Loading
Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana/Tampa)
Better than Buffet, Branson
The comparison has been made before, but we're just glad he's one of ours. Part-time Longboat Key resident, marketing professor, consultant and well-known business author Philip Kotler (GCBR, December 2004) made The Financial Times' list of top business writer/management gurus in the Survey of the World's Most Respected Companies.
In fact, Kotler, the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management, was fourth on the list, in the same company with management expert Peter Drucker, Microsoft's Bill Gates and former General Electric CEO Jack Welch.
The author of the consummate marketing textbook, "Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning and Control," beat out Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University professor and competitive strategy and international competitiveness expert; Stanford professor and author Jim Collins; Virgin's Richard Branson; and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffet.
As this survey once again shows, Kotler is, as the American Marketing Association described him, "the most influential marketer of all time." The master on the art of marketing has authored and co-authored more than 34 books, hundreds of articles and has consulted for worldwide companies, including IBM, Michelin, Bank of America, Merck, General Electric, Honeywell and Motorola.
PricewaterhouseCoopers International interviewed more than a 1,000 CEOs in 25 countries between August and October of this year for the survey.
Looking for capital?
The Florida Venture Forum's 2006 conference is Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at the Sawgrass Marriott, Ponte Vedra Beach.
Tampa Bay area venture capitalists scheduled to attend the conference include Steve Lux, Stonehenge Capital Corp.; Dick Brandewie, Ballast Point Ventures; W. Scott Miller, Lovett Miller & Co. Inc.; and John Hill, Hyde Park Capital.
Of the 20 plus companies that will present at the conference, eight are from Florida's Gulf Coast, including Avalon Healthcare Holdings Inc., Tampa; CareMedic Systems, St. Petersburg; Carry A Tune Technologies (Electronic Learning Products Inc.), Tampa; Highwall Technologies Inc., Sarasota; Ideal Image Inc., Tampa; Real Media Inc., Sarasota; Skway Software, Tampa; and The Gemesis Corp., Sarasota.
For more information, visit floridaventureforum.com or call (813) 335-8116.
WCI stock inflates as competitors deflate
Shares of WCI Communities, the Bonita Springs-based residential builder, got a boost when the company predicted a rosy outlook at its first-ever investor conference in Hollywood earlier this month. The stock rose 5.8% on Dec. 8 after WCI executives raised the company's earnings estimate for 2006 to between $5.25 and $5.50 per share, up from its previous guidance of $5 a share.
But WCI executives still grumble that at $27 the stock is ridiculously cheap. WCI's price-to-earnings ratio, a valuation metric determined by dividing the stock price by earnings per share, hovers just below seven. Meanwhile, the P/E ratio for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is now at 19. The lower the P/E number, the cheaper the stock.
"We're not happy about it," says WCI spokesman Ken Plonski.
It didn't help that competitors Toll Brothers and K. Hovnanian Homes announced more cautious outlooks for next year on the same day WCI held its investor conference. "It was unusual for us to come out and be very bullish," Plonski acknowledged.
WCI and other publicly traded builders are considered cyclical companies whose stocks rise substantially in anticipation of expansion and fall dramatically in the face of a downturn. But Plonski argues that builders are generally in better shape to face a downturn because they have seasoned management and have less debt than in the past.
However, the message doesn't seem to be getting through, especially as interest rates rise and a home-sale slowdown is widely anticipated. "It's not getting a lot of traction out there," Plonski says. "As a group, we follow each other up and down."
How do you pay the bill?
When Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley recently spoke to Sarasota's Downtown Partnership about his suggestions for urban revitalization, Coffee Talk wondered: Who paid for all of Charleston's wonderful improvements touted by the mayor?
It turns out - from what Stephen Bedard, the city's CFO, has told us - if you visit the city or eat out here you are.
While the debt service on the $42 million on the two current Tax Increment Financing supported projects (the Waterfront Park and King Street Gateway) is coming from property taxes, a lot of that tax money in the general budget is being generated by a two-cent local-option tax on hospitality, food and alcohol.
Since the early '90s, Bedard says, the city has made a conscious effort to expand and diversify its tax base, increasing items such as the hospitality tax. Of the current $126 million city general budget, just $43 million comes from property taxes. As a percentage, the contribution of total property taxes to the overall budget has fallen from 56% in 1990 to just 34% today.
"This diversification isn't necessarily good or bad, but it does take a lot of pressure off the property owners," Bedard says. "We are preparing for a $10 million renovation of city hall, and most of that will be coming from municipal and hospital fee taxes. That means the city doesn't have to borrow that money, and it doesn't have to come from general revenues. We are planning an architectural project on the Dock Street Theatre and of that $11 million project, none of the money will come out of general tax dollars."
Make sure you like dad
When entrepreneurs are looking for venture capital, there's a lot more involved than the financial aspects of the transaction.
"It's the only chance you ever get to pick your parents," David Shobe, chair of the business department at Fowler White Boggs Banker PA, said at the Dec. 9 Florida Venture Forum panel discussion at Ponte Vedra Beach.
"The big question is how involved the venture capitalist will be in the day-to-day operations of the company," said Dave Corey, CEO of Solicore Inc. in Lakeland. "You want someone who will help make the business."
Steve Lux, director of Stonehenge Capital Corp., agreed. "The last thing you ever want is to enter a deal without knowing who the parties are," he said.
They also cautioned entrepreneurs not to expect to get cash out of any capital infusion. That seems to be a common misperception.
"You have to keep skin in the game," Corey said.
"They want to make sure you're not going to blow out," said Todd Rumberger, founder of Greenberg Traurig's Silicon Valley office.
Entrepreneurs speak
The University of Tampa is adding a new wrinkle to its speaker series on entrepreneurship. Instead of bringing in business leaders who've made it, such as Tom James of Raymond James Financial Inc. or Chris Sullivan of Outback Steakhouse Inc., UT is inviting in those who are still on their way to making it.
Four Tampa Bay area companies that were selected for Inc. magazine's 2005 list of the fastest-growing American businesses have been invited to make presentations next year.
The lineup looks like this:
• Jan. 20, No. 248, Intellect Technical Solutions Inc., a Clearwater technology consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, comes in.
• Feb. 17, No. 498, another Clearwater company called PostcardMania Inc. will talk about helping clients with marketing with environmentally-friendly postcards.
• March 24, Tampa's Movex Inc., No. 417 on the Inc. 500, visits UT to discuss a new twist on self-service household moving.
• April 21, the series wraps up with No. 194, another Tampa relocation outfit called Apartment Express Corporate Housing Inc., which provides short-term living quarters for professional athletes, snowbirds and others looking for temporary accommodations.
The presentations will be at the Vaughn Center on UT's Hyde Park campus. Admission is $10.
For more information, call (813) 253-6221, extension 3782.
King of all Bay area media
Joe Redner has done it again.
If there's one thing the Tampa businessman knows, besides the U.S. Constitution, it's how to yank the news media's chain.
Redner, nationally known as an impresario of adult entertainment, pronounced himself a homosexual in a recent court filing. His telephone hasn't stopped ringing since.
Now a grandfather, Redner told grateful reporters that he disclosed his sexual orientation to bolster his legal standing in a federal lawsuit against Hillsborough County. The suit concerns the county commission's ban on gay pride displays in local public libraries.
Redner contends the policy violates his First Amendment rights under the Constitution, a document with which he is quite familiar from years of battling local officials trying to close down his strip clubs.
Who says Tampa doesn't value diversity? Where else could a gay Libertarian's every utterance about sex get this much media coverage for his various enterprises, which include a health club and a real estate business?
Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning business news.
Join thousands of executives who rely on us for insights spanning Tampa Bay to Naples.
