Russ: Good morning. This is the Business Makers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. This is that show about featuring innovators and entrepreneurs.
John: That's right, these are the ones who make the economy work.
Russ: And here's out line up for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, recently our own Erica O'Grady attended the 2009 Mix Conference in Las Vegas. And while there, happened to catch some cool time with leading innovators in the area of bridging th print publication world with the electronic digital world, when she sat down with Mural Aktar and David Anthony, co-founders of Bondi Digital Publishing, the company that has built a digital way to present archieved print publications on the web. And we're talking about some of the worlds most famous magazines presented in a very cool way. They already have up most issues of Rolling Stone and Playboy magazine. And that's at CoverToCover.com. And then for our featured guest segment, we have got more from last week when we had Jason Ponitin, Editor in Chief and Publisher of Technology Review, the M.I.T. publication that is the 100 plus year old authority on the future of technology. And speaking of technology, you have got to hear what Jason says about stimulus dollars directed at technology. But first... That's right, it's time for The Business Makers School of Business, and this is some specially selected curriculum rigorously designed, to help fill in the gaps and help out our audience in the day-to-day business world.
John: There's a lot of gaps out there. There's gaps between the ears of the uneducated, and that's why we're here.
Russ: And we kick of the School of Business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: Today I'm quoting Mr. Thomas Edison.
John: Oh yes.
Russ: And here is his quote. I think you'll like it. I'm getting real good at picking ones that you like, as you roll your eyes.
John: Whenever I hear of Thomas Edison, I think of Mickey Rooney, who played him as a young boy. I'm thinking of Mickey Rooney right now.
Russ: That's interesting. All right. Here we go. Here it is, "Hell, there are no rules here. We're trying to accomplish something."
John: That's right. I like that.
Russ: Yeah, I thought you would. I like it too, man. It's a good quote.
John: Say it again.
Russ: "Hell, there are no rules here. We're trying to accomplish something."
John: That will be our school slogan.
Russ: That's great, yeah, it's a good one too. All right. Up next, this week in Business History. What do you have for us for this May week in business history, John?
John: Well, we're going to start off in 1497. The Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci-we talked about him a couple of weeks ago-leaves for his voyage to the New World. Not only did they name America after his first name, but they named the Vespa after his last name.
Russ: The Vespa scooter?
John: The Vespa scooter.
Russ: The Vespa motor scooter?
John: I'm just kidding. This week in business history, in 1752, Ben Franklin's theory that lightning is electricity is first tested.
Russ: Oh, okay.
John: This week in business history in 1837, panic as New York City banks fail and unemployment reaches record levels.
Russ: Wow, are you sure that's not for today?
John: Well, history repeats itself. Harry Truman once said-you know-that the only thing new in life is a history you don't know about.
Russ: All right, cool.
John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1930, in May, the history's first crew of airline stewardesses took off for the first time. That must've been a wild flight.
Russ: It must've been.
John: As air travel became more affordable, and flights became longer, it was apparent that they should do something to help the comfort of the passengers.
Russ: Okay, cool.
John: Okay, this week in business history, in 1936, is a birthday of Bobby Darin.
Russ: I remember Bobby Darin, and he was a happening guy it the '50s, yeah.
John: He was.
Russ: So this was his birthday?
John: Yeah. Mack the Knife.
[Music: "Mack the Knife]
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1940 in World War II, the first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham in Kent.
Russ: Gees, man, that must've just been harrowing to be in.
John: Oh, well, yeah, right, because right before that you had the big appeaser, Neville Chamberlain, step off the plane. He just signed an agreement with Hitler. They had to give up Czechoslovakia in the process, but they thought they had peace in their time. He was waving that paper around, and we all know what happens when you appease these dictators. Nothing good happens because of it. This week in business history in 1940, man, again a lot of stuff in 1940, Churchill says, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
Russ: So that's when leadership in England sort of shifted, aye?
John: Yeah, and that's when leadership meant something in a crisis. This week in business history in 1947, BF Goodrich announced the development of the tubeless tire.
Russ: I think that was confusing back then too. What do you mean a tubeless tire? How are you going to do that? Now, none of them have tubes anymore, do they?
John: I know. I'm waiting for the tubeless toothpaste.
Russ: Now, with tubeless tires, there's going to be a point in time where there's not going to be anymore inner tubes to go down the river in, are there?
John: I know. This week in business history in 1948, is the birthday of Steve Winwood. He partnered up with Eric Clapton along the way to form Blind Faith.
[Music: "Low Spark of High Heel Boys"]
Russ: I was a Steve Winwood fan, man.
John: Oh, he's good. He's good. This week in business history in 1953, heavyweight Rocky Marciano knocks out Jersey Joe Walcott in the city of Chicago.
Russ: That was a big fight, wasn't it?
John: Oh, that was a huge fight, and Rocky Marciano was quite a heavyweight.
Russ: Yeah, 1953, so that means that's 56 years ago.
John: I know, it's hard to believe, isn't it?
Russ: Wow.
John: Okay, this week in business history, Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb, by Byrnes and Connie Stevens. It's number 4.
Russ: Do you remember that?
John: Yeah, do you know who Kooky was?
Russ: No, who was he?
John: Okay, he was a character on the show 77 Sunset Strip.
Russ: Oh, that's right, that's right.
John: Right, with Efrem Zimbalist Junior and Roger Smith, who later hit the jackpot because he married Ann-Margret.
Russ: Well, there you go.
John: All right, and they're still married after all these years. This week in business history in 1960, first contraceptive pill is made available on the market.
Russ: That's a huge event-you know-when you look at some of the challenges of the future, over population is definitely one of them, and this was a huge step in that direction.
John: Well, I think-this week in business history in 1963, DECCA signs the Rolling Stones on advice of the Beetle George Harrison. Wow.
Russ: That's interesting.
John: I did not know that, yeah.
Russ: I wonder if they got like a referral fee for all of their success?
John: I'm sure they did-you know-because we all know how honorable these rock and rollers can be.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1963, Bob Dylan walked out of the Ed Sullivan show because he wanted to sing a song during the show called Talking John Birch Society blues, but they thought it was libelous, so then CBS lawyers stepped in.
Russ: So he said, "I'm not going to do it."
John: For artistic-he left for artistic differences.
Russ: There you go.
John: Okay, this week in business history the Rolling Stones record Satisfaction, a great song.
[Music: "Satisfaction"]
Russ: A lot of people think it's the greatest rock and roll song.
John: Followed by 1968, this week in business history, where Richard Harris releases MacArthur Park, which was a huge hit.
Russ: Yeah, something about rain in the park and the cake, right?
John: And the cake, yes.
Russ: And the cake got wet in the rain in the park.
John: There's no one left to eat it, or something like that.
[Music: "Macarthur Park"]
John: Great tune, though. This week in business history, the Turtles play the Whitehouse.
[Music: "It Aint me Babe"]
John: Mark Volman falls off the stage five times.
Russ: What a party. This happened in the Whitehouse with the Turtles?
John: Yeah, got their metronome stomped on by over zealous secret service men. This thing was a disaster from the get go, and despite the fact that the tipsy Volman kept falling off the stage and was challenged by Pat Nugent because Mark was trying to pick up Lucy Baines Johnson.
Russ: What a party, man. Wow.
John: Everybody was-
Russ: That was this week in 1969.
John: And that's what happens when you get a bunch of rockers together.
Russ: That's right, with a bunch of politicians' daughters. That was 40 years ago. I wonder if they're doing an anniversary thing?
John: I think some of them are too dead to go join the reunion. This week in business history in 1969 the Monty Python Comedy troupe forms and becomes very famous as a result.
Russ: Yeah, quite a success, right?
John: You ever see that Spam A Lot, the Broadway show?
Russ: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I've seen it. You bet.
John: This week in business history in 1969, the last Chevrolet Corvair was built.
Russ: How sad. I owned a Corvair for awhile. I think it was an older version. It was probably a '63. It was an interesting vehicle, air cooled, didn't take any water, rear engine was horrible to control going real fast.
John: What helped kill it was Ralph Nader.
Russ: Yeah he did.
John: Who was not a proponent of light cars. All of a sudden, it's changed. Now he wants the light cars, because they're more fuel efficient, but there's just as dangerous. Okay, here's something right up your alley. This week in business history in 1974, Steely Dan releases Rikki, Don't Lose That Number.
[Music: "Rikki Don't Loose that Number"]
Russ: It's a great, great song, and Rikki was a female, and the inspiration for the song came between the friendship between Rikki and Donald Fagan. And he met Rikki Ducornet while he attended Bard college. The interesting thing is that Rikki was pregnant and married at the time, but recalls that Fagan did give her his phone number at a college party and said, "Hey, man, don't lose that number."
John: Wow.
Russ: The rest is history.
John: The rest is history.
Russ: What a rock and roll story.
John: Here's another rock and roll story. I guess it's more rock than roll. This week in business history in 1982, the U.S. Football League is formed.
Russ: Oh man, yeah.
John: Yeah.
Russ: They played during the off season to try and get your attention.
John: They were so broke at the end, in order for the players to agree to play in the championship, they had to have the cash there on the table or the sidelines wouldn't play actually. They actually had to have the cash.
Russ: Just show me the money.
John: This week in business history in 1993 is the last broadcast of Cheers on NBC TV.
Russ: Quite a successful-
John: It was a great show. That was a very good show. This week in business history in 1998, the last episode on Seinfield on NBC.
Russ: Also a very successful show. Man, this was like a-
John: It was a great successful show. The last episode was pretty anti-climactic. This week in business history in 2008, Which Won earthquake in China, measuring an 8 magnitude there on the Richter scale occurs in Sichuan, China; 69,000 people died. Wow, can you believe that?
Russ: Yeah, that thing was huge, huge, huge. Okay, so you're going to wrap it up with that, aye?
John: That's all there is, buddy boy.
Russ: All right, so that wraps up our history lesson for today, which moves us forward to navigating business jargon in our vocabulary lesson. This is that part of the show where we do our best to keep all of our listeners up to date on new words that are showing up, new phrases all the time.
John: By making me look ridiculous.
Russ: Well, it can happen.
John: I sacrifice my ego for knowledge.
Russ: It can, uh, because we do it in a contest format, where I get to both choose the word.
John: Choose the word.
Russ: And then I get to say the word.
John: Say the word. And then I try to figure out what the word means.
Russ: Yeah, this one's easy, though, I should've said this one like about three years ago, and I skipped over it, and I felt badly.
John: You skipped over it three years ago?
Russ: Yeah, because now everybody knows what it means, but maybe you don't. Let's see. Metrosexual.
John: Metrosexual, that's some guy that you really can't determine by the way he dresses whether he's effeminate or masculine.
Russ: Well, I guess we'll give you a winner. I think it has more to do with his strong aesthetic sense, and he spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. His appearance-
John: And he has track lighting at home and is neat.
Russ: Well, yeah, that's right, and his appearance might not necessary be feminine. It's just-
John: I said effeminate.
Russ: Effeminate.
John: Which is like feminine.
Russ: Okay, well, so.
John: It's not feminine, per se, it's effeminate. It has tendency towards being feminine.
Russ: The official definition doesn't say that.
John: Well, that's because they're-
Russ: I'm going to leave the asterisks on.
John: They're too politically correct.
Russ: I'm going to leave the asterisks on.
John: You go right away.
Russ: That brings us to dumbest moments in business history. Do you have one for us?
John: Well, this is the result of a lot of dumb moments in the daily newspaper business, because the new circulation numbers are out, and I got to tell you-out of the top 25 newspapers, only one of them has had a circulation gain. That's the Wall Street Journal. It's up about .6%.
Russ: And the other 24 are all down?
John: Yeah, U.S. Today's down 7%. Let me just go down the list here. L.A. Times is down 6.5%. Daily News in New York is down 14%. New York Post is down 20%. This is year-over-year. The San Francisco Chronicle is down 15%. The Houston Chronicle is down around 14%. You know-it just goes to show what happens when you don't anticipate customer demand, customer wants and needs, and also if you don't have a credible news product out of there, which I would say some of those papers are challenged in that area.
Russ: It sounds more like a sad day in business history. This is one of those transition periods.
John: Well, see, that's the result because if you do not correct the dumb things you do in business-a lot of people learn by the dumb things they do-but if you don't learn from them then sad days occur, which is what you have here.
Russ: Okay, all right, well, appreciate you sharing that with us and bumming us all out. But it's not over yet, because we've got Mr. Greg Price.
John: He cheers us up with that lively music and his, and his pithy advice.
Russ: That's right, and we're talking about the PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook. So let's welcome Greg Price on the piano.
John: Have a seat, Greg. There he comes. There he goes.
Russ and John: And a one, and a two, and a-
[PKF Texas - The Entrepreneurs Playbook]
Russ: And that wraps up The School of Business. You're listening to The Business Makers show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.
