The Future of Higher Education Business and Learning Applications

The global software industry is in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—one based on open computing—and this trend, like many transformative trends in technology, is being led by the IT staffs and academic computing faculty of the higher education industry. The elements of this open computing approach are open source, open standards, open architecture, and open communities. In this article, Patrick Carey and Bernard Gleason discuss future trends and resources likely to grow out of the open computing movement, including the development of modular components to address software needs and a communal approach to the development of new resources. Interoperability and integration will become easier as institutions establish an open, standards-based, service-oriented architecture that provides a flexible framework for the incorporation of various software tools. An open computing approach will generate practical innovation in the business and learning areas of higher education institutions as well as the cost savings that colleges and universities are desperately seeking

Continuing education business courses

UW courses help business perform better
WATERLOO, Ont. -- Productivity, efficiency and communication -- all three aspects combine to make business more competitive, experts say.
To help businesses achieve those goals, the University of Waterloo's continuing education office is offering a series of courses aimed at helping business people improve performance in a variety of functions. Free course calendars are available by calling continuing education at 888-4002; the courses begin in January.
"We want to share the vast resources of UW with the business community and our non-credit courses are an excellent vehicle for accomplishing this," said Don Kasta, the university's manager of continuing education. "The response to these courses has been growing steadily since we began offering a full program three years ago. We work hard t
o ensure high quality in the instruction and, based on the evaluation by participants, we've been quite successful at this."
One new course is called Effective New Product Development, which shows how the success of a new product relies substantially on vital market research information. All too often, the design of a new product fails to go beyond technical or engineering considerations.
Another new course, called On-Line Documentation, shows how the technology can work effectively for small companies. On-line documentation is a major method for storing and displaying huge quantities of corporate and government data.
For businesses interested in quality management, there is a course on Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage. "When it's done properly, benchmarking is a powerful tool for improving quality, competitive position and profitability," said Prof. Gary Waller, course instructor and a member of UW's Institute for the Improvement of Quality and Productivity.
"This course is intended for managers and project leaders responsible for benchmarking activities in organizations and looks at who and what to benchmark, how to collect, analyze and interpret data related to it, and ways to identify important performance gaps."
Also offered are courses on manual writing (introductory and advanced levels), which have been well received by previous participants. As well, a series of computer courses, ranging from first level use of a PC to spreadsheets, SQL (Structured Query Language) and LAN (Local Area Networks), will be taught.

Articles for the Education Industry

Introduction to Education Business - In the education business every homestay provider, teacher, tutor, seminar leader, education tour or activity leader, video, DVD, CD, book creator is a manufacturer. Can your Agent honestly help you! - Many students and their parents will sit across the desk from a convicted criminal in a fancy suit, expensive looking office, who is using a false name, a new business agency name which sounds like an established agency, and is falsely representing his agency contracts and licenses from schools, universities and institutes. War between Agents and Schools creates Education Wasteland - Once upon a time there was a happy balance between the agents and the language schools. The agents provided admission services and translations and the schools taught the students. Examples of Marketing Costs and Risks(January 2006)- If located in Canada there is the choice between foreign language newspapers and magazines, posting tutor available sheets at the libraries, regular newspaper classified ads, internet ads and profile pages in the education webportals.
Other Business Information
Entrepreneur Program - start and manage your own business - The Entrepreneur Program is an interactive experience that integrates new ideas into proven formats and helps graduates gain the knowledge, confidence, and experience they need to succeed. Teacher Tours - Tour Leader Program for ESL English teachers - The teacher tour program is ideal for non-native speaking English tour leaders who want to travel to Canada with their "class" and experience a real Canadian English Immersion Program. Education Consulting Training - Help students study at the best schools - Education Consultants will be able to explain to international students how the schools are organized, operate and explain reasonable expectations. Education Consultants will be able to work with the ESL in Canada Team of consultants and mentors to provide complete educational consulting, advice and recommendations to students. Business Services for Schools, Agents and Teachers - International Media Services for Schools, Agency Development Services, Toronto Services for International Education Agents, ESL Teacher Rec

Kinetoscope

Interior view of Kinetoscope with peephole viewer at top of cabinet
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it creates the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. Dickson and his team at the Edison lab also devised the Kinetograph, an innovative motion picture camera with rapid intermittent, or stop-and-go, film movement, to photograph movies for in-house experiments and, eventually, commercial Kinetoscope presentations.
In April 1894, the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures in history was given in New York City, using ten Kinetoscopes. Instrumental to the birth of American movie culture, the Kinetoscope also had a major impact in Europe; its influence abroad was magnified by Edison's decision not to seek international patents on the device, facilitating numerous imitations of and improvements on the technology.. In 1895, Edison introduced the Kinetophone, which joined the Kinetoscope with a cylinder phonograph. Film projection, which Edison initially disdained as financially nonviable, soon superseded the Kinetoscope's individual exhibition model. Many of the projection systems developed by Edison's firm in later years would use the Kinetoscope name.

Hollywood could soon be going Objectivist.

After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand’s capitalism-minded “Atlas Shrugged” is taking new steps toward the big screen — with one of the film world’s most prominent money men potentially at its center.
Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several years ago.
Rand’s popular but polarizing book — it’s derided by many literary critics but has a huge public following — tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive trying to keep her corporation competitive in the face of what she perceives as a lack of innovation and individual responsibility.
A number of stars have expressed serious interest in playing the lead role of Taggart. Angelina Jolie previously had been reported as a candidate to play the strong female character, but the list is growing and now includes Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway.
Although it was written a half-century ago, producers say that the book’s themes of individualism resonate in the era of Obama, government bailouts and stimulus packages -- making this the perfect moment to bring the 1,100-page novel to the big screen.
“This couldn’t be more timely,” said Karen Baldwin, who along with husband Howard is producing, with film industry consultant John Logigian advising on the project. “It’s uncanny what Rand was able to predict — about the only things she didn’t anticipate are cell phones and the Internet.” Baldwin may be on to something -- love it or hate it, "Shrugged" is seeing a resurgence, with book sales spiking as debates rage in Washington and around the country about the government's role in a faltering free-market economy.
The author’s final novel offers an embattled railroad company as a metaphor for a society that Taggart (and Rand) sees as succumbing to socialism at the expense of individual creativity. Its backbone is a 50-page speech by the mysterious but major character John Galt in which he lays out the Rand principles of Objectivism, which argues for an aggressive free market and against government activism. Let's just say it's probably not on the president's nightstand.
With all the long speeches and with plot points often a Trojan Horse for Rand's ideas, it's not an easy writing or directing gig, but producers believe they've got the man who could do it. Randall Wallace, the writer on other crisis-era, politically themed works such as “Braveheart” and “Pearl Harbor,” has written the latest draft of the screenplay and is also interested in coming on to direct.(He would follow in the steps of "House of Sand and Fog" director Vadim Perelman, who had been attached to direct and fell off; we like Perelman, but would have been quite the transition for him.)
The project would likely land in the $50 million-budget range but could go higher depending on talent.
Producers are looking to shoot next year, driven in part by the timeliness, as well as by a clause in the option. A high net-worth individual with whom the Baldwins have partnered controls the option, but that option would revert to the Rand estate if production doesn't begin by the end of 2010.
An “Atlas Shrugged” movie has gone through endless development fits and starts. Faye Dunaway and Clint Eastwood had been attached to earlier versions -- if that doesn't give you an idea of how far back it goes, we don't know what will -- but with both Rand and the Rand estate very particular about how the story was handled, those iterations didn’t get traction.
This decade, Howard Baldwin and Philip Anschutz were on board to produce at their Crusader Entertainment banner, but that effort didn't take flight. The Baldwins took the project with them when the “Ray” producers split from Anschutz several years ago and pacted with the high net-worth figure, who is said to especially like the timeliness of the book's message.
Producers also say that while Relativity and Lionsgate are in the pole position to finance and distribute, other studio and financier suitors could yet materialize.
Still, Karen Baldwin praised Lionsgate and Michael Burns, who has championed the project at the studio, and also said Kavanaugh would be an appropriate partner. “The subject of the book would seem to fit with the kind of people who are willing to step up and take big chances," she said.
The Rand involvement on earlier versions -- along with the verbiage-heavy sections -- is probably why there hasn't been a Rand project on the big screen in 60 years, not since Gary Cooper played Howard Roark in Warner Bros.' "The Fountainhead." With some big-time entrepeneurs potentially coming board, there now may be a lot less shrugging and a lot more shooting.
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Tarantino vows to retire from movie business at 60

Director Quentin Tarantino has vowed he would quit making movies at the age of 60.
The ‘Kill Bill’ director says he will never work just for the sake of making money and will give up his career if the quality of his movies begins to suffer.
So, the 46-year-old has given himself only another 14 years before he retires to avoid making bad movies just to support his expensive tastes.
"Directors don't get better, they get worse! ...When you gotta go out and make a movie to pay for the kids' private school and for the three ex-wives, don't talk to me about your artistry. It's their job,” the Daily Star quoted him as telling America's GQ magazine.
“I don't want to have to watch the movie I made to pay for my pool," he added.

Building a Better Movie Business

It's the iconic American industry. But audiences are vanishing, piracy is soaring, and new technology is treacherous. Can Tinseltown innovate its way out of trouble?
Remaking Hollywood
Building a Better Movie Business
The New Wave
Peer-to-peer: The Problem is the Solution
Attack of the Baby Pixars
Profiles of the Baby Pixars
A Foreign Affair
Maverick Mogul The 10 Hottest Minds in Hollywood
"You can take Hollywood for granted like I did, or you can dismiss it with the contempt we reserve for what we don't understand. It can be understood, too, but only dimly and in flashes. Not half a dozen men have ever been able to keep the whole equation of pictures in their heads."
So says Cecelia Brady, the daughter of a Hollywood mogul in The Last Tycoon, the book F. Scott Fitzgerald left unfinished when he died near Sunset Boulevard in 1940. It's the most famous passage ever written about the business of Hollywood. And it's poetic--but not entirely accurate. It's not that only a few have ever been able to comprehend Hollywood; only a few have ever run it.
In both the Old Hollywood of the '20s, '30s, and '40s, as invented by rags-to-riches Eastern European Jewish immigrants, and the New Hollywood of our day, recast by the CEOs of global conglomerates--Disney, General Electric, News Corp., Sony, Time Warner, and Viacom--hardly more than a handful of moguls at any time have controlled the preeminent forms of entertainment: film and television. They've determined how movies and shows are created, and dictated when, where, and how we can consume them. Want to see a new movie? You have to line up at the multiplex for its 7:15 or 9:30 show, or wait for months until you can buy the DVD or see it on cable. Like a TV show? It airs only on Tuesdays at 8.
That's over, or will be soon: In the New New Hollywood of the digital era, no one will be in control--except, in a way, all of us will be. The oligarchy of the moguls is falling to the democracy of the consumers. A small cadre of corporate chiefs could control the cinemas, the airwaves, and the shelf space in the DVD aisles at Blockbuster and Wal-Mart, but no one can control the Internet. Transmitting video files to consumers over digital broadband connections--whether via cable, phone, satellite, or wireless Wi-Max--changes the whole equation. We'll have smart ways to search for, grab, view, store, organize, and replay what we want--and, often, to modify and share it. We'll get it when, how, and where we want, whether we're watching in our home theaters or on laptops or handheld devices. For the price of taking a family to the movies--plus popcorn and soda--tomorrow we'll buy digital gizmos that can hold and organize thousands of hours of video. We'll be the ones who determine what advertising we'll interact with and when and how. We'll create and disseminate our own video entertainment rather than just consume it. And more artists will be able to give us what appeals to our specific interests rather than to the lowest common denominators of society.
These trends are already well under way, and they'll play out fully over the next 5 to 10 years. They'll create extraordinary opportunities for innovative new players--and for the establishment powers, if they can survive the transition. "There's no question we are searching," says Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. "We are searching for the new platform or the new channel that will drive the profits in the future, but there are so many unknowns . . . What we do know is that the entire model is up for grabs."
The curtain is rising on Hollywood's "third act," and the drama is most stunning when you briefly recall the plot points of the first two. In the Old Hollywood of the '20s through the '40s, the seven studios--Columbia, MGM, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Universal--exerted awesome control over talent as well as movie theaters. Every week, about two-thirds of all Americans went out to the movies to see . . . well, whatever was playing at the neighborhood movie house. Because the moguls tightly controlled the costs of making films, and since they hardly had to spend on advertising, nearly every release made money, according to Edward Jay Epstein's recent book, The Big Picture.
The Old Hollywood system fell apart in the '50s when the studios were forced to divest the movie houses and let the stars become free agents. The studios' fall was accelerated by the rapid and inexorable rise of television, which decimated the moviegoing audience. But eventually a new Hollywood emerged, and it was as brilliant and astonishing an invention as the original. While RKO didn't survive, the other six major studios were absorbed into six global media-entertainment conglomerates that combined them with TV and cable networks, cable and satellite connections, and video-rental stores. Now, according to Epstein, the oligarchs have a 96% market share of the box-office take. They collect 98% of the national prime-time television advertising dollars. And they have 80% of the subscribers to pay-TV services, including Cinemax, HBO, and Showtime.

Basketball's Sweat smell of success.

Full Article

Kurt Robinson wasn't at all interested in sweat until four years ago, when he saw how ball boys dried the basketball court after drenched 7-footers tumbled to the floor. "The kid had a stick with a towel wrapped around it, and the whole thing was held together with duct tape," said Robinson, a former basketball referee and recreational league administrator. "I thought, 'Man, they have to have something better than that.'" They do now, courtesy of Robinson, who two years ago founded No Sweat Wipe LLC, a closely held company in Garden Grove. No Sweat Wipe makes a moisture-picker-upper that's used by 24 of the National Basketball Association's 29 franchises. It also serves at volleyball games and boxing matches. "My goal is to be in every gym in the world," said Robinson. For ball boys, soaking up sweat can be a dangerous undertaking. They dash onto the court when the action is at the other end, clean the sweat up from the hardwood so players don't slip, and then scurry off before getting steam-rolled by a 300-pound center finishing a fast break. Robinson described the No Sweat Wipe as a 24-inch disc that's made of a two-ply towel with a sponge-like material in between. And, unlike its primitive predecessors, tape isn't needed. "I like it because it's simple, easy to implement and has obvious value," said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Robinson, who sells a set of two mops for $500, doesn't charge NBA teams. Even so, he said No Sweat Wipe would reap "millions" in revenue this year. His plan calls for teams to sell advertising on the two-foot mop's top, then split the revenue with No Sweat Wipe. Film companies, soft-drink makers and clothing companies have inquired about advertising on the mop, said Robinson. He declined to name them because contracts haven't been signed. Cuban said he could probably get as much as $5,000 from a company wanting its logo on the mop, which appears before thousands of fans during games and occasionally gets shown on TV. "It's not looney," said Eric Wright, a vice president at Joyce Julius & Associates, a Michigan-based firm that gauges the value of sports sponsorships. "Since it's on the court, the mop appears before a lot of eyeballs every night." No Sweat Wipe caught the eye of New York Knicks trainer Mike Saunders during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers, who were the first NBA team to use it. Robinson approached Clippers trainer Jasen Powell, who said he was skeptical at first. "I have a lot of vendors trying to sell me things," Powell said. "But the mop is eye-catching and it works real well."Shaquille O'Neal of the Lakers and former referee Hugh Hollins are among the NBA insiders who have done unpaid testimonials for No Sweat Wipe. "Shaq is a big, heavy sweater," Robinson said. In New York, the mops are even drawing comments from the crowd, said Knicks ball boy Michael Brady, a 19-year-old sophomore at Fordham University in the Bronx. "I've gotten compliments on it," said Brady, who is paid $50 a game. "They call it a space mop."

About thebasketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a 10 foot (3.048 m) high hoop (the goal) under organized rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world.[1]Points are scored by throwing (shooting) the ball through the basket from above; the team with more points at the end of the game wins. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it (dribbling) or passing it between teammates. Disruptive physical contact (foul) is penalized and there are restrictions on how the ball can be handled (violations).Through time, basketball has developed to involve common techniques of shooting, passing and dribbling, as well as players' positions, and offensive and defensive structures. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play center or one of two forward positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed, play the guard positions. While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. In some countries, basketball is also a popular spectator sport.While competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport, played on a basketball court, less regulated variations played in the outdoors have become increasingly popular among both inner city and rural groups

Can Article Marketing create Automated Business Income?

Some of you may already be using articles in your marketingbut did you know that you can be submitting your articlesto many sites that will then pick up your content and useit on their sites as well?
If you have been going through the time and effort tocreate a single articles why not take it up a notch andsubmit that article to several high ranking sites such asEzine articles, Articlebase, etc. These will provide youwith high quality back links to your website and create asteady flow of automated business income as your contentcontinues to stay in their archives for many years.
Now what about submitting a rewritten version of yourcontent to a massive amount of article directories whichcan generate a tremendous amount of traffic to your site?We have found a couple of products that are veryadvantageous in saving a great deal of time to accomplishthis.
If you are using article submission software or an articledirectory submission service this will be much moreefficient than manually submitting the articles by hand.You could also consider using a combination by outsourcingthe software to an employee and have them do thesubmissions for you. We have found a terrific employee inthe Philippines who is diligent and hard working and fitsinto our budget. Of course this is a little more costly butyou are now in a position to create an automated businessincome because you are free to create more original contentor spend your time on more important aspects of your smallbusiness.
We have been using this as a service for our team becausewe have found that when we have someone that is working thesoftware she has been able to come up with a combination ofthese directory submitter sites. Some of these sites willformat for certain directory lists and others may have adifferent set of criteria due to the submission process.Having someone keep track of all of this information isvery beneficial and you can actually have your contentspread out all across the web by using multiple submitterswhich recognize different directories.
You will also want to be specific in your strategy to getthe best results. We have created what we call a wagonwheel design which effectively directs traffic to thesesites in a particular order that creates the most dynamicback-linking strategy to our main site. We simply send herthe diagram schedule and she makes it happen. She thensends us the report of all of the content links that weresubmitted.
Be sure to consider your options and your budget when usingan article submitter, an outsourced employee, or even asubmission service. You should find the right fit for yourbusiness and then get your content out to multipledirectories so you can create anautomated business incomefrom the resulting free traffic that you will receive toyour website over the next several years.

Better bids for better business - WIP - computer software for suppliers - Brief Article

There are at least a couple of competing views of business. One is that nobody makes any money until somebody makes something. Another is that nobody makes any money until someone sells something.
Of course, both of those notions can be thrown into a cocked hat if someone makes something and it is more expensive than the market can bear due to bad sourcing decisions. Or if someone sells something and they're selling it at a loss.
Richard T. Hahn, president and CEO of Salion [Austin, TX), points out that much of the technology that is available to companies tends to assist activities that occur after business has been acquired. That is, supply chain management [SCM] helps with sourcing. Enterprise resource planning [ERP] is useful for managing manufacturing resources. And computer-aided design [CAD] and product data management [PDM] Facilitate product lifecycle management. All are post-order oriented.
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"What about business acquisition?" Hahn asks. Rhetorically. Because Salion, of course, has an answer to improving top-line revenues.
But, first, it is instructive to take a look at some of the issues that he IDs as being difficult for suppliers. Take the e-procurement sites. The on-line marketplaces. The reverse auctions. Hahn points out that these are buyer-Focused. They Facilitate the buyer reaching more potential suppliers. Because there are more suppliers who may be involved in going after a given piece of business, there is the likelihood that margins will be driven down more than they would be when the group of suppliers was smaller. This is due to the Fact that the number of companies receiving a request For quotation [RFQ] was limited in order to control the costs at the buyer associated with handling the paperwork associated with the bids. But all that is changed. It is e-fficient. For the buyer. OF course, given the nature of the industry--as in the need to get business--Hahn suggests that there is a tendency For supplier company personnel to chase opportunities--and they chase too many phantoms.
According to Hahn, on average, auto suppliers win about 5% of the business they pursue. But in order to pursue it, they invest lots of time and effort. And money. Sometimes, he suggests, business is lost because of an overlooked something, be it a change in specification or a fax with some new information about the REQ.
The typical business acquisition process, Hahn explains, starts and ends with the customer. Requirements are gathered. The opportunity is assessed. Then, assuming that the supplier is interested in the opportunity, an array of functions is involved, including product design, manufacturing process design, plant Facilities and equipment, purchasing, and sub suppliers. Financial review and pricing are next. Then the quote is reviewed. And delivered to the customer. Then there is a wait. Hahn maintains that there are several areas within that sequence where there is lost profit and/or revenue.
The First Failing is an inability to prioritize opportunities, to target the business that is most likely to be won--and to be profitable. Changes are often occurring, which costs money, as the various Functions that are providing their input For the bid need to adjust their approaches in response to the changed requirements. Often, the communication of the changes occurs via phone, Fax, postal mail, and e-mail, which can be missed or misplaced. Because there is no access to history--or no easy access--there is the proverbial reinvention of the wheel in terms of the product design, and there can be profound inconsistencies with regard to pricing.
The Salion alternative to all of this is set of web-based software packages that provide the following capabilities:
* Determine good business opportunities and automatically respond to non-target business [this can be based on a history of what was won in the past--and what cost money in the past]
* Track all people and activities involved so that resources are optimized (organizing the participants and allowing them to coordinate through one tool keeps things From Falling through the cracks)
* Provide a means of collaborative communication (which is secure such that, For example, sub suppliers get to see what is germane to them, period]
* Provide a link to the marketplaces and exchanges (the so-called Business Acquisition Process must be an engaged activity)
* Maintain a knowledge repository of things including drawings, documents, cost and design data For purposes of creating new proposals (reuse means reduced investment).
Hahn says that a company can install a Salion solution in 80 days.
What's more, Hahn states that the return on investment should be realized within 90 days--and For the suppliers with annual revenues in excess of $25-million that use the Salion solution, Hahn is committed to helping them realize a minimum savings of $1-million in the first year.

Abstract:

This article reports the results of a survey of computer database searching activities by business librarians. The survey shows that over half of business librarians search databases other than those related to business subjects, that most searches are for citations to articles, that over half of computer database searches are paid for on a cost recovery basis, and that approsimately seventy percent of business librarians do computer searches for patrons from outside the college or university. Librarians who read this article will probably think of other aspects of this subject which could be studied more thoroughly. The author encourages anyone who is interested, to follow up with another survey or more study on this subject. The author of this article recently conducted a survey to gather data on the educational background, work experience duties, and professional activities of business librarians in colleges and universities. This article discusses the part of the survey which dealt with computer database searching and the databases used by business librarians.

Articles that form part of the Emerald Backfiles have been created through digital scanning. Whilst all efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, Emerald will not be held responsible for any inaccuracies. If you require further clarification please contact

Dreaming of fields

The potential of sports is being explored in American business schools
Now is not the best time to be an entrepreneur. But although no sector can completely escape the downturn, some are suffering less than others. Leading sports are standing up to the recession quite well (see article).
At American business schools, there are signs of faith in the sports business. One believer is Professor H. Irving Grousbeck, the director of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He juggles his academic duties with a role as managing partner of the Boston Celtics, a National Basketball Association (NBA) team.
Professor Grousbeck is part of Boston Basketball Partners LLC, a partnership that bought the Celtics in 2003. In the previous five decades, the Celtics had amassed 16 NBA championships, but a bad run in the 1990s and into the 21st century had tested the patience of their loyal following. Professor Grousbeck says he and his partners wanted to restore the team's camaraderie and pride.
Not that sentiment caused them to forget the goal of profitability. Initially, the group considered buying a baseball team, but feared losing money. The Celtics' asking price of $360m, says Professor Grousbeck, “felt fair”—although he stresses that, as a professor of entrepreneurship, he was aware the venture had its risks.
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Some were apparent from the start: the Celtics were performing poorly, ill-managed and badly marketed. “We had a lot of work to do.” But he preferred to trust his intuition, by making a calculated gamble, and by hiring good people and giving them authority. “If you do this, you can succeed.”
The Celtics’ performances did not turn around overnight, but eventually the faith of Professor Grousbeck and his partners paid off. Last June, the Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers to win their first NBA championship since 1986. Ticket sales rose after the victory (although they have since slowed—sports are not entirely immune from the downturn), and Professor Grousbeck says the partners were “casually floated” an offer of $600m for the team soon after the victory, but refused. “We are in for the long haul.”

Countdown to Motor Sport Business Forum Middle East

The Forum will be inaugurated by His Excellency Shaikh Mohammed Bin Isa Al Khalifa, CEO of the Economic Development Board, who will also deliver a presentation on Formula One in the Middle East.


With just days to go before the inaugural Motor Sport Business Forum Middle East, there is enormous interest and excitement surrounding the event. Speakers, delegates and exhibitors are travelling from all over the world to take part in what is set to become the region's motor sport industry event of the year.He will be joined on the conference programme by an impressive line up of senior executives from around the world, including David Richards, CEO of Prodrive, Tony Cochrane, Chairman of AVESCO, Talal Al Zain, the recently appointed CEO of Mumtalakat Holding Company, Katja Heim, MD of KHP Consulting, Bjorn Naf, CEO of Gulf Air and Peter Baumgartner, Executive Vice President in marketing and product for Etihad Airways.The Forum also welcomes a strong presence from team bosses in the FIA Formula One World Championship, including Ron Dennis of Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes, Nick Fry of Honda Racing F1, Christian Horner of Red Bull Racing and Colin Kolles of Force India.The event has received major backing from Union Properties, owner of MotorCity Dubai and one of the biggest companies in the Middle East, which has signed a three-year title sponsorship deal. Simon Azzam, CEO of Union Properties is also joining the panel of speakers and has been a strong force in bringing regional interest to the event. Other sponsors for the event are DHL, Haymarket Publishing, Gulf Air and Sports Marketing Surveys.All of the major global motor racing championships will be represented at the Forum, including MotoGP, NASCAR, the FIA World Rally Championship and A1 Grand Prix. The industry's major sponsors and companies are also flocking to the event with speakers and exhibitors including Vodafone, Lenovo, General Motors, Siemens, Sports Marketing Surveys, IFM International, Kangaroo TV, Arabian Business, REEM and BIC.With all of these high-level participants, the Forum has grabbed the attention of the world'spress who will be attending in force. They include F1 Racing, Bloomberg, BBC, Gulf DailyNews, Al Jazeera, Auto Bild, Motor Sport Magazine, The Independent and the FinancialTimes.With the Forum taking place at the Bahrain International Circuit, the organisers - Simon Berger, founder of IM2 Events, Martin Whitaker, CEO of the Bahrain International Circuit and Talal al Zain, CEO of Mumtalakat - are delighted with the interest in the inaugural event.Whitaker said: "This is a fantastic start to what I am sure will be a very successful andprosperous five-year contract. With the interest that the Forum is already generating I can see this being a tremendously viable event both commercially and financially for all particpants. The opportunities the Forum offers delegates, speakers and exhibitors are unique. It is very rare within the business and motor sport community that you have the chance to meet such serious players in the industry in an event that is dedicated to creating the perfect platform for networking and acquiring new deals and opportunities."The Forum opens at 0800 on 1 April with the official inauguration by Sh. Mohammed andcontinues the next day at 0900 2 April with Ron Dennis giving the keynote Address.

America’s Favorite Brands Unite with America’s Favorite Sport

Procter & Gamble (P&G) and the National Football League (NFL) today officially announced a multi-year marketing and sponsorship alliance that will commence during the 2009 NFL Season.
More than a dozen P&G brands will begin to leverage NFL assets and collective team marks as the “Official Locker Room Products of the NFL” within the Male Grooming, including Hair Care and Oral Care, Household Needs, Fabric Care and Air Care sponsorship categories via fully integrated marketing initiatives and retail-specific executions.
In addition, the P&G brands will have exclusivity in their respective product categories under the NFL shield.
Brands that will be joining together in the inaugural season’s integrated NFL marketing efforts include: Febreze®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders® and Old Spice®. Prilosec OTC® will also continue its long-standing sponsorship with the NFL for the 2009 season.
As part of this unique sponsorship, during this season a variety of other P&G brands including Bounty®, Cascade®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Gain®, Oral B® and Tide® will have the right to activate NFL marks within key retail accounts. These brands may use the NFL logo in national and local in-store merchandising campaigns and retail circulars.
“Our sponsorship with the NFL underscores the toughness and dependability of our products. The NFL is the ultimate battleground and P&G products deliver, not just in NFL locker rooms, but in homes all across the United States,” said Jason Dial, Director of Global Sports Marketing for P&G. “This alliance will also benefit our retail customers, by engaging an extremely loyal and fervent fan base with compelling programs that will drive our collective businesses.”
"This sponsorship brings together two of America's most venerable brands," said Mark Waller, the NFL's Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "The NFL and P&G brands are deeply embedded in the daily lives of Americans and we look forward to delivering innovative programs with the company."
In addition to the exclusive retail marketing rights, P&G will also maintain the right to market its brands through NFL.com, NFL Network and at its jewel events – the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.
About Procter & Gamble
Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Gain®, Pringles®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Actonel®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, Braun® and Fusion®. The P&G community includes approximately 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.blogger.com/http//:worldbusinesh.blogspot.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands

Article: Sport business entrepreneurship

Since the fall 1999 issue of the New England Journal of Entrepreneurship included an interview with Dr Michael Becker, a German entrepreneur and sports agent, there have been no other references to sport business in this journal. In that issue Dr. Becker's doctoral thesis, "The Constitutional Problems of German Football Players," was discussed, however, much of the interview subtly addressed unique differences between the United States and Europe with regard to entrepreneurial opportunities and how Dr. Becker, while a student in the United States, became enamored with 'American-style entrepreneurship. " He mentioned how reading about Nike founder/CEO Phil Knight and Microsoft's Bill Gates ...

Ted Rubin; found success in business, sports, friends

Email Regardless of the arena - the tennis courts of youth, the golf courses of adulthood, or the wine business he ran with his family - Ted Rubin played to win.
“He was a great competitor,’’ said his brother, Robert of Newton. “Winning was everything, and he would never give up. He just knew how to win.’’
As chief executive of Ruby Wines of Avon, the business started by his father and grandfather, Mr. Rubin traveled the world finding the right vintages to import. He didn’t mind jumping on a plane for a good game of golf, either.
Mr. Rubin, who won 13 club championships at Spring Valley Country Club in Sharon, died of leukemia Monday in Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He was 70 and lived in Natick and Palm Beach, Fla.
While he applied to the rest of his life the lessons he learned on the baseball diamonds and tennis courts of his childhood in Newton, Mr. Rubin managed to be competitive in ways that included, rather than excluded, those around him.
“He was just a great guy and probably had every characteristic you’d ever want in a person: honest, sincere, charitable, giving,’’ his brother said.
“The real thing about him is that he was always there for people,’’ said Mr. Rubin’s son Doug of Natick, a former chief of staff to Governor Deval Patrick. “I remember friends calling in the middle of the night or on the weekend, and he was off to help them.’’
Fred Bossman of Brookline, a golfing buddy for years, said Mr. Rubin was someone who could be counted on at any moment.
“He was a solid friend to anybody who was his friend,’’ Bossman said, “and he had a lot of friends.’’
Theodore Lee Rubin was born in Revere and was attending elementary school when his family moved to Newton.
Samuel Rubin and his son, Irving, founded the family business in 1921 during Prohibition, when the sale of alcohol was prohibited. They distributed Ruby Root Beer, named for the eldest Rubin’s nickname, along Revere Beach and elsewhere.
The Rubins founded Ruby Wines when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. After World War II, the company began bottling wines from California, and as a boy growing up in Newton, Mr. Rubin began preparing to enter the family business.
At Newton High School, from which he graduated in 1957, Mr. Rubin played on the baseball team. At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he was captain of the tennis team his junior and senior years.
Graduating in 1962 with a bachelor’s in business administration, Mr. Rubin served in the Air Force Reserve for six months in Texas.
He was introduced, through friends of his parents, to Hilary Lynn, whom he married in 1964.Continued...
“With my father, Ted and I started the importing wine business,’’ said his brother, who is chief financial officer at Ruby Wines. “We worked together for years and shared a space - two desks in an office. We’d go out and sell and come back and were with each other constantly. We had a mutual admiration and both wanted to succeed.’’
Mr. Rubin, his brother said, “had a great personality and the respect of all his customers. People liked dealing with him and talking with him.’’
Mr. Rubin, his son said, also “liked the fact that it was a family-run business, and it’s a family business in the bigger sense of the word. They have employees who have been working there 30, 35 years, almost as long as my father. People tend to go there and spend a long time.’’
Among those who went to work at Ruby Wines was Mr. Rubin’s other son, Brad of Natick, the company’s senior vice president and director of sales.
Last year, Mr. Rubin and his brother were among those honored by a state restaurateurs organization as inductees into the Massachusetts Hospitality Hall of Fame. A few years earlier, the Greater Boston Association for Retarded Citizens honored the brothers as their men of the year.
Many other honors came his way through the golf championships he won and the times he prevailed against opponents on courses from Sharon to West Palm Beach, where he was a member of the Trump International Golf Club.
“He was a really good athlete and had a very good demeanor,’’ Bossman said. “I get a little bit upset when I hit a bad shot, but 90 percent of the time, Teddy would shrug it off. He kept his cool.’’
That came in handy when Mr. Rubin stepped onto the green with golfers known for their competitiveness and egos.
“He played a lot of golf with Donald Trump, and I called him this morning to let [Trump] know what happened,’’ Bossman said yesterday. “His first reaction was, ‘Boy, I’ll tell you, he beat me up pretty good in the club championship last year.’ And Donald doesn’t admit to getting beaten much.’’
In addition to his wife, two sons, and brother, Mr. Rubin leaves six grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Temple Emanuel in Newton. Burial will be in Sharon Memorial Cemetery in Sharon.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Placement of Home Office Chairs and Other Business Furniture

Home office chairs as well as ones placed in commercial settings come in a variety of designs symbolic of times passed, while others are more typical of more modern times. This is true of supporting furniture as well.
A large portion of commercial furniture that originates from a variety of recent design movements were inspired by architects such as Charles Eames, Miles Van Der, George Nelson, Eileen Gray, and others. Most of these models produced are just right for placement in smaller home and commercial workplace settings.
Yet, the architects and furniture designers brought up above also prompted the creation of furniture employed in large auditoriums or theater halls. Items representative of those that these artists have created can also be set up in places such as coffee shops, restaurants, pubs, hotels, and apartments.
Usually most business and commercial furniture collections are created from a variety of leather textures. Some of the most popular designs used in offices today include the high-back and the low-back roller models. These are normally easy to adjust to suit the needs of all dedicated business experts.
Other furniture favorites commonly set in commercial or residential locations include organic reading chairs, arm chairs, or net weave mesh chair. These items frequently match well with other items such as one of many diverse styles of useful yet stylish stools.
Most of these are designed with comfort and practicality in mind, as well as style. A variety of accessories can be matched these as well to make your workspace seem as inviting as possible.
In fact, there are actually endless numbers of this very important piece of furniture available today. Some types are adjustable to the size of a person while others are suitable for persons of a specific build.
Besides office chairs and stools, many other pieces of furniture and accessories are intended for placement in a place of business. Waiting room benches, footstools, desks, trash cans, lamps, shelves, and more are made fittingly for use in commercial locations.
All furnishings displayed in commercial buildings, cubicles, and other professional workplaces are built from a blend of dependable materials. Yet, not all are of the same caliber. It is your responsibility to find the ones that are made to last.
Some of the most superior models of all supporting business furniture employed in public places and professional buildings are created from well-refined materials.
For instance, they are often constructed of polished metals, tempered safety class, and strong fabric. Of course, leather is often most suitable for home office chairs.

Hickory Business Furniture

Design of the Hickory Business Furniture showroom was approached on two levels. The first was obvious--making the physical space work for product display. The second, of more subjective nature, entailed completing the commission as part of the firm's image-building campaign.
Spatially, the site was difficult. Small at 1,200 sq. ft. and of awkward Z configuration, its only redeeming feature was an approximate 42-ft. expanse of windows along the Mart's corridor. This then became the basis for the scheme, forming an up-front gallery for existing products. Newer items--from The New Traditionals group and also from the firm's recent import program--would be exhibited in the showroom's core.
In progression, one...

Saving Lives.(medical benefits of gold)(Brief Article)

One of these days, gold may save your life. In ancient times, the glittering metal that never tarnished was believed to bring good fortune, to ward off evil spirits, to help heal the sick. Today, increasingly, it is healing the sick - and saving lives.
The use of gold in modern medicine began around 1890, when the distinguished German bacteriologist Robert Koch discovered that compounds made with gold inhibited growth of the bacillus that caused tuberculosis. His work was honored with the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Hardness

Hardness
Diamond is the hardest natural material known, where hardness is defined as resistance to scratching and is graded between 1 (softest) and 10 (hardest) using the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Diamond has a hardness of 10 (hardest) on this scale.[14] Diamond's hardness has been known since antiquity, and is the source of its name.
The diamond hardness depends on its purity, crystalline perfection and orientation: hardness is higher for flawless, pure crystals oriented to the <111> direction (along the longest diagonal of the cubic diamond lattice).[15] Therefore, whereas it might be possible to scratch some diamonds with other materials, such as boron nitride, the hardest diamonds can only be scratched by other diamonds. In particular, nanocrystalline diamond aggregates were measured to be harder than any large single crystal diamond. Those aggregates are produced by high-pressure high-temperature treatment of graphite or fullerite (C60).[16]
The hardness of diamonds contributes to its suitability as a gemstone. Because it can only be scratched by other diamonds, it maintains its polish extremely well. Unlike many other gems, it is well-suited to daily wear because of its resistance to scratching—perhaps contributing to its popularity as the preferred gem in engagement or wedding rings, which are often worn every day.
The hardest natural diamonds mostly originate from the Copeton and Bingara fields located in the New England area in New South Wales, Australia. These diamonds are generally small, perfect to semiperfect octahedra, and are used to polish other diamonds. Their hardness is associated with the crystal growth form, which is single-stage crystal growth. Most other diamonds show more evidence of multiple growth stages, which produce inclusions, flaws, and defect planes in the crystal lattice, all of which affect their hardness. It is possible to treat regular diamonds under a combination of high pressure and high temperature to produce diamonds that are harder than the diamonds used in hardness gauges.[17]
Somewhat related to hardness is another mechanical property toughness, which is a material's ability to resist breakage from forceful impact. The toughness of natural diamond has been measured as 2.0 MPa·m1/2,[18] and the critical stress intensity factor is 3.4 MN·m−3/2.[19] Those values are good compared to other gemstones, but poor compared to most engineering materials. As with any material, the macroscopic geometry of a diamond contributes to its resistance to breakage. Diamond has a cleavage plane and is therefore more fragile in some orientations than others. Diamond cutters use this attribute to cleave some stones, prior to faceting.[20]

History

The name diamond is derived from the ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adámas), "proper", "unalterable", "unbreakable, untamed", from ἀ- (a-), "un-" + δαμάω (damáō), "I overpower, I tame".[3] However, diamonds are thought to have been first recognized and mined in India, where significant alluvial deposits of the stone could then be found many centuries ago along the rivers Penner, Krishna and Godavari. Diamonds have been known in India for at least 3,000 years but most likely 6,000 years.[4]
Diamonds have been treasured as gemstones since their use as religious icons in ancient India. Their usage in engraving tools also dates to early human history.[5][6] Popularity of diamonds has risen since the 19th century because of increased supply, improved cutting and polishing techniques, growth in the world economy, and innovative and successful advertising campaigns.[7]
In 1813, Humphry Davy used a lens to concentrate the rays of the sun on a diamond in an atmosphere of oxygen, and showed that the only product of the combustion was carbon dioxide, proving that diamond is composed of carbon. Later, he showed that in an atmosphere devoid of oxygen, diamond is converted to graphite.[8]
The most familiar usage of diamonds today is as gemstones used for adornment, a usage which dates back into antiquity. The dispersion of white light into spectral colors is the primary gemological characteristic of gem diamonds. In the twentieth century, experts in the field of gemology have developed methods of grading diamonds and other gemstones based on the characteristics most important to their value as a gem. Four characteristics, known informally as the four Cs, are now commonly used as the basic descriptors of diamonds: these are carat, cut, color, and clarity.[9]

Diamod

Diamond
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This article is about the mineral. For the gemstone, see Diamond (gemstone). For other uses, including the shape ◊, see Diamond (disambiguation).


Diamond

Typically yellow, brown or gray to colorless. Less often blue, green, black, translucent white, pink, violet, orange, purple and red.

In mineralogy, diamond (from the ancient Greek adámas, meaning "proper" or "unalterable") is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is the second most stable form of carbon, after graphite; however, the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions. Diamond is specifically renowned as a material with superlative physical qualities, most of which originate from the strong covalent bonding between its atoms. In particular, diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material synthesized so far. Those properties determine the major industrial application of diamond in cutting and polishing tools.
Diamond has remarkable optical characteristics. Because of its extremely rigid lattice, it can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron and nitrogen. Combined with the wide transparency, this results in clear, colorless appearance of most natural diamonds. Small amounts of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) color diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (lattice defects), green, purple, pink, orange or red. Diamond also has relatively high optical dispersion, that is ability to disperse light of different colors, which results in its characteristic luster. Excellent optical and mechanical properties, combined with efficient marketing, make diamond the most popular gemstone.
Most natural diamonds are formed at high-pressure high-temperature conditions existing at depths of 140 to 190 kilometers (87 to 120 mi) in the Earth mantle. Carbon-containing minerals provide the carbon source, and the growth occurs over periods from 1 billion to 3.3 billion years, which respectively corresponds to roughly 25% and 75% of the age of the Earth. Diamonds are brought close to the Earth surface through deep volcanic eruptions by a magma, which cools into igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites. Diamonds can also be produced synthetically in a high-pressure high-temperature process which approximately simulates the conditions in the Earth mantle. An alternative, and completely different growth technique is chemical vapor deposition. Several non-diamond materials, which include cubic zirconia and silicon carbide and are often called diamond simulants, resemble diamond in appearance and many properties. Special gemological techniques have been specially developed to distinguish natural and synthetic diamonds and diamond simulants

State warned on diamond export levy.

State warned on diamond export levy Trans Hex appeals for scrapping of provisions in bill, saying they will have unintended consequences Political Correspondent CAPE TOWN JSE-listed alluvial diamond company Trans Hex has warned that applying the proposed 5% diamond export levy and obliging diamond producers to sell 10% of their production to the state diamond trader would have significant negative implications for its business.

DIAMOND NECKLACE, AFFAIR OF THE

scandal that took place at the court of King Louis XVI of France just before the French Revolution. An adventuress who called herself the comtesse de La Motte duped Cardinal de Rohan, the grand almoner, who was out of favor with Queen Marie Antoinette, into believing that she could regain the queen's regard for him. Mme de La Motte and her accomplices then engineered a sham correspondence between the cardinal and the queen and even arranged an interview between him and a woman impersonating the queen. In the interview the cardinal was led to believe that the queen wished to acquire a diamond necklace of enormous value and that she had chosen him as her confidential agent. When Rohan obtained the necklace from the jewelers, he turned it over to the comtesse; her husband took it to London, where it was broken up for sale. The affair became public after Rohan failed to meet the payments to the jewelers. The cardinal was arrested and tried by the parlement; he was acquitted but lost his position in court. Mme de La Motte was punished and imprisoned, but she escaped to London, where she wrote her highly questionable memoirs. Alessandro Cagliostro, at first suspected of complicity, was acquitted. The queen, noted for her extravagance and frivolity, was unjustly implicated in the affair; her enemies hinted that she had schemed to ruin the cardinal or that she had used her favor to obtain the necklace and then refused to pay. The scandal added greatly to her unpopularity at a critical time. A vast literature has grown around the subject, notably Dumas's romance The Queen's Necklace and Carlyle's Diamond Necklace.