Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And this is that show about the innovators, about the entrepreneurs, about the people that most positively affect our lives.
John: That's right, Russ. These are the artists and the athletes of the free enterprise system, and the gallant knights that are keeping us from going the other way.
Russ: That's right.
John: And we're not sure how that's gonna turn out yet.
Russ: No, we're not. And this is the group that sorta doesn't get any of that bailout money per se, right?
John: I know, right. Some of them do, but most of them are working on their own and trying to make a living and trying to grow their companies the way they should, and that's by having products and services that people want, and people are willing to pay for.
Russ: I'm still hoping we get some of that bailout money, and I've got a plan to propose to you if we get some –
John: I'm already married.
Russ: – some big fat check in the mail from the administration that we share it with all of our RSS subscribers.
John: Oh, there you go.
Russ: If you wanna get in on this deal. Just go to thebussinessmakers.com and click on our little RSS subscription.
John: That's great. The riches of the world can be yours.
Russ: That's right.
John: Okay.
Russ: Okay. And here's our lineup for this morning, but before I get to that, I love to see what people write in, and we had several very positive comments about our jargon word last week that you got correctly.
John: That's right.
Russ: Do remember what it was?
John: No.
Russ: (Laugh) I'll tell you. Putpocketing.
John: Oh, putpocketing.
Russ: Remember it?
John: Oh, yeah. Right.
Russ: It's the new way of marketing out there. You hire a bunch of pickpockets to go around and slip your message in someone else's pocket. Right.
John: Exactly. It's pretty neat.
Russ: Alright. But here's our lineup for this morning. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback earlier this week, I visited with Norman Whitton, founder and CEO of Sunrise Ridge Algae, Inc. I had visited with Norman at a show about two years ago. This is the company in hot pursuit of offering game-changing alternative energy, obviously using algae.
John: There you go.
Russ: Alright. And for our featured guest segment this morning, I'm gonna sit down with Gaurav Khandelwal, founder and CEO of ChaiONE. It's a collaborative Web agency now focused on iPhone apps for business.
John: iPhone.
Russ: Yeah. Everybody else thinks iPhone apps, those little fun and games. And what's so different about 'em is that they're focused on like an intra-company application.
John: Oh, kinda like an intranet thing.
Russ: Yes, exactly, perfect. But first... That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business. And this is not business as usual school.
John: No, it's not. It's I would say business shaken and stirred, 'cause we shake it up and we stir it, and you just never know what's gonna come out.
Russ: That's right.
John: It could be a soufflé or it could just be a pot of cold coffee.
Russ: That's right. But you do know that whatever it is, there's more of it on the Web than you're hearing right here on the radio.
John: That's right. This is just a condensed version of the actual course load, the full amount of which is on the Web at thebusinessmakers.com.
Russ: We're actually thinking now about differentiating getting a degree from the BusinessMakers School of Business whether or not you heard it on traditional radio or on the Web.
John: We don't want any pretenders on that Web site. Just be on there if you're serious about ever graduating from this place.
Russ: That's right, and getting some of that bailout money from –
John: And getting the bailout.
Russ: Alright. And we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with the quote of the day.
John: Quote of the day.
Russ: And staying with the comedian quotes.
John: Alright, okay.
Russ: It's by Steven Wright. Now this one involves a little math, so pay attention.
John: Math, alright.
Russ: Ever notice how it's a penny for your thoughts, yet you put in your two cents.
John: That's right.
Russ: Someone is making a penny on the deal.
John: That's right. That's good.
Russ: It's a real business quote.
John: Well, actually, you can go into business collecting thoughts for two cents and –
Russ: Selling 'em then.
John: – selling 'em for a penny.
Russ: It's a penny for your thoughts and then you put in your two cents.
John: Alright. Okay.
Russ: Alright. And that brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this October week in business history?
John: This week in business history, in 1775, George Washington informed congress of espionage of Surgeon-General, Dr. Benjamin Church.
Russ: Wow. So we had a surgeon-general back then and Washington turned him in?
John: Washington came across a letter from Dr. Benjamin Church to General Sir Thomas Gage, who was British commander in chief of North America, that had been intercepted. And that started the whole dominoes of the destruction of Surgeon-General, Dr. Benjamin Church.
Russ: Right, Wow.
John: He had a kept women who contributed to turning him in.
Russ: Well that will get you in trouble everytime, was that his real soulmate or something?
John: Well, back in those days they didn't have soulmates.
Russ: (Laughter) They didn't?
John: No
Russ: They just didn't know what that was back then.
John: They didn't know what that was. There was no Dr. Phil back then, or anything like that.
Russ: So she turned in the letter?
John: There was only Dr. Benjamin.
Russ: The surgeon-general. But she...
John: Yea she helped turn him in. Well I do not know if she actually turned him in, but the letter incriminated him. And she...
Russ: She had to say that is who it was. Well, actually I say we should make her a hero then.
John: Yea she was actually a hero.
Russ: Yea
John: He was shipped to exile in the West Indies and the ship he traveled was believed to be lost at sea.
Russ: Uh Oh.
John: This week in business history in 1866, the first US train robbery occurred. The notorious Reno Gang of 1866, carries out the first robbery of a moving train.
Russ: Oh, wow.
John: They took $10,000.00 from the Ohio-Mississippi train in Jackson County, Indiana.
Russ: So you think they got that in Guinness Book of World Records as the first one?
John: I think they were trying to make a name for themselves and –
Russ: They waited till it started moving –
John: Right. And then their great granddaughter, Janet Reno, continued to steal from – alright.
Russ: (Laugh)
John: This week in business history in 1876, get this. The first long-distance phone conversation, two miles.
Russ: (Laugh) "Long distance on Line 1."
John: I know. Long distance, it's someone down the street from you. Alexander Graham Bell, he received the patent for the telephone in March, 1876 and he demonstrated it several times. Some critics persisted – there's always the critics out there – that persisted that –
Russ: They thought it was fraud.
John: – it was a fraud. It's a sham perpetrated by a fraud and a scam.
Russ: 'Cause he was just talking real loud and the other guy could hear him, he was so close by.
John: That's right. So he hooked it up for two miles and bingo and it silenced the critics at least for a while. This week in business history, in 1892, George Beckett patents the letterbox.
[Music: "The Letter]
Russ: Patenting the letterbox. Is that different than the mailbox you think?
John: That's what it is. They called it a letterbox.
Russ: Back then, a letter.
John: Yeah. Right. I wonder if his family gets any royalties.
Russ: Yeah, I don't know.
John: I don't know. Okay. This week in business history, in 1902 – it's unbelievable. I didn't know he was born at the turn of the century –
Russ: Well, who are we talking about? There's a lot of people.
John: Okay. Ray Kroc, the guy that started McDonald's.
Russ: He was born in 1902?
John: See, you're surprised at that, aren't you? Right. Okay. He was a small-time entrepreneur. But during a sales trip to San Bernardino, California, he paid a visit to a restaurant that prepared food using an assembly line system. And he watched workers churn out the now classic menu of burgers, fries, and shakes. He smelled profits, sat down with the owners of McDonald Brothers, and worked out a deal to franchise is the restaurant. The rest is history.
Russ: I guess the McDonald Brothers then probably came out okay, too.
John: I would think they did.
Russ: They should.
John: I know.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1910, British comedians, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel arrive in the United States with a British vaudeville company and later become famous stars.
Russ: That's like the first British invasion then, and then the following are the Beatles.
John: No the first...
Russ: I guess it was second.
John: No, actually the first British invasion was in 1812 or whatever when they burnt down the capitol.
Russ: Right, and this was the second. And then the third one was the Beatles.
John: Right, yeah, the Beatles. Okay. This week in business history, the first presidential speech – this is 1947 – is on TV. Harry Truman makes a plea to sell grain and to give grain to starving Europeans 'cause World War II kinda wiped out the economy over there.
Russ: Right. They were over there kind of hungry.
John: One of the benefits of fascism is that everybody ends up starving.
Russ: Yeah, right, yeah.
John: And that's the way it works here. And the Marshal plan in conjunction with that and with the food giveaways we gave to – deservedly so to the Europeans, set those countries on the road to –
Russ: And that was the subject of the first presidential speech on television.
John: That's right.
Russ: Cool.
John: Yeah.
Russ: Nice country we live in here.
John: Well, I think it is. We'll see later. Okay. This week in business history in 1950, Groucho Marx's game show, You Bet Your Life, debuts in television.
[Music: "You Bet Your Life"]
Russ: Wow. Now what a show that was.
John: I know, 'cause he was very sarcastic and he really treated the guests in a rather – with jaundice countenance, so to speak.
Russ: But they kept coming back. I mean, they loved to be on.
John: Well, yeah, 'cause they – yeah, they wanted to be on TV.
Russ: Yeah.
John: It's amazing what people go through just to be on TV. He had a great little, you might say, gimmick on the show where it was the secret word. And it had duck made up like Groucho, a toy duck, and it would drop down with the word.
Russ: Just when they said it.
John: Yeah. And then they'd win $100.00. "Say the magic word, you win $100.00." This week in business history in 1956, Don Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series.
Russ: Well, for those that don't know what a perfect game is, share that with 'em.
John: Okay. That is a no-hitter of which there are no hits, three up, three down for nine innings. In other words, three batters, three outs –
Russ: Nobody gets on base.
John: Nobody gets on base. It's a perfect game.
Russ: Yeah.
John: The thing about Don Larsen, he was a guy – this was a guy you would not normally suspect would pitch a game like that because he was a hard-drinker and he liked to –
Russ: A carouser.
John: He was a carouser, yes.
Russ: But now this was actually even a World Series, game, too, right?
John: Yeah, it was a World Series game and he already pitched the earlier game and did terrible.
Russ: And it's never been done again in a World Series game.
John: No, it has not. No, it has not. No. He was eventually traded in a deal that brought the Yankees' Roger Maris to set the homerun record.
Russ: Wasn't a bad deal.
John: Okay, this week in business history in 1957, Sputnik was launched, and that was Soviet – a Russian satellite that went up and woke up the US.
Russ: A serious wakeup call.
John: That's right. You gotta credit Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson who was the head of the senate who was very into the space race and did not want the Russians taking a military advantage.
Russ: I remember it. I was seven, almost eight years old. And not that I was so tuned in, but I remember my mom coming in and waking us up to go to school and me and my sister was kinda getting ready, and she goes, "Oh, there's news."
John: Was she speaking Russian at the time?
Russ: (Laugh) No.
John: "Mom. Wait a minute. You're not my real mom."
Russ: Things happened real fast after Sputnik was there.
John: Invaded the next day.
Russ: But she told us in way that we could detect, well, this is bad whatever –
John: Well, yeah.
Russ: I mean, this is real bad. And she was worried about it. We didn't necessarily tune into the world news every night, but for her to come in and tell us that when we woke up, boy – and then, well, I remember school that day. It was kinda like, ooh.
John: It changed the way we lived.
Russ: Yeah, exactly. It was big.
John: Alright. This week in business history, in 1958, Billboard Magazine reports that payola, which a term you don't hear these days, but it was a big term back in those days, was outta control. Payola was when record companies would pay off DJs or TV hosts to play the songs of their recording artists.
Russ: And our show here, we've got a policy here. We will not accept payola.
John: No.
Russ: Now we will accept bailout money and distributed to our RSS subscribers, but we will not accept payola.
John: No, no. That's a bad thing.
Russ: Because we have music here sometimes, don't we?
John: We do. But most of the people who wrote the music are –
Russ: Are part of the story.
John: They're all dead.
Russ: Yeah, that's true, too.
John: The estate –
Russ: Somebody couldn't come in here and pay us, right?
John: How can they pay us? They're dead. Alright. This week in business history on October 7, 1960 – wow – television gets the Route 66 show, Todd and Buzz.
Russ: Which we haven't talked about in like six weeks, man.
John: We went a long time.
Russ: Yeah. We have. But as we know that we have many listeners, probably more in our audience who don't know what we're talking about than those that do, tell 'em about the theme of the show.
John: Okay. The plot was about these two guys. They looked pretty well off.
Russ: They were okay.
John: They were very clean-cut. And they drove around the country in this Corvette. And it was all –
Russ: It was a convertible Corvette.
John: – every year they got a new Corvette. But they had no way of – musta been trust fund kids or something.
Russ: I don't know.
John: And they would go around helping people. Sometimes they'd get into fights. Sometimes they'd fall in love.
Russ: But they would always fight on the good side.
John: They would always fight on the good side. Sometimes they would fall in love with somebody for about an hour.
Russ: That's right. And every episode –
John: Love 'em and leave 'em.
Russ: – was in another city. Originally, along Route 66 –
John: Yeah, but they ran out of people to help.
Russ: Yes. But then so they let 'em drive anywhere.
John: 'Cause word got out, "Hey, don't let these guys with the Corvette try to solve your problems for ya because they're no good at it." alright. This week in business history in 1961, President Kennedy urges Americans to build bomb shelters.
Russ: Yeah, boy. Man.
John: We may have to start building some more of those.
Russ: (Laugh) Yeah, we might. If a guy had managed to grab one of those franchises back then that built 'em, he's ready go to again.
John: Yeah, 24-hour bomb shelters. Where are you when we need you? Okay. This week in business history in 1962, the Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do," was released this week in business history.
[Music: "Love Me Do"]
John: Great little tune.
Russ: Great tune.
John: Okay. This week in business history in 1966, John Lennon and Yoko Ono meet for the first time an exhibition at the Indica Gallery in London, and the rest is history because she broke up the Beatles.
Russ: So four years after "Love Me Do," they met and that was the beginning of the end.
John: That was the end. This week in business history, speaking of messy ends, 1970, Janice Joplin dies of a heroin overdose at the Landmark Hotel in Hollywood. That was a great band.
[Music: "Bobby McGee"]
Russ: She was incredible.
John: Okay. Later on, this week in business history, in 1974, Oskar Schindler dies.
Russ: Oh, Schindler's List.
John: He was a German businessperson and credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the gas chambers. He died at the age of 66. He led a very interesting life. He was fairly prosperous until the end of the war, then just came up with new ideas. He was honored by the Jews. They declared him a righteous gentile and buried at the Catholic cemetery on Mt. Zion in Israel, and rightly so.
Russ: Yep. He was an incredible guy.
John: If they had more people like that in Germany, a lotta stuff may never happened.
Russ: That's absolutely right.
John: This week in business history in 1983, Earl Tupper passes away.
Russ: Tupper?
John: Yeah, the Tupperware guy.
Russ: Tupperware? Wow.
John: Yeah. He was born in New Hampshire in 1907. He got into the polyurethane business by purifying waste products left over when oil was refined, and he had trouble marketing it. He just couldn't get it going. So he met this woman, Brownie Wise. She was born in 1914. And she changed the company's marketing strategy by introducing the Tupperware party. And the rest is history.
Russ: Yeah, it s.
John: And Earl, he sold the company eventually for $16 million and was actually buried in a huge Tupper container.
Russ: (Laugh) No.
John: I'm just kidding.
Russ: Alright.
John: The pallbearer, the chief pallbearer had to burp before they took him out to bury.
Russ: (Laugh) Alright. Good deal. Alright.
John: I wonder if people know what that means, burping.
Russ: Well, some of these people probably don't know what Tupperware –
John: Well, in order – okay, in order to maintain the freshness of what's in the Tupperware container –
Russ: The body.
John: (Laugh) In this case it's Mr. Tupper himself. Okay, what you do is you pull the lid up in the corner and you press down on it while it's still open a little bit –
Russ: To push the air out.
John: – to put the air out. And then you push it down real quick so there's no air in there and it keeps the contents fresh.
Russ: Yeah? Cool. Alright. And with that, do we declare the history lesson over?
John: I don't know.
Russ: (Laugh) You wanna make up something else?
John: I'll make up something else.
Russ: Okay. That does wrap it up. And that brings us to navigating business jargon. This is our actual –
John: I've been doing pretty good at this the last couple weeks.
Russ: Yes, you have. I think you're like the last few weeks, you hit it right on the nose.
John: Yeah, uh-huh.
Russ: So there was no –
John: I've won more times than the Pittsburgh Stealers have.
Russ: That's right. That's right. And we even have our listeners commenting on the words. So I feel good about that 'cause I picked the word. And then I say the word... and then John has to guess the meaning.
John: I don't even know what the word is let alone the meaning of the words 'cause this adds a little conflict in the show.
Russ: (Laugh) Yes, it does. But this morning, good God, this one is so easy. It's a –
John: It's so easy for you to say.
Russ: It's a lay-up.
John: It's a lay-up.
Russ: Yeah, unfortunately, we're playing hockey and not basketball. So lay-up won't do you much good.
John: Alright, okay. Okay. I know what hockey is.
Russ: Are you ready?
John: Yeah, uh-huh.
Russ: Intexticated.
John: Okay. Intexticated. I know what intoxicated means. Okay, when you've had – that's a substance abuse thing where you become so full of your substance, you can't think straight.
Russ: That's right.
John: And you do crazy things. And sometimes some people end up living under a bridge for the rest of their lives.
Russ: That's right.
John: Where if you're intexticating, you're texting. It's like you're addicted to texting and you're doing it so much that you're forgetting everything else and you're ruining relationships with other people 'cause you just can't stop texticating 'cause you become intoxicated –
Russ: Ladies and gentlemen hold you calls. We have a winner.
John: Alright.
Russ: Hey, how 'bout that? That's like three in a row. The official definition is "Preoccupied by reading or sending text messages, particularly driving a car."
John: Oh, okay. Well –
Russ: That's what DWI, driving while intexticated.
John: Oh, okay. I gotcha. But it's the same thing.
Russ: That's exactly right.
John: Okay, alright.
Russ: And that brings us to dumbest moments. Do you have a dumb moment to share with us, John?
John: Yeah. Actually, this is a smart moment in business history that kinda makes up for the previous dumb moment.
Russ: Oh, well good.
John: We're correcting on. 'Cause some dumb moments don't stay dumb.
Russ: That's right. That's right.
John: We all know Bank of America, right, really big bank?
Russ: Oh, yeah.
John: Okay. Well their dumb moment was years and years and years ago, they started giving money to a group call ACORN. We all know what that means, right?
Russ: Yes.
John: Okay. It stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Russ: Right. They help out prostitutes, right?
John: That's right. They were recently videoed in a number of cities offering housing advice to –
Russ: And tax advice.
John: – to a pimp and a prostitute, including illegally bringing in a child-age prostitutes from other countries, and they gave them what I would consider pretty good business advice.
Russ: (Laugh) That's right.
John: But – so that's the dumb thing. And I can't believe that organizations that have been giving money to this group for years and years and years didn't know what was going on. The reason why I think they were giving them money was kind of a protection racket.
Russ: Yeah?
John: Because ACORN, if you – with the banks, with the Community Investment Act. If ACORN didn't think you were living up to it or meeting their unreal expectations for what a bank should be doing –
Russ: They'd let the world know about it.
John: And they would go into the bank and terrorize it.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: So anyway, Bank of America, to their credit, has said, "Hey, enough is enough," and they're not, quote, "Going to enter into any further agreements with ACORN or any of its affiliates," end quote, pending assessments by the bank of the organization's operations.
Russ: Wow, wow. So they stepped up to the plate and did something –
John: That's right.
Russ: It's tough times at ACORN right now.
John: I know. I hope Bank of American and other banks have learned a lesson that you don't kowtow to people who are trying to disrupt your company.
Russ: We oughta get the head ACORN on, man. Talk to her about it.
John: The head ACORN?
Russ: (Laugh) Alright. And before we wrap this morning's school of business, it's time for that very popular PK of Texas entrepreneur's playbook with Greg Price.
Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook. From an early age, we're taught to take a risk to get ahead. Risk helps us discover something new about ourselves, but at what point do we stop to examine how risky our behavior really is compared to its outcome?
The business environment isn't much different. Successful professionals in today's companies need to constantly analyze their place in the market, and fully understand, assess and plan for risks that can directly and indirectly impact their organization.
No one wants to spend money needlessly, especially in the current economic climate. However, can your business afford to have any surprises? Taking a "wait and see" approach could leave your business vulnerable to unforeseen issues.
An Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) initiative provides the greater likelihood of achieving a variety of objectives, fewer surprises and an improved understanding of all levels of risks in the business.
ERM is one of the critical components of a good corporate governance process established by company management and monitored by the Board of Directors.
There are many steps to a successful ERM, but these six major categories must be included in the project: 1.) Define and Select the Framework. 2.) Identify the Risks 3.) Assess the Risks 4.) Evaluate the Risks 5.) Address the Risks 6.) Monitor on a Continuous Basis
The goal is to get everyone in the organization to think about risk and how it is impacting, or may impact, the success of the project, process, business segment, corporate strategy or overall organization. Don't wait until your business gets out of hand to implement your ERM and better manage your risks.
To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. PKF Texas – The Fit That's Right!
Russ: Alright. And that wraps up this morning's school of business. Stayed in for the Aflac BusinessMakers Splash Back with Norman Whitton, founder and CEO of Sunrise Ridge Algae. And then our featured guest, Garav Kendewall, founder and CEO of Chi Won. You're listening to the BusinessMakers show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.
