relations with Israel have soured. They may look to be a stronger independent power in the Middle East. They might even go so far as to annex the Kurdish parts of Syria and Iraq simply because they can. More so, they might do it because they could then “solve” the Kurdish question and taking over the Iraqi oil fields would bolster their economy. How would the US to react to such moves? It wouldn’t surprise me to see some acts of terrorism in Turkey to divert attention from the crisis to the Kurds.
     Of course, my views and prognostications are those of an arm chair analyst. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds moving forward.
     I only wish our President had mentioned the treatment of Armenians, Kurds, and other minorities in Turkey.

Ford Motor Company: Another Turnaround?

     In The Nostalgia of Closed Stores, I gave a two paragraph summary of the general business challenge:

Business is business. It is cut and dry. Provide products and services that customers want, sell these same products at a high volume at a price higher than the cost of goods and production, and, voila, the business is profitable and can thrive and grow. Don’t do this and the opposite happens, the business loses money and will eventually have to cease operations, call it quits. 

Jim Hackett and Bill Ford

This is not a one-time deal. Businesses have to do this continually. To make it even more challenging, competitors would love to steal market share and act aggressively to do just that. Markets and the preferences of customers are always changing. So, businesses need to be aware of all this and adapt and innovate their product and service offerings to remain competitive and relevant to their customers. As a result, some businesses expand and grow while others shrink and even go out of business.

     Nowhere in that Business 101 synopsis did I ever say this was an easy thing to do. It is not easy. But, on the other hand, it is not impossible. It is not easy to do in rapidly changing retail marketplace, nor is it easy in the global automobile markets. These are both tough businesses where technology innovations and customer preferences are intertwined, complicated, and make for a changing landscape in which retail and auto businesses need to operate.
     There was a lengthy article in the August 15th Wall Street Journal on Ford’s new CEO Jim Hackett, Ford Chief’s First Task: Explaining His Vision. The header of the article states “Hired to fix the auto maker, he has confused executives and investors.” Jim Hackett was brought to turn around the storied car maker. This storied car maker is where my grandfather Levon Merian labored in the Rouge Foundry for most of his working years.  It was my first big-boy, grown-up job. Consistent with the Detroit, Motor City culture of 1976 when I started, I fully anticipated working there for 25 to 30 years and retire with a pension… which of course did not happen.
     Ford is the storied auto manufacturer started by Henry Ford who innovated the moving assembly line. It grew wildly with the famed Model T and other great products such as the Falcon, the Galaxy 500, the F-150 light truck, the Mustang, the Escort, the Taurus, and the Explorer to name a few. Of course, Ford has had its share of missteps such as the infamous Edsel and Pinto. In the 1930s and 40s, they treated their employees brutally. In the same time period, they almost went under because their financial systems never really kept up with the growth of the company. Like the other Detroit automakers, Ford was blindsided by the rising oil prices in the 1970s and the invasion of cheaper, higher quality, more reliable, and more efficient cars coming from Japan. To make that storm perfect, Ford, GM, and Chrysler were stuck in their ways, bloated with layers of management, and rarely sought out the needs and wants of their customers.
     Yet, they weathered the storms. Ford made Quality Job 1 in the 80s which culminated with the brilliantly designed and eminently successful Ford Taurus: a car that was designed incorporating the Voice of the Customer into every detail. I would argue that the CEOs from 1979 – 1993, Bill Caldwell, Don Petersen, and Red Poling, raised the company to a new level of performance and culture that would sustain them moving into the future. But, then came Trotman, Nasser, and Ford (Henry’s great-grandson) who were not able to navigate the ship as deftly as their predecessors. Bill Ford knew he needed more help and hired Alan Mulally from Boeing to replace him as CEO. He turned the company around, weathering the Great Recession without taking any government assistance as both GM and Chrysler had to.
     Here is a quote on Toyota from Alan Mulally from circa 2006 (American Icon, page 130) which I also used in a 2015 blog piece Answering Debbie: Why I am Driving a Toyota:

They make products that people want, and they do it with less resources and less time than anybody in the world. They're a magical machine. This system of continually improving the quality, putting the variations into the product line that people want and doing it with minimum resources and minimum time is absolutely where we have to go. If you look at Ford, it's the antithesis.

     Wow… that was his assessment in 2006 not 1980. I had thought in 1990, that Ford had fixed things. Clearly, they unraveled. When Mulally left Ford in 2014, I thought they had fixed things again… but this time for sure. He was succeeded by a lifetime Ford man, Mark Fields. Fields lasted until May of 2017, when he was replaced by Jim Hackett.
      Jim Hackett, started with Steelcase in 1981 and worked there until 2014. In 1996, he was named CEO at the young age of 39. After his 18 years as the Steelcase CEO, he became interim Athletic Director at the University of Michigan where he had played football. He was best known for bringing in Jim Harbaugh as the head football coach. He joined the Ford Board of Directors in 2013.
     So, two of the last two CEOs of Ford, were outsiders i.e. they did not grow-up in the auto industry. They were not lifetime Ford guys. That is astonishing for a company that size ($156.8 Billion in sales in 2017). They have to be able to create a sustainable culture to survive in the industry. That same culture should have both a sustaining product development process to develop vehicles people want to buy and to be able nurture and grow the future leaders of the company. This is simply not happening.
     In the Wall Street Journal article noted that Hackett “has introduced new methodologies from his previous job, including a process called ‘design thinking’ that attempts to solve problems by getting into the mind of the consumer.”
     Gee, it somehow all goes back to making products customers want to buy. Will Ford ever really learn that lesson?

Et Tu Brookstone?

Brookstone Store at Northbrook Court

I just read that Brookstone, the cool store of gadgets, filed for bankruptcy for the second time in four years. As part of their restructuring, they will close all 102 of their mall-based stores. They are keeping their airport stores open… apparently the only profitable stores in the chain. 

     Last month, I posted about the demise of Toy R Us and Carson Pirie Scott in The Nostalgia of Closed Stores. Actually, I never liked Toys R Us. I found them chaotic and messy. I resisted going there unless it was an absolute necessity. As for Carson’s, I actually liked their stores because they always had a “take an Extra 60% off of the already 30% off marked price” sale. It seemed like everything was being sold below cost. So, in my view, it was only a matter of time before they went under. 

     As for Brookstone, I loved the chain the first time I stepped foot in one back in the 1980s at Fairlane Mall in Dearborn, MI. They simply had the coolest gadgets and gift ideas at every price range. I really thought they had great concept. It was like an adult toy store. In the 80s and 90s, if I was going to a birthday lunch or dinner for a work friend and I felt close enough to buy them a gift, I would usually go to Brookstone and buy them something unique there. There was always something that fit my budget. Over the years, I have also received gifts from there which have included a pair of compact binoculars and a variety of different golf gadgets. For myself, I bought a telescopic back scratcher, a dart gun to kill flies, and a slew of travel products. The travel products included a leather case to for ties, another leather case for my travel documents and passport, a money belt, and transformers for the different currents and plug configurations. 

     Over the years, I am guilty of doing the same thing every devotee of all failed stores do or don’t do… I visited their stores less and less. The last time I was in a Brookstone at a mall was in 2010. I had just bought an iPad2 at the Apple store at Northbrook Court, a very nice mall near my home. I went across the hallway to Brookstone store and bought a case with the Wi-Fi keyboard/case for it. The Apple Store had not yet realized the value of selling a full line of accessories for all their products. Even then, before their first bankruptcy, the Brookstone sales clerk said that most of their business was from folks who just bought an iPad at Apple and came over to them to buy a case.

     Other than that, I have only visited their airport store at O’Hare almost every time I fly. Not oddly, one of the articles I read on the Brookstone bankruptcy, in The Verge, referred to Brookstone as “that place you go while waiting for your airplane to board.” Most of the time I go into the airport store just to see what they might have in the spirit of what first made Brookstone a favorite of mine. But, that is not what the airport outlets are. They are travel stores for luggage and related items. I have bought ear plugs for airplanes and converters/adapters as that seems to be the one thing I forget to pack with great regularity.

     The bottom-line is this. Brookstone is going under simply because they have not been able to keep their edge that attracted customers like me in the first place. Cool gadgets of all kinds are not the exclusive domain of Brookstone anymore. The internet, and by the internet I mean Amazon.com, is loaded with them. Everything is available everywhere. Brookstone had things exclusive to them and was known as a place where you could touch and try every cool gadget. That is no longer the case. Like every other failed retail chain they were unable to retain their edge and make a transition to e-commerce world. Consider this, I am or was a quasi-loyal/regular Brookstone customer and the first time I ever visited their website was today while writing this post. 

     I will miss the what Brookstone once was but I understand why they are in the dire straits that forced them into this second bankruptcy. And, I will continue to look for their stores in airport when I forget to pack my charger or converter.

     Thanks for the memories Brookstone.

Thank You, Oswaldo!

     There are notable days in one’s life. When you are a kid, it is your birthday, the first day of school, the last day of school each year, Christmas Day, and special moments in sports games, school concerts or plays, and family vacation. Later on, there more adult special days such ones graduations, first day of a real job, engagement day, wedding day, birth of one’s children, bonus days, special birthdays that end in zero or five, graduation of one’s children, their marriages, the days one’s grandchildren are born, every birthday of one’s children and grandchildren, one’s wedding anniversaries and those of parents and children, special birthdays of one’s parents, and the list goes on and on. 

     Then, of course, there are random special and notable days. For me an example of this would be when a professor of voice in the school of music at Wayne State University told me, in front of Ara Topouzian, that she really liked how I sang. Another was the first time that I was right about a nuance of a certain major requirement to the University and my esteemed colleague Professor Ann Hicks was not. I still have the calendar page, January 2018, on my wall with the day, the 20th, circled in red. 

     Today I had another such experience. While the Ara and Ann memories tickle the funny bone, this one tugged more at the heartstrings. My good friend Oswaldo Arias mentioned me in a comment he made to an article posted on LinkedIn.
     The article is Don’t Pick a Job. Pick a Boss. - A GOOD BOSS is better than a good companyby Brigette Hyacinth. Oswaldo posted:

Mark Gavoor this is you, a Great Mentor…

I read only the title of the article and Oswaldo’s comment, as I was on my phone. I responded as follows:

Oswaldo, thank you so much for this. I never really thought you reported to me as much as we worked together as a great team... which we were.

Oswaldo then responded:

Mark your comment reflects exactly what the article talks about...

     Well that thoughtful and memorable exchange sure made my day.
     Generally, you do not become good friends or even friends with everyone you work with or for. Usually, there are a handful of folks that we value to stay in touch with no matter what. There is a larger group were the staying in touch is much more occasional. The vast majority of folks we worked with simply are acquaintances that slowly drift towards the ends of our memory. Lastly, there are a few SOBs for which never seeing or hearing from them again is preferable.
     Oswaldo is in the first category of dear friends. For the record, I would have loved to have one-hundred more Oswaldo’s working with me. As colleagues go, he is smart, hardworking, and gets results. He is all about the assignments and almost nothing about the politics. To get an affirmation and compliment like this from a respected friend and colleague like Oswaldo, well, that not only made my day, but also my week, summer, and perhaps year. Thanks good friend.

For Love of the Music: It is in Our Blood

Ara Dinkjian from the Smithsonian Video

     The Smithsonian Institute sponsors a Folklife Festival on the National Mall each summer. They usually feature two countries in the several day festival. This year Armenia and Catalan were the two countries featured from June 27 – July 1 and July 4 – 8. I was fortunate enough to be in DC over the 4thof July holiday and was able to attend the festival on July 4thand 5th. The festival was very well done and provided education, entertainment, and nourishment of both body and soul that only good music and delicious khorovadz can bring.
     Ara and Onnik Dinkjian were among the featured artists. It was great to see our style of Armenian Music so strongly represented at this very well done festival. While at the festival, Ara was interviewed and short video of that interview was posted on the Smithsonian website: An Introduction to the Oud with Ara Dinkjian. I became aware of it via Facebook, watched it several times, and, of course, shared it.
     Midway through this short two-minute video, Ara said something that really resonated with me. “It doesn’t matter where you are born. If you know your history, your ancestry, your identity, then you need to be who you are wherever you are. So, the sounds, the land, the smells of the land, the tastes of the food, the architecture, the modes, the instruments, the looks [of the people], these are all in my blood even if I am born in New Jersey.”
     I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I have written the same for years in my monthly letters and blogs. This being Armenian, this Armenianess, is in my blood. It is in my heart and soul. It is in my genetic code.  The primary conduit for me is what Ara calls “our music.” I am not alone. Besides, myself and Ara, I know many musicians and countless dancers and fans of the music who feel the same. Everyone has their own nuance, their own twist, and their own interpretation. But, at the core, there is a deep connection that almost everyone says is in their very blood.
     Is it really in our blood? Or was it nurtured into us? The answer to both questions is yes. I was most certainly raised to know, as Ara said, the language at the Saturday Armenian School level, history, architecture, of course the food, and most certainly the music. The music, however, is and has always been something else, something at a higher level, some much more impactful. My father often told me that when I was a baby and we lived with his parents in Watertown, MA, my grandfather would play his favorite Armenian and Turkish 78s. I would be lying on his chest and when Udi Hrant came on, especially singing Engin, I would lift my head up. I have come to believe there is something magical in modes and melodies where even the happier songs are tinged with lament and dripping with history.
     Why do I feel a greater sense of high, a greater connection, to my heritage when I hear or play Husenigin Sazeruh, Dersim Dort Dag Icinde, Bu Dere, or the Hars u Pesa (Eddie Mekjian lyrics)? When I fell in love with these tunes, I was unaware that they were from Kharpert, the region from where three-quarters of my grandparents hailed. Why is it my friend Vahan loves Neden Geldim Amerikaya (Achilles Poulos) while not knowing it was a lament for Bandirma where his grandmother was born? Yes there is some nurture. My grandfather and Vahan’s grandmother exposed us to this music and their world view from our births. I know this music surrounded Ara Dinkjian growing up. But, I am also convinced there is a strong spiritual, genetic, and blood-based component given the depth of this affinity.
     Please post your views, feelings, and experiences on this most fascinating subject. I would love to read them.