Dr. Ashley Wolfe, Vice Chair of the California Medical Association’s Council on Legislation, says, “Consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks is the single largest contributor to the obesity epidemic driving new cases of diabetes.” The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that one third of those born in 2000 (and up to half of all Latinos) will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Sooner or later the question will be, “Who should pay for the coming explosion in health care costs?”

Health officials are increasingly identifying soda and sugary drinks as the largest source of added sugar in the American diet. Senator Monning says the health risks are comparable to tobacco. “The health data is conclusive, it’s not speculative,” he said.

The US department of Health and Human Services, through the CDC’s, has authorized funds for local advertising campaigns to educate the public to reconsider their beverage choices. In Sonoma County California, for instance, billboards are focusing on the issue to raise public awareness. One billboard reads, “You wouldn’t eat 12 packs of sugar, why are you drinking them?”

Comparing tobacco to sugary drinks, the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarettes was just the beginning. After it was clear the warning had a limited effect on reducing cigarette smoking and that the cost of cigarette-related health issues were born by businesses, rate payers and taxpayers, there was widespread support for an increased tax on cigarettes.

The US CDC’s estimate that smoking-caused health costs total almost $10.50 a pack. Since 2002, 47 states, DC, and several U.S. territories have increased their cigarette tax rates 110 times! Today, some states have combined cigarette taxes well over $5 per pack. The increased taxes have been justified by the medical costs. Interestingly, there has been a reduction in smoking that is in direct relationship to the increases in prices, not necessarily the warnings. So once again, if you want to effect change, put a buck on it!

When former New York Mayor Bloomberg tried to ban the sale of large sugary drinks, he was ridiculed as interfering with people’s right to choose whatever they wanted. His ban was overturned by the courts, but, notably, New York has the highest cigarette tax rate in the country. New Yorkers may want free choice but they have demonstrated that they don’t want to pay for someone else’s self-inflicted medical bills. They also have demonstrated that high taxes on products known to drive up health care costs reduce consumption of those products when warnings fail. Will New York be taxing sugary drinks next?

If, as Senator Monning says, “The tobacco analogy is a good one,” and the ad campaigns and mandatory product warnings don’t significantly reduce the consumption of sugary drinks, will the same rational that justified the massive increases in tobacco taxes justify a sugar tax? Is saving money more important to US consumers than saving their health?

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Is a Sugar Tax Coming? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The takeaway for leaders, whether they are politicians, managers, or business owners, is simple. To truly engage your people, educate them beyond what you want them to do and how you want them to do it. Give them appreciation for why you want them to perform in a certain way.

When we were building the Barefoot Wine brand, we found that our people were more engaged when they knew why they were doing a specific job, not just how to do it. We would explain our company’s mission statement, and how each staff member’s performance was essential to achieve the goals of the company.

We would invest hours with our new people explaining the cause and effect that connected their job to the customers’ purchasing decision. We would give them a “money map” showing them how the customers’ money went to buy our product, how it traveled through the retail and distribution companies we dealt with, and eventually ended up in their paycheck. We would detail the reasons why their job directly affected the provision of goods and services necessary for the customer to make a purchase. We would give them the reasons why every team member in our company had to perform excellently to keep our customers coming back. We explained each business associate’s loyalty requirements, from distributers to retailers, from store clerks to consumers, and how our people satisfied all of them.

Some said that kind of training was a waste of time, that new people don’t need that level of detail. They argue that the sooner the new hire starts producing, the better. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it assumes that the processes are already the best they can possibly be, and that there can be no further improvements in customer service or efficiency. It also assumes that expensive mistakes won’t happen due to misconceptions about purpose.

We found, however, that people tend to “make up” reasons when they don’t know the real ones. If they didn’t get it, we would go over it again – and again. When they asked a seemingly simply question about their job, we would listen closely for any misconceptions they held. We wouldn’t just give them the answer so they could thoughtlessly “cut and paste” to quickly get on with their job. We would take the time to sit them down and start from the beginning about the reasons until they connected the dots.

The time we invested in this type of education really paid off. We often heard, “Well, if that’s what we are trying to do, then why don’t we …” and they would streamline our procedures or make them more effective. Sometimes they would even come up with completely new ways of doing things.

Presidents and leaders at every level are only as successful as their ability to engage their people. If your people truly understand why they are being asked to perform, you’ll drastically reduce costly misconceptions and you’ll achieve your company’s goals in surprisingly more efficient ways. Your people will be happier and more engaged because they understand why their performance is essential to the company’s success and that their teammates are relying on them.

Productive people start with good leaders. Happy Presidents’ Day everybody!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Communicate the Reasons not just the Processes appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.