Monthly Archives: January 2005

The Masculine Aspects of Tire Chains (or not)

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Living in San Francisco years ago, I remember the hassles of California’s chain laws (State law requires that all vehicles carry chains during the winter, and that a three-tier level of chain use be followed, depending on the amount of snow). Charlie LeDuff talks to a few “chain monkeys” – people licensed by Caltrans to install chains on Sierra Nevada roads ($30/car).

He said there were philosophical points to his second career. “Women love you, they just love you,” he said. “You’re like their hero, and that gives you a good feeling.”
He finds modern men, on the other hand, a disappointing lot. They have become so sedate, so inept and removed from the ability to fend for themselves, Mr. Miesel said, that they must pay another man to put chains on their tires.

Lessons on Innovation from Microsoft

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Carleen Hawn makes some interesting points on why Microsoft’s record of innovation is so “lackluster”:

Not to mince words, Bill Gates’s researchers have placed a bunch of expensive bets on technologies that haven’t panned out. But the company’s failure also points to three much bigger lessons about innovation.
Defense is easier. And for now, it’s more profitable. Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen coined the expression the “innovator’s dilemma” to describe what happens when entrenched companies confront new technologies. Good managers instinctively direct people and investment toward “sustaining innovations” that protect established businesses — and away from new ideas that threaten current profitability. That’s why Microsoft spends a lot on Office and Windows.

We have some local examples of protecting established businesses: Newspapers. Despite general circulation declines, both Madison Newspapers (Capital) and the Journal Company continue to invest in niche print publications that keep the printing presses going.

Weak on Entrepreneurial Energy

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Starting a Business is Not a Top Down Process
Rick Romell’s summary of CFED’s Development Report Cards for the States does not shed a whole lot of new thinking on Wisconsin’s entrepreneurial dilemna:

  • Wisconsin placed 47th in the number of new companies formed per 1,000 workers in the state
  • Venture Capital is a problem here
  • Wisconsin’s Brain Drain – new grads often leave the Badger State.

Yet, Wisconsin continues to try government driven, top down programs, such as the Wisconsin Angel Network, among others.
Candinas Chocolatier is the type of business we should seek to emulate. Markus started the company in 1994, after completing an apprenticeship in Switzerland. Today, over 10 years later, he is still in business and clearly enjoys what he’s doing. The attention to detail illustrated in the product photos above demonstrates the devotion required to succeed. Let’s call it passion. Another interesting local firm, Planet Propaganda created his packaging.
Candinas’ products are certainly not inexpensive, nor are they run of the mill. Rather, Markus has taken a quality position in the market and continued to improve his chocolates. This is a very long term approach to business. I need say no more on this subject as Consumer Reports discovered:

?The best chocolates came from lesser-known makers,? the magazine pronounced in its February issue. ?Lesser-known? as in Candinas Chocolates, of Verona, Wisconsin (www.candinas.com). Candinas was one of only three chocolate makers nationwide to achieve the rating of ?excellent,? ranking behind Martine?s Chocolates and La Maison du Chocolat in that category.
The winning assortment was the Candinas 36-piece box (price: $41). ?Ultra-smooth dark and milk chocolates with especially good hazelnut, caramel, and liqueur-flavored centers,? praises the magazine, accentuating the ?fresh cream and butter notes.?
Fine chocolates from Wisconsin may boggle the mind, but consider: chocolatier Markus Candinas, 32, has Swiss parents and trained as a confectioner in their homeland.

Great chocolate makes perfect sense – we have fantastic dairy products. Perhaps we’d be better off further leveraging our dairy business (designer milks and more cheese varieties?).
Entrepreneurs are born, not trained. We simply, as Romell’s article notes, need to find more people willing to give it a try.
A useful book, sort of related is Mintzburg’s Managers Not MBA’s.

Newspaper Circulation Fun & Games: Third Party Sales

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Jacques Steinberg & Tom Torok:

Across the country each week, more than 1.6 million people who are not on newspaper subscriber rolls are being delivered copies that did not cost them a cent – but they are still being classified as paying customers, an analysis by The New York Times has found. The papers, which are typically paid for by advertisers, are delivered by small and large dailies across the country, including The Miami Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The San Jose Mercury News and The Boston Globe.

Alvarez: Badger’s “Overachieved” Laughable?

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Andy Baggot takes the longtime UW Football Coach and Current Athletic Director to task:

Way to insult our intelligence.
Way to lower the bar.

Interesting how things change. I remember when Vic Feuerherd was “forbidden” to write about the Badgers after evidently asking some questions… I believe Vic was exiled to cover the Brewers. Glad to see some questions for our $1.5M+ per year football coach/AD.

SBA: New Small Business Government Contract Rules

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Darren Dahl:

The SBA’s Office of Advocacy announced recently that roughly $2 billion in federal contracting money that was believed to have gone to small businesses actually went to large companies in fiscal year 2002. The reason: Larger companies like Titan, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Hewlett-Packard bought the small businesses that originally received the contracts.
Since the government strives to award 23% of all prime-contract dollars to small businesses, the SBA has implemented a new monitoring system that will force companies to recertify their small business status if they take part in an acquisition

Our Rights: Television Liberation

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EFF:

Today, you can use any device you like with your television: VCR, TiVo, DVD recorder, home theater receiver, or a PC combining these functions and more. A year from now, when the FCC’s broadcast flag mandate [PDF] takes effect, some of those capabilities will be forbidden.
Responding to pressure from Hollywood, the FCC has adopted a rule requiring future digital television (DTV) tuners to include “content protection” (aka DRM) technologies. Starting next year, all makers of HDTV receivers must build their devices to watch for a broadcast “flag” embedded in programs by copyright holders. When it comes to digital recording, it’ll be Hollywood’s DRM way or the highway. Want to burn that recording digitally to a DVD to save hard drive space? Sorry, the DRM lock-box won’t allow it. How about sending it over your home network to another TV? Not unless you rip out your existing network and replace it with DRMd routers. Kind of defeats the purpose of getting a high definition digital signal, doesn’t it?

Read this review of the EyeTV 500 HD (High Definition) TV Tuner/Recorder.