While on the campaign trail, President Barack Obama suggested that he would want to create a new cabinet-level position called Secretary of Business. The responsibilities assigned to this new role would include the oversight of nine existing commerce-related government agencies, including the Small Business Administration. The day after the election, Toure - a featured host on MSNBC's weekday show "The Cycle " - opined that Mitt Romney would be the perfect person to fill the job .
Romney enjoyed a stellar career as the founding CEO at Bain Capital. But aspects of his work at Bain, together with the ideas that formed the foundation of his candidacy's job creation platform, suggest that his success in one type of business does not indicate proficiency in others, particularly when it comes to helping small to mid-sized companies as a Secretary of Business.
Romney presented himself as a credible business expert during the campaign, and his extraordinary accomplishments at Bain Capital confirm this assertion. Yet while he was a visionary at buying, optimizing, and selling companies, his Bain experience didn't include the operation or supervision of these organizations on a day-to-day basis. He was involved in the macro fiscal processes of the firms that he acquired, not in the workaday details of figuring out the best way to attract and keep their clients; build their sales; manage and inspire their workers; effectively communicate their brand and sales messages; or improve the quality of their products/services.
His goal at Bain was to scrub and polish his acquired companies so they'd be attractive for eventual sale to prospective purchasers, and his success in attaining this goal has been proven. What isn't proven , however , is evidence that Romney understands how to successfully execute the quotidian details of running a B2B or B2C business, or grasp what owners of small to medium-sized firms must do in order to survive and prosper.
Also in question are the solutions that Romney presented during the campaign to remedy America's employment challenges.
Romney's job creation platform consisted of 3 planks: reduce corporate taxes, reduce corporate regulations, and increase training of America's workforce. According to Romney, these 3 solutions would allow American firms to become more competitive, more profitable, and more open to hiring new employees.
The difficulty with this approach is that it doesn't address the key reason why firms of any size hire new workers: to meet increased demand. If consumers are buying more of a company's products or services, that company would have to increase its workforce to meet this surge in sales.
By not considering the connection between increased demand and increased hiring, Romney offered a job creation plan that was predicated on a mistaken notion: companies would create jobs, but only if there are sufficient incentives to do so. In Romney's macro business view, this idea made complete sense. But for business owners, the only true inducement to hire is if there are sufficient new sales coming in for them to be able to afford to pay additional incomes and benefits on a sustained basis.
Mitt Romney's business acumen has been confirmed by his impressive private sector accomplishments at Bain Capital, and Toure's respect for these achievements is understandable. But Romney achieved results in a specific aspect of business, namely private equity, venture capital, and public market investments. To assume that Romney's finance knowledge would translate into good judgment as Secretary of Business - in which he would seek to improve the prosperity of America's small to medium sized corporations - isn't supported by his lack of experience in the everyday operations of B2B and B2C organizations and his unproven ideas of how to increase American employment.
Romney enjoyed a stellar career as the founding CEO at Bain Capital. But aspects of his work at Bain, together with the ideas that formed the foundation of his candidacy's job creation platform, suggest that his success in one type of business does not indicate proficiency in others, particularly when it comes to helping small to mid-sized companies as a Secretary of Business.
Romney presented himself as a credible business expert during the campaign, and his extraordinary accomplishments at Bain Capital confirm this assertion. Yet while he was a visionary at buying, optimizing, and selling companies, his Bain experience didn't include the operation or supervision of these organizations on a day-to-day basis. He was involved in the macro fiscal processes of the firms that he acquired, not in the workaday details of figuring out the best way to attract and keep their clients; build their sales; manage and inspire their workers; effectively communicate their brand and sales messages; or improve the quality of their products/services.
His goal at Bain was to scrub and polish his acquired companies so they'd be attractive for eventual sale to prospective purchasers, and his success in attaining this goal has been proven. What isn't proven , however , is evidence that Romney understands how to successfully execute the quotidian details of running a B2B or B2C business, or grasp what owners of small to medium-sized firms must do in order to survive and prosper.
Also in question are the solutions that Romney presented during the campaign to remedy America's employment challenges.
Romney's job creation platform consisted of 3 planks: reduce corporate taxes, reduce corporate regulations, and increase training of America's workforce. According to Romney, these 3 solutions would allow American firms to become more competitive, more profitable, and more open to hiring new employees.
The difficulty with this approach is that it doesn't address the key reason why firms of any size hire new workers: to meet increased demand. If consumers are buying more of a company's products or services, that company would have to increase its workforce to meet this surge in sales.
By not considering the connection between increased demand and increased hiring, Romney offered a job creation plan that was predicated on a mistaken notion: companies would create jobs, but only if there are sufficient incentives to do so. In Romney's macro business view, this idea made complete sense. But for business owners, the only true inducement to hire is if there are sufficient new sales coming in for them to be able to afford to pay additional incomes and benefits on a sustained basis.
Mitt Romney's business acumen has been confirmed by his impressive private sector accomplishments at Bain Capital, and Toure's respect for these achievements is understandable. But Romney achieved results in a specific aspect of business, namely private equity, venture capital, and public market investments. To assume that Romney's finance knowledge would translate into good judgment as Secretary of Business - in which he would seek to improve the prosperity of America's small to medium sized corporations - isn't supported by his lack of experience in the everyday operations of B2B and B2C organizations and his unproven ideas of how to increase American employment.
About the Author:
Rafe Gomez is a principal at VC Inc. Marketing, a provider of business strategy, lead gen, sales support, p.r., and marketing communications services to companies. His work has been featured in a number of major media outlets, including Brandweek, DM News, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, PBS, CBS Radio, and The New York Daily News. Follow him @vcincmarketing
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