Russ: Good morning. This is The Business Makers show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show that champions innovation by featuring entrepreneurs.

John: That's right, Russ. We're talking about the athletes and the artists of the free enterprise system. And I just recently saw a play at the Alley Theatre here in Houston about all that called Farnsworth Invention, about who invented television, Filo Farnsworth. It just shows you the dynamicism and passion that these entrepreneurs have that we bring in every day for interviews.

Russ: Okay, and that sounded like a recommendation there, to see the play.

John: Yeah, a great, great play.

Russ: All right, cool. All right, and here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the Aflac Business Makers Flashback, we're going to roll back till September of last year, episode number 170 when we had Dr. John Lienhard, the author and the voice of the very popular Engines of Our Ingenuity, the program heard on NPR radio stations across the country. It's a cool interview. And then for our featured guest segment, we have Marvin Zonis, Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. He is known as a global political economist, and he was a pioneer in the effects of digital technologies on global business. He's an expert at the intersection of politics, economics, and emerging technologies, a guy who is right in the center of everything happening these days. But first... That's right, it's time for The Business Makers School of Business. And I like to call it not your ordinary business as usual school.

John: No, it's much more than that. We've reached a new plateau over the years. But we are flying and then we fly in the face of the conventional wisdom, and we're going to keep going.

Russ: We're just full speed ahead. And we kick it off each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.

John: Quote of the day.

Russ: And this morning's quote comes from Ralph Sockman. He was a Methodist preacher in New York City, but he was also known as hosting the popular radio program in the 1930 to 1960 era, called National Radio Pulpit.

John: National Radio Pulpit.

Russ: Right, it was on NBC. All right, here's his quote. "The test of courage comes when we are the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." Kind of interesting when you apply it to these days.

John: Yeah, right, yeah.

Russ: You know, you can apply it to some things that are happening in our own congress. You can apply it to things that are happening-

John: They're not very tolerant once they get in control.

Russ: And you, you can look at things happening in the Mid East. Who is the majority, and who is the minority, and man. All right, and that brings us to this week in business history. So what happened on this sort of last week in June in business history, John?

John: There's a couple of things here. This week in business history in 1693, first woman's magazine called Ladies Mercury is published in London, a woman's magazine.

Russ: What kind of woman's magazine?

John: Well, I'm sure they had like Cosmopolitan. I'm sure, you know, it was like Cosmo.

Russ: Yeah, it was probably just like Cosmopolitan.

John: Yeah, how to have better sex with a king or something.

Russ: That's probably what it was.

John: You know, how to make yourself look younger and, you know. I'm sure it had a lot of those things in it.

Russ: Okay, all that kind of good stuff.

John: All right, 1854 this week in business history, we're going to talk about something that's still in use today, but goes back to 1854. That's like eight years before the Civil War. Abraham Gessner patents kerosene.

Russ: Oh, yeah, okay. Wow.

John: I mean, kerosene, it's a cheap fuel. And this guy was an official government geologist. He needed money, and he discovered this way of making wax oil which is, you know, kerosene is Greek for a wax oil. And he launched an entire industry, but never made any money off of it. This week in business history in 1928, Charles Francis Jenkins launched the first American TV station, which he called radio vision.

Russ: Radio vision?

John: Yeah, the guy's from Ohio.

Russ: So he actually broadcast something, but he was just far ahead of his time, there weren't enough people to watch and the proper place to buy something else.

John: Yeah, it just didn't work, you know. This week in business history in 1929, U.S. cartoonist L. Z. Segar creates Popeye.

Russ: Wow.

John: I like Popeye.

Russ: Popeye the sailorman.

John: I don't see what he saw in Olive Oil though.

Russ: Man, she wasn't the most attractive-

John: I think Olive-

Russ: -cartoon character even in the show, was she?

John: No, she was, she was kind of ugly and skinny, you know. I think Olive Oil should've had some spinach.

Russ: Maybe that's-

John: She might've developed in some interesting areas, you know.

Russ: That's probably right.

John: Okay, all right, 1936 this week in business history, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is published.

Russ: Oh, so this was the book, and she wrote it and said, "Here, here's the story of the Civil War." I tell you, it's interesting how big that whole story, and particularly the movie was, in the 50s and 60s and stuff.

John: The interesting thing about this movie is that is started the career of George Reeves.

Russ: George Reeves?

John: Yeah, he's the guy that played Superman in the 50s.

Russ: Yeah, oh, in the 50s.

John: And eventually died this mysterious death. Some people think he committed suicide. Other people thought he was murdered by the studio. He was right in the beginning in the front porch courting Scarlett O'Hara.

Russ: And he was only in that scene?

John: He was only in that scene, but that was his start in show business. Okay, moving on to 1943 this week in business history the pay as you go-that's what they called it-was the first withholding tax from paychecks. That's when they started that.

Russ: Wow.

John: Confiscating your income. They called it pay as you go.

Russ: Yeah, the minute you had income, you had to pay, boom, right there, not at the end of the year.

John: No, it was pay as you go.

Russ: Wow.

John: I maintain to this day that if everybody had to sit down at the end of the year and write out a check for what they-

Russ: Well, you will. Well, you will. I bet they're going to try to get us to start paying a year in advance sometime soon by the way they're going.

John: Yeah, hey, you know, the IRS monitors this station. This week in business history, uh, in 1948, transistor is a substitute for radio tubes is announced by Bell Labs.

Russ: And that was huge.

John: Even though they were introduced at that time they didn't come into popularity-

Russ: You didn't see them for awhile.

John: -until the mid '50s, in those little transistor radios.

Russ: Oh yeah, I remember the first time I saw a transistor radio. I mean, like I was only seven or eight, but I thought what a cool little machine that you could carry around.

John: Everybody had them too. It was the thing. If you didn't have a transistor radio-

Russ: Yeah, you were nothing.

John: -you were, you were like the lower than the lowest in the world. Okay, this week in business history in 1953, the first Chevy Corvette is manufactured and really brought into prominence several years later in the TV show Route 66, featuring Todd and Buzz out there solving problems.

Russ: Driving a Corvette around the country solving problems.

John: Yeah, right, and that-

Russ: Wasn't that something else?

John: Yeah right, and that-but they shared the car.

Russ: Yeah, they did. Well, they took turns driving.

John: Yeah, they took turns, but one that would have a date, the other guy had to like stay in the motel room or something. Okay, this week in business history in 1955, the Johnny Carson show debuts on CBS television.

Russ: Well, and I don't think there's any question, but he is the best.

John: He's the best, yeah.

Russ: Now, you look at all this Conan stuff, and Leno, and Letterman's gone all political, man, it's just ridiculous.

John: Letterman, I'll tell you, Letterman, he is just, he is headed the nadir of his career.

Russ: He's disappointed me.

John: You know, he used to be a really funny guy.

Russ: He did.

John: Now, he's, you know, he's just overdoing it.

Russ: I know. Carson, though, was the king.

John: He was good, yeah. In 1956, this week in business history, Elvis Presley records Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel.

[Music: "Don't Be Cruel"]

Russ: Such monumental change in music in that time too, right?

John: I know, I noticed.

Russ: But do you remember the first time that he played on the Ed Sullivan show, he was also-his drummer was using drums bought from Herb Brochstein who's the founder of Pro-Mark, who's been a guest on the show?

John: That's right.

Russ: It's a true story.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1962, Ross Perot begins Electronic Data Systems. He defects from IBM.

Russ: Right, so he went out and said, "I'll just do my own deal."

John: That's right, yeah.

Russ: And did it quite well, quite frankly.

John: Yeah, Electronic Data Systems was a good company while he ran it.

Russ: That's right.

John: They've run into problems-

Russ: -since he left.

John: -since he left. That's right. All right, okay, this week in business history in 1963, the British invasion, Beetles first song From Me To You hits UK charts.

[Music: "From Me to You"]

Russ: So they just started getting big over there before they came over here.

John: This week in business history in 1968, Daniel Ellsberg is indicted for leaking the Pentagon papers. Now, these were papers which covered the Vietnam war during the Johnson administration, but they were leaked during the Nixon administration. And even though it made the Johnson administration look bad, Richard Nixon rightly, tried to suppress them because they were classified documents.

Russ: And Ellsberg was on the inside. I mean, he was with our government and had access to them, and he decided he needed to divulge them to the public.

John: That's because he had this consciousness thing going on.

Russ: Yeah, yeah, okay, all right.

John: This week in business history in 1971, three Soviet cosmonauts perish after setting two space records.

Russ: Wow, it kind of diminishes the, the value of setting the record.

John: The good news is, hey, you're going to set a record. The bad news is you're not going to live to tell about it. All right, okay. Now, speculation was rampant that weightlessness may have weakened their hearts.

Russ: Because they had been up there longer than anybody prior to that.

John: Right, and they could not readjust to gravity, but the official findings concluded that there was a valve on the spacecraft that accidentally opened when they undocked from the space station and their spacecraft lost it's air.

Russ: So the trip home was cut short.

John: The trip home was successful-

Russ: They didn't bring their lives with them.

John: -but the astronauts-

Russ: Too bad, all right.

John: That's too bad. It really is. Yeah. This week in business history in 1979, Sony introduces the Walkman.

Russ: Oh man, yeah.

John: That was a big deal. Everybody has those, yeah.

Russ: It was huge.

John: Okay, this week in business in 1985, U.S. Route 66 ceases to be an official U.S. highway.

[Music: "Route 66"]

John: It went from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. I wonder why they de-certified it?

Russ: It sounds so cold.

John: I know.

Russ: -for such a popular-

John: How much money does it take to de-certify? Yeah.

Russ: Did they go out there one day and just stop all the traffic and say, "Get off the road. This isn't-"

John: Hey honey, what did you do in work today? Well, we de-certified a major highway, Route 66, you know. This week in business history in 1992, the first time a baboon liver was implanted into a human being.

Russ: Goodness gracious.

John: My goodness.

Russ: Well, I don't think peta would allow that these days, would they?

John: Hey, if they don't allow someone killing a fly on national television, they're not going to permit a baboon liver going into a human being.

Russ: I wonder if they'd approve a human liver going into a baboon, though?

John: That would, that would probably be okay. This week in business history in 1993, actress Julia Roberts completely loses all common sense and weds country singer Lyle Lovett. What was she thinking of?

Russ: Well, it didn't last long, did it?

[Music: "I Married Her Because She Looks Like You"]

John: This week in business history in 1994, Aerosmith becomes the first major band to let their fans download music for free from the Internet.

[Music: "Head First"]

Russ: Wow, and so they started it all. I wonder if they wish they could take that back now.

John: I think they probably would, yes. Gees.

Russ: You bet.

John: What were they thinking?

Russ: No kidding.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 2008-this is our final item-Bill Gates steps down as chairman of Microsoft Corporation to work full time for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Now-

Russ: That's the way, wealth is supposed to be redistributed-

John: Yeah.

Russ: -by the creator of all the wealth that has the knowledge, the know-how, the intellect, the leadership skills to have accumulated it, to make so much of it that he gets to decide where it goes and how to better society. That ways works fine. You know, the minute you try to do it by taxation, then you put the decision in the politicians' hands and god knows.

John: And the thing is every time the law gets passed, they have to build a building to house all the paperwork for it, pretty much.

Russ: That's exactly right.

John: So by the time that dollar trickles down to its intended purpose, you know, you have a fraction of the money to spend.

Russ: That's exactly right.

John: But with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-

Russ: They're efficient. They know what they're doing.

John: It's very efficient.

Russ: There are other successful one, the Ewing Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City. He is very similar, and he said it. He has been real strict saying this is what I want you to do with it. And it's all to champion entrepreneurship, and they're doing a good job. That's far better way to redistribute wealth.

John: Oh, I agree. Yeah, it is.

Russ: All right, all right, so that wraps up the history lesson for today, right?

John: Yeah, right, okay.

Russ: Good job.

John: Well, thank you.

Russ: A real good job. And that brings us to navigating business jargon. This is also our vocabulary lesson, and this is where we do our best at helping our audience understand the new words, the new acronyms, techno-speak phrases, and we do this as a test.

John: A test?

Russ: Yes, and I'm in charge of the test. I select the word. I say the word. And then John does his best to guess the, the meaning. And, and he does very, very well at this. And this morning's word is eco-embedded.

John: Eco-embedded. All right, that's when-there's a lot of organizations out there. All right. And there's all these eco nut jobs that think these companies are doing evil to the environment, even when there's, there's no way in heck that they are. So what they do is they embed these eco terrorists into the employee base to gum up the works. And they're eco-embeds. And that's what they do.

Russ: All right, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'm going to give it to you.

John: Why?

Russ: This is a different meaning here, but yours might be better, actually. But this is, is the idea that business and government adopts eco-friendly practices that leave the consumer no choice. For instance, a ban on plastic shopping bags, or, or other plastic free zones. That's called eco-embedding into the law. But I like-you, you kind of did the embedded reporter thing, like they're-

John: Yeah, right, that's what I thought.

Russ: -that, that they have plants in the companies looking around for waste and seeing what people are doing. You know, if they set the thermostat too low or something.

John: Eco-embed is like a government nanny state run amuck or something.

Russ: That's right, that's right. We're going to push this into the web and try to change this definition for yours. Thank you very much. Congratulations.

John: Well, I've actually improved-

Russ: You have.

John: I have improved the definition-

Russ: An improved definition.

John: -just by a wild ass guess. All right.

Russ: All right, and that brings us to dumbest moments in business history. Do you have one for us this morning?

John: This is kind of a dumb person, I guess. I was reading this, I thought boy, how would you like to work for this guy?

Russ: Yeah.

John: His name's John Patterson. He ran the NCR company back in the early 1900s. This is kind of how he would motivate his staff. He liked to fire and then re-hire executives to break their self esteem.

Russ: You don't want them to have too much self esteem there, do you?

John: That's right. We're going to beat them till their morale improves. He didn't do that, but he would band harmful food. You talk about eco-embedding, you know, he would ban bread and butter.

Russ: Now, 1900s, that was good food, wasn't it?

John: Yeah, yeah, from the company premises, and had the employee weighed and measured every six months.

Russ: Wow, a health fanatic back then?

John: It's the wellness program.

Russ: A wellness, his wellness program.

John: Jarconian wellness program.

Russ: He had the motivation program and a wellness program.

John: He may have caused a lot of havoc with the employees, but nothing compares to the havoc, uh, he created in 1913 when he and 29 NCR officials were convicted of various anti-trust violations-

Russ: Ah, too bad.

John: -including the use of "knockout men".

Russ: What, "knockout men"?

John: That's in quotes, "knockout men".

Russ: What are "knockout men"?

John: What they would do is they would intimidate store owners in keeping from buying from their NCR's competitors. Now the conviction was overturned, but you know, where there's smoke, there's fire, so-

Russ: Meaning they'd go out and rough them up, the store owners?

John: Yeah, I guess, or threaten them with a little intimidation. So what you would do, instead of going out and selling, you know, finding out the customer's needs and addressing those needs with your company's features and benefits-

Russ: Right, you just entrust they with your fisticuffs and-

John: Yeah, they would say, "Hey, you know, it would better if you did not use our competitor." It would better be, it would be better for us as a company, and it'd be a lot better for you.

Russ: And your whole family. We've come a long way.

John: He also fired Thomas Watson, who went on to build IBM.

Russ: Oh no, IBM. Now as that Mr. NCR's name again?

John: John Patterson.

Russ: John Patterson.

John: Fine upstanding Scotsman.

Russ: I'll have to remember that guy.

John: Hired "knockout men".

Russ: All right, all right, and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business, it's time for that very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: And he's always on time.

Russ: So let's welcome Greg Price on the piano.

John: Hey, Greg, here we go.

Ruass and John: A one, and a two, and a-

[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneurs Playbook]

Russ: And that wraps up this morning's School of Business. Stay tuned in for the Aflac Business Makers Flashback, featuring Dr. John Lienhard, and then our featured guest segment with Marvin Zonis, Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. You're listening to The Business Makers show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.