The Niche Beat
Gadget Trouble
Pitfalls of Product Invention A meat probe allows a home chef to moniter cooking temperature to avoid serving undercooked or dried, tough, overcooked food. However, when the PBS program America’s Test Kitchen reviewed different brands of thermometers on the market, many had serious design flaws. For instance, one model had a cord which was too […]
Lessons from American Idol
Marketing 101 Each year, the judges on American Idol stressed the importance of “choosing the right song.” On last week’s show, the consequences of not heeding that advice was evident when singing sensation Joshua Ledet, one of three left in the competition, did not receive enough votes from across America to make it to the […]
Shark Tank
Just When you Thought it was Safe to Startup ABC TV’s Shark Tank returned to the airwaves. When this show debuted, I had misgivings about the concept because it seemed as if billionaires were profiting from the work of cash-strapped entrepreneurs, cornered into giving up large portions of their companies for operating capital or face […]
Money Matters & Business Start-Up
Avoiding Financial Pitfalls Traveling salesman Ray Albert Kroc started the McDonald’s empire after buying the name and concept from the McDonald brothers in the 1950s, but turning a profit proved to be a challenge, despite the popularity of the hamburgers. Although Kroc sold 200 franchises within five years and the unit’s were grossing $37 million […]
Growing Power
Will Allen Many ventures are largely inspired by a single idea, but the founder of the nonprofit Growing Power used several diverse sources of inspiration in order to develop his international organization. After leaving the corporate world, Will Allen began growing, selling, and teaching others how to grow produce in an urban setting. These activities […]
Adele
Marketing Research She doesn’t have runway model looks, doesn’t dress provocatively, and has no gimmicks added to her music, says 60 Minutes reporter Anderson Cooper. However, what Adele does have, besides talent, is a grasp of business principles. Consider: after her Grammy win several years ago, the singing sensation took a part-time job in a […]
John Brown: Entrepreneur and Abolitionist
John Brown struggled throughout his life as a businessman, living near the poverty level. Few influential historical figures have failed so miserably at so many different pursuits, says American studies professor and historian David S. Reynolds. Brown was a tanner, lumber dealer, wool distributor, horse breeder, cattle trader, and real estate speculator. Actually, astute in […]
Andrew Jackson Beard
Railroad Safety In the 19th century, 6,500 people invented a device that would solve the problem of workers who were often killed or maimed during the process of attaching trains on the railroad track, and they applied for and received patents. Beard’s design was by far the most advanced, and although there seems to be […]
George Lucas
Business Superstar In the 1970s, with the exception of Disney Studios, movie merchandising was a tiny industry when George Lucas offered studio executives a deal they couldn’t refuse: he would work for free as the director of a new release in exchange for their granting him product licensing rights to the movie. Lucas’s offer was […]