Here’s a quote from Ray Bradbury, a favorite author, intended to inspire aspiring and/or creatively blocked writers, but the underlying bent is equally or more relevant for nerve-frazzled, sleep-deprived entrepreneurs in the wake of Wall Street’s continuing meltdown…

“If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”
Thinking about it, perhaps this quotation calls for the disclaimer car companies flicker momentarily in the footer of their speeding, swerving, screeching TV spots … “Professional driver on closed course.” Or better yet, “Do not try this at home.”

But, no. To jumpstart this economy across all sectors and reinstill a faith, if you will, in what’s possible and indeed necessary, now more than ever we need our entrepreneurs to be smart and steadfast. We even need our global corporations to occasionally think like start-ups; work lean, stretch dollars, build passion, reward loyalty, nurture innovation, and root up and leverage hidden opportunities.

Who’s with me? Call. Email. Skywrite. Megaphone from your rooftop. Time to build some wings on the way down. Onward. Upward.

Posted by: Colin Mangham

Here’s a head-shaking blast (or, ballast) from the past on the heels of today’s SEC’s allegations against Mark Cuban and, concomitantly, the planned departure of Jerry Yang over at Yahoo.

I flipped the switch on my Firefox flux capacitor (um, via Google, not Yahoo) and 0.08 seconds later it was 1999, the year Prince was crowned Nostradamus in loosely predicting how the dotcoms would indeed party – devil-may-care and sideways willy-nilly – till that lunar landing IPO or, far more likely, till Rocko, Joey Knuckles and Starving Students arrived to repo the foosballs, Razors and iMacs and padlock the doors on the way out. Conveniently enough, the article’s dated April 1 (no foolin’):

Thursday, April 1, 1999 Published at 21:23 GMT 22:23 UK
Business: The Company File
Yahoo buys Broadcast.com

Yahoo looks likely to spice up its site with audio and video

One of the most popular sites on the Internet, Yahoo, has bought an online company which broadcasts everything from presidential speeches to lingerie fashion shows. Yahoo, using its own highly valued shares, is paying $5.7bn (£3.2bn)  to acquire Broadcast.com.

Yahoo is the most popular portal site on the Internet, with 50m visitors a month. In simple terms, it is a massive directory of Web sites, akin to a global telephone directory – only this one is considerably larger. Analysts say the buy out of Broadcast.com will enable Yahoo to beef up its text-only services to include audio and video.

Critics say its content has been looking more humdrum compared with what some other sites are offering, and that it has trailed others in offering more varied media. Tim Koogle, chairman of Yahoo, said: “Broadcast.com’s tremendous first-to-market advantage has made it the leading destination on the Web for audio and video broadcasts, and it will provide significant added value to Yahoo’s audience worldwide.”

Yahoo is offering 0.7722 shares of its own stock for one share of Broadcast.com’s stock. Broadcast.com lost $14m on sales of $22m last year.

Smart move

“It will be a pretty neat deal from Yahoo’s perspective,” said Lanny Banker of Salomon Smith Barney. “They are seeking other platforms to distribute content and Broadcast.com is a really tight fit in terms of content, audience and technology.”

Some Internet users cannot easily access the “streaming video” offered on sites like Broadcast.com. To do so, they need broadband or high-speed Internet service. But the number of users who have broadband Internet access is growing fast and makes up a market which analysts say cannot be ignored for long.

Broadcast.com is based in Dallas. An improved use of media is seen as an important way ahead for the Internet. AtHome, which delivers the broadband Internet service enabling consumers to view video online, earlier this year agreed to buy Excite in a deal which will mean more multi-media services on the Internet.

Other Yahoo rivals include Lycos, subject of another takeover bid, and Snap.com, the portal jointly owned by CNET and General Electric, parent company of network television company NBC.

Changing ads

NBC is aggressively gearing up for the growing demand for media enhanced services. Snap recently overhauled its Internet portal to feature video and interactive features. Many advertisers are also seeking ways to place interactive and video promotions on the Internet, which they believe will be vastly more effective than the plain “banner ads” widely used.

As Internet stock prices have soared, acquistions using stock have become easier and more attractive. With its current value approaching $40bn, Yahoo is among the most highly capitalised Internet stocks on the market. Two months ago it bought Geocities, a service that allows people to run home pages online, for $3.7bn. Yahoo shares jumped 11 3/8 to 179 3/4 and Broadcast.com surged 11 13/16 to 130 on the news.

Article available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/309498.stm

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Wow, the future’s exciting! Where do I sign up?! Say, maybe I can find out more about Broadcast.com on YouTube.com. Be right back. Oh, and if I don’t post anything here for a few days it’s probably because I’m deep-diving webisodes of “Will it Blend” to gauge how easily I can frappe a few twine-tied bricks of worthless stock warrants….

Posted by: Colin Mangham

Extending yesterday’s Food for Thought theme (aka, Not in My Kitchen), Hindu tradition is noted for its embrace and protection of “sacred cows,” matriarchal symbols of both the sanctity and abundance of life, as well as providers of milk and cheese, the latter of which has been known to cause a gag reflex in China.

This point was not lost on McDonald’s in India, where they have radically modified the ever-popular childhood obesity menu to include a wide variety of vegetarian items, including the McVeggie (McClever, don’t you think?), as well as McAloo Tikkis and Pizza McPuffs (basically HotPockets, but without the chunks of Kryptonite).

All this in a restaurant that once jingled us to the point of “uncle!” about its “all-beef patties.” Our favorite Wendy’s grandma would seriously wonder “Where’s the beef.” According to the McDonald’s website (www.mcdonaldsindia.com), “We do not offer any beef or pork items in India. Only the freshest chicken and fish products find their way into our Indian restaurants.”

What really catches my eye here is the phrasing “find their way into our … restaurants.” Curious choice of words. Maybe something lost in translation, only without the allure of Bill Murray singing Elvis Costello? I mean, don’t they order the stuff? Procure it? Or does it just find its way to the doorstep and the deep fryer … some lucky chicken falls out of a cage bungeed to the back of scooter speeding by … or Darwin’s fish crawls onto land and flops toward the Golden Arches. Who can know. And who cares, really … as long as my fries are “cut, blanched and processed on state of the art processing lines to ensure maximum retention of nutrients” and I can dredge them through a paper cup of catsup, I’m golden.

Posted by: Colin Mangham

There’s a saying I heard while traveling recently (and I’ll refrain here from citing to whom it referred) that “the only thing with four legs [they] won’t eat is a table.” In contrast there are, with few exceptions, a lot of animals that Americans in particular simply won’t eat; for starters, our beloved Lassies and Fidos, Garfields and Felixes.

It’s not an urban myth, however, that dogs are a delicacy served on special occasions in parts of China. And according to Petspourri.com, it’s not just the neighborhood strays hitting the home plate. Big breeds like Saint Bernards, Great Danes, Newfoundlands and Tibetan Mastiffs are being imported for conspicuous consumption. To each his/her own … just not in my backyard BBQ.

But we should also remember we’re talking about over a billion people and a menu item that’s far, far from commonplace. In fact, the killing of cats or dogs for food has been illegal in Hong Kong for nearly 60 years. And in all fairness, let’s also consider the things that many Americans eat that are considered just plain disgusting in China. These include deer and cow testicles (yum), sheep brains (double yum), fish eggs, sausages, goose liver and even cheese (wait, really?), sour cream, sauerkraut and salty bean dishes (all according to maxent.org).

Not that I’ve ever knowingly eaten a Rocky Mountain Oyster. Or dog or cat, for that matter. I mean, this is a pretty old joke but still rings true … can we really know for sure what’s been ground and pressed into that All-American hot dog?

Posted by: Colin Mangham