PowerTalk

Welcome to another edition of PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits, and these are my 1-1 conversations with the movers and shakers in the business world that take you behind the scenes and in the know. Be sure to check out ChrisVersace.com for more on PowerTrends and past editions of PowerTalk.

This week I had the pleasure of talking with John Allison, President & CEO of the Cato Institute. Unlike many other firms located in Washington, D.C., Cato is neither democratic nor republican in nature, but rather it is a public policy research organization — a think tank – dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. That alone is great reason to talk with John Allison, but it get’s even better.

Prior to becoming the President & CEO of the Cato Institute, John was Chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation (BBT),  the 10th largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. John’s also written a fantastic book —  “The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy's Only Hope.” Not only did it receive a number of rave review, but it sat at the top of the Wall Street Journal’s best seller list. 

Over the course of our conversation, John and I talk the big talk on a variety of topics including why a sense and understanding of liberty is essential, why regulation is bad for the market,  what we can do to promote a healthy free market and end unemployment in America. We’ll even touch on the Federal Reserve, an organization that some say is only helping fuel the problems we are experiencing today. 


Welcome back to another edition of PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits. Each week I bring you my 1-1 conversations with the movers and shakers in business and those areas that impact business, the economy and more.

This week I am especially proud to talk with today’s guest -- Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Now most of you know him as the only twice-serving Secretary of Defense. As you’ll learn in our coming conversation there is far more to Secretary Rumsfeld…for half a century, he’s been at the center of our nation’s history, as a Naval aviator, U.S. Congressman, ambassador, top aide to presidents. He also spent two decades at the top of American business, and was named by Fortune as one of America’s ten “toughest” CEOs and by The New York Times as a “turnaround artist.”

That collected experience means Secretary Rumsfeld has valuable isight into leadership, strategy  and management. We’’ll talk about all of that as well as his new book - “Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life.”


Unlike many of the people in Washington today, I think you’ll find that Former Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has a keen eye for what Washington should be doing to help the economy and business. As you’ll hear, he also has a few comments and suggestions for President Obama as well. 


Joining me today on PowerTalk to discuss all of this is Jeff Lawson CEO and co-founder of Twilio, a company that makes cloud-based telephony tools -- voice and messaging -- for companies and mobile application developers like Uber, Google (GOOG), Hulu, salesforce.com (CRM), Home Depot (HD), AT&T (T) and others. 

With the global explosion of the Internet, smartphones and tablets, we’ve seen a shift in how we can communicate with one another. Instant messaging, mobile messaging, picture messaging, email, messing through Facebook, Google+, chatting and more recently video calls through Skype, Google and even Apple with its FaceTime app.

While many think of these new modes of communication are for personal use -- keeping in touch with family, friends and so on, there’s another aspect to it -- for business. That’s right the Internet and telecommunications technologies are changing the way we connect with companies, and that has implications how a company communicates with its customers It’s not just Twitter and Facebook - a company can interact with customers via voice, messaging or even picture messaging.

In the age of software defined communication, which is having an impact on the business models of Comcast (CMCSA), AT&T, Verizon (VZ), Cisco (CSCO), Avaya and others, Jeff has been named one of the top VoIP CEOs to work for. To me that says he’s worth listening to and as you listen to this edition of PowerTalk you’ll soon see picking up the phone and talking to someone in new light.

Direct download: 11-05-13_TWILIOPOWERTALK.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:41am EDT

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