Dan Robles nails it again. 4 Square, redefining currency, revaluing knowledge. What’s your personal economy going to look like in 10 years?

http://www.relationship-economy.com/?p=9557

Since the Second World War, American families have kept splitting and isolating. To offset this, a programmatic goal emerged from the Older Americans Act of 1973 to facilitate inter-generational interaction.

It didn’t have a lot of success over the past 40 years. Then along came the tsunami of economic forces, and inter-generational households are back with a vengeance.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1528/multi-generational-family-household

network marketing: global trends

THE LURE OF A BEACH LIFESTYLE

A lifestyle of the rich and famous is a common image projected by many network marketing leaders. It is extolled in video presentations. It is acted out at “major events” held in exotic resorts. It is seductive…a heady experience. We attend in droves, in hopes of an epiphany on the road to riches. We listen to the dream, with hopes the dream now includes us.

These sessions do inspire and encourage…but, if what follows is financial and relationship stress arising out of unreasonable business expectations and overextended  expenditures, the inspiration backfires. A promise of vast, easily-acquired wealth, is seductive and destructive; both for the new person, and for the leaders who are under pressure to uphold the persona.

OH – NO – ANOTHER NETWORK MARKETING BANKRUPTCY

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Food & Design: Pepsi Natural

GOING ORGANIC

It seems like the new trend for products is to go organic these days.  Or at least trying to find a more eco-friendly or natural approach to their products.  So one would think that this would be an interesting approach for a cola company, PepsiCo. to switch over to the “natural” ingredients that nature has to offer.

IN THE UK
At first, Pepsi tried out the “natural” approach to its United Kingdom customers.  Calling their new recipe Pepsi Raw, PepsiCo. introduced a cola made from sparking water, cane sugar, apple extract, tartaric acid, which comes from grapes, just to name a few.  This is such an interesting idea for a cola company -remove the high fructose corn syrup and market it as the natural cola.

Now, on this side of the pond, American customers will find three similar Pepsi products sweetened with natural sugar in March and April: Pepsi Natural, Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback.  The two throwbacks will be available nationally April 20 for eight weeks.  To complement the name, the throwback packaging will have a retro-look.  As for Pepsi Natural, the glass bottle, sold in a four pack will have a sleeker, simple design showcasing the three main ingredients: sparking water, sugar and kola nut extract.  In addition, Pepsi is labeling this as the “all natural cola”.

WHY DID PEPSI DEVELOP A ‘NATURAL’ COLA?
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enlightened orgs: inspiration

A NEW BLACK GOLD

In the debt-free province of Alberta, where the black gold that first gushed from the ground in the 1950’s, has resulted in a Heritage Trust fund worth of billions of dollars being set aside for a “rainy day” – getting anyone to think about alternative energy sources is not an easy sell. But two framers from the tiny farming community of Vegreville have risen to the challenge.

Their innovation to create Biogas from cattle manure seems a perfect fit for a province that has ranching as it second largest industry. It is also timely for a province aware of the implications of the depleting sources of non-renewable oil and gas, and the challenges of a reliance on an industry with a Boom/Bust economic cycle.

“Inventing a new technology is a pure Alberta story… a great example that building a knowledge economy can happen on the farm, not just in ivory towers” – Evan Chapko, CEO, Highmark Renewables (Edmonton Journal, 02/08/09)

FROM POOP TO PROFIT…Alberta’s new Black Gold…

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enlightened orgs: inspiration

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PASSION

I discovered our Enlightened Corporation for this week while watching a segment of the Oprah show in which she interviewed young, self-made millionaires.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, was one of the guests. He is a great inspiration, a model CEO of a model corporation, for our Enlightened Orgs directory.

His business achievements are certainly significant for such a young man. While still in his twenties, Hsieh (SHAY), a computer undergraduate from Harvard, co-founded an internet advertising agency called LinkExchange, which was sold to Microsoft for $265 million in 1998. But it was actually his business philosophy or mindset, that really caught my attention.

“I AM NOT NECESSARILY PASSIONATE ABOUT SHOES…WHAT I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT IS…

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AWARENESS AND ATTENTION ARE OUR STARTING POINTS

We mentioned the great program, PopTech, last week. If you haven’t watched it yet, here’s another excellent presentation from the October 2008 conference. Debt-crisis expert Juan Enriquez diagnoses and prescribes a reasonable 10-point remedy to America’s pressing financial ills.

Juan calls it a “systemic problem“. Please understand what he means. Only if you do, can you be informed and educate your elected officials who you hired to act on your behalf. For all of our sakes, please listen carefully, then follow up at PopTech.

Can’t see it? Get FlashPlayer, or view at PopTech.

Do you have your head around what “our” Federal Reserve Bank, mortgage bankers, financial “experts” and insurance executives have done with derivatives? $531 trillion???

BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT MONEY REALLY IS AND HOW IT’S CREATED?

This is important.

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global trends: economy: non-traditional revenues

BREATHE DEEPLY

Our last post talked about the adult entertainment industry’s request for a government bailout as a canary in the economy’s coal mine – a harbinger of the thinning oxygen of cash flow.

But to see one canary doesn’t necessarily give us good direction. What are the other canaries to watch? There are so many. We’ll look at just a few.

This week we’ll focus on specific “non-traditional” revenues, forms of value added taxes, or goods and services taxes [Wikipedia] based on your travel, entertainment and gambling activities. In the coming weeks, we’ll observe others.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT NON-TRADITIONAL REVENUES?

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global trends: industry upheavals

CANARIES GALORE

We all know the story of the coal miners who would take a canary in a cage with them as they entered mine shafts. If the canary died, it indicated oxygen depletion and acted as a warning to the miners to move quickly to avoid their own deaths.

The livelihoods of real people and their families are at stake with every loss of a job, but if watch the big picture, we see interesting changes.

The adult sex industry has been the bulwark of Internet revenue and growth since nearly the beginning. Now CNN reports that the porn industry is asking for a handout.

“Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.”

FORGET YOUR RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL PERSUASIONS FOR A MOMENT…

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global trends: economy

IT’S NOT HARD TO PREDICT, NOW THAT WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE

Thirty years ago, not many people were looking forward to this transition. Not even a few year ago. Otherwise, books like Michael Mandeville’s 2003 book, The Coming Economic Collapse, would have been best sellers.

Now that we’ve experienced the last quarter of 2008, detailed info what what comes next is available online if you want to read it.

Our focus is help folks get through the mess, but also to realize that life on the other side will be much different, and can become very positive and life supporting. Each Monday we’ll try to post a few articles touching on the immediate 2009 economy, what comes after the meltdown, and how to survive and thrive with your business.

Economist Paul Krugman was one of the few voices of dissent during the early Bush-2 administration when most everyone was in lockstep.

“Normal rules do not apply as long as depression economics prevails.” Paul Krugman

Can’t see it? Get FlashPlayer, or view at BigThink.

WANT MORE?

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global trends: fixing our economy

Welcome to the first Monday edition of Global Trends, focused on what’s happening today that is turning your life on its head. We can’t ignore it any longer. If we bury our heads in the sand, there won’t be any sand left within months, not decades.

“THIS IS GOING TO BE A HARD TIME”

PopTech (The PopTech story) has begun a series of video interviews, Diagnoses and Prescriptions: Global Economic Crisis. Here’s an insightful one with Robert Borosage on what to do to fix things.

Can’t see it? Get FlashPlayer, or view at PopTech.

“IDEAS START ON THE OUTSIDE AND ARE DRIVEN BY PASSION”

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Corporate MindShift: Transparency

SUPPORT OPEN INFORMATION

Information transparency is emerging at every level as a force that cannot be stopped. For this trend to positively serve society, it needs to be universal and balanced, not selective to give advantage to groups vying for power and control.

One critical area where we need transparency is in voting results.

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enlightened organizations: global trends: inspiration

FROM “TAKERS” TO “GIVERS” – SLIDE 3

Whether you currently have a business, anticipate starting a business, or want to invest in a business; we believe this model will help you pick the winners!

Abundance, Inter-connectivity and Consciousness are the main characteristics of the emerging economy. Today, I present the third of our trio of slides explaining our TAO of Conscious Business(tm). You can use the links below to review Slides 1 and 2.

Click to review Slide 1
Click to review Slide 2

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enlightened organizations: global trends

WE’RE RIGHT AT THE TURNING POINT

A big shift in all our institutions, businesses and governments is underway. The old power regime is struggling to retain control but, as in any evolutionary process, it must adapt or be replaced by a more adaptable system. In this discussion of Slide 2 of our TAO of Conscious Business(tm) trio of slides, we point out a few of the symptoms that confirm for us the decline is underway. Click to review Slide 1

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Web Marketing: VanAmburgGroup.com

THANK GOD OUR NEW SITE IS UP

Over the years, we created and managed a lot of websites for clients, and focused on creation of MutualGravity’s software platform, leaving some of our own sites to collect dust.

Until a few weeks ago, VanAmburgGroup.com was untouched since 1999. Yet that was our public presence, our 24/7 communications with the world. If you saw the old site, you probably thought we were on a long cruise or something.

So this quarter we revamped the the entire site:

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