| What Has NGAW Wrought? |
| In a never ending effort to improve the future of National Goldfish Awarness Week, the president of the Executive Advisory Council undertook an online master's program. As part of that program, it was necessary to create a thesis, in this particular case a business plan. What was born of that necessity is the ultimate triumph on NGAW's goal of making a mockery of established ideals for awareness weeks and general stuffiness. For two years, a holiday that has been built from the ground was dissected from the top down. The text that follows is, I hope, the plan, in its entirety. |
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| For the Busy and Important Types
National Goldfish Awareness Week is an exciting and unique event that is growing with each passing year. Participation in the holiday and support for the event has grown exponentially. Low overhead, high employee engagement and a broad canvas on which to paint creative realities for NGAW make it a sound investment in the future. The initial investment of $10,000 will yield bountiful returns in the generation of publicity, exposure and association with a growing, energetic event. In a society where holidays seem to sprout at every turn, the time is ripe for an event that combines the best of the concept of a holiday with the fun of being more than a little nonsensical. National Goldfish Awareness Week is not about making money for a few; rather it is about generating good feelings and fun for many. The initial investment in NGAW will help create a greater means to spread the value of the event, allowing more people to be touched and, in turn, touch others. The association with NGAW is an association with that feeling of happiness. It is too easy to look for easy outs and quick turn-arounds. There are countless operations that drive hard to gather the dollar and then sit on it with a smug look, as if to say �We have a dollar now that we had not before�, while the world moves on and leaves them to their dollar. National Goldfish Awareness Week, and the National Goldfish Awareness Week Executive Advisory Council, do not subscribe to that way of thinking. Value is what is made of it. National Goldfish Awareness Week has grown organically and will grow even faster with the time and investment of others. What is now a small occurrence will grow to be a national moment of jocularity. History and Purpose of National Goldfish Awareness Week National Goldfish Awareness Week (Hereafter denoted by the acronym NGAW) has two key functions at present. The first, and primary, mission of NGAW is to raise awareness for the goldfish. We simply want for them to have the rights they so justly deserve. No longer should they be won as carnival prizes, used in fraternity stunts or flushed unceremoniously down toilets. These are friendly, low maintenance creatures who deserve a better place in the pantheon that most pets are afforded than the one in which they are currently entrenched. Additionally, NGAW seeks to make a mockery of awareness days and weeks in general. The calendars of the world are clouded by such an excess of awareness days, weeks, months that those with true value are severely diminished by things such as National Poundcake Day and National Drinking Water Month (both of which have been documented). The answer to the question of what is NGAW is perhaps best answered with another question, Why not NGAW? As the holiday grew and expanded, it became clear that a body was needed to guide further growth. Thus the formation of the National Goldfish Awareness Week Executive Advisory Council (NGAWEC) was necessitated. The NGAWEC is comprised of talented individuals who are willing to submit their skills for the betterment of NGAW. Decisions are made most frequently in an informal and conversational setting. This should not be misinterpreted as thoughtless or cavalier. Quite to the contrary, the NGAWEC undertakes its role in guiding the holiday very seriously. For none is this a full time endeavor, and perhaps it is destined to remain an enjoyable sidebar. But as long as goldfish suffer needlessly, and as long as International Aura Day (also documented) exists, so, too, will NGAW. Mission Statement The future, despite the best efforts of many, is sequestered behind a veil of mist. As the mist shifts and clears with the vagaries of time, National Goldfish Awareness Week seeks to be active, growing and, guided by the wisdom and humor of the National Goldfish Awareness Week Executive Advisory Council, true to the meaning of the holiday. Vision Statement While there is no true roadmap to success with a concept rather than a service or product, by staying with key attributes, the NGAWEC can ensure that NGAW follows its mission. � Maintain a core group of highly dedicated, talented, and creative people in key positions within the NGAWEC. The current advisory board has the double-edged sword of youth. There is limitless room for growth, and the many gifted minds who contribute to NGAW are not hindered by constraints of convention. However, even the greatest among the young suffer occasional bouts of callowness, leading to missteps. The people who work to make NGAW a successful event are the crux of all that is done for the holiday. There is no product or service to sell, only an idea, and ideas are only as powerful as those conveying them. � Develop an operating budget through conventional and unique endeavors. The NGAWEC does not seek donations or contributions, which are incompatible with key tenets of NGAW. � Remain true to the underlying and original message of National Goldfish Awareness Week. Paramount to the growth of NGAW and the first order of the NGAWEC is to remain unwavering in supporting what makes NGAW unique and a powerful event. National Goldfish Awareness Week Executive Advisory Council The people who make the NGAWEC what it is are varied and unique. At present they are few in number, but possess great potential and drive. As much as any endeavor, the people behind the scenes truly make NGAW what it is, and provide definition for its future. Jacob Tabb, Founder, NGAW and President, NGAWEC The author, who, despite having the ability to communicate with a pen nearly any concept, deplores both writing of himself and using the first person, has seen NGAW since its inception, and has worked tirelessly to extend the reach of the holiday. Business and scholastic experience have served little value, as the creation and development of mildly humorous events was not covered in any textbook or training manual. Ellen Fisher, VP Media Relations, NGAWEC Ms. Fisher has the awesome responsibility of creating outlets from which the message of NGAW can be broadcast. She is responsible for the incursion of NGAW to the internet, and despite her young years will continue to work hard and creatively to further NGAW, and will bring experience of having lived overseas to the NGAWEC. Ann Jennings, VP Logistics, NGAWEC Mrs. Jennings is often considered the silent voice of the NGAWEC. She has provided invaluable resources and consideration for both the NGAWEC and NGAW. Success: Road Signs on the Path to Greatness Success, as is the first definition by Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary (1976) is �a favorable or desired outcome of something attempted.� Still, even from the dictionary, success is ambiguous. This is both a boon and a bane for a growing idea or enterprise. How then, can one define success when the goal is to grow but remain? What is to be measured when victory is not achieved through any means for which a matrix will provide sufficient solace? The defining organizational ethos for the NGAWEC is integrity. To paraphrase Gene Kelly from his signature performance in Singin� in the Rain �Through it all, I remained true to my motto: Integrity, always integrity.� This is extended to all whose hand may guide NGAW. Members of the NGAWEC are held to the highest standard of honesty, accountability and good nature. Those who favor NGAW by participating are strongly encouraged to read the entire defining work of NGAW, in which those core values are outlined. This event has the potential to become a clear voice rising above the cacophony of muddle thoughts that fill the days. It means something different to every person who involves themselves into it. There are no signs, no roadmaps, no timetables. Only luck, humor and a bit of talent pulling together. Where We Are Now From an operational standpoint, NGAW does not meet many of the standard criteria of a functional business unit or enterprise. Done largely with spare time and limited resources, the growth and development of NGAW, and the work of the NGAWEC, is often sporadic and ill-planned. Even so, many strict guidelines are in place, and further growth is expected. Within and Without: Culture of the NGAWEC The culture of the NGAWEC, and by extension, NGAW, is a flexible, dynamic one. This type of environment is not for all. The NGAWEC is careful about those who are offered positions as officers, and those whose help is solicited for events. The management style, organization goals and structure of the NGAWEC are not for everyone, and not everyone would be comfortable such a corporate culture. Those who are comfortable with greater power distance will not be successful working with the NGAWEC. Neither will a person who requires great structure and order to their workday. The work is accomplished as it comes, goals change from day to day and progress is measured by success, as ill-defined above. As to cultural problems in the aesthetic sense, the single greatest problem to be overcome in expanding NGAW to markets beyond the shores of the United States is language. Even with those who have and continue to speak English as their primary language, often the meaning and value of NGAW is difficult to grasp. Without excellent translation and cross-cultural communication skills, that disparity will only grow in foreign lands. As such, the NGAWEC is primarly focused on growing the domestic market, with only occasionally forays into other areas of the globe. The limited resources and scattered nature of the available time from NGAWEC officers precludes the massive research, organization and outlay of time and effort that would be necessary for an overseas expansion. For now. The Structure of the Talent Autocracy and totalitarianism are not conducive to creativity. The foundation of NGAW is creativity. The formation of the NGAWEC was not an act of necessity, nor even of absolution. Rather, talented people willing to devote their time, energy and talent to the event were found, and recruited. As such, there is not a true authority structure to bind them to their task. At present, the NGAWEC is a small enough body to function by consensus with informal meetings. Titles are largely inconsequential beyond their rather impressive sounding nature to outsiders. The flat, equal among equals approach will clearly have to be modified as the event and the council expand, but at present, it is the best approach to accomplish the goals of the NGAWEC. The free exchange of ideas, coupled with the relaxed and worry-free atmosphere surrounding all the NGAWEC does, and all that NGAW is, helps foster the creativity that is so necessary for the successful expansion of the event. At the End of the Rainbow To the classical business mind, the financial situation of the NGAWEC is bleak. With no resources beyond those contributed by the officers of the NGAWEC, there are few means for financial expansion. In the weeks leading up to NGAW 2007 t-shirts were sold, but the initial outlay was from the pocket of the NGAWEC president, and no profits were recorded. Said shirts were sold at cost, as a way of encouraging NGAW supporters to participate, and to help spread the event through person to person advertising. Despite the impeccable logic of Frank Burns, of M*A*S*H fame, nothing from nothing yields nothing. So long as the official NGAWEC operating budget remains ensconced at zero, projects will be few and limited in scope. However, it is the hope of the officers of the NGAWEC that as their own situation improves, the amount, both in time and more tangible contributions will increase, improving the outlay of the NGAWEC. Plans have been formed to that end, and to foster organic financial growth of the budget of the NGAWEC. The Next Step Being a unique entity, the NGAWEC has no template to follow for the path that winds into its future. As the NGAWEC grows NGAW, it will have to work as a collective body to ensure that the decisions made are in the best interest of the event. Detached, compassionate reasoning may seem disparate concepts, but they go together when the belief held is strong enough to bind the decision makers to a common good. Beyond the Frontier: The Next Rise The expansion of NGAW is largely a grassroots process. The full effect of the event is felt only by someone who has experienced it. The catch-22 of that is that to experience it, you must know of the event. What that really means is that the growth and expansion of NGAW is precipitated largely on those who know it best telling others; owing to the youthful nature of many of the current celebrants, their continued movement, both outward and upward, through life will help to spread the holiday. The NGAWEC has worked and continues to work to develop more aggressive methods of expanding NGAW. Use of the internet (www.geocities.com/nationalgoldfishawareness) as well as t-shirt sales and the development and deployment of a strong, recognizable logo have helped on that front. The familiar nature of the NGAWEC ensures frequent communication between the officers, and all are constant considering ways to improve the position and relative awareness of NGAW. The nature of NGAW is such that specific markets or demographics need not be targeted. Exposure is paramount, and inclusion is universal. Creative Uses of Pronouns For many years NGAW was run as a first person singular holiday. As the event grew, the need for more and better talented help increased. The formation of the NGAWEC was the first step, and finding officers to fill needs and play important roles was next. Not every choice has been successful, but those who remain are as true to themselves as they are to NGAW. In seeking and developing new talent, the NGAWEC is cognizant of its own limitations, and as such seeks unique talents that may be overlooked by others, for any number reasons. Finding the talent to continue to grow and create NGAW is a ceaseless challenge. Individuals must meet certain, difficult to quantify criteria to be successful. As outlined in discussing the culture of the NGAWEC, working in that environment is not for everybody. The NGAWEC is, in addition to growing the event, constantly aware of potential talent in the world at large. New officers are recruited, typically with a specific production goal in mind, and are then allowed the freedom that typifies the NGAWEC. Material Possessions and Their Deployment The material assets of the NGAWEC and NGAW are few. The most recognizable mark, the logo, is a powerful symbol of all for which NGAW stands. It is used, in varying forms, on the website, in memos and releases, and as the focus of the NGAW t-shirt. The balance of increasing the use of the logo without corrupting its value is a fine line, and will be carefully monitored. As the NGAWEC pushes forward, more assets will be acquired and managed in the same careful manner. It is the responsibility of all NGAWEC officers to be good stewards of the resources of the NGAW, and to continue to find new and creative means to expand the holiday with material goods, though never, ever, greeting cards. Getting Out the Word National Goldfish Awareness Week is, by nature of its being, a communication oriented event. To facilitate success, spreading the meaning of the event is crucial. As NGAW provides no tangible goods or service, it is, by default, a message organization. All actions undertaken by the NGAWEC and growth of NGAW will be the result of effective marketing and communications, and will further the same process. How to Say What Must be Said National Goldfish Awareness Week seeks to expand constantly. The only way to do so is to bring more people into understanding the meaning of NGAW, and to speak of the cause embodied by it. All members of the NGAWEC, regardless of their designated function must take into account this credo. Thus, all departments, current and future, of the NGAWEC are responsible for developing and executing marketing plans, and implementing those enacted by the actual marketing department, should one ever be formed. At present the structure of the NGAWEC prevents definitive plans from being formed. Time is volunteered and salary is non-existent. Further, the NGAWEC operating budget is negligible (see above), rendering grandiose marketing plans unfeasible. Still, efforts are made to follow guidelines laid out in the NGAW charter which can be viewed online (http://www.geocities.com/nationalgoldfishawareness). These guidelines not only outline the manner in which NGAW will grow, but elucidate many of the core values of NGAW itself. By nature, NGAW is not an international event. It is difficult, when defining an event as a national operation, to expand beyond the boundaries of the country of origin. When crossing into international markets, the sense of national cohesiveness necessary for the development of a national holiday is too easily lost. Perhaps someday NGAW will expand and change, and create an offshoot organization, the IGAW (International Goldfish Awareness Week) but that is far into a future that is still as clouded as a fishbowl marred by excessive alga growth. Choosing the Words that Should be Said The National Goldfish Awareness Week Executive Advisory Council does not feel market segmentation necessary. There is no particular demographic to which NGAW appeals over another. The target of NGAW is everyone who wants to participate in the cause. The limits are defined by the range of the message being broadcast; thus, as more people become ardent supports of NGAW, the process will accelerate exponentially. As those connected to, and associated with, NGAW move on with their lives, they will take the message of NGAW with them. This will help the organic, grassroots growth of the holiday. It is augmented by internet efforts, t-shirt sales and exposure in random public venues (grocery stores, schools, etc.). In expanding the realm of NGAW, it is the opinion of the NGAWEC that the nature of the event, and the manner in which it is being grown, will render ethnocentricity irrelevant. The self-reference criterion is that of each person extolling the value of NGAW, and as such, cannot be controlled or governed. Issuing What Will be Said The NGAWEC is always seeking new and innovative means to expand the holiday. Since all markets are open, and competition is indirect if it exists at all, all that slows progress are the banes of any enterprise: Time, money, location. National Goldfish Awareness Week will grow slowly at first, and then accelerate. It will benefit from direct approaches to marketing-members of the NGAWEC explaining the event, internet based information that shows how and why NGAW is what it is and holiday feedback. It will gain from indirect experiences-the strengthening recognition of the NGAW logo, gradual spread by word of mouth and tangential references as NGAW garners more media attention. As the budget capability expands, and the NGAWEC develops more experience, more aggressive means to those ends will be employed. Advertising dollars, carefully applied, will garner recognition and increase the validity of NGAW. The creation and distribution, through limited channels, of more and more interesting NGAW merchandise (not for profit) will further expand the event. Already the website encourages those who enjoy NGAW to share their stories with the NGAWEC, and those stories are used in many ways to further NGAW. Truly, NGAW is a user oriented event, and all functions connected to it should facilitate that. Finding the New Next Innovation, in all its forms, is an important component of any concept based production. National Goldfish Awareness Week is nothing if not a concept, from that offered by the NGAWEC to the final form it is taken by all those who partake in the event. To that end, innovation is a constant in the growth of NGAW, and the NGAWEC must always be working towards and aware of innovations that can further the cause of NGAW. Using What Is As discussed in above, the limited nature of the NGAWEC�s budget means making the most of what is available for the least. The internet is of the utmost importance to spreading the message of NGAW. Once online, the ability to disseminate information costs no more than the time it takes to type up the message. Other simple, effective methods of taking advantage of present technologies are also employed by the NGAWEC. Such standards as printers, clip art, and text documents are standard fare for the NGAWEC. As more technologies become readily available to the public at large, and the costs of using them decrease the NGAWEC will actively expand the use technology to spread the word of NGAW. Further, as the budget increases, the primary use of that budget will be to further take advantage of the use of technologies to increase awareness of NGAW. The overriding goal of the NGAWEC is to generate greater awareness for NGAW, and any technology that leads to that end is of value to the NGAWEC. As more channels become available for use by the NGAWEC, a greater audience will be reached with the message of NGAW. Finding What Can Be As the NGAWEC seeks new and improved ways to spread the message of NGAW, new innovations and technologies will always be sought. At present, the talents of the NGAWEC are not those of innovators in the technological sense. Those minds are being sought as the NGAWEC seeks to enlarge the governing body of the NGAW. Also at present, the technological exposure of members of the NGAWEC is limited by time and budget (personal and NGAWEC) constraints. Even as British scientists perfect the art of teleportation, practical applications remain difficult to fathom, even for so forward thinking an entity as the NGAWEC. Some technologies that may be useful in the near future are things such as electronic paper, which would decrease the need for constantly sending information while allowing the NGAWEC to spread and change messages to those following NGAW without cost or inconvenience on either end. As more people from different backgrounds and cultures are exposed to and understand NGAW, their knowledge and ideas will filter into the core of the event. The flexible nature of the NGAWEC and of NGAW will allow those ideas to proliferate, absorbing the new and positive concepts while politely shrugging off those that hinder the growth of NGAW. Making Up the Rest What, then, does that leave in the field of innovation? That question can scarcely be answered better than why National Goldfish Awareness Week (see above)? As has been quoted before, in life, the only certainties are death and taxes. Tomorrow holds many mysteries, not the least of which is what will NGAW become and what can the NGAWEC do to ensure the survival of NGAW and to make it better and stronger with each passing year. Using technologies as they are developed, and taking advantage of people and services as they are made available to the NGAWEC are small examples of how innovation shapes the future of NGAW. Innovation is fully integrated in the NGAW process by the nature of that process. The NGAWEC is strongly connected to the event, and the people of the NGAWEC to each other. Communication remains effective, and ideas are freely exchanged. New technologies are constantly being considered (teleportation, for instance) to make NGAW even better than it was ever imagined to be. Picking up the Tab No matter how we might deplore it, no operation, regardless of the magnitude, can be conducted without the commitment of resources of some kind. The brief history of NGAW is not rife with financial gain, but rather bereft of capital investment. That said, the financial reports of NGAW are sporadic at best, and contain little information that is pertinent to investors. Nevertheless, in the paragraphs to follow, they shall be examined. Who Paid for What with Which Before proceeding to the financial statements, it is important to consider a caveat. National Goldfish Awareness Week is, in the view of the NGAWEC, entirely unique. It does not compete for monetary gain with companies, individuals or ideals. It does not seek to establish a niche in corporate America or the world. The overarching aim of NGAW is to facilitate the betterment of a species, as well as bring smiles to the faces of people with humor far and wide. What, exactly, does that mean in simple English? In short, the development of a detailed profit and loss statement is not appropriate to measure the financial health of NGAW. Further, being a single week event held annually, a quarterly analysis is misleading. Having, in the view of the NGAWEC, no industry or potential competitors, it is of no value to evaluate an industry or segment which simply does not exist. This is not a cop out to the assignment; indeed, an attempt will be made to produce an acceptable financial document, albeit an annual statement of profit and loss. The statement will, however, attempt to measure some intangible assets that nevertheless carry great financial weight with the NGAWEC, as well as estimate two years of data assuming a greater operating budget. Otherwise, the report would be sadly empty of numbers. Following the report are explanations of asterisked items. Statement of Profit and Loss for National Goldfish Awareness Week 2007 2008 2009 (est) 2010 (est) Revenues Retained Earnings $0 $362 $842 $2,709 Sale of NGAW Merchandise** $350 $0 $900 $1,400 Misc. Cash Incomes $3 $0 $0 $0 Corporate Contributions $0 $0 $0 $0 Financial Value of Growth*** $600 $800 $2,700 $5,000 Gross Revenues $953 $1,162 $4,442 $9,109 Annual Operating Cost Standard Fixed* $40 $40 $80 $300 Cost of Goods $430 $0 $600 $1,000 Capital Investment $0 $0 $0 $500 Marketing $0 $0 $150 Total Costs $470 $40 $830 $1,800 Operating Profit $483 $1,122 $3,612 $7,309 Tax on Profit (25%) $121 $281 $903 $1,827 Annual Profit $362 $842 $2,709 $5,482 *Standard fixed costs associated with NGAW are those that are inherent in the daily lives of NGAWEC members whose time and efforts go into making NGAW a success. These costs are inextricable from those daily expenditures, but are nevertheless taken, as a variable percentage, into the accounts of NGAW. **National Goldfish Awareness Week merchandise (primarily articles of clothing bearing the NGAW logo) is created through wholesalers. The first year such merchandise was offered, it was sold only to those who had previously supported NGAW, and at cost. A substantial portion of those shirts were in fact given away. The cost, monetarily, was therefore not entirely recovered. However, it is estimated that the value of the products exceeded the cost (see below). Further, in the year 2008, no new merchandise was created. ***Financial value of growth is the intangible measure with strong measurable results. Given the limited resources and relative youth of NGAW, developing a strong core of followers to assist in spreading and growing the event is paramount. This, in turn, has a financial value that is estimated in the P&L statement. It is important to have the annual profit reflect this value because in the following year(s), there is financial value in the growth from the previous year(s). The Words Behind the Numbers To further examine the finances of NGAW, it is important to again reiterate that this is an event governed by a body for which finances are not the paramount concern. This is naturally easy to write, and even easy to consider a mission of the NGAWEC, but it is harder to execute, and harder still to convince others that this is in earnest. Many of the most basic financial measures, including risk analysis and returns on investments, have little bearing on the path of NGAW, especially as it pertains to returns on those numbers. There is little equity to NGAW, little worth to the NGAWEC and certainly no reason for investors to queue their money before the NGAWEC. As with most fledgling businesses, the cash flows of NGAW are limited. Unlike most entrepreneurial endeavors, however, there is no plan to substantially increase cash flows. Ready cash is not necessary for the NGAWEC to successfully execute the mission of the charter. Expansion is more about the spread of knowledge and intellectual properties than inventory and advertising. Ratios of Consequence 2007 2008 2009 (est) 2010 (est) Liquidity Current Ratio 0.64 1.29 1.05 1.36 Asset Management Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio - - - 18.22 Total Asset Turnover Ratio 1.59 1.45 1.65 1.66 Debt Management Debt Ratio - - - - Times Earned Interest Ratio 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 Profitability Profit Margin Ratio 0.38 0.72 0.61 0.58 Return on Total Assets 0.60 1.05 1.00 0.96 Basic Earning Power 0.81 1.40 1.34 1.28 Net Present Value $6,675.99 $6,981.34 $6,837.78 $4,812.79 Du Pont Equation 0.60 1.05 1.00 0.96 Explaining the Numbers As has been previously stated, it is the view of the NGAWEC that there is no industry with which to compare the endeavors of NGAW. As such, no comparison is offered. This may weaken the financial clout of the ratios examined, but the numbers are still true to the equations which wrought them, and can reveal information regarding the financial well-being of NGAW. Some ratios are of little value to the NGAWEC; some have been altogether omitted as having no consequence to the goals of the NGAWEC. At present, The NGAWEC carries no debt, and intends to continue in that line until it is impossible to do so. Profit margin has little bearing, though the numbers are strong. The purpose of NGAW is not profit, and all profits are returned to the growth of NGAW. As the NGAWEC continues to grow and expand, and acquire more assets and capital goods, it is probable that these ratios will change dramatically, and will have greater bearing on the course the NGAWEC should take. Understanding and developing these ratios now, and ensuring the framework is in place to maintain the numbers that both begat and derive from them will ensure a long, healthy future for NGAW and make easier the task of the NGAWEC. Reference Collier, P. M. (2006). Accounting for managers: Interpreting accounting information for decision-making (2nd ed.). West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Brigham, E.F., & Houston, J.F. (2007). Fundamentals of financial management (11th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning White, M., & Bruton, G. (2007). The management of technology and innovation: A strategic approach. Mason, OH: Thompson South-Western. http://www.livescience.com/environment/top10_emergingenvironment_technologies-1.html |
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