Congratulations on winning a second term, Mr. President. I voted for you and I’m confident you will do a great job for the American people.  I did want to make one suggestion for your second term and it concerns how to develop business and create more jobs for Americans.

During the campaign, President Obama, you floated the idea of creating a new cabinet position–a Secretary of Business. Here’s a news flash.  We already have a Secretary of Business. She is a former academic–Rebecca Blank, Acting Secretary of the Commerce Department.

The Commerce Department’s top job has been a revolving door in the Obama administration, with two Secretaries and two acting Secretaries.  In addition to Blank (who has twice been acting Secretary), others occupying the post included the current ambassador to China, Gary Locke, a career politician and former utility executive John Bryson.  Otto Wolff occupied the Acting Secretary job for just over two months, succeeding Bush administration holdover Carlos Gutierrez, a former CEO of the Kellogg Company. With this cast of characters entering and exiting the Obama administration at such a rapid pace no wonder our country lacks a focused business strategy!

The Commerce Secretary IS America’s Secretary of Business.  Here is how the White House website describes her role:

“The Department of Commerce is the government agency tasked with improving living standards for all Americans by promoting economic development and technological innovation….The department supports U.S. business and industry through a number of services, including gathering economic and demographic data, issuing patents and trademarks, improving understanding of the environment and oceanic life, and ensuring the effective use of scientific and technical resources. The agency also formulates telecommunications and technology policy, and promotes U.S. exports by assisting and enforcing international trade agreements.”

This sounds pretty close to what we would expect a Secretary of Business to do.  Sure the mission statement could use some re-engineering but this is the cabinet post that has been in charge of promoting commerce (another word for “business”) since it was split off from the Labor Department in1913.

And its not as though our Secretary of Business has limited resources. According to the White House, the Secretary of Commerce “oversees a $6.5 billion budget and approximately 38,000 employees.”  Yes you read that right 38,000 employees!  One has to wonder how many of those 38,000 are political appointments and how we measure the productivity of the Department.

What’s absolutely clear is that taxpayers have a right to expect more of the Department of Commerce.  The mission statement needs to be changed to reflect the contemporary needs of business.  Strong and effective leadership and continuity are needed.

We don’t need a Secretary of Business, President Obama.  We just need a Commerce Secretary who is up to the job. It took two months into your first term to appoint a Commerce Secretary.  I’d strongly suggest you make this a priority for your second term.   (If you are having trouble coming up with qualified people, I’d suggest getting in touch with Mitt Romney–word is he has binders of men and women he was considering for the post.) This is no knock on Rebecca Blank who is a highly qualified and brilliant academic who stepped up from her deputy role to serve as acting Secretary when John Bryson had to step down for medical reasons.  However, America’s business community needs focus and leadership and a strong voice in the President’s cabinet.  This voice should come from our current Secretary of Business–the Commerce Secretary!

Bill Weldon announced his retirement today as J&J CEO.  He will remain as Chairman of the Board. His replacement is Alex Gorsky, a longtime J&J executive.

Of course, every business leader has to be judged according to a complex set of factors, particularly at a diversified and leading global company like J & J.  However, I think Weldon’s legacy will be marred by the fact that he presided with little apparent sense of urgency over an extraordinary decline in the J & J brand. From Tylenol to Risperdol, from Motrin to hip replacements hardly any area of the company’s healthcare portfolio was spared mismanagement and scandal in recent years.

When former CEO James Burke reflected on the meaning of the Tylenol crisis–the defining event in J & J’s formerly exemplar corporate reputation—he said that he was relying on a century of public trust.  The way Burke and J & J handled that crisis demonstrated to the public that it was a special company and that could be trusted to adhere to the lofty principles in its famous Credo.  That is the company that Weldon inherited.  What he will hand over to his successor is a company that has lost its way and that is no longer special in the eyes of customers.

J & J may never regain the stature it once had unless a transformational leader leads the company back to living the core values enunciated in its Credo.  Weldon’s retention of the Chairman’s role does not bode well for the company, but hopefully over time Alex Gorsky will emerge from Weldon’s shadow and help make J&J a great company again.

Wall Street firms are just beginning to understand how devastating the Volcker Rule is to their business model.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that private-sector Chinese businesses and investors poured nearly $5 billion into US firms, both large and small, in 2010. Small businesses in particular have welcomed the Asian in-flow with open arms. However, such investments have spawned concerns that this is a move by Beijing to relocate companies to China, taking with them technology, resources and much needed US jobs.

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