David Letterman's "audience participation" is great. He ventures into the crowd and solicits participation from audience members to answer questions on various popular topics. I think a new one for Letterman should be "Know Your Favorite Consumer Trends."

In the real estate business we spend more time than most any other industry criticizing new vs. old business models. If we spent just half as much time learning more about consumer trends and preferences we might get a lot more accomplished. Who cares about the success or failure or the statistics of new vs. old, the only measurement of the success or failure of any business model is consumer adoption - not the industry. If it eats market share for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then chances are that it will succeed. Too much leading edge - gone and too much trailing wedge - gone.

What if John Sculley's Apple had released the Newton today? Would it have failed?  Maybe, or maybe not - but the consumer's preference for a PDA 10 or more years ago was not even on the charts and so the Apple device failed and so did Sculley. Timing is everything in everything - especially when it comes to out guessing the consumer's future needs by building a company around your latest business dream. Careful. Watch those trends, they can make you, or just as easily, they will break you.

--Ken Jenny, TranCen.com

An interesting line from a New York Times story this AM: "In Southern California, real estate brokers show the 92-minute movie to motivate sales representatives."
The movie: "The Secret". [Of course there is a book: "The Secret".]
For $34.95, you can get in on the secret by purchasing the DVD.
What is the secret?
Abe Lincoln captured it: "People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Norman Vincent Peale’s “Power of Positive Thinking”, which was published in 1952, offered the manifesto.
New-age guru Rhonda Byrne, an Australian documentary producer behind "The Secret", puts a modern polish on an old idea, promising if you think the right way you get what you want.
It is not surprising that brokers have been drawn to the Byrne phenom. Motivational speakers and gurus have a long tradition with real estate. Realtors are independent contractors who only get paid if they make things happen. Plus, persuading people to make the biggest investment of their life takes attitude. That is why a long string of happy-hucksters have success peddling their pitch to Realtors.

Realogy Corp. today announced a memorandum of understanding to settle "purported consolidated class-action litigation" that came in response to the December announcement of a proposed buyout by affiliates of private equity firm Apollo Management.

Apollo has proposed a buyout deal by its affiliates worth about $9 billion that would bring Realogy private, and this deal will be the subject of a March 30 vote by shareholders.

In an article about Apollo Management, the New York Times reported that Apollo had "made its name by buying junk bonds" and "found success in scooping companies out of bankruptcy and turning them around for profit."

The company is now a huge player among private equity firms. In addition to the proposed Realogy deal, the company in December also announced another grab worth about $28 billion for casino company Harrah's Entertainment.