The Wall Street Journal
Fans of HSN, the home shopping network, might recognize Debbie Meyer, the soft-spoken uber-housewife who sells nifty inventions – say, a device that creates holes in cupcakes, while they’re baking, for no-mess filling – as if teleported from the 1950s. What many may not realize is that behind the apron is a shrewd entrepreneur who’s built a company, Housewares America Inc. of Clearwater, Fla., with more than $100 million in annual revenues. Her patented products, including best-seller Debbie Meyer GreenBags, are now sold in Target, Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond and other stores. Meyer, 59, whose breakthrough invention in 1999 was a cake cutter, recently teamed up with Reynolds to sell vacuum-seal bags.
Tags: Housewife, Housewife Inventor
Who would have expected that the culture for philanthropy would have grown in such a ravaged economy? The Wall Street Journal reported that although private giving has fallen 6% in 2008. Nonetheless, the recession seems to have triggered altruism in certain individuals and the urge to help others is stronger than ever.
If you’re of those who gave in to their altruistic instincts and started a philanthropic organization, you might have already considered making your organization a tax exempt nonprofit under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. If so, you’ve probably already had a look at some of the formation requirements.
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Will the next great tech company join Apple, HP, Google or Intel in claiming Silicon Valley as its birthplace? A new report brings the odds of that happening down several pegs from what most observers would have thought likely as recently as a few years ago.
The preamble to the annual Index of Silicon Valley states “The Silicon Valley has entered a new era of uncertainty, with a set of vulnerabilities that could compromise our long-term prosperity. Our continued ability to import and develop talent, fund innovation, and rely on state government for overall support are seriously in question. We are a region at risk.”
The report also warned Silicon Valley is “disinvesting in education and we’re not cultivating talent” and that a recommitment to investment in education is needed.
Tags: Silicon Valley, Valley
Are you a good boss or a bad boss? Or, more to the point, do you care what your employees think about you?
Bosses are generally dictatorial because they know it’s the best way to get things done quickly. By contrast, an owner-manger who is too friendly with staff will often fail to command respect and that will be reflected in the running of the company.
Not so long ago, a report was commissioned by the Department for Business to look at the issue of employee/employer engagement. Quite reasonably, the report states that the more leaders and management engage with the rank and file, the more productive and efficient a company will be.
This doesn’t just mean being a nice person. It entails delegating tasks and talking with employees, rather than talking at them, to find out how they think things should be done. The
The EconomistThe handful of firms that build nuclear reactors face new competition
THE nuclear industry got an unexpected boost from Barack Obama in his State of the Union address last month. The president pledged to build a “new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants”. On February 1st he followed that up in his proposed budget for 2011 by tripling to $54 billion the value of loans for new nuclear plants the government is offering to guarantee. Els
Tags: Unexpected, Unexpected Reaction
It’s not easy to satisfy Wall St. some times, as on-demand vendor NetSuite has found. Despite meeting projections, the company still got clobbered after reporting fourth-quarter earnings. Why? eCRM Guide gets to the bottom of things.
Shares of on-demand software provider NetSuite plunged more than 15 percent Friday as investors sold off the stock even though it posted fourth-quarter sales and earnings that were in line with analysts’ consensus estimates.
NetSuite (NYSE: N) shares fell below $12 a share in early Friday trading before regaining some ground to trade off $1.85 a share, or 13 percent, to $12.66.
In its fourth quarter, the San Mateo, Calif.-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider posted a profit of $0.02 a share, excluding one-time items, on sales of $43 million — exactly the results analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted.
Business WeekThe European aircraft maker, Airbus, seems to hold the long-term edge in China, whose ire over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan won’t help Boeing
The last thing Boeing needs now is a new China problem. Over the next two decades, Boeing (BA) expects China to spend $400 billion to purchase 3,770 planes from manufacturers, making China second in size only to the combined market of the U.S. and Canada. With airlines in other markets struggling—and Boeing still trying to recover from its much-delayed Dreamliner 787 project—the U.S. manufacturer could use a Chinese boost. One sign of China’s importance: Boeing, the world’s second-biggest aircraft manufacturer behind Airbus, is now sending a sales director to Beijing to become the company’s first China-based sales executive. Jim
The new year is well underway and chances are, that you may not have accomplished all of the business goals that you had originally planned. If you are looking for your next step maybe it’s time to conduct a ‘productivity inventory.’
I already hear you groaning, “Not another instructional article telling me to how to break my tasks down into uninteresting, bite size tidbits that will kill me with boredom.”
You may be pleasantly surprised. This productivity inventory will actually help you to realize where your time sucks are so that you can either fine tune or entirely change the way you are running your business. Unfortuna
Tags: Time, Time Productivity
Star Telegram
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates voiced strong dissatisfaction Monday with a lack of progress on the F-35 joint strike fighter program, publicly taking prime contractor Lockheed Martin to task.
Gates, at a Pentagon media briefing on the proposed 2011 defense budget, announced the firing of the top military officer managing the F-35. Gates said $614 million will be withheld from Lockheed to help the government cover rising F-35 expenses.
“Progress and performance of the F-35 over the past two years has not been what it should, as a number of key goals and benchmarks were not met,” Gates said.
Tags: Progress, Progress Fires