How Good Is Your Survey?

by Michael Keane

Have you ever taken a survey and the right question wasn’t asked mainly because it entailed a third party product or service? I’ve recently been asked to fill out a few and I’m seeing a big gap and opportunity for building a better survey. That area opportunity is that each company can get a customer’s feel on how other companies products are experienced. Generally, most companies create surveys on just their own products. Hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. have a massive opportunity in looking more in depth at the different products that they agree to sell or use to create the best customer experience.

One grand example is the hotel industry. The hotel industry is one where most of the products are from third party vendors. In the surveys I have received after a stay, rarely is there a specific question on a product or service from a third party vendor. At best, there is a catch all question at the end. With third party vendors’ products being so intricate in a customer’s experience, the hotel industry would do better with more in depth surveys being produced. .

Restaurants are another field that can improve on their surveys. Questions on the food can include where it came from, how it was treated and how it got to the restaurant. Questions on the furniture, seating process, and payment process should also be explored. There is a multitude of vendors and food providers that are looking for feedback on their product or service.

There is also a big opportunity in terms of revenue for these companies. With having the ability to affect the nature of the consumer market as well as non-direct vendor markets. By simply charging a fee to include other companies products on their surveys, a new and large revenue stream is created. Another stream of revenue that can be enhanced is the pricing that each vendor pays in order to have access to the host company’s customer base.

This type of enhanced survey will also give insight into whether or not a product or service should be kept or ended. Third party vendors will be continuously motivated to make sure their products and services stay in front of the host company’s customer base.  Including the third party survey will help do that.

Many good results can be had by opening up surveys to products and services of third party vendors. Companies in the service industry are well motivated to do so. There are opportunities to increase revenue, provide better services, and improve their image within their own customer market. The wrong survey might not hurt the business. But the right, informed survey can improve customer retainment and continued business success.

Bullied Comics release

Friends,

Today, with the help of Mascot Books, the first edition of Bullied Comics is now on sale for only $8.00!!! It is for sale on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble in an eBook version.

If you are looking for a reason to purchase a copy, here are a few:

- This is the beginning of an improving and exciting storyline that will help all kids with bullying. You can cement yourself as a part of pioneering this project forward.

- A portion of the sale of each purchase (not just profits)  will go to PACER's anti-bully center. They do an amazing job and deserve as much help as we can give.

- Each copy is only $8.00. There aren't too many other things that will provide as much value for this price.

- The author Dan Keane has a passion for this issue like no other. He is fully committed to improving kids lives through this comic.

- Dan's artwork is second to none.

Don't forget to tweet and Facebook message (tagging @bulliedcomics) that you made the purchase. It will create momentum and a random tweet will be chosen on November 1st and the winner will receive a free T-shirt from Bullied Comics and KeaneVCC. Make sure and visit Bullied Comics Facebook, Twitter and email (bulliedcomics@gmail.com). We are always looking for new partners and development help.

As always, thanks to all who made this moment possible.

Mike

Massive Influence of Wikinomics Series

by Michael Keane

Recently, I revisited Macrowikinomics, by Dan Tascott and Anthony Williams. This book was written in 2010, as a follow up to the successful 2006 book Wikinomics. They speak about how to get the world rolling again after the crash using massive upheaval techniques in specific areas including Finance, Industrialization Processes, Education, Healthcare, Media and Communication, and the public's involvement and manipulation of government. I originally picked up the book years ago as notes were given by many important heads of business and government including Mark Parker (Nike), Eric Schmidt (Google), Noel Tichy (University of Michigan), Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum), and others. With a recent revisit to the book and think back through the development of business processes, it seems that a lot of people took this book to heart. There is massive development in almost all areas covered in this book either by existing companies/organizations at the time, or by newly created businesses/organizations. The one element that seems to be evident in most of the improvement is that there is a high level of collaboration (vertical or horizontal) within each space.

Is there something in your business that corresponds with this collaboration thought pattern. Would using technology and collaboration have a disruption within your industry in some way. Would a small change create the possibility for an even larger change?

I fully recommend MacroWikinomics. There is a new book on blockchain that will be on the list of books to check out. Bankers beware. You are next in the line of disruptors.

This is an opinion article. The opinions were fully unsolicited. Please do your own due diligence before acting on this article.

July View Report over 1,000 views (Ford, Elon Musk, Bank of America, more)

There were over 1,000 views of KeaneVCC and partners posts during the month of July. This is the most ever had. The simple reason is that popular topics with thoughtful analysis is happening for these posts. The quality of the ad placement through Google Adsense is also improving as the views are increasing.

Some of the popular posts are below

 - From KeaneVCC

1) Thoughts on Musk's "Master Plan" (link here)

2) Charity Heroes (ALS Version) (link here)

- From KDK Fund

1) Additional Shares of Ford Purchased (link here)

-From KDK Options

1) BAC Call Trade Now Profitable (link here)


**As always, this blog is to be read as opinion. Please do your due diligence before acting on any information read here.**

Positive Movement On Veteran Homelessness

by Michael Keane

This story from the Huffington Post (link here) came up. While I am sure the numbers are not as good or as bad as said, there is positive movement towards lessening veteran homelessness. This story should be looked on as an opportunity to continue this movement. Give a call to your congressperson, or local pol that helps with homelessness. I know I will.

 Per disclosure, I am a former Marine.

**As always, this blog is to be read as opinion. Please do your due diligence before acting on any information read here.**

Thoughts on Elon Musk's "Master Plan"

by Michael Keane

Some people have been heavily questioning the “Master Plan” of having all electric vehicles including large trucks created by Elon Musk. But there might be a misconception within that “questioning” thought pattern. For one,  notoriety might not matter to Musk. It may not be that Musk is looking to be the sole or primary supplier of the vehicles. He might know of other companies working on the issue and feels his vocal support of the project will give the industry a boost.  Ultimately, though, this is only a part of his master plan. It is well known that his true master plan is to see humans get to Mars and that means fuel.

Mr. Musk has clearly and regularly shown his indifference towards others opinions of him and his strategies. Part of the reason is that he understands that he is going after some seriously large issues and knows that a straight line to success is laughable but also that success is attainable. When you look at his history, it is full of both successes and failures. But there is always progress. When the project is successful, the progress is paradigm changing. A great early example is Paypal. Even when there is a failure (think projects for Tesla and SpaceX), there is still progress.

There are many small companies doing great work on creating this reality. But because of uncertainties, some companies are nervous about their own sustainability. Hearing positive comments and support from Mr. Musk gives a sense of inspiration to continue the hard work of innovation that currently going on in this space.

Environmentally speaking, there are few people that are driving the needle forward in getting the rest of us off of fossil fuels. This master plan seems to be the next step in the process. If you could have this as your legacy, wouldn’t you try and do the same. At the very least, we should be out in the marketplace supporting these missions in any way possible. This article is one of those ways.

With all of that said, the main master plan is what is probably driving all other master plans of Mr. Musk. Getting humanity to Mars is not easy. Especially from a private citizen like Mr. Musk. It is really something that he and his team are not afraid to take on other master plans in order to succeed in the Mars master plan. They have found success in driving down rocket costs and fuel is one major component of that plan.

Moving the process of electric vehicles is one major goal of Elon Musk. His announcement of the master plan for it undoubtedly will move the process forward. Will it end up exactly how his master plan expects? Probably not. But it will probably be darn close. It will probably be even better as now more people and visions will influence and be influenced by the announcement. Now is a great time to get that electric vehicle idea out and worked on!

Per disclosure, KeaneVCC’s partner KDK Fund owns shares of Ford. KeaneVCC has also recently written blog posts on the effects of the electric vehicle on the insurance, oil, and local taxing authority areas. You can find the link here.     

Charity Heroes (ALS Version)

by Michael Keane

Have you heard the recent news in the fight against ALS? The link to the story is here.

We at Keane Venture Capital and Consulting would like to assist in driving forward more heroes like the ones in the story above. Do you know of any doctors, researchers, fundraisers, and those fighting for lives?

Let's make sure they are the ones getting thousands of follows and retweets about their progress. The more we can put a focus on these individuals and organizations, the quicker we all will succeed.

Today's hero is John Landers, PhD. Great job! 

KeaneVCC Partner Post Views Pass 15,000

A big congratulations goes out to KeaneVCC and its partners and clients as the blog views have surpassed 15,000! With new projects coming on line this year and the growth in success of its current partners and clients, KeaneVCC looks to continue its banner year of 2016! Links to the blog list are below. If you are a regular viewer, thank you for your support. If you are new, welcome! We are always looking to add value to companies and projects aligned with the KeaneVCC mission! Send us a note to keanevcc@gmail.com if we can be of service!

KeaneVCC 

KDK Fund

KDK Options


**As always, this blog is to be read as opinion. Please do your due diligence before acting on any information read here.**

Driverless Cars (Post 3 of series)

by Michael Keane

This post will be covering the effects of driverless cars on the oil, insurance, and government taxing authorities. With Google already logging in over 1 million road miles, and the successes that have been created, these vehicles are not far from hitting the consumer markets. Problems show that it will eliminate demand for oil and insurance industries, while at the same time removing a significant source of revenue from tickets and crashes. Possible solutions include finding new uses and new sources of revenue. Links to the previous 2 articles (general post 1 here, and more focused article for post 2 here).

Most driverless cars will be almost certainly electric vehicles. This is not a good sign for the oil companies. If car companies are going to invest in the technology to have a driverless car, electric engines will be a no brainer.

Insurance companies are almost certain to lose massive revenue from driverless cars. The continually mounting data is showing that driverless cars are far safer than cars driven by human beings. That will hit premiums in a big way. This one simple savings point could drive more people to driverless cars in the same way that gas prices drive consumers to electric vehicles. Knowing the trends and cycles as Insurance companies create the thought pattern that this situation is being worked on and that a plan to replace the premium revenue with another stream is likely.

Not unlike the insurance companies are local and state governments. This is because with the same data, extrapolating the idea that there will be less tickets from speeding and accidents is almost a no brainer. But unlike insurance companies, it can be fairly certain that governments are not working on this idea. Maybe this article will get them to do so. They should be looking at their revenue models (because that is what ticket revenue really is) and adapt it to future items and personal behaviors in order to replace the loss that not having speeding ticket and accident ticket revenues.  A possibility is to update roads with assistant type technology for the vehicles and charge the vehicle owners for that particular service.

Driverless cars will create an opportunity for consumers to possibly lessen the costs of insurance, energy, and tickets.  These industries would be very wise to have plans on replacing the current revenue with new plans in the pipeline.

Electric and Driverless Vehicles (pt.2)

by Michael Keane

Electric and Driverless Cars  Part 2

Electric Vehicles

In a previous post, a couple of large issues that the transportation industry was outlined. In this article, the focus will be on how the energy, insurance and governmental taxing agencies will handle the growing use of electric vehicles. Will energy companies be able to pivot off of its reliance on vehicle gasoline for profit? Will insurance companies be able to handle the likely decreased premiums due to vehicles no longer needing protection against gas related incidents? Will taxing authorities be able to pivot off of the taxes received from gas?

Energy companies are in a very precarious position. They are finding that there is a glut of fossil fuel energy while at the same time a lessening of demand for it. A big and growing culprit of this is the expansion of the electric vehicle. With non-fossil sources of fuel Companies like Tesla, GM, BMW, and others have put in large resources to build out these vehicles. as alternative fueling grows, so does demand for the vehicles. This increased demand is bringing costs down into an area where the masses are able to participate.  

One possible rock to lean on during this time is the time period just as the automobile was becoming more and more popular. Energy companies faced a similar threat to their business as electric lights replaced oil in homes. The question becomes what is the switch they need to make. The larger companies should be able to absorb some of the trouble. But overall, margins are going to get squeezed.

In terms of insurance, there is one item that I can think of that should lessen premiums. That item is the removal of gas and oil (extremely flammable) from the vehicles. In an article by InsideEV’s (link here), information shows a large improvement when it comes to safety when comparing EV’s with standard vehicles. This could bring down the price of premiums.  One possible solution in the short term is to raise other parts of the monthly premium as the vehicles are generally more expensive and can be more of a steal target because of the newness of the segment.

Taxing authorities should already be figuring out solutions to this issue. The more electric vehicles that are registered in the state, the less revenue they will receive from taxes on gasoline. For example, in my home of Chicago, taxes on a gallon of gas are around $0.30 per gallon. I sure hope they are working on a plan that replaces this revenue. Because with more and more EV’s hitting Illinois roads, revenue is increasingly getting smaller and smaller. But there are alternatives like a flat annual tax on EV’s or an increase in taxes for electricity not generated by NFES. Also, promotion of these vehicles will increase the favorabel environmental effects which should offset some of the financial loss. There aren’t too many administrations who end of badly for making their area cleaner and healthier for their constituents. If you have or plan to buy and EV, reach out to your local office holders and remind them of the benefits for the area.

There are more than a few issues facing the oil, insurance, and taxing authority agencies when it comes to handling the increase of EV’s on the road. But there are ways to continue profitability and success while embracing the change. It is very important not to have blinders on or have your figurative head in the sand at this moment. Acknowledge what is, and plan and act however needed.  

Electric and Driverless Vehicles

Electric and Driverless Cars

By Michael Keane

There has been a large progressive move within the car industry in the last decade when it comes to power and ease of transporting. Both of these issues will have a major effect on energy (oil especially), insurance, and local governments  This series of articles will focus on the effects of the moves on these particular industries. It is very important that these industries get ahead of the situation to avoid trouble.

This blog post is the first in a series to cover this topic. It will briefly cover the topics and possible solutions with later posts going into more detail on each topic and solutions to that particular topic. Awareness of the issues at this point is paramount for all involved (industries, customers, etc.) so that nobody can claim ignorance for when a tipping point regarding organizational survival comes upon them. Per disclosure, KeaneVCC has clients who have investments in the car industry, software industry, communications industry, and a bond portfolio that includes local governmental municipal bonds.

At this point, the move to electric vehicles is rolling along well. This past month, Tesla introduced the Model 3. The company has reported that there have already been over 400,000 orders for the car, which indicates a new level of scalability. Nissan, GM, BMW, Toyota, Ford and others are also currently in the market with vehicles.  The prices of electric vehicles are showing up at affordable levels. Competition is growing in the industry and seems to be creating a ceiling on prices. The loss of gas revenue should be a clear red flag for the oil companies. Are they going to sit back with their heads in the sand or will they understand that progressive industries adapt? Government taxing authorities should also take notice as to what the effect will be for them.

To expand on the manner, the movement towards driverless cars is increasing. Leaders in the car, software, and and other industries are committing large amount of resources to this effort. At this point, driverless vehicles have racked up over 1 million miles in planned trips with varied levels of success. Ancillary industries are watching and planning carefully on the progress. Industries that should be paying particular attention are Insurance and local governments. Revenues for both will be affected heavily if driverless cars are adopted.  

**As always, this blog is to be read as opinion. Please do your due diligence before acting on any information read here.**

Wounded Warrior Lesson For Non-Profits

by Michael Keane

Recently, there were executives from The Wounded Warrior Project that were fired due to fiscal irresponsibility on expenses. A New York Times article link is here.  This issue is not new and continues to pop up in the non-profit area. One main reason why this type of thing happens is that the organizational non profit side of the mission sometimes gets clouded by the personal mission of wealth. When the two clash within an individual or organization, a mess is generally a result. Wounded Warrior has been caught up in that idea.

It takes a special skill to manage your personal wealth ambitions when the business you are in exists in the non-profit arena. There are some wonderful resources that can help you find what non-profit companies are spending on their salaries and expenses. There are also non-profits that handle the situation in a wonderful manner.

One  example is Movember. If you look at their overhead expenses, it is clear that the executives of this company bring the mission mindset to their own personal wealth ambition. Per a story in the Independent Record (link here), wages and earnings were $900,000+ on $23,000,000 in 2013. You will see that the CEO has a salary of $280,000+ for 2012. Another example mentioned in the story is the American Lung Association's CEO pay of $300,000 on $54,000,000 in revenue. When you look at Wounded Warrior Projects pay, you see nothing out of the ordinary. It's CEO makes $300,000+, which is fairly in line with its contemporaries.

But this scandal has brought to light some comments from the company that could show an opportunity for improvement. In a story written by Ryan Schuette from IVN (link here), a comment by the company saying that their salaries are comparative with the private sector is what stands out. This could show where the motivation of the executives existed when they made the mistake of spending the amounts that they did. Non-profits have many reasons for comparing themselves to the private sector. But pay and wages should not be one of them. This can create confusion at the individual level and the greed of private sector processes will show itself and catch the non-profit in trouble, like the way Wounded Warrior Project has shown. When you run a non-profit, you have to have a solid understanding of where the traps of private sector thought processes exist for your business. In the Wounded Warrior case, that did not happen.

It is disappointing that the executives at Wounded Warrior Project haven't fully discerned this. But it is also a great opportunity to improve and become better focused and successful. Being what the mission of the organization is, there is little doubt that improvement will come. This is just a bump in the road for Wounded Warrior.

Per disclosure, the author is a Marine Corps veteran. He is also a regular charity contributor to Movember.

Bullied Comics Mascot Books Partnership

In the last week, Bullied Comics has made progress in its partnership with Mascot Publishing to get its first edition published. Graphic Design is up next on the menu in order to move the process forward. We thank Mascot Publishing for its vision and work towards bring Bullied Comics to life!

KeaneVCC is proud to partner up with Bullied Comics to bring it out to the public. Making investments into organizations and projects that have a direct positive result on society is one of KeaneVCC's tenets.

If you or someone you know is involved in a societal progressive project or organization, and is looking for a perspective that could add value, contact Mike Keane at keanevcc@gmail.com.

10,000 Views for KDK Fund and KDK Options

The beginning of the year has started with the dials turning over and a congratulations are in order for the KDK Fund and KDK Options blogs. An even bigger thank you goes out to all of the readers who have viewed and provided excellent feedback to each of the blogs.

Combined, the two have received over 10,000 views from places all over the world. The blogs cover stocks and options being bought and sold from their respective accounts. The links to the blogs can be found below:

KDK Fund

KDK Options