Happy belated Valentine's Day to my Scarlet kinfolk, and welcome to my 4th Annual 4-
Week Late National Signing Day Mostly Ignorant and Largely Misinformed Recruiting
Roundup!
RECRUITING!!! It's not just for players anymore!
It was 4 days after Christmas in 2004 when Syracuse University athletic director Daryl
Gross decided to fire then head coach Paul Pasqualoni, leaving the team and their
incoming recruits in the lurch. Glenroy Lee and Courtney Greene, a pair of New
Rochelle, NY teammates who were pretty set on Syracuse, sought guidance from their
teammate, a 3-star defensive back who had verbally committed to the Orange the previous
summer. Whatever which way he went, they said, so too would they go. Well, their good
friend, one Raymell Rice, didn't like the uncertainty of the head coaching situation in
the frozen tundra of upstate New York and switched his allegiance to Greg Schiano and
Rutgers University. Glenroy Lee followed suit, as did a reluctant Courtney Greene.
Needless to say, Courtney Greene started from Day 1 and enjoyed one of the best careers
we've seen on the Banks before heading off to the NFL. Ray Ray . . . well, all he did
was change the face of Rutgers football forever. Glenroy Lee? Best known for being on
the receiving end of a Mike Teel punch/slap at the end of a loss to Navy, but still . .
. the point is that sometimes, you can't make your own luck, but you sure as sugar can
jump all over the mistakes of others. So when Pitt fired Coach Wannstedt (good friend
of Schiano, by the way) this past winter, Rutgers wasted no time going out and
snatching up their offensive coordinator, their defensive backs coach, and more
recently, their tight ends coach. Now, I can see how some people might not be all
worked up about hiring coaches that were basically fired for not meeting expectations,
but a couple of things should be noted. First and foremost, Jeff Hafley (defensive
backs coach) is recruiting dynamite, particularly in New Jersey. He is directly
credited with stealing 4-star DT Marquise Wright, 3-star DE Max Isaaka, and at least
partially 3-star QB Gary Nova out of New Jersey, and he was just as responsible for
dragging them all back home after each pretty much wanted nothing to do with their
state university. Given a full year, I think he and WR Coach PJ Fleck will be like Pop
Rocks and Coke on the 2012 recruiting trail. Second, Frank Cignetti (offensive
coordinator) runs a classic pro-style offense, exactly the kind of offense we want to
see, and I don't think I've ever seen Pitt run the "Wild Panther", let alone every 3rd
play. Honestly, how could you DEprove our offense from last year anyway? ("Deprove"
is the antonym of "improve", FYI. Look it up.). You can't. So he's an immediate
upgrade by default. A very good recruiter in his own right, he also gets most of the
credit for turning Nova to the Scarlet side. Recruiting is the lifeblood of any
program, and these guys are like blood thinners. I'm excited.
2011年2月28日 星期一
2011年2月22日 星期二
Square Sacrifices Revenues to Ramp Mobile Payment Volumes
Square is dropping the rates merchants pay when accepting credit card payments using a
mobile phone.
The move is significant because it puts Square’s new rates below the industry standard
for small merchants, who typically do less than $1,000 a month in business.
Square is taking the high-risk bet that cutting the rate will fuel its gain in market
share as the race heats up in the mobile payments space.
“In the short-term, we will sacrifice revenue, but we believe it is worth the cost
because it is the right decision for users and by simplifying payments it will help
grow the entire market,” a spokeswoman explained.
Square’s rates will fall to a flat fee of 2.75 percent per transaction instead of
charging 2.75 percent plus an additional 15 cents. (The rate for when a credit card
number is keyed in, rather than swiped, will remain the same at 3.5 percent plus 15
cents.)
Square’s new rates will resonate well with merchants.
It means that for a $100 purchase, they will now pay $2.75, rather than $2.90. The
impact will be much greater for smaller purchases, like a $3 cup of coffee that will
now cost the merchant 8 cents, down from previous 23 cents.
There’s also a benefit when a customer visits a coffee shop twice in one day, for
example.
Under the old rates, the merchant would have to pay 30 cents for a customer who visits
twice a day in transaction fees alone. But under the new rates that goes away and the
merchant will only be charged a percentage of both transactions.
Square, which recently raised $27.5 million in venture capital, is trying to gain a
foothold in a market that remains inaccessible to many small vendors, who aren’t
willing to spend thousands on a point of sales machine.
Instead, it offers merchants the option of plugging a small dongle into a smartphone,
such as an iPhone, iPad or Android device to accept payments.
In the mobile payments space, Square competes directly with services being built by
mammoth financial incumbents, as well as others like Intuit, PayPal and the wireless
carriers.
Intuit, which also provides an accessory for smartphones to take payments, charges 2.7
percent plus 15 cents with no monthly service plan. A high-volume account, which
charges more than $1,000, costs $12.95 a month, but drops the rate to 1.7 percent plus
30 cents.
Will Intuit drop its prices to compete with Square?
Possibly. After Square made its card readers free, Intuit followed suit, and said last
week that after a short trial period, it was committed to keeping them free
permanently.
To be sure, the fees can be baffling to a small business owner.
In a survey, conducted by the Merchant Bill of Rights, it found that only 26 percent of
participants believe they are being treated fairly by the debit/credit/prepaid card
processing industry, and only 21 percent understand the rates, fees and surcharges they
pay.
Still, Square will clearly be taking a financial hit.
It will have to continue to pay the fees being demanded by credit card companies like
Visa and MasterCard. But the company said it continues to negotiate these rates with
providers.
There is some hope a compromise can be reached.
Recently, Visa wrote about Square in a blog post, referencing a recent interview we did
with Square’s CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also the co-founder of Twitter. In the post,
Visa said Square provides an easy payment solution for small merchants. It wrote: “We
are committed to working with innovative companies, like Square and others, as the
world shifts to electronic payments.”
mobile phone.
The move is significant because it puts Square’s new rates below the industry standard
for small merchants, who typically do less than $1,000 a month in business.
Square is taking the high-risk bet that cutting the rate will fuel its gain in market
share as the race heats up in the mobile payments space.
“In the short-term, we will sacrifice revenue, but we believe it is worth the cost
because it is the right decision for users and by simplifying payments it will help
grow the entire market,” a spokeswoman explained.
Square’s rates will fall to a flat fee of 2.75 percent per transaction instead of
charging 2.75 percent plus an additional 15 cents. (The rate for when a credit card
number is keyed in, rather than swiped, will remain the same at 3.5 percent plus 15
cents.)
Square’s new rates will resonate well with merchants.
It means that for a $100 purchase, they will now pay $2.75, rather than $2.90. The
impact will be much greater for smaller purchases, like a $3 cup of coffee that will
now cost the merchant 8 cents, down from previous 23 cents.
There’s also a benefit when a customer visits a coffee shop twice in one day, for
example.
Under the old rates, the merchant would have to pay 30 cents for a customer who visits
twice a day in transaction fees alone. But under the new rates that goes away and the
merchant will only be charged a percentage of both transactions.
Square, which recently raised $27.5 million in venture capital, is trying to gain a
foothold in a market that remains inaccessible to many small vendors, who aren’t
willing to spend thousands on a point of sales machine.
Instead, it offers merchants the option of plugging a small dongle into a smartphone,
such as an iPhone, iPad or Android device to accept payments.
In the mobile payments space, Square competes directly with services being built by
mammoth financial incumbents, as well as others like Intuit, PayPal and the wireless
carriers.
Intuit, which also provides an accessory for smartphones to take payments, charges 2.7
percent plus 15 cents with no monthly service plan. A high-volume account, which
charges more than $1,000, costs $12.95 a month, but drops the rate to 1.7 percent plus
30 cents.
Will Intuit drop its prices to compete with Square?
Possibly. After Square made its card readers free, Intuit followed suit, and said last
week that after a short trial period, it was committed to keeping them free
permanently.
To be sure, the fees can be baffling to a small business owner.
In a survey, conducted by the Merchant Bill of Rights, it found that only 26 percent of
participants believe they are being treated fairly by the debit/credit/prepaid card
processing industry, and only 21 percent understand the rates, fees and surcharges they
pay.
Still, Square will clearly be taking a financial hit.
It will have to continue to pay the fees being demanded by credit card companies like
Visa and MasterCard. But the company said it continues to negotiate these rates with
providers.
There is some hope a compromise can be reached.
Recently, Visa wrote about Square in a blog post, referencing a recent interview we did
with Square’s CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also the co-founder of Twitter. In the post,
Visa said Square provides an easy payment solution for small merchants. It wrote: “We
are committed to working with innovative companies, like Square and others, as the
world shifts to electronic payments.”
2011年2月20日 星期日
Gap's High-Risk Management Shakeup
"Who am I?" That's how Art Peck began his first blog post as the new president of Gap's (GPS) long-troubled North America retail store unit. "If you Google (GOOG) me, you won't find much." Yes, there's the MBA from Harvard, two decades spent at Boston Consulting Group, and his tenure as a Gap executive since 2005 helping craft international strategy and leading its small outlet division. However, there's a surprising hole in his vita: He's not a style guru. "That's right. I'm not a merchant," he wrote in his debut blog.
Those aren't exactly words that inspire confidence in retailing. "That's not the first thing I want to hear," says Christine Chen, a retail analyst at Needham & Co. In the apparel business, the merchants translate the ephemera of fashion into must-have commercial products. Unfortunately for Gap, it hasn't had a successful merchant since Mickey Drexler, now chairman of J. Crew Group (JCG), left the company in 2002. That's led to years of disappointing sales for its U.S. unit.
Yet when Gap Chief Executive Officer Glenn K. Murphy announced on Feb. 2 that Peck would replace Gap North America President Marka Hansen, a 24-year veteran, it was obvious he was rolling the dice. In addition to Peck, Murphy appointed a new head of global marketing, Seth Farbman, who had been worldwide managing director at advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. He also promoted another relatively unknown executive from within Gap's ranks. Pam Wallack, who had been the creative director for Gap's kids and adult clothing at its San Francisco headquarters, will move to New York to run what the company is calling a Global Creative Center. It will bring together for the first time the design, production, and marketing teams for the brand.
"This is a great opportunity for Wallack," says Richard E. Jaffe, managing director of Stifel Financial (SF). "She's the chorus girl who got pulled out of the line to take the leading role." Will Murphy's gamble on untested talent work? "Who knows?" says Jaffe. "But if a tree is growing in the wrong direction, you have to cut off a limb. I think that's what's happening here. It's not a bad thing."
Peck says his first priority is "to understand what's keeping us from being more consistent. We have to put clothes in our stores that our customers emotionally connect to. That's … a statement of the profoundly obvious. If we don't do that, nothing else matters."
Murphy needed to think boldly after years of distracted management, aggressive expansion, and uninspired merchandise that have left the biggest apparel retailer in the U.S. weakened. It's been six years since Gap North America has posted an annual increase in sales at stores open at least a year, a prime measure of a retailer's health. During December, the height of the holiday selling season, Gap North America same-store sales dropped 8 percent. That's in sharp contrast to the average 3.2 percent gain at all U.S. retailers. Sales at the U.S. unit are down almost a third from where they were in 2004.
For the past year, Murphy has been expressing concern. In March he told investors on a conference call that Gap has been "on the longest slippery slope of all our brands." (The parent company also operates the Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta brands.) And in another investor call in August, he noted: "My patience is not indefinite."
Then in October, Hansen, who had led Gap North America for the past four years, unveiled a logo that had been selected in part by voting among consumers on the Web. It was criticized for being ugly, outdated, and unnecessary. A week later, Hansen said Gap would go back to its old logo.
With both a new management team and ad agency for the U.S. brand—Ogilvy & Mather will take over the Gap account, replacing Laird + Partners, which was involved in the logo mishap—Murphy has put in place changes more sweeping than many expected. Yet analysts say the changes need to kick in quickly. Explains Janet Kloppenburg, the founder of JJK Research, which specializes in retailers: "Their competitors are making inroads, developing loyal customers, and getting better and better, while Gap is starting over."
Those aren't exactly words that inspire confidence in retailing. "That's not the first thing I want to hear," says Christine Chen, a retail analyst at Needham & Co. In the apparel business, the merchants translate the ephemera of fashion into must-have commercial products. Unfortunately for Gap, it hasn't had a successful merchant since Mickey Drexler, now chairman of J. Crew Group (JCG), left the company in 2002. That's led to years of disappointing sales for its U.S. unit.
Yet when Gap Chief Executive Officer Glenn K. Murphy announced on Feb. 2 that Peck would replace Gap North America President Marka Hansen, a 24-year veteran, it was obvious he was rolling the dice. In addition to Peck, Murphy appointed a new head of global marketing, Seth Farbman, who had been worldwide managing director at advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. He also promoted another relatively unknown executive from within Gap's ranks. Pam Wallack, who had been the creative director for Gap's kids and adult clothing at its San Francisco headquarters, will move to New York to run what the company is calling a Global Creative Center. It will bring together for the first time the design, production, and marketing teams for the brand.
"This is a great opportunity for Wallack," says Richard E. Jaffe, managing director of Stifel Financial (SF). "She's the chorus girl who got pulled out of the line to take the leading role." Will Murphy's gamble on untested talent work? "Who knows?" says Jaffe. "But if a tree is growing in the wrong direction, you have to cut off a limb. I think that's what's happening here. It's not a bad thing."
Peck says his first priority is "to understand what's keeping us from being more consistent. We have to put clothes in our stores that our customers emotionally connect to. That's … a statement of the profoundly obvious. If we don't do that, nothing else matters."
Murphy needed to think boldly after years of distracted management, aggressive expansion, and uninspired merchandise that have left the biggest apparel retailer in the U.S. weakened. It's been six years since Gap North America has posted an annual increase in sales at stores open at least a year, a prime measure of a retailer's health. During December, the height of the holiday selling season, Gap North America same-store sales dropped 8 percent. That's in sharp contrast to the average 3.2 percent gain at all U.S. retailers. Sales at the U.S. unit are down almost a third from where they were in 2004.
For the past year, Murphy has been expressing concern. In March he told investors on a conference call that Gap has been "on the longest slippery slope of all our brands." (The parent company also operates the Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta brands.) And in another investor call in August, he noted: "My patience is not indefinite."
Then in October, Hansen, who had led Gap North America for the past four years, unveiled a logo that had been selected in part by voting among consumers on the Web. It was criticized for being ugly, outdated, and unnecessary. A week later, Hansen said Gap would go back to its old logo.
With both a new management team and ad agency for the U.S. brand—Ogilvy & Mather will take over the Gap account, replacing Laird + Partners, which was involved in the logo mishap—Murphy has put in place changes more sweeping than many expected. Yet analysts say the changes need to kick in quickly. Explains Janet Kloppenburg, the founder of JJK Research, which specializes in retailers: "Their competitors are making inroads, developing loyal customers, and getting better and better, while Gap is starting over."
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