Who is Ron Wayne?

Who is Ron Wayne? Only the third and unheard of or from cofounder of Apple who sold back his 10% share  12 days after Apple was founded for $800. That share today would be worth around $35 billion. Any regrets? Read about his story here. Video from link, and original Apple Computer logo at left is also from link. Hank

Fashion Wednesday: “Seamers” are back in style

Samantha Critchell,  writing in this past Sunday’s (9/11/11) Journal and Courier (p. C4) in an article entitled “Hosiery makes a comeback on legs everywhere,” cites Kate Middleton (photo left from here:) as the driving force for their rapid return. Previously, the pundits saw female hosiery  as being “gone forever.” Samantha’s article cites numerous women who are going gaga over the return of all type of women’s hosiery, from panty hose to “seamers,” the slang term used many years ago. (See photo right from here: for a picture of seamers.) And for those of you who can’t get enough of Kate, see here:

So why all of this about hosiery in a blog usually centered on lots more technical stuff by nature? Two reasons: (1) It presents a great lesson for entrepreneurs, and (2) Beth Carroll, who is very much in the fashion business and teaches entrepreneurship at Purdue University in the Certificate Program will be writing the Wednesday blog entry starting 9/21/11. We gladly welcome back Beth’s insights into many aspects of entrepreneurship. Her business web site is located here:

Now to point (1) entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, whether male or female, don’t view the news of hosiery returning in the same manner as the “commenters” to the articles linked above (mostly female by far who seem to embrace hosiery’s return with open arms and purses for numerous reasons!) Entrepreneurs see this as an opportunity, an opportunity that is screaming to be met, and only they can do it in the style that it deserves. Be it a massive trend toward impulse purchases of high heels to go with the dazzling assortment of hosiery hitting the market, to hats and gloves (yes, in my mind seamers, hats and gloves all go together because that’s what well dressed women wore when I as growing up), to  dresses in general, probably of a different length and style. Entrepreneurs see Kate Middleton’s impact not as the return of what was “gone forever,” but as a launching platform for a viable business. What form and direction the new business will take is captured by entrepreneurial vision.

What do you see? Hank

Playing around with QR codes

This past Maymester I required my ENTR20000 class to develop an app for their final project using Magmito, and embed the linking QR code into the Wix-based web site developed by the teams to promote their concept. The resultant Wix page constructed to house their collective effort is here: I am requiring this and more from the MBA students in my MGMT64900, Global Marketing Management class. For this class, each student is required to develop an app that is their CV/resume. More about this later.

This blog is not about QR codes per se (wiki link here , but readers must recognize they have been in use in Japan since 1994 when Toyota developed the concept to track truck parts. Recently QR codes have started showing up on packaging and POP displays in the US. They are sprinkled throughout Best Buy stores for instance. The purpose of this blog is to introduce one of the less known generators of QR codes by an example which follows:

1. Go to goo.gl, and enter any URL to be shortened, http://www.wix.com/entr200/lc for instance.

2. Obtain shorten URL goo.gl/dWeHp
3. Paste goo.gl/dWeHp.qr into browser (note added .qr)
4. Obtain resultant QR code shown to right
5. Now have both shorter URL which Facebook likes AND QR. Works with bit.ly also.

BTW, I’ve installed a Facebook “like” Plugin at the bottom of each post. Enjoy.

Hank

Kevin Nuest & Poco Podcast Tech

Kevin Nuest (BS MGMT Purdue University 2009) graduated from Purdue University with a certificate in entrepreneurship and was in my ENTR200 class. He recently contacted me with a request to help get the word out about his latest effort. Here’s what he had to say: (Note Kevin has two startups under his belt – read his Linkin page)

“Hello,

–
Kevin Nuest

Why not bookmark Kevin’s effort and follow him – might learn something

We Will Never Forget

9/11

Alibaba Attempting to AT&T Chinese Mobile Market

Jack Ma has never been subtle in his drive to dominate the Chinese Free Trade markets. See for instance www.alibaba.com, and www.aliexpress.com. Recognizing that the Chinese population en mass are moving to Smart Phones, Alibaba a couple of months ago released their own Smart Phone OS. Now they are converting it to English, which infers they are going after global markets, not just native Chinese.

Jack and Alibaba have their eye on the ball. See this link for more info on this incentive on their part:

We’re Up and Running Once Again

After a respite, I decided there is so much going on in both the entrepreneurial world and technology arena that I just “had” to put my oar in the water once again. I’m going to invite others, as before (Beth?) to write a blog entry from their perspective on a somewhat regular basis.  I’m also going to attempt to keep my EBV crew up-to-date. Let the good times roll.

Recently I assigned as part of their Mid Term exam a requirement that students embed an original GoAnimate video into the Wix pages they are constructing to house their Global Marketing Management project. To do this requires the expenditure of $money$ which students resist, almost as much as homework I found Screencast-O-Matic, a free online portal that supports the capture of parts of or all of a screen, and further, the resultant video may be uploaded directly to YouTube. Pretty nifty. Check it out. Hank