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Nov
20
Beginning of the end for Block?
November 20, 2007 |
News today is that Mark Ernst is out as Chair and CEO of H&R Block. The new chair is Richard Breeden, the activist investor who has been dogging Block for months. He is also the guy that recently muscled his way into Applebees and quickly sold the company off to IHOP. What does this guy have against our city and its companies??
So, it may be only a matter of time before one of KC’s bedrock companies is either sold off or dismantled, especially since only one member of the Bloch family remains on the board of directors.
Comments
6 Comments so far
Yeah, and now with computer software it’s easier than ever to do your own taxes, even for the self-employed. The days are numbered for tax-filing service companies, and this should grease the skids for Block. Not good for the city, but things are changing everywhere. All the more reason we need to tout our location as a convention destination, and run Jim Nutter out of town for fighting against light rail. We need that amenity more than ever to compete, especially since Sprint and Applebee’s are going too. Without those two employers, what will Johnson county have except a bunch of big box stores where few can afford shop?
Both Forsee and Ernst made huge blunders that any recent B school grad would not have made. Both companies business model is basically to screw the unwitting customer. Change at the top was inevitable.
Read any daily newspaper in a town of 25,000 or above and there will be an article about expanding their convention business. Another losing business. Huge fixed costs paid for by taxpayers, low paying jobs created.
The number of hotel rooms is a bigger hurdle than light rail to overcome when it comes to landing more convention business. Light rail is a nice bonus, but it’s not as important as a group of large capacity hotels located near convention facilities.
And GG has it right. Conventions are not going to be a suitable solution for the loss of H&R Block or Sprint jobs.
Convention business MADE Las Vegas, and it sits in the middle of the desert. It made New Orleans too.
I’d rather not see my hometown become another Las Vegas or New Orleans, thank you very much.
Both cities have unique attributes that can draw that type of convention business. Namely, they are (were) tourist destinations in addition to being great sites to holding a convention.
Both cities have (had) their problems as well.
No two cities are going to be alike. I am pointing out that the convention industry can be lucrative, and these are some examples of the investment that follows successful convention destinations.