Paul Lewis is making the most of his second chance in construction
Posted On June 27, 2023
Few of us are fortunate enough to get second chances, whether it be in life or in business. Paul Lewis did, however, and he’s making the most of it. Lewis, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” is president of Roy Lewis Construction, a company his father started in Mobile in 1984. The company had built a name for itself in the Mobile area and was riding high on negotiated projects built on word of mouth and positive recommendations. They didn’t do much marketing, because they didn’t have to. But when the recession of 2008… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Recession Economy, What's Working with Cam Marston
Introducing a new generation to cigars and cigar-making
Posted On April 21, 2023
Introducing the next generation to the family business can be a challenge, even if your family has been in the business for generations. For Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, patriarch of E.P. Carrillo Cigars, it was all about finding the best roles for his two children, Lissette Perez-Carrillo and Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III, who have degrees and experience in law and economics and both of whom grew up around the cigar business. As co-founders of E.P. Carrillo Cigars with their father, their expertise in these areas has helped grow the brand. “It’s a process,” said Perez-Carrillo, our guest in the latest episode of “What’s… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Generations, Podcast, Recession Economy, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
Why a down economy is the time to get aggressive with your business
Posted On January 12, 2023
Does the economy have you worried? Scared of a recession and what it’d mean for your business? Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” tells us why we shouldn’t be so anxious – and why a down economy is the perfect time to get aggressive anyway. Peter Ricchiuti, an economist and professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, says the Federal Reserve is actually doing a pretty good job of walking the tightrope between lowering inflation and avoiding recession. “There’s a lot of fear out there,” he said, “but you look at the job… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, Recession Economy, What's Working with Cam Marston
What we’re blaming millennials for this week: saving too much
Posted On October 10, 2019
They’re entitled, we said. Self-absorbed. The products of participation trophy culture. But now millennials are frugal? Citing research from Raymond James, cnbc.com noted that millennials might be to blame for slower economic growth. Raymond James analyst Travis McCourt cited the rise of the U.S. personal savings rate — 8.1 percent this August, as compared to 5.7 percent in 1996 – as having a “disinflationary impact” on the economy, stagnating growth. McCourt chalks this up to a “generational change” after the financial crisis of the previous decade. And so now, we’re apparently blaming millennials for saving too much. Perhaps if college… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Recession Economy
One way to survive lean times: Keeping your operation lean
Posted On February 26, 2019
When the housing market crashed in 2008, Mobile builder Rogers & Willard found themselves in the same situation as pretty much every other construction company in America. After the crash, the company limped through 2009 on only a third of the revenue it had enjoyed in 2008. Times were lean. But fortunately for Rogers & Willard, “lean” is something with which it was already familiar. Our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” Rogers & Willard president Mike Rogers says the company survived those tough years by keeping its operation lean as a matter of principle,… Read More
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Real Estate, Recession Economy, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work
Are tariffs a good idea? One economist’s take
Posted On December 26, 2018
We all want to see the economy grow and create jobs. A favored method in the current U.S. administration’s efforts to accomplish this has been to use or threaten to use tariffs against foreign countries to level the playing field for American businesses. We’ve been told they will save American jobs, but our guest in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” economist Peter Ricchiuti of Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, begs to differ. “I think tariffs are insane,” he said. “They’re a prosperity killer. … I think these things sound good on a political stump, but they… Read More
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Recession Economy, What's Working with Cam Marston
Banking in the digital age means doing more with less
Posted On September 26, 2018
During the recession about a decade ago, many banks found themselves saddled with bad debt and forced to freeze their lending. This created an opportunity for new banks to gain a foothold – smaller, more nimble institutions with fewer branches and more flexibility. One such institution was ServisFirst Bank, a Birmingham-based bank that’s now operating in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Our guests in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” are two of the leaders of ServisFirst’s operations in Mobile – Bibb Lamar, who serves as President and CEO for the region, and Alex Arendall, Senior… Read More
Categories: Financial Services, Podcast, Recession Economy, What's Working with Cam Marston
On today’s episode in the Generational Blame Game: The Baby Boomers
Posted On January 16, 2018
A favorite narrative these days goes something like this: If you’re wondering about the source of society’s ills, look no further than the millennials. Participation trophies. Entitlement. Pumpkin spice lattes. No wonder we’re in such a mess. You can hardly run a Google search without finding another blustery column by a Generation X or Baby Boomer writer cataloguing the many different ways in which millennials are screwed up, and how they’ve screwed up the country as a result. And all that is a load of bunk. So says Bruce Gibney, a Gen-Xer who was one of the early investors in… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Recession Economy, Work
Entitled? Or bad timing? Or maybe a little of both?
Posted On July 21, 2016
Are millennials really the lazy, entitled brats they’re made out to be? Or is the millennial stereotype a media creation? Sarah Kendzior suggests in a recent article for Quartz that the image of millennials as spoiled narcissists is a media-generated “myth” that ignores the economic conditions under which the generation has grown. Far from expecting a plethora of options to cater to their whims, Kendzior argues millennials have suffered from a lack of options in the wake of the Great Recession, with lower incomes, less mobility and greater dependence on relatives than previous generations. Let’s say this out the outset:… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Recession Economy, Uncategorized, Work
Today’s young adults are a new breed
Posted On July 11, 2014
Bosses, parents and peers shake their heads at today’s “peter pan” kids – young adults who won’t grow up and seem to have lost their way. There were some in the Xer generation and even more with the Millennials – as they stepped out into the great big world right as the world folded in on itself (at least economically speaking). Where 20 years ago a new college graduate would strike out on his own and start making his own way, today’s graduates are saddled with debt and having trouble holding onto even the lowest rung on the corporate ladder…. Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Recession Economy