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Around
the world: As if with a vengenance, the best among our small business
thinkers continue popping up with ideas-that-become-businesses, a few going
from $0-to-$Billion, virtually overnight.
This is the
front-edge of a business revolution that will spark new businesses that
actually become the next Microsoft, Yahoo, Ebay, Google, and more.
This is the real
revolution in our world today. The best, the most-creative among us, will
more-fully integrate some aspect of the largest corporate convergence in
history – Broadcasting - Information- Communications
- Education -Publishing - Systems.¹
The result will be
"the next big thing." The audacious, out-of-the-box thinkers, will lead us.
Because of our new efficiencies and abilities to pick up and turn around
quickly, essentially "small business" can have and-will-have the largest impact
on the unfolding of the future. |
- READ THE
TRANSCRIPT.
To read and reflect on what happens as we go online all the time,
read the dialogue
from the show. The transcript of this show along with the study guides,
profile/overview and streaming video equals a
Master
Class.
CASE STUDY GUIDE: We start
our business with a "big idea" but we sustain our business with key ideas.
There are links (just above in the green box) to the fourteen key ideas from
this episode of the show. Because these case study materials are now published
as part of over 40 leading college textbooks in business schools, these
materials are being used daily in virtually every college and university
throughout the country. So, please, spend some time with the
case study guide.
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This
Convergence Redefines Everything.
If you had been watching this show in
1995, you would have heard this little piece of advice, "Get e-mail and get a
web site. When you have a web site, your world is what we call 24-by-7-global."
Way back in 1995
very few of us had web sites, and e-mail was still quite new for most
businesses. Just think, that old fax machine was still hot.
We continued
looking at ways this redefining technology transformed business practices.
Remember in 1995, Internet Explorer was just a glimmer in Microsoft's eyes, yet
this technology introduced a paradigm shift that truly moved us toward the
speed of light.
We did a show about
Bill Tobin; in 1995 he made his first five-million dollars on the web. And in
every episode of the show, we looked for unusual ways people used the
web.
Today, after having
gone around the world to find people truly leading the way, out on the edge, we
attempt to answer the question, "Where did we come from and where are we
going?"
Our conclusions,
like everyone who tries to see the future, are formative. But we know this, we
are all becoming increasingly all-present and all-knowing. That begins to
define the old philosophical understanding of powers of God. And perhaps, with
all this religious fundamentalism being touted around us, it would be good for
all of us to begin grasping the fundamentals of what it is that makes us human.
A simple conclusion
is that we are as a people beginning to live our life and operate at the speed
of light. We are no longer old Sir Issac Newton progenies, but increasingly
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen¹ prodigies. We are beginning to
see ourselves, our world and the universe in very new ways.
SPECIFIC
CONCLUSIONS:
»
9-to-5 is dead.
Business is 24-by-7-global; and YOU decide when/where to conduct
business. We visit the people of Brookstone Technologies in Perth.
» Collaboration: Part I
Time
Technology, just a stone's throw from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC), demonstrates how video-conference calls become
collaboration events online and
meetings become more like
concerts but everybody has a seat in the orchestra.
» Collaboration: Part II
We visit with
Greg Steckler in Oregon. Collaboration tools can push dollars to the
bottom line for all service businesses Yet, every business should be using
these tools. Collaboration is an ordering tool and creates continuities. It is
a relational tool that builds on inherent symmetries. Collaboration is by
definition dynamic, focused, and intentional, and takes business to a higher
ground.
» No language
barriers:
We visit with KMP Internet in Stockport, England. What
happens when all language
barriers are dropped, when there are real-time translators of the written
word and then the spoken word? At SmallBusinessSchool.org, we will open the way
on our web sites, and then within our collaboration events, and then real-time,
face-to-face encounters.
» No static
history.
As our business evolves, the understanding and richness of
our business history (our legacy) evolves. We visit with Transition Associates
in Winston Churchill's home town. The web becomes
our work area to record the
history of our business. And knowledge management tools give us ways to
interpret and continually shape the meaning and depth while providing global
access to the business history.
» Paperless is
actually in sight
We visit Houston, Texas with Lupe Fraga whose
customers have been paying bills online since 1998. Become an e-business and
orders, accounts
receivable, accounts payable, inventory, order tracking, and customer
support are done online through
extranets and
intranets
» Paperless to create high-end
paper
We go to Modern Postcard in Carlsbad, California. Steve
Hoffman began working on the infrastructure of his e-culture in 1993. An
e-culture releases people from doing mundane tasks so they can begin doing
one-to-one marketing, sales
and support.
» Not everything
is electronic.
In an e-culture because we have redefined
ourselves and we know that we can be online all the time, we choose not to be.
We revert back to the ways before computers and the Internet with a personal
touch--that is, a physical touch. where there is a personal touch. That is a
physical touch. The example is writing notes on paper that people can hold. We
can revert back to our oldest ways, use a pen, and feel the thoughts in our
minds slow back down.
The personal note was used effectively by
President George Bush Sr.
CONTACT:
(IN ORDER
OF APPEARANCE)
Each link goes to their episode of the show and more key
ideas from each.
-
Bill
Tobin, PC Flowers & Gifts: Bill Tobin was the first person we met
who had a glimmer of the impact the Internet would have. In 1995 he had just
grossed over $5M from web-based sales.
More...
- REVIEW THE EPISODE ENTITLED, STAYING
POWER. You see may places on this website where it reads, "Creating
something of value makes a life worth living. When it's sustainable, it's a
legacy." Over 70% of all businesses fail in their first year; and then whatever
remains standing after 20-to-30 years, over 70% fail to transition to new
ownership and leadership. Understanding people and understanding equity and
liquidity are keys to
staying power.
- WATCH TV
ABOUT VALUE CREATION: Turn off TV about people exploiting people. It
brings us all down. To find SmallBusinessSchool, check your local
PBS-member station. If you don't find us there,
drop
us a note and we will get it on your local government station for economic
development. You can also check the rebroadcast of PBS-member station signals
on DirecTV and Dish Network.
- FIRST PRINCIPLES: Starting a business is
the road to economic independence for most of us average people. Read a little
more to see why
incorporating a business keeps the passion of
the American revolution alive!
- JOIN, JOIN, JOIN: Your professional associations in your industry
are your key to continuing education, market research, collaborations,
strategic partnerships, capital and so much more ... often you'll find that you
enjoy like-minded people and many will become friends for life.
- SUPPORT PUBLIC
TELEVISION:
Become a member of your local station. If you are
already, great. If not and your business is doing well, consider joining the
Producers' Club ($1000). Too much? Get a twenty employees, customers and/or
suppliers to join en masse with you at $50 per person.
Just get
on the inside of your local station and
learn how
to become a producer.
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