They work in vastly different fields, but the leaders profiled in the following pages are much alike—they have new takes on old business models, a knack for seeing around corners and an appetite for big risk. A case study of New Thinkers.
Monthly Archives: June 2005
Swim Finder
Lands’ End introduced its Swim Finder feature this spring. The online service lets a user view different versions of swimsuits on a three-dimensional body likeness.
The Car Quality Gap?
One debate that never dies is who makes the best cars: the United States, Japan or Germany? U.S. automakers may be closing a perceived quality gap.
Lessons in Gratitude @ the Kitchen Sink
AS I told them, we could do without Hollywood for a century. We could not do without them and their sacrifice for a week. Gratitude. As my pal Phil DeMuth says, it’s the only totally reliable get-rich-quick scheme. Gratitude. Losing the luxury of feeling aggrieved when, if you look closely, you have an opportunity. My father washed dishes at the Sigma Psi house so that he could build an education and a life for the family he did not even have yet.
At my house, I always insist on doing the dishes, and I feel a thrill of gratitude for what washing a dish can do with every swipe of the sponge. Wiping away the selfishness of the moment, building a life for my son. The zen of dishwashing. The zen of gratitude. The zen of riches. Thanks, Pop.
Book: Not a Good Day to Die
I just finished Sean Naylor’s excellent “Not a Good Day to Die“. Major Donald E. Vandergriff reviews the book here.
As Sean so vividly describes, at dawn on March 2, 2002, America’s first major battle of the 21st century began. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions flew into Afghanistan’s Shahikot valley and into heavy enemy defenses. They were about to pay a bloody price for high level strategic miscalculations that underestimated the enemy’s strength and willingness to fight. Sean’s book highlights that despite a mountain of historical evidence that is now available in the 21st Century via the Internet, our nation continues to make strategic and operational mistakes that, fortunately, an enemy has not yet been able to totally exploit.
A must read for those interested in our Foreign Affairs. Lind’s “Of Cabbages & Kings” provides some useful perspective as well. Meanwhile, the war continues in Afghanistan.
Wisconsin Tinkers with the Minimum Wage
Wisconsin this week became the latest state to raise its minimum wage. Wisconsin employers must pay at least $5.70 an hour through June 2006, when the minimum wage rises again to $6.50 an hour. The Federal Minimum wage is $5.15. Fool economics contributor Charlie Wheelan talks about the economics of the minimum wage.
Organic Milk in Short Supply
Michele Norris (audio):
ome supermarkets are having trouble stocking organic milk as demand has outstripped supply. And strict organic regulations make it difficult to increase production. Norris talks with Vermont dairy farmer George Siemen, CEO of Organic Valley.
Nationwide Municipal WiFi Ban?
The language of the “Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005” is so hilariously broad and ill-defined that it could kill all kinds of projects that the incumbent carriers this is meant to protect would support or are involved in deploying. It has such a broad grandfather clause that it could allow massive projects to continue if even a tiny portion of the service was in use.
Apple & Intel? Is it about the DRM?
Dave points to and comments on Stephen Shankland:
Apple has used IBM’s PowerPC processors since 1994, but will begin a phased transition to Intel’s chips, sources familiar with the situation said. Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said.
In light of recent moves by Intel to bake DRM into their chipsets, along with Apple’s growing DRM platform (Fairplay, iTunes and Quicktime – which run on windows pc’s and Mac OS X’s), this smells to me like a deal based on a big DRM rollup – paving the way for Apple’s much discussed HD movie/video download system.
Tom’s Hardware has more on Intel’s hardware DRM (Digital Restriction Management) plans.
Political Math
Mary Lazich comments on the political spin around small changes to the State’s UW Budget (the budget is going up, just not quite as much as Governor Doyle wants). Doyle refers to this as a “cut” while Lazich corrects his math:
There are two ways to do simple math. There is the way most everyone does it. And there is the way Governor Jim Doyle does it.
As a member of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee entrusted with crafting the state budget, I voted with the majority to approve a package to give the University of Wisconsin System a slight increase in state aid over the next two years. The increase amounts to $9 million.
Nevertheless, the governor could not resist issuing a news release referring over and over again to “cuts” he called “senseless.” Apparently in the governor’s world of fuzzy math, an increase is considered a cut.
The fact is the Joint Finance Committee gave the UW System more money for the next two years. The UW System is not being shortchanged. It receives close to $1 billion a year. That is billion with a “b.” Funding for the UW System accounts for close to 8% of the entire state budget.
Matt Pommer, writing in the Capital Times also referred to this change as a “cut”. He doesn’t mention total state support anywhere in the article. We’re better off getting our facts right. There’s no doubt that education funding at all levels has its challenges, but we do currently spend a great deal of money on education, at all levels. Choices must be made, perhaps there are things the State should not fund, allowing additional cash for education purposes.
Finally, Madison’s recent school referenda initiative was also somewhat guilty of this. The questions were often phrased as costing a taxpayer no more than a Latte per day (avoiding any mention of the current, growing school taxes that property owners already pay). Transparency is critical to public support. Our politicians, and some writers, have a ways to go on this matter.