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byline: Bernie Niemeier

OurView: How did it get so late so soon?

On the subject of time, the much-beloved children’s book author Dr. Seuss once wrote, “How did it get so late so soon?” With December here, that’s an almost perfect description of 2020. How did it get so late, so soon?

Most of the past 8 to 9 months have been characterized by an almost immutable sameness. We get up, we work from home or go to an almost empty office, we go home and then repeat it all again the next day. Working from home makes weekends largely indistinguishable from weekdays.

2020 has been defined by home-delivered groceries, and most certainly, less time in restaurants. Also, little or no time in hotels or airports or on any sort of business travel. No group meetings, either. 2020 is the year that a company named Zoom became both a noun and a verb. It’s a year that has zoomed by — let’s call it a virtual year.

Looking back, there are many things I won’t miss about 2020. I’ll be happy to give up food steamed to lukewarm imperfection in a cardboard takeout box. Paying rent for a near-empty office? I can let that go. I’ll be happy to give up fear of COVID-19, masks or no masks, and even denial of COVID-19. Elections and politics? Let’s not even go there.

On the other hand, it has been kind of nice that rush hour hasn’t existed and parking has been easy. It has been nice to build stronger relationships with the few people that are in the office. I somewhat miss the frantic energy of weeks spent crisscrossing Virginia on 1,000-mile drives for business events, but not doing so has translated into more productive office time.

For the media business, 2020 has been particularly interesting. For perhaps the first time, the global high-tech barons of digital media are beginning to understand that they are not exempt from the responsibility to truth and democracy that more traditional media outlets have always taken very seriously.

An understanding of journalistic norms and values, such as truthful content supported by facts, as well as labeling content appropriately, has been much needed in the world of social media. It seems that 2020 may be a breakthrough year in correcting the failure of many digital outlets to take ownership of these values for the good of the audience and our democracy. This isn’t censorship; it’s just what good publishers do for the benefit of their businesses and for the benefit of their customers.

How did it get so late so soon?

Looking back over my time in publishing, the pre-digital days don’t seem that terribly long ago. Being in the media business in the pre-digital days meant deploying a significant amount of capital to invest in a printing press, or a broadcast transmitter, a tower and an FCC license. These capabilities didn’t come cheaply. Printing presses alone could easily run into the tens of millions of dollars and were considered a once-in-a-generation investment.

From a business perspective, the discipline of taking out debt, making capital investments and generating a return on that capital was, and still is, a good thing. Publishers took this responsibility seriously — their money was on the line. Distributing false or misleading content has never been a sustainable business model.

Replacing printing presses and broadcast towers with free, easy and often-anonymous content via the internet has led to many innovations, but it has also cheapened our public discourse. There is a reason why our founders put the First Amendment first. Freedom of the press is simply that important to our democracy. But like all freedoms, it comes with responsibilities.

As the clock winds down on 2020’s final days, I’m sure there are many things we’d all like to leave behind. COVID-19 will stretch on a bit, but not forever. At Virginia Business, we look forward to the days ahead. We take our responsibilities seriously and thank you for your readership.
What would the Cat in the Hat say about that?

 

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Walking around

Back in 1982, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. co-authored a business book titled, “In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies.” Among many topics popularized by this bestseller was a concept called “management by walking around.” This wasn’t an entirely new idea. It was practiced in the 1970s at Hewlett-Packard and had roots in the U.S.-led post-World War II economic recovery in Japan as part of what famously became known as the Toyota Production System.

Fast-forward to today’s COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not uncommon to see neighbors walking down the street, AirPods in their ears, taking conference calls on their iPhones. This isn’t the kind of management by walking around that Peters and Waterman were talking about nearly 40 years ago.

The general idea is that problems happen on the factory floor. Whether that’s on an auto assembly line or in a circuit board production plant, being closer to the work makes problem solving easier, resulting in more efficiency, quicker innovation and greater resiliency. Getting managers out of the office and closer to the work helps them to be problem solvers, not just meeting-attending gatekeepers.

Over the course of my own career, I’ve come to increasingly appreciate just how helpful it can be to purposefully take a moment to get up from my desk and walk around the office. It’s more than just a problem-solving opportunity; it’s getting to know people better. It’s a chance to communicate values and build positive relationships with co-workers.

When the global pandemic first struck, an old friend said his millennial children jokingly referred to COVID as the “boomer virus,” meant to “cull the herd.” Maybe that sounds a bit harsh. And yet, millennials have seen many boomers lingering in the workplace past retirement age. In their view, boomers are taking space that they would like to occupy.

From the boomer perspective, the U.S. has an aging workforce problem. As boomers age out, we leave behind a skills gap, a knowledge gap and, arguably, a values gap.

This isn’t to say that boomers had all the values right. Much progress has been made in subsequent generations in the areas of equality, inclusion, diversity, equity, fair treatment and work-life balance. Still, enduring values remain — truisms like respect for others, patience being a virtue and paying one’s dues.

Another name for COVID times could easily be Zoom times. Despite being a necessity, working remotely is one of the things I least like about the pandemic. This too may be generational. The shortcomings of working remotely are undoubtedly less appreciated by those who are doing the work than by those charged with leading the work. This is what happens when managers get in the way as meeting-going gatekeepers instead of focusing on problem-solving empowerment.

Communicating values is the essential job of leadership. It can’t be done by appointment. Sure, it’s entirely possible to set up a virtual meeting to discuss the company’s mission and values. But teamwork really doesn’t happen on demand.

Teamwork starts with one-on-one conversations that spread from leaders to co-workers in more casual settings. The informality of this process is what builds trust. And trust is what builds a team.
Businesses that grow successfully do it by working through their people to communicate values that are then delivered through products and services to customers who are excited by the realization of those shared values. Businesses that are less certain of their values tend to fall back on safe territory, like trying to be all things to all people, which rarely turns out to be a formula for success.

True leaders are passionate about their ideas and values. They surround themselves with like-minded people, while encouraging inclusion and diversity as a means of sourcing new ideas and vetting existing blind spots.

One day soon, we might even be able to walk around and do these things again. It makes a difference. I can’t wait for that to happen.

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Privacy matters

That unintended consequences come with innovation should be no surprise. Today, technology and social media are global cultural obsessions with a tremendous impact on business.

Not that long ago, who would have thought a wallet-sized object like a smart phone would replace nearly every piece of office equipment — telephones, typewriters, copiers, cameras and, to some degree, even desktop computers?

Furthermore, many jobs that were once quite common have largely disappeared. Administrative support, travel departments, interoffice mail delivery: all gone. Think about the woes of the U.S. Postal Service: First, UPS and FedEx gobble up their lucrative package deliveries. Then, e-mail makes stamps and letters into artifacts of a bygone era.

At the same time, technology has spawned new global business behemoths. Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft and Tesla saw an all-time high combined market value of $8.2 trillion in early September. That’s almost 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the U.S., nearly 60% of  the GDP of China and $2.5 trillion more than Japan’s GDP. Those are the world’s three largest economies.

And what’s the business model for most of these tech companies? Largely, it is built on your personal information. What you buy, what you read, who your friends are, even where you travel is being packaged and resold to advertisers and others for targeted communications. Sometimes your data is anonymous and sometimes it’s not. This isn’t a business model that relies on products or even content. It’s a business model based on information that you give up willingly and mostly for free.

Privacy matters.

In the European Union, the protection of personal data is considered a fundamental human right. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), implemented in 2018, gives EU residents control over their personal data. Even when collected with an individual’s consent, that consent may be revoked at any time. Another purpose of the GDPR is to simplify the regulatory framework by having a single rule for all businesses operating in the 27 countries comprising the EU.

At the federal level, the U.S. has no similar legislation. In 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act was signed into law; it is largely modeled on the GDPR. Maine and Nevada have also passed online consumer privacy regulations. A Virginia Privacy Act was introduced in this year’s General Assembly session. It has been referred to committee and will be revisited during the 2021 session. At least 20 other states are in some stage of considering consumer data privacy protections.

This morass of pending legislation amounts to a regulatory nightmare for companies doing business in the U.S. Some things, especially those affecting interstate commerce, are best not left to 50 individual states. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, often reluctant to encourage regulation, has gone so far as to propose model legislation to create a federal data privacy law.

In an age when global companies have become larger than many nation’s economies, the penalties for failing to comply with regulations may seem significant but often are less impactful on corporations than one might think.

In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission charged Facebook with consumer privacy violations related to how the social media giant handled user data. In July 2019, after seven years of negotiation, the FTC announced a record-breaking $5 billion settlement with Facebook. That sounds like a lot of money, but Facebook’s 2019 revenue was $70.7 billion and its net income for the year was $18.5 billion.

Regardless of size, businesses should not be burdened with a multiplicity of regulations varying from state to state. Instead of drafting their own regulations, Virginia and the other states should be seeking a single national data privacy standard. It’s just good business.

 

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Big accomplishments

The motto of Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. (HII) is “Hard Stuff, Done Right.” That easily fits the work of HII, parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia’s largest industrial employer. Its projects — including the construction of U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers — are huge, require complex engineering and are vital to our national defense. Getting them right is the only option. Along with the Port of Virginia, HII’s impact on the economy of the Hampton Roads region and the commonwealth as a whole is outstanding.

Big things are happening throughout Hampton Roads. We’ve seen projects like the $700 million expansion of the Virginia International Gateway and Norfolk International Terminals come to fruition. The Norfolk Harbor is getting wider and deeper, and the Virginia Department of Transportation is moving forward on its largest-ever project, the $3.8 billion expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

Most certainly, 2020 has been a challenging year due to COVID-19 and subsequent economic pressures. Beyond just the ports, shipbuilding and infrastructure, many other aspects of the regional economy are still moving forward. Commercial and residential real estate sectors are still strong, as is the construction industry.

Big things are getting done in a hard year — and getting done right. We hope that you find this issue of Hampton Roads Business interesting and helpful and that you will enjoy how it showcases one of Virginia’s most vibrant regional economies.

— Bernie Niemeier,

President & Publisher

 

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The power list

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Virginia 500 — The 2020 Power List. This project has taken more than a year from concept to completion. Our hope is that you will find it to be an insightful and helpful resource on leadership in Virginia.

Five hundred is a big number. Just who should be on a list of Virginia’s most powerful? Where to begin? Capt. John Smith? John Rolfe? How about Chief Powhatan, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings or Nat Turner? Fortunately, we are doing this in 2020 as a contemporary resource, rather than as a history of power in the commonwealth. Nevertheless, Virginia’s long reputation as a powerful place continues to this day.

Just what is power? Dictionary definitions point to things like the ability to act, legal or official authority, the capacity for and the possession of control or authority over others. In the process of producing this list, there were many conversations about how being powerful is different from being influential. Not everyone on this list is well-known. Some CEOs lead companies and organizations with global dimensions extending well beyond the boundaries of the commonwealth.

Some of Virginia Business’ other lists have been less expansive — on purpose. For example, our list of the 50 Most Influential Virginians in March’s Big Book excludes politicians and university presidents on the basis that they would crowd out many influential businesspeople. For obvious reasons, December’s Legal Elite list includes only lawyers. Our list of 100 People to Meet is limited to only those who are, in our view, interesting.

A list of 500 leaders gives us a little more walking-around room to recognize people. Yes, they can be influential. Yes, they can be politicians or academic leaders. And yes, they can be lawyers. And yes, they are also interesting.

Still, while 500 is a big number, it leaves only so much room in specific categories. First and foremost, we want to make sure to include powerful leaders in the business community, which leaves less room for state government, academia and elsewhere.

Overall, the Virginia 500 includes leaders in 20 categories, some broken into subcategories, with the number of listings in each ranging from six to more than 60. Along the way, we had questions like, “How many will be included in each category?” Well, that depends. There aren’t as many players in an unquestionably important category like energy, while there are many more in other important categories such as banking or real estate. Given the commonwealth’s proximity to and the indisputable economic importance of Dee Cee, federal contractors is the largest category.

Likewise, business density or government location means that there will be more listings in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads than places like the Shenandoah Valley, Southern or Southwest Virginia. Still, we hope to have captured a solid picture of the powerful across all regions.

Similarly, diversity and inclusion are challenges. Virginia Business is purposefully conscious of the need to highlight the achievements of women and ethnically diverse communities in all our listings. Still, despite the increasing diversity of Virginia’s business community, leadership and power tends to stay a step behind the changing demographics of the commonwealth. The C-suite unfortunately lags somewhat in the diversity of top leadership positions. The good news is that Virginia Business will be here to continue to document such changes.

Yes, 500 is a big number. But we have no illusions that this inaugural Power List is comprehensive or captures every powerful person in the commonwealth. But, in a remarkable year, this publication is a good reminder that Virginia is a remarkable place for power and leadership. And we thank you for your readership.

Enjoy!

 

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Antitrust matters

On a bright spring day in May 2009, I was on the campus of Hampden-Sydney College near Farmville for my son’s graduation — obviously a proud moment for any parent.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner delivered the commencement’s keynote address. During his first term as senator and one of the first times I had heard the former Virginia governor speak, Warner began by pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and saying something to the effect of, “I may be the only speaker who will never tell you to turn off your cell phone. When I hear that ring, it’s the sound of money!” It was a good laugh line and the crowd of students, parents and college administrators responded accordingly.

For Warner, cellular communications were the sound of money. In the mid-1990s, after a couple of less successful ventures, Warner made a lucrative early investment in Nextel Communications Inc., one of the first companies to offer nationwide cell phone coverage. By 2012, he was ranked as the wealthiest U.S. senator, with a net worth of approximately $200 million.

In 1974, a couple of decades before the rise of companies like Nextel, the U.S. Department of Justice filed the antitrust case United States v. AT&T. It resulted in the 1984 breakup of the old American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) into seven regional Bell operating companies, along with a much smaller AT&T, effectively ending a monopoly in U.S. telecommunications.

For me, these memories returned to mind as the leaders of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google were questioned by Congress this summer about wielding their considerable market power to dominate competitors, amass user data and attain sky-high profits. Notably, on the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook respectively hold the No. 1 and No. 7 ranks.

The legislative underpinnings of U.S. antitrust law are the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 and the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936. Collectively, these acts focus on interstate commerce, price discrimination and mergers or acquisitions that reduce market competition. They were conceived in the age of railroads, long before there was such a thing as globalization or the internet.

So why does all this matter? In Virginia, technology is a very big deal.

Aside from Amazon’s much bally-hooed HQ2 project in Arlington, the stretch of land from Tysons to Loudoun known as the Dulles tech corridor is a hotbed of operations for data centers, cybersecurity firms and other tech businesses, many of them federal contractors.

Seventy percent of the world’s internet traffic passes through Ashburn in Loudoun County. It’s called data center alley due to its prominence as the world’s largest data storage center.

Furthermore, undersea fiber optic cables extending from Virginia Beach are a major source of global internet connectivity. Due to its strategic location and numerous federal operations, Hampton Roads is also a major hub for tech companies.

The ability for small companies to create, innovate and become highly successful is fundamental to economic growth. When companies grow overlarge, they inevitably cast shade on the growth of upstart competitors. Imagine if AT&T were still the only provider for telephone and communications services: Would opportunities for tech companies or the internet exist as we know them today?

Even the most casual observer of the questions asked of the tech executives by the House antitrust subcommittee would realize that many of our representatives don’t seem to know much about technology. Some of the questions were obvious partisan statements that did not address any specifics on antitrust matters.

Given the importance of technology to our economy, our infrastructure and even our democratic process, it is high time for U.S. antitrust legislation to be reviewed and updated. A system designed to run on railroad tracks can’t keep up in the age of fiber optics. Not all regulation is bad, especially when it is designed to foster the growth that comes from fair competition.

 

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What’s normal?

When things get back to normal. How many times have you heard that? How many times have you said that? What’s normal?

Sometimes there’s a qualifier, like what’s the “new” normal? Who knows? If you think you do, wait and see.

It’s not just the normalcy that is intoned by such nostalgic statements, it’s the whole idea of “getting back.” The reality is that things don’t go back. Sure, we might say “what goes around comes around” or “history repeats itself.” But does it really? Does time ever really go back?

Patterns definitely exist. Take stock prices, for example. Changes are generally characterized by higher lows or lower highs — retracing is followed by breakout — but the past never really repeats. Time inevitably marches on.

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t really changed any of this. Still, it has made many of us a bit nostalgic, especially for the recent past. Who doesn’t miss the office, seeing co-workers and customers? If that’s not the case, then there is probably something else going on — perhaps a mismatch of talent, culture or company. Maybe it signals an opportunity for a career change. Maybe there’s an opportunity for reinvention.

More than working remotely, much of what we’ve experienced over the past several months was never expected. Who would have thought we’d go through half of 2020 (and more) without eating in a restaurant, staying in a hotel, getting on an airplane or simply attending a good old-fashioned chamber of commerce business awards event?

Who would have thought that nearly 110,000 businesses in Virginia would have received funding through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)? That’s not counting other funding through the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, and other state- or community-based programs. In some way or another, this support has touched pretty much every company in America.

Amazingly, these programs made it through Dee Cee’s hyper-partisan Congress. Despite a profound lack of the staffing and infrastructure needed to handle the process, they made it through the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Bankers don’t immediately come to mind on anyone’s list of first responders the way that firefighters, rescue squads and others who answer 911 calls might. Yet in many ways, our banks were the frontline first responders to this economic emergency.

On a Thursday night in the first week of April, the Treasury Department was still deciding on loan requirements. By Friday morning, some banks had their lending portals open and had begun making loans. If you were a business owner and had a bank president’s cell phone number, you probably had it on speed dial. Banks made themselves more accessible than ever, some 24/7.

The SBA’s online portal crashed on the first day of lending. Without valiant customer service by the banking industry, financial help would have been greatly delayed, inflicting even more damage. At every level, many thanks are due from the entire business community to the men and women of our nation’s banking industry. They unexpectedly became first responders, fighting the economic injury caused by COVID-19.

Responding to a crisis builds esprit de corps and teamwork; it makes companies stronger. The COVID-19 crisis of 2020 has little or nothing in common with the subprime mortgage debacle of 2008. Back then, complex derivatives were the villains and some banks were arguably complicit. In 2020, the villain is the virus and government lending carried out by banks is a widespread help.

History hasn’t repeated itself and what goes around hasn’t come back around. We don’t really know what the new normal might be, but who would’ve thought that it would look anything like this?

 

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A shining light

Welcome to the 2020 Virginia Maritime Guide! This annual publication is distributed to business readers statewide. It highlights the important contributions made by the maritime, distribution center and logistics industries to the economy of Virginia. It also serves as a valuable resource, including information on the companies and organizations serving these industries.

Over the past few months, it has been nearly impossible to write about any business or industry without reference to COVID-19, but this too will pass. While container traffic and job growth may have slowed this spring from a near record-setting pace last year, Virginia’s port-related industries are poised for a strong rebound. With the Navy rebuilding its fleet, Newport News Shipbuilding’s order book is already filled for the next 10 years. The Port of Virginia wrapped up one terminal expansion last year and is midway through a second expansion project this year. With new dredging scheduled to be completed by 2024, Virginia is poised to become the East Coast’s deepest seaport. And on top of that, offshore wind turbines are bringing an exciting new industry to the commonwealth’s mix of maritime businesses.

The successful growth of the Port of Virginia is inextricably tied to the growth of the entire commonwealth. It really is a shining light for our economy. We invite you to use the 2020 Virginia Maritime Guide to learn more about this exciting industry and as a resource on major companies providing services to the port community.

To compile this guide, we worked closely with the Virginia Maritime Association and the Port of Virginia. We thank them for their assistance, especially in these turbulent times.

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Setting the rules of the game

In mid-March, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and two weeks later, on April 3, the Steven Mnuchin-led U.S. Department of Treasury finalized its plan to provide emergency loans to small businesses.

This extraordinary action signaled a dramatic break from contemporary politics. The presumed correlation between capitalism and democracy was neither fast enough nor effective enough to offset the effects of an economy ground to a near-complete halt under the heel of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For those who have long held fast to Mr. Jefferson’s admonition that the best government is the one “which governs least,” perhaps this signaled heresy.

Banks scrambled to set up application portals. Small-business owners, most working remotely, struggled to access and provide documentation for CARES Act loans. While $2.2 trillion seemed like “real money” when the legislation passed, it became quickly apparent that it wouldn’t be nearly enough. The Small Business Administration’s $349 billion relief fund ran out in just 13 days. Would additional federal funding be forthcoming? How many small businesses would go under before loans could be processed? Unemployment claims poured in at an unprecedented rate.

Without claiming any authority on Thomas Jefferson’s voluminous writings, it is clear that there is a role to be played by government during the current crisis.

Since my long-ago days in business school, I’ve been a fan of Milton Friedman’s 1970 essay, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,” which first appeared in The New York Times Magazine.

But what about the social responsibility of government? Those arguing against all government intervention seem to presume that government has no responsibility that cannot be better and more wisely executed by the business community.

This fox-in-the-henhouse mindset clearly comes up short in our present circumstances. Take vaccine development, for example. The pharmaceutical industry generally has no profit motive to fund research, development and stockpiling of a vaccine for a virus before it’s a problem. And once a virus is eradicated or no longer a threat, the market largely disappears. Government is the only logical customer to fund private development of disaster-related products such as these.

Health care provides other examples. Hospitals are required by law to serve all who show up at their doors, regardless of their ability to pay. The profit motive in this economic equation isn’t just ineffective, it’s entirely absent.

And what about banks? Under normal circumstances, banks make only collateralized loans, essentially lending money only to those who see paying interest as a lower cost alternative to selling other assets.

Unfortunately, as quarantine conditions have demonstrated, legions of small-business owners lack the necessary collateral for working capital loans. If the federal government didn’t step in to back these loans, entire sectors of the economy would collapse, imposing even higher costs on government for unemployment compensation and other social programs.

The current health crisis indeed challenges the notion that smart politics should always seek to minimize government. In fact, an active government plays a necessary and legitimate role in business and society.

Turning again to Friedman, we would all do well to pay heed to the full context of his thesis.

“There is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”

Setting the rules of that game is a role for which government must necessarily be empowered in order for capitalism and our democracy to succeed.

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A message to our readers

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginia Business continues to gather the most timely and informative news each day, disseminating it through our daily e-newsletter, as well as breaking news alerts. Our upcoming April issue, which will be available both in print and online, will include a cover story special report on the coronavirus crisis.

Although news about the pandemic and its financial impact is largely unpleasant, we are doing our best to deliver the latest and most accurate information we can get to our readers and business leaders around the state. Facts are important and you can trust us to deliver them reliably, even when they are unpleasant. COVID-19 isn’t just the biggest news story or health story in the world right now, it’s also the biggest business story — possibly the biggest business news story we have ever reported in our almost 35-year history.

Under difficult circumstances, our mission to be Virginia’s Source for Business Intelligence takes on even more importance. Many thanks are due to our readers and advertisers for their ongoing support. Thank you for all that you do.

Stay well. We are all in this together.

Bernie Niemeier, president & publisher