Comments

1. Prefer $10k 1994 in Microsoft, Starbucks, Berkshire-H'way. $10k 1994 NYTimes = -$10k '07.

Posted by sean at July 9, 2007 8:26 AM

The man may be great at personal branding
but
I have never heard Trump talk about his shareholders...ever.
What you don't focus on...

Posted by K at July 9, 2007 8:26 AM

Trump is too busy trumpeting Trump to talk about his shareholders. (And aren't we all glad we're not among them.) And if we think about the personal brand he's built it revolves around: Me, Me, Me; Anything associated with Me is the biggest and the best; Me, Me, Me. Not to mention a house of cards real estate empire, conspicuous consumption, ex-wives, and bad hair.

So it's very interesting to see what an investment in Trump would have done for you...

Posted by Maureen Rogers at July 9, 2007 9:13 AM

Trump is branding without anything else; some glitzy real estate and a guilty pleasure TV show but no real WOW product or idea.

Posted by tom maloney at July 9, 2007 9:32 AM

I like to learn what's good from anyone, and ignore what's not so good.

I think we can learn a lot from Trump - let's just focus on that...

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at July 9, 2007 9:52 AM

Arun - I agree we try to learn from everyone we encounter, but what good thing do you suggest we should be learning from Donald Trump?

Posted by tom maloney at July 9, 2007 10:41 AM

I think a significant underlying reason for Mr. Trump's "success" is what he got from his father: money, rolodex/network established, knowledge of the business and the area and the people, etc. And yes I think his brand has helped him stay in business. However, Im glad that I am not in business with him as a result of that branding, ie, I didnt take the bait.

Posted by s g at July 9, 2007 11:04 AM

Well, duh, y'all. And good ol' boy Teddy Turner's big mouth and paper empire, too? Check it out.

Posted by Red Island Rhodes at July 9, 2007 4:07 PM

Still on the Blog Roll though...

Posted by David Porter at July 9, 2007 8:17 PM

Hi Tom,

Trump is a guy who's been close or in bankruptcy a couple of times, but has bounced back through hard and smart work.. Most people I know give up after one debacle in business, but this guy had two.. and Major major ones. That's one thing we can learn...

Another thing is - Trump properties have tremendous brand value - so even if you have other buildings out there near a Trump building that are well made, and better furnished, the Trump building gets sold out or leased out completely, while the others are not.

He manages to make icons of buildings - the Brand You concept as applied to buildings. Think of something you created, and see how you can learn from Trump how to make it an icon...

That's two things you can learn from the Donald.

Kind regards,

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at July 10, 2007 7:20 AM

1. The Donald also has a worldwide brand like almost no one else - mainly due to fairly recent super forays into television - the Apprentice is syndicated worldwide.

2. Plus he has massively helped to revitalize Manhattan - esp. near Central Park and the West side. Love his idea to boot the UN low talent group to Ground Zero - and make the UN prime East river locale live to its potential.

3. And his kids are wonderful, smart beautiful career people unlike Paris Hilton for example. And he has created a legion of millionaire's from all those lucky enough to have a career with le Donald.

Posted by sean at July 10, 2007 8:41 AM

I think Ted Turner is an entirely different animal than Trump. He took dad's billboard company and turned it into the first superstation, changing forever the American TV landscape. Then, just to show he had more in him, he started CNN, the first all-news TV channel which in turn became a model for all kinds of specialty news-like channels like the weather channel.

Posted by Wally Bock at July 10, 2007 10:51 AM

Granted Trump has come back from adversity - that's certainly noteworthy, and we can learn a lot from that.

But what about his investors/shareholders? Shouldn't they make money as well?

Posted by tom maloney at July 10, 2007 11:02 AM

Along with "In search of excellence" and "thriving on chaos", Mr. Trump's ghostwritten first book "the art of the deal" played a pivotal role in forming my early views on business as an outlet for passion, creativity and making a mark on the world. I now think of him as the “William Shatner” of the business world, a sort of magnificent clown who manages to hold and captivate us with his completely unique persona. No matter how much the man falls short of the myth, the “idea” of Trump remains utterly fascinating.

Posted by John Gregor at July 11, 2007 12:03 AM

Trump is an inspiration but that does not mean that everything he represents is worth emulating - the hair for one ... eeew! But for guts and persistence, he's the man! Some companies are better to work for and others better to share in. DT is clearly of the first; I think one could have fun and learn a lot working for/with someone like. Clearly not the latter!

Posted by Shaun Lindbergh at July 11, 2007 3:43 AM

Can any one explain to me why Alan Suger (the UK Trump apprentice spin off) needs a bigger chair than anyone else in the room? I would have thought that no self respecting businessperson today would be seen dead with such an out of date cliche

Posted by PaulH at July 11, 2007 10:43 AM

At last I got round to finishing ‘Screw It Let’s Do It’ by Sir Richard Branson. Please read it.

Question: Is Simplicity a real concept?
Answer: You bet!

Sir Richard writes in his book on page 194:

‘The simplicity of this project constantly reminds me of the human folly of creating very complex systems that end up justifying themselves and their existence - but end up stifling innovation’

Amen and thank you Sir Richard!!!

If Simplicity is good enough for Branson it is good enough for me.

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 11, 2007 6:56 PM

Hi Tom:

I believe that Mr. Trump and his company have problems as any one of us.

He positioned his brand very well all over the world.

However the brand is not focused. Is lost in diversity. If you can ask: What means "Trump"? People will say: TV programs, buildings, casinos, golf curses, University programs, etc., etc.

I don't know how he is managing his business. Nevertheless I can only recommend to be more humble and try to use resources in a more simple way.

TV can help to grow image, but if you are loosing money on your operations that image does not help at all. viagra united kingdom

With Best Regards

Posted by Juan Miguel Robles at July 11, 2007 8:50 PM

Sir Richard Branson follow up

Yesterday I travelled on a Virgin Train from Birmingham to Newcastle return – a total of 7 hours on two Virgin Trains.

Having just read the book I thought to myself …here is a chance for me to do some live research.

I went along to the Virgin train shop to get a coffee and decided to have a chat with the young man (probably late 20’s) behind the counter.

I decided to be ‘devils advocate’ and therefore lied as I said:

"I’ve just finished reading Richard Branson latest book ‘Screw it Lets’ Do It’ …. And in the book he writes about how ‘in touch’ he likes to be with front line staff in the Virgin empire but I’m a bit cynical about all that crap"

I was lying because I believe Richard Branson is genuine …. I awaited with a keen interest this guy’s response.

This was his reply…

"Richard Branson is very approachable and yes we see him quite a lot. He always talks to us and he listens. I like him and in fact he is far more approachable than our middle mangers."

WOW!!! – AMEN AGAIN!!

This was wonderful for me to hear.

Middle managers in organisations are often the key people. In my experience those middle managers who like to ‘control’ are nowhere near as effective as those middle managers who trust the front line staff just to get on with it.

Really interesting to hear from a random front liner that world icon Richard Branson is more approachable than their immediate supervisor … what a powerful learning point for me yet again that underlines my thoughts about Branson having the right leadership style – GET ALONGSIDE FRONT LINERS AND TRUST THEM COMPLETELY.

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 12, 2007 7:02 AM

Say what you want about D. Trump, the man has the balls to stand-by what he believes in. We should all have the passion to fight for our beliefs. Forget about the $$$$........... it comes down to the FIGHT !!!!!!!!

Posted by Ivan Schwartz at July 12, 2007 11:10 PM

Enough with Trump. Tom where's your podcast? Am I missing something? I want to hear you speak!

Posted by Kim at August 4, 2007 7:45 PM