Genius III - An Interview with Michael Spence

Michael Spence has an eye-opening theory on money and work. Like many people he sees that the money made by a business is forwarded straight to the owners of the organization. The people who work hard to make the products and provide services are merely just paid for their time. Industries have merely shifted away from true slavery to more of a paid slavery. We don't have control of our lives; we are told when we must work, eat, and go home; and we are told to do tasks at risk of punishment if not completed. Under this system we invest our time for a payment that never seems to be enough. If you truly wish to work hard and become rich, then a career working for someone else's organization will leave you greatly dissatisfied. Spend your time searching for worthwhile investments that provide you with steady income as an asset. Have your money work for you, otherwise you will spend your life slaving away for money. You can read more deeply about these types of ideas in Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki.

People Under The Stairs

Have you heard about the People Under The Stairs? Thes One and Double K have been performing for almost 20 years and selling out shows while being masters of the DIY ethic. Under this method, the pair have managed to remain independent of music labels while selling out venues all around the world. If you still haven't heard of them after all this time then I would highly recommend you listen to LA Song and check out their album "... Or Stay Tuned". These make up an excellent introductory selection to their funky and R&B style.

The main reason that this group produces such great quality music stems from their ability to remain free of music governments telling them what they can and cannot play. From the first song to playing their discography on shuffle I've been extremely pleased with all of the group's music. I hope they find themselves able to remain independent and performing to sold out concerts for as long as they live. For the day that The P decides to stop performing, the game of rap and hip hop will lose some of its greatest talents.

Genius of Money ~ Chapter 9

Faith, Hope, and Love

The chapter opens with a poem from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. In her writings, she describes how we love and hope for the wrong things, but faith is always present. John Bloom goes on to relate each of these as 'Elements of an Appreciative Economy'. By slowing your inner processes down, you can control your decisions and curb your impulses to solve problems rather than reacting emotionally to them. 

Bloom believes that Faith "is built upon a complex of outer and inner inquiries and experiences over time." This relates to the idea of brand allegiance in the free market. The idea is that you test the waters with new brands, but after using multiple products from that brand you automatically make purchases of that brand over others for related products. While Faith focuses on assurances from the past, Hope looks more toward the future. Hope is the projection of your inner feelings and intentions and is the center of the moral and ethical part of you that can only be accessed by yourself. Love. What is Love? I really enjoyed how a few of Bloom's words discussed it. "The practice of love also generates an energetic field around me that unconsciously interacts and exchanges with others." So love is connected to being as opposed to doing. In the deepest sense, Love is described as "one way to bring healing through the consummation of purchase transactions. 

Each of these are qualities of the soul that can be powerful factors into your decision making. You should let them guide you, but only once you learn what to Hope for, what to Love, and where to place your Faith. The ideal goal to be reached here is to have the three qualities of the soul connect and align toward their proper goals. Only then can you use you full inner processes to make wise financial decisions and to not react emotionally. 

The Genius of Money Ch. 6 & 14

Chapter 6

In Chapter 6 of The Genius of Money, the author displays an artwork by Quentin Metsys of The Money Lender and His Wife. Within the painting there are several symbols of the social and religious realm of the time. It is mentioned that the painting is from the renaissance era, and it perfectly portrays many different social features of its time. In the portrait, the man is seen folding the money and the woman is seen with a religious piece. This reflects the societal view of women’s incapability to control money and finances during this time. The reading then explains the lessons that are meant to be shown throughout the painting. This artwork symbolizes a common Christian man and his wife with a representation of their daily lives. The details in the painting, such as the crucifix window reflection, show both the author’s creativity and reason for the painting.

One vital lesson behind the painting is that each exchange of coin had a story to tell about the “issuer, provenance, and value system.” For the money lender and his wife, money represented judgment. Their devotions, however, fell to the church. The author uses this example to show how times have changed and people now see banks as the new high priesthood. The fact that the woman’s attention is with the man and not her religious book shows the lust for wealth and the material world over the desire for devotion and the holy. The painting seems like a warning that the society is in danger with such values in place. The chapter ends with the explanation of the old man and child in the background. This is a representation of wisdom and acculturation being passed on to the next generation. Overall, this chapter helps us think about our own values and morals as well as how we are the example to our younger generations.

Chapter 14

The Touchstone and the Labyrinth takes a step into understanding the mystery of money through spiritual and materialistic ideas coming together to form a larger picture. As John Bloom describes, money can be recognized “as a medium of expression, as a social technology, and one that makes the invisible visible by bringing together value with material goods.” We know that America abandoned the Gold Standard long ago under Nixon. Now what does this mean for money? Money is an abstract and non-material form that earns is value solely based on governmental decree (or more simply put, on faith). The touchstone and the labyrinth are two symbols that lead to the understanding of what we choose to give outer value, what provides us inner worth, and the alignment between the inner and outer.

The touchstone shows use some of the earliest stages of our materialistic ways. In using this you would mark the stone with gold of a known purity and compare that to the mark of a material of unknown contents. The material will be refined through acid testing to attain the likeness of the known marker. This shows how we compare what we have to the treasures of others and often become filled with desire to have the most of the best we can acquire. The labyrinth takes us on another journey entirely traversing a horizontal plane to arrive at a location of vertical enlightenment. This symbol represents the journey one takes to reflect upon their life’s path. Stones are the currency here; they represent the field of energy coursing through the veins of the labyrinth. This idea is akin to the way we see money as the provider of energy to the economy and the only thing that can form walls to an individual’s journey to a higher state. These ideas show the destruction of spirituality and connection we had with our money and materials. Now in the materialistic age we exist, the outer value of desires trumps the inner worth we see in our possessions and our lives.

Xcel Energy Memorandum

From: Alexander Grupp, Research and Development

To: Clark Hansen, CEO

Subject: Xcel Energy: Possible Investment Opportunity for AMDP

Date: March 6, 2016

In the last week, I have been closely following a few organizations for potential investments. The most exciting of which is a utility company known as Xcel Energy. After some time of research into Xcel, I found a few reasons as to why AMDP should invest with them:

1.    Xcel Energy has achieved the status of being Climate Registered

2.   Xcel is currently partnering with Panasonic in a project to turn Denver into a ‘smart city’

3.   They have worked to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 20% since 2005 (2)

Xcel’s latest project, involving the partnership with Panasonic and the city of Denver, describes the installation of a solar energy collection and battery storage carport system. According to Alice K. Jackson (a regional vice president at Xcel Energy), this will be “the most comprehensive project of this type in Colorado history and the first with actual customer participation in a real world environment.”(10)

Why is Xcel Energy so Exciting?

Founded in 1909 and developed in Minneapolis, Xcel Energy now serves over 3.5 million electricity and 2 million natural gas customers with one of the top portfolios relating to renewable resources. XE has been a very successful company for many years now with both a satisfied customer base and loyal employee force. In fact, “94 percent of customers surveyed are satisfied with Xcel Energy” (1). This along with the estimated 30 percent carbon footprint by 2020 fits the goals that Xcel strives for in their mission: “We provide our customers the safe, clean, reliable energy services they want and value at a competitive price” (1). XE goes even further than just making a profit and putting smaller levels of harm on the environment; they also make an effort to benefit the communities that they serve. They are also striving to one day (very long in the future) eliminate their carbon footprint entirely. For the last seven years the company has tracked and reported its emissions and environmental damage to The Climate Registry, which earned Xcel Energy the title of being Climate Registered.

 Xcel Energy and the Triple Bottom Line

When you hired me to bring you new investment opportunities, you encouraged me greatly to seek out those using a Triple Bottom Line as their accounting framework. This accounting style is very important to any organization trying to be socially and environmentally responsible as it goes beyond the traditional measures of profit, return on investment, and shareholder value to include considerations for the environment and community said company resides in. These organizations can be non-profit, for-profit, or government sectors. The TBL is rapidly becoming the top tool for businesses and organizations to evaluate their performance and sustainability. Now the question is, how does Xcel Energy compare in terms of the 3 P’s (people, planet, and profit)?

Every year, the Xcel Energy is making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint in the interest of protecting the planet from further environmental harm. An organization’s carbon footprint consists of measuring the amount of carbon—this will generally be measured in tonnes—and the level of demand that this impact places on the resources of our planet. Too much of this carbon will overrun Earth’s natural process rate of recycling carbon back into the environment from the CO₂ form. "Xcel Energy's VP for policy and strategy Frank Prager says the company has already scheduled certain coal plant retirements that it considered economic with or without carbon policy assumptions, but continues to utilize an internal price on carbon for proxy planning purposes to reduce future carbon risk faced by the company and its consumers" (8).  

Even though the calculated TBL allows for maintaining the use of coal plants and still being sustainable, XE decided that they would rather just eliminate them all together to move toward the use of renewable energies alone. From their actions, I believe that Xcel Ecergy is making an excellent effort towards having corporate social responsibility (CSR).

 What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

A company with CSR achieves and then will surpass the requirements set out by environmental protection groups or other regulators. These companies will also form “initiatives to assess and take responsibility for the company’s effects on environmental and social wellbeing” (4). Through their Xcel Energy Foundation, XE donates around $13 million each year back to the communities it serves. Over the next five years, XE also plans to invest $14.5 billion into their electric and natural gas businesses towards continually providing reliable and affordable energy to communities with a lessened environmental impact. Xcel Energy clearly strives to protect the planet and give back to the people who have supported them for their excellent service. This is a company that will show continuous growth for years to come and will support the community with jobs and safe, eco-friendly energy. I would definitely consider Xcel Energy to have corporate social responsibility as we search for here at AMDP.

You mentioned that you love Social Enterprise…

I remembered that you really enjoy company’s that can fit the description of a social enterprise. As you know, a social enterprise is an organization with two main goals:

1.    To achieve social, cultural, community economic and/or environmental outcomes

2.   To earn revenue

For these companies, the mission of the organization is the goal and focus of the business. Income generation plays a very important role in supporting these goals with a financial backing. “Xcel Energy contributed more than $45 million to communities in 2014 through a combination of foundation giving, volunteer contributions, energy assistance and support for economic development” (7). They also have over 11,000 full-time employees—many of which are military veterans. Xcel Energy feeds much of the profits the company earns back into the Xcel Energy Foundation that I mentioned earlier. This is a common strategy used by social enterprises to fulfill more of its social mission through entrepreneurial methods.

Xcel Energy has been more Profitable than ever for Investors

In addition to the company’s many successful years of growth, the last decade has seen rises in stock value to almost double what was seen in 2006. Xcel’s value is also the highest that it has ever been since being founded. With projections to remain on the rise in the coming years, Xcel Energy’s growth is showing benefits to the customers that switch to Xcel for their energy needs. Recently, the company has seen an increase of about 1,100 new customers that will be saving money on their monthly energy bills by switching. This customer acquisition projects an “increase [in] annual revenue by about $600,000” (1). This money will eventually go back into the businesses to improve services for customers while attracting new ones.

The following link will show you the stock history for Xcel Energy on Google Finance:

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=665164

The Verdict

Should AMDP invest in Xcel Energy Inc? Absolutely. They follow all of the ideas behind what we search for in companies and Xcel is one of the top competitors in the market with high levels of recent growth. In a 2014 Ceres report, we see that Xcel had 18.1% of 2012 retail electric sales—that’s #2 in the market! (9) They are also #5 in Cumulative Annual Energy Efficiency. Xcel Energy proves itself as an organization deserving of being in the top U.S. utilities for renewable energies and energy efficiency. In addition, the company has seen steady growth since this report (again, nearly doubling since 2006). AMDP should not pass up an opportunity like Xcel Energy, the only complaint that you will have is that you didn’t invest sooner and with more money.

Works Cited

1.             “CRR2014: Our Company”. XcelEnergy. 2015. <xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/ xe/Corporate/CRR2014/company/index.html>

2.            Hardcastle, Jessica Lyons. “Xcel Energy ‘On Track’ to 30% Carbon Footprint reduction by 2020”. Environmental Leader. 2015. <environmentalleader.com/2015/08/28/xcel-energy-on-track-to-30-carbon-footprint-reduction-by-2020/>

3.            Hall, Tanya J. and Timothy F. Slaper, Ph.D. “The Triple Bottom Line: What Is It and How Does It Work?”. Indiana Business Review. 2011.<ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/ spring/article2.html>

4.            “Corporate Social Responsibility”.  Investopedia. 2016. <investopedia.com/ terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp>

5.             “What is Social Enterprise?”. BC Center for Social Enterprise. 2016. <centreforsocialenterprise.com/what-is-social-enterprise/>

6.            “Carbon Footprint”.  Global Footprint Network. 2015.  <footprintnetwork.org/ en/index.php/GFN/page/carbon_footprint/>

7.            “CRR2014: Providing Community Value”. XcelEnergy. 2015. <xcelenergy.com/ staticfiles/xe/Corporate/CRR2014/community/index.html>

8.            Hardcastle, Jessica Lyons. “How Carbon Pricing Can Boost the Bottom Line”. Environmental Leader. 2014. <environmentalleader.com/2014/06/27/how-carbon-pricing-can-boost-the-bottom-line/>

9.            Fleming, Peyton and Meg Wilcox. “First-of-its-Kind Report Ranks U.S. Utility Companies’ Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency Performance”. Ceres. 2014.  http://www.ceres.org/press/press-releases/first-of-its-kind-report-ranks-u.s.-electric-utility-companies2019-renewable-energy-energy-efficiency-performance>

10.         Hardcastle, Jessica Lyons. “How Carbon Pricing Can Boost the Bottom Line”. Environmental Leader. 2016. <environmentalleader.com/2016/01/05/panasonic-provides-smart-city-technologies-to-denver/>