Up, Up and Away

The Dow Jones Industrial average finally crossed 13,000 and held it earlier this week. That was significant because it has been four years since the Dow closed above 13,000. The last time the Dow reached 13,000 was in May of 2008. Some will lament that the number means little since it is still below the highest closing of 14,164 in October of 2007. Yet, I believe we should take note of the improvement and use it to build momentum for stronger sales in 2012. Several signs point to 2012 being a year where we can finally see the type of growth desired since the recession ended two-and-a-half years ago.

Unemployment has dropped to 8.3 percent, a four-year low. The number of persons seeking unemployment benefits has dropped for five straight months and continues to trend downward. The Federal Reserve Beige Book that measures economic activity regionally across the U.S. sees improvement in every region. Consumer confidence jumped unexpectedly from 61.5 to 70.8 last month, much higher than an expected 63. Finally, economic growth for the previous quarter was raised from 2.8 percent to 3 percent.

Now, before any of you think that this is cheerleading for either of the parties vying to win the presidency this year, Ill let you in on a little secret. For the most part, I am agnostic when it comes to politics. There are five seasons in the U.S. summer, fall, winter, spring, and least productive, the political season of a presidential campaign year. No, I am relaying this news to you because you need to use it to motivate yourselves, businesses, prospects and customers to begin the difficult task of putting all of the bad news behind us and moving forward with renewed optimism. Part of the secret to garnering success in business and life is to have a positive can-do attitude. We have been fortunate in the IP community to be engaged in a growing industry with an ever-expanding market. Innovation continues at a rapid clip with LTE, 4G, mobile UC, telepresence and much more. Consequently, we have to avoid falling into the traps set by politicians and parts of the media that only see a falling sky, devastation and loss. We need to champion those things that will propel our businesses to thrive and customers to succeed.

Apple just crossed the $500 billion in valuation, the sixth company to ever achieve this mark, and perhaps your focus is on the iFamily of products. Apple will do well. However, if you have been tracking the announcements from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, there is also about to be a global explosion in Android-based devices. And all expansion in communications and computing devices that use IP technology is good for the IP ecosystem.

The last two years have been a time for you and Broadvox to position ourselves for new opportunities and record growth. Now is the time to execute.

See you on Monday when I will get back to the business of IP communications and, of course, cooking.

BTW, the Wednesday blog that was never written was Leaping Long List of Linterruptions.” Go Jeremy! Go Mavs!

David
Byrd is vice president of marketing and sales for Broadvox, and is responsible
for marketing and channel sales programs to SMBs, enterprises and carriers as
well as defining the product offering. Prior to joining Broadvox, David was the
vice president of Channels and Alliances for Eftia and Telcordia. As director
of eBusiness Development with i2 Technologies, he developed major partnerships
with many of the leaders in Internet eCommerce and supply chain management. As
CEO of Planet Hollywood Online he was a pioneer in using early Internet
technologies to build a branded entertainment and eCommerce website company
partnered with Planet Hollywood. Having over 20 years of telecom sales and
marketing experience, he has held executive positions with Hewlett-Packard,
Sprint and Ericsson.