More Than Just Data: Career Views, We're Number 12, and a Royal ROI for the ages.

I went to an “on to the next thing” celebration this week, which is what most of the time would be referred to as a “retirement celebration” but, in this case, the celebrant in question does not care for the term, so we adapt. Besides the wonderful stories shared about the guest of honor, I was struck by the conclusion of one of the conversations I had at the event. The agreement was that “it is easier to blame someone for a problem than try to solve it.” In a nutshell, this feels like the root of so many of our challenges around the world today.

We live in an incredibly dynamic world with change moving faster than ever before, and with change, there are always issues and problems that arise. Some of these challenges can be predicted, but others are nearly impossible to see coming before they present themselves. In general, there are two approaches we can take: either we push to stop progress and change or we adapt as the change happens. The challenge is that the first option isn’t really an option, and the second option requires cooperation and flexibility from our governments and our industries, two traits that seem to be in short supply these days.

Our world has never seen such rapid change in such a short time before, and the pace seems to be quickening versus slowing down. Any time you are in uncharted territory, the past is not overly helpful in providing a clear path forward. In these circumstances, if the approach is static, or if there is an inability to admit that the most recent choice is incorrect, then getting to your destination successfully has very low odds.

Change is inevitable. We can affect outcomes in how we deal with that change. The question left to us is this: do we try to solve problems or do we just look for someone to point a finger at?

As always, here are some of the data points that caught our eye this week.

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1)??? 84 v 76 || 8 v 3

It is always interesting to look at how opinions can ebb and flow throughout the year. This is especially true when it comes to how people feel about their jobs. There are a lot of factors that can affect how we feel about our own careers such as age, your co-workers, your boss, and certainly the industry that you are in. This week’s Consumer Trendwatch newsletter looked at how Americans feel about their careers, and there are always some interesting differences based on what sector of the economy people work in. With that being said, the current differences are a bit of a Rorschach test.

On the one hand, office workers have the highest concentration of very positive feelings towards their careers compared to those in manufacturing and the service industry (48% vs. 31% and 29%, respectively). However, the overall concentration of positive views is not that different than office workers (84%), with those in the service industry (76%) and those in manufacturing (83%) all holding similar views. On the other hand, we see that those in the service industry have the highest concentration of negative feelings, with 8% holding very negative views compared to just 3% of office workers and 1% of manufacturing workers who report the same.

On the positive side (at least for those working in an office), office workers are 10% happier on average than service industry workers. On the negative side, service industry workers are nearly three times as unhappy in their careers. Which is more telling?

Consumer Trendwatch

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2)??? #12

In this year’s Economic Competitiveness Ranking from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the United States economy dropped out of the top 10 to number 12. This year, Singapore was ranked as the most competitive with Switzerland and Denmark rounding out the top three. Clearly, these rankings can be subjective but the results are interesting to see.

Overall, the US had the highest ranking in Economic Performance driven by both the level of international investment and the state of the domestic economy. In government efficiency, the US was ranked 34th, with the biggest drop coming from the public finance system and a continued low score on the societal framework. When it comes to the Business Efficiency rankings, the US is 19th, down from 14th last year. The biggest drops were in Management Practices (down 10 places to 24th) and the overall state of the labor market (down 9 to 28th). Attitudes and Values moved up to 29th (from 30th) and Productivity & Efficiency dropped two places to #12.

As for Infrastructure rankings, the US is 7th overall, down one place from last year. The only measurement the US gets high marks on is Scientific Infrastructure (3rd place), although this is down from the #1 slot last year. Basic Infrastructure (19th) was the one measurement that improved since last year, while Education (18th), Health & Environment (20th), and Technological Infrastructure (14th) all dropped.

In the top 10 of this year’s rankings, six countries are in Europe, three are in Asia, and one is in the Middle East (which can also be defined as part of the Asian Continent, but for the purposes of this post considering it a different area….yes we had an internal disagreement over this). If you enjoy data and feel like spending a few hours not doing anything on your to-do list, I highly recommend checking out the report.

?World Rankings

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3)??? $1.2billion

This week, it was announced that Sony Music is about to acquire the rights to Queen’s catalog for ￡1 billion (about $1.27 billion) This will be the largest payment for a catalog in history and is worth more than double what Sony paid for Bruce Springsteen’s catalog three years ago ($550 million), which is also twice as much as they paid for a 50% stake in Michael Jackson’s catalog rights earlier this year. According to reports, the next closest bid was about $900 million.

What is interesting is that these deals usually include the master recordings and publishing rights, but apparently, Queen is also including their name, image, and likeness rights. The only piece of Queen not included in the deal is the live performance receipts. The lawyers' fees on this one are also likely to be astronomical since Disney owns Queen’s recorded music rights in the US and Canada but has been paying royalties to the surviving members of Queen (Brian May and Roger Taylor). These payments will now go to Sony. In addition, Universal has a standing distribution deal with Queen through 2026 or 2027, which will then revert to Sony.

Regardless of complexity, it seems like Brian May and Roger Taylor will be making out quite well on this one.

They Are The Champions

We hope you enjoyed this week’s edition and, as always, we look forward to your thoughts and hearing what stories caught your eye this week.