I am constantly faced with perplexed people regarding my views. I am a firm believer in helping our fellow mankind, cry at the atrocities of the world, believe in the impetus behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, but am also a fan of free enterprise, a lover of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a business person, and a scholar/professor of International Business. What is perplexing to most is that these would seem to be ideals that are diametrically opposed to one another, but that is exactly what I feel is wrong with our society. We have taken sides.

There was a time when corporate America wasn’t a dirty word. When companies took care of their people, paid a fair wage, and provided life’s necessities like health care and pensions. In return, as a people, we were productive. We strove to do our very best, we were loyal to our employers, and WE created the greatest economic super power of the 20th century. Somewhere along this path greed took over, and that is when we started taking sides.

In Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, the catch phrase was “who is John Gault?” This confuses many, but it is simple really. It is a euphemism for “I just don’t care anymore.” “I am so beaten down so why bother.” The anti- business side of the country sees the Rand philosophies as anti-people, anti-worker. The pro-business side of the country sees it as hailing big business and castigating the lazy worker, unions, and all of the entities “they” feel have destroyed our way of life.

My answer to this argument is why people are perplexed by me. Everyone is missing the point!! The point the book is making is that it is not government that will save us, and it is not corporate greed either! What will save us holds even more true today than when the book was written. The book itself was prophetic in what it foretold of the decline in American society AND business. It’s message is clear. It is up to all of us to work together on this. Stop pointing fingers at one another and get it done. The American way!!

So, with this in mind I want to highlight one of my favorite companies; Starbucks. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, has this to say:

” I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see And pursuing that vision.”

More importantly he has backed up his words. A few months ago he began producing and selling $5 bracelets in his stores, and online, with the idea that it is the responsibility of corporate America to help bring this country back. What a novel idea? Someone taking responsibility? How un-American???!!! NO. That is exactly what we are made of. THAT is MY America. The one I was always so proud of. Mr. Schultz is following the same principles as corporate giants Dagny Taggart and Hank Reardon from Atlas Shrugged.

The moral to this story is that we need to stop running around saying “who is John Gault?”, and get out there and change things. So, YES I support the Occupy Wall Street movement, and YES I support corporate giants like Howard Schultz. There is no confusion or dichotomy in my thinking. I am not all “left” or all “right.” I am for America, and our people, and hard work, and productivity, and working together, and helping one another. OUT with the corporate greed of the 80s and 90s and first decade of the 21st century. Let’s get back to working together. Time for corporations to treat their people right, and for loyalty to be given in return. It is a two way street.

What is the meaning of the title Atlas Shrugged? Atlas was us, America during and post WWII, and at some point we threw our hands up in the air and said “I just don’t care anymore.” Start caring or fail.

I was just thinking back to my youth today, and while it sometimes seems a long time ago I can’t help but thinking of how things have changed in such a short time. Growing up in Southern California was not unlike “anytown” U.S.A. We worked hard, played hard, and when it was time to go on vacation we packed up the family GM for the customary two weeks and hit the road for parts unknown. My mother and father insisted we buy American, and it was an easy thing to do because you were buying a solidly made beast of the highway. We were a GM family, but some of you out there could have been Ford or Chrysler families. It matters not because that was just an issue of taste and family upbringing. Kind of like being a Pepsi or Coke house. The products were good quality, the price was right, and the corporations cared about what the customer wanted and what would make them happy. I am not saying it was a scene out of Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best, but it certainly was simpler. Things today are no longer simple by any stretch of the imagination, but I am also not saying this is a bad thing in most cases. After all, I wouldn’t be able to “blog” here without the complicated life we live today, but not everything had to change. The lost art of customer appreciation and satisfaction seems to have been crossed off of the curriculum of most business schools in favor of “Bottom Line 101″, “Shareholders 250″, and “Upper Management Bonuses 550.” The last one is taught in both the BA and MBA program.

I guess I was busy this morning lamenting the America we see today, and sad at the thought that I don’t think our parents and grandparents would be proud of us. Those that lived through the depression and fought in WWII gave their lives so that we could enjoy the life that we have today, but somehow, somewhere along the way much of it was squandered. GM, for all intents and purposes, no longer exists as an American company. Chrysler is in the process of being sold to Fiat, and who knows how long Ford will hold on. These were powerhouses of American industry, and now what? Hummers made in China, Chryslers made by a company that hasn’t been able to sell a car in the U.S. for more than twenty years and is not considered to be top notch. What is next?

If we want to ask ourselves why we have to do a combination of things. Yes, we need to look in the mirror, but it is far more than just a turn away from “buying American.” It has been a long time since these companies have given us something worthy of buying. While foreign car companies were being innovative American car makers were giving us more of the same and losing focus on the customer. They were late to the game of hybrids, still producing oversized monsters designed to make soccer moms and underachievers feel powerful, and providing such low quality in order to get the customer buying more frequently. This was not and is not the American way, and yet somehow it became the American business model in a relatively short time for Detroit and others.

Two years ago I finally shook the invisible cultural shackles I had been raised with and purchased my first foreign vehicle, and I have never been happier. The first thing I noticed is that I am treated like a valuable customer; something that had been lost along the way in my years of dealing with GM and Chrysler. Simply said, they stand by their product. The last American car I had happened to be a convertible and when the rag top blew off after only a year and a half they told me it was my problem because it was “not a covered item.” In my foreign car I have been to the dealer twice in two years. Both times were for a “yearly” oil change. That’s right; YEARLY.

My father is still alive at the ripe old age of 78 and will probably live to well over a hundred at the rate he is going. He spent many years in the auto industry and helped to frame my “All American” girl persona. Is he proud of what has happened? No, and the sad part….he also drives a foreign car.

Okay, so this blog could easily have been a rant, but through exemplary customer service it has turned into a rave!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a computer problem, so I took my laptop into my local Best Buy. Through having spent a lot of time in that store, as well as through great advertising, I knew “The Geek Squad” were the ones I needed to speak with. Of course, I have become friendly with the manager because he also sees me in there all the time with handfuls of goodies, and, lo and behold, who should be standing there but Dave, my friendly store manager.

So, Dave convinced me to buy a whole new laptop (great salesman!) and he would fix my old one. Who could argue? Or am I a sucker for buying new goodies? Well…….it didn’t turn out quite as Dave had planned. What started out as a good experience quickly turned ugly. Not only was the laptop not fixed, but it was worse!! So, obviously frustrated, I spoke to the young “Geek” on duty and the manager on duty. The situation went from bad to worse to absolutely deplorable. The two men even got verbally abusive.

Well, although I would love to tell you the goings on of that entire sordid incident I won’t because apparently that is NOT the true Best Buy experience. I had never had such treatment from any store employee and I know that this is not the way any company would want their customers treated.

Here’s the real beauty of the situation: I called the executive offices of Best Buy, knowing that typically 800 customer service numbers are really of no use for major situations and I got a lovely woman by the name of Lisa. She must have stayed on that phone with me at least 30 minutes listening to the awful story. I couldn’t believe that the entire time she had been taking everything down as well as hearing me! What a professional! She assured me she would get the email to Dave and that I should see him on Saturday.

Cut to Saturday: My trusty store manager Dave had been completely unaware of the goings on and had not yet read his email, but I could see him getting angrier and angrier the more I told him about the “incident.” (I could tell Dave was angry because he got professionally quiet). He was just as horrified as Lisa had been and assured me “things” would be handled appropriately, but, most importantly, he wanted to make a customer happy. All I wanted was for the old laptop to be fixed, but after he looked at its current state, he closed the top and said, “No, I am not going to fix this. We are going to give you a new one for all of the trouble.” WOW – I was astounded!!

What’s the moral of this story? Customer service! I have been a loyal Best Buy customer for years now, but guess what? I am more loyal now than ever because they took a catastrophic situation and completely turned it around. I would have been happy with a fix, but Dave and the company went above and beyond. With customer service like that they deserve all the customers they can handle and a successful future!

Reprinted from my blog at a national travel magazine