Darn that Runaway Bride

Rumor has it that the "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks is getting approximately half a million dollars to tell her story to the world via a book/tv/movie/something deal. Personally, I think we should all get a chunk of these proceeds for having to put up with this story; why do I care about some wealthy white girl who got cold feet? All that idiot did was steal police and news resources away from something worthwhile, and now we are rewarding her for it.

Never mind the fact that there are *plenty* of other people abducted, murdered, etc every year who are not white, female, and affluent. For a society that tries to deny its predilection for the objectification of women, we sure do love hearing stories about missing women of child-bearing age. You just know there are reporters combing over fresh police reports looking for the latest pretty young girl who stumbled into evil all the while outrightly ignoring the millions who have no choice but to grow up in its throws. I believe the latter offers richer stories and deserves more attention, but apparently I am the minority in that opinion.

Brother, Can You Spare a SSN?

Multiple choice question: This CNN article, "Professor charged with stealing students' IDs", is:

1. a clear reason why social security numbers should not be used as a means of identification in academic (and plenty of other) settings.
2. an indication of what you risk when you pay adjunct faculty too little.
3. both.

Wal-Mart is Rolling Back Wages!

A note about Wal-Mart from today's Chicago Tribune:
"Full-time employees make $9.68 an hour, or about 30 percent less than grocery workers, according to a University of California at Berkeley study."

Assuming a 40 hour work week and 52 weeks of diligent service per year, that is an annual income of $20,134.40. How is it not immediately transparent to all readers that Wal-Mart has chosen the $9.68 sum so their employees will at least break $20k annually?

Does Wal-Mart really think their customers would protest if they raised prices by a few pennies in order to pay better wages? In 2004 Wal-Mart had $288 billion in sales, gross profits of $68 billion and net income of over $10 billion. Wal-Mart employs one million employees in the U.S. (that's one in 300 U.S. citizens) and pays them squat.

My suggestion to Wal-Mart, which is facing greater competition from trendier stores like Target, is that they should pay their employees better, and spin this revision to boost sales; Run advertisements that portray Wal-Mart as a place that loves their employees and treats them with respect, and mean it. Your employees will spend more at Wal-Mart, your critics will be silenced (well, at least on this issue), and that elusive middle-class that avoids Wal-Mart may once again consider shopping at a store that has, up to now, best been known as a company that dominates at the cost of everyone in their path, including their own employees.

I Have a New Publication Out Today

A case study I co-wrote hit bookshelves today: “Race to Dot-Com and Back: Lessons on e-Business Spin-Offs and Re-Integration”

An abstract: This article describes the experiences of a firm that created a dot.com spin-off, only to reintegrate it with the parent organization the following year. Based on this case study, key considerations for creating and successfully managing an e-Business spin-off are identified.

Email me if you are interested in reading it, or check it out via your local University's library:
Thomas, D., Ranganathan, C., and Desouza, K.C., “Race to Dot-Com and Back: Lessons on e-Business Spin-Offs and Re-Integration,” Information Systems Management, 22:3, Summer 2005, pp. 23-30.

Darrin's Idea Book

Sometimes I get ideas that I think could really make money. Most of them I just keep to myself because it seems stupid to broadcast them on the internet for the general public to intercept. It's like when an overly excited MBA/manager type comes up to you and says, "If you had some capital and wanted to parlay that into an exciting new enterprise/idea, what would that be? What is your idea?" Like I'm going to tell you, geeze, come up with your own ideas.

So heres a freebie cause I don't see myself doing anything with it, and it has already been done to a limited extent:

Companies can't stop talking about converting your digital photographs into paper form. Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Sams, etc all offer this: Bring your memory card in and we'll give you hardcopies of your pictures for 29 cents each. Great.

Yet 85% of the pictures in this world end up forever buried in drawers, and those 15% (I think that is a very liberal estimate) that do make it to albums again sit on the shelf. So I propose a digital revival: Bring in your stack of old photographs and we'll dump them on a DVD for you. Companies could add custom features like automatic slide-shows when you drop the DVD in a conventional player, or of course you can pull the saved pictures off for manipulation or sorting on your home computer. If companies really want to get crazy, they could offer to put all the pictures online for either display or sorting before the photos get dumped to the DVD.

With a fair amount of automation, specifically scanners with auto-feeders and possibly computer software that dumps the files to DVD or the web, a stack of photos could be done in seconds. Charge 20 cents a picture, or more for value-added services, and voila, you've reversed the trend of digital to analog in your favor.

Market it as "make your photos last forever" or "revive those old photos" or some advert copy like that. I really think if Kinkos offered this in all their stores, they could kill. Or offer it as a drop-off service and mail it in to a central agency. Maybe that is how I could put it within my grasp: start it as a central business and get other companies to market it and sell it. I could pick up the photos at the various retailers, do the processing, then drop the DVD off a few days later. Give them 30%, then pocket the rest. I think in a large metro you could make some good money to start, then take it nationwide. Now my broke ass just needs investors ;)

Darn that Runaway Bride

Rumor has it that the "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks is getting approximately half a million dollars to tell her story to the world via a book/tv/movie/something deal. Personally, I think we should all get a chunk of these proceeds for having to put up with this story; why do I care about some wealthy white girl who got cold feet? All that idiot did was steal police and news resources away from something worthwhile, and now we are rewarding her for it.

Never mind the fact that there are *plenty* of other people abducted, murdered, etc every year who are not white, female, and affluent. For a society that tries to deny its predilection for the objectification of women, we sure do love hearing stories about missing women of child-bearing age. You just know there are reporters combing over fresh police reports looking for the latest pretty young girl who stumbled into evil all the while outrightly ignoring the millions who have no choice but to grow up in its throws. I believe the latter offers richer stories and deserves more attention, but apparently I am the minority in that opinion.

Brother, Can You Spare a SSN?

Multiple choice question: This CNN article, "Professor charged with stealing students' IDs", is:

1. a clear reason why social security numbers should not be used as a means of identification in academic (and plenty of other) settings.
2. an indication of what you risk when you pay adjunct faculty too little.
3. both.

Wal-Mart is Rolling Back Wages!

A note about Wal-Mart from today's Chicago Tribune:
"Full-time employees make $9.68 an hour, or about 30 percent less than grocery workers, according to a University of California at Berkeley study."

Assuming a 40 hour work week and 52 weeks of diligent service per year, that is an annual income of $20,134.40. How is it not immediately transparent to all readers that Wal-Mart has chosen the $9.68 sum so their employees will at least break $20k annually?

Does Wal-Mart really think their customers would protest if they raised prices by a few pennies in order to pay better wages? In 2004 Wal-Mart had $288 billion in sales, gross profits of $68 billion and net income of over $10 billion. Wal-Mart employs one million employees in the U.S. (that's one in 300 U.S. citizens) and pays them squat.

My suggestion to Wal-Mart, which is facing greater competition from trendier stores like Target, is that they should pay their employees better, and spin this revision to boost sales; Run advertisements that portray Wal-Mart as a place that loves their employees and treats them with respect, and mean it. Your employees will spend more at Wal-Mart, your critics will be silenced (well, at least on this issue), and that elusive middle-class that avoids Wal-Mart may once again consider shopping at a store that has, up to now, best been known as a company that dominates at the cost of everyone in their path, including their own employees.

I Have a New Publication Out Today

A case study I co-wrote hit bookshelves today: “Race to Dot-Com and Back: Lessons on e-Business Spin-Offs and Re-Integration”

An abstract: This article describes the experiences of a firm that created a dot.com spin-off, only to reintegrate it with the parent organization the following year. Based on this case study, key considerations for creating and successfully managing an e-Business spin-off are identified.

Email me if you are interested in reading it, or check it out via your local University's library:
Thomas, D., Ranganathan, C., and Desouza, K.C., “Race to Dot-Com and Back: Lessons on e-Business Spin-Offs and Re-Integration,” Information Systems Management, 22:3, Summer 2005, pp. 23-30.

Darrin's Idea Book

Sometimes I get ideas that I think could really make money. Most of them I just keep to myself because it seems stupid to broadcast them on the internet for the general public to intercept. It's like when an overly excited MBA/manager type comes up to you and says, "If you had some capital and wanted to parlay that into an exciting new enterprise/idea, what would that be? What is your idea?" Like I'm going to tell you, geeze, come up with your own ideas.

So heres a freebie cause I don't see myself doing anything with it, and it has already been done to a limited extent:

Companies can't stop talking about converting your digital photographs into paper form. Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Sams, etc all offer this: Bring your memory card in and we'll give you hardcopies of your pictures for 29 cents each. Great.

Yet 85% of the pictures in this world end up forever buried in drawers, and those 15% (I think that is a very liberal estimate) that do make it to albums again sit on the shelf. So I propose a digital revival: Bring in your stack of old photographs and we'll dump them on a DVD for you. Companies could add custom features like automatic slide-shows when you drop the DVD in a conventional player, or of course you can pull the saved pictures off for manipulation or sorting on your home computer. If companies really want to get crazy, they could offer to put all the pictures online for either display or sorting before the photos get dumped to the DVD.

With a fair amount of automation, specifically scanners with auto-feeders and possibly computer software that dumps the files to DVD or the web, a stack of photos could be done in seconds. Charge 20 cents a picture, or more for value-added services, and voila, you've reversed the trend of digital to analog in your favor.

Market it as "make your photos last forever" or "revive those old photos" or some advert copy like that. I really think if Kinkos offered this in all their stores, they could kill. Or offer it as a drop-off service and mail it in to a central agency. Maybe that is how I could put it within my grasp: start it as a central business and get other companies to market it and sell it. I could pick up the photos at the various retailers, do the processing, then drop the DVD off a few days later. Give them 30%, then pocket the rest. I think in a large metro you could make some good money to start, then take it nationwide. Now my broke ass just needs investors ;)