Posts Tagged ‘Business’

Implications of Naked Short Selling with Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com

Friday, June 27th, 2008

In this Podcast Episode

Rob McNealy interviews Patrick Michael Byrne, Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, about Deep Capture, his effort to increase awareness and knowledge regarding the facts, culprits and economic implications of naked short selling.

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Patrick Byrne’s Bio

Patrick ByrnePatrick Michael Byrne is Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, Inc., a publicly traded, Utah-based internet retailer. Under Patrick’s leadership the company’s annual revenue has soared from $1.8 million in 1999 to $760.2 million in 2007.

Before founding Overstock.com, Patrick served as Chairman, President and CEO of Centricut, LLC, a manufacturer of industrial torch consumables, then held the same three positions at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company and manufacturer of police, firefighter, and military uniforms.

In 2001, Patrick began Worldstock.com, Overstock.com’s socially responsible marketplace for handcrafted products created by artisans from developing nations and in rural areas of the United States. On average, artisans receive about 60% of the sales price. To date, more than $30 million dollars has been returned to artisans, allowing them to better their lives through re-training and making improvements to their housing and healthcare.

Patrick is a former professor whose education includes a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in philosophy and Asian studies, a master’s degree in philosophy from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University. In the United States, he is active in the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and supports legislative reform. Patrick has also founded 19 schools internationally that currently educate more than 6,000 combined students.

A self described “classical liberal,” Patrick believes that sound financial policy is essential to our nation’s economic health. In 2005, he began a vigorous campaign against securities manipulation. His stance quickly caught the attention of Wall Street analysts and reporters and remains a point of high controversy today.

Patrick has a black belt in tae kwon do and once pursued a career in boxing. After surviving cancer, he cycled across the country four times. His last ride, in the summer of 2000, helped raise awareness and record-breaking funds for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

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There’s no Such Thing as an Intrapreneur!

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

I network in a lot of circles both entrepreneurial and corporate. When I meet corporate types at functions, they often times tell me that they would “love” to be an entrepreneur, but for whatever XYZ reasons, they simply can’t. And, they usually follow on by saying that they are an “intrapreneur.”

The widely held definition of an intrapreneur is someone that acts as an entrepreneur (or someone having “entrepreneurial spirit”) while working inside a corporate organization.

I flatly think this is nonsense. You cannot be self-employed and employed simultaneously. Entrepreneurship is not a feeling or a state of mind. It is how you make your living. Either you are an entrepreneur or you are not.

The most fundamental difference between an employee and an entrepreneur is that the entrepreneur has risk (and stress) – they have skin in the game. Employees, no matter how innovative, do not have the weight of the company on their backs. You cannot be an entrepreneur without that.

I think the intrapreneur title came about as a way to make risk adverse corporate guys and entrepreneur wannabes feel good. I think that stems from the jealousy that corporate types feel towards their freedom loving and more fulfilled entrepreneurial friends.

Here is a little test to take to determine if you are an entrepreneur or not:

  1. If work is slow does your salary or income change?
  2. Do you have legal papers saying you own a company?
  3. Can you tell crappy customers to go to hell and not get fired?
  4. Have you ever stressed about making a payroll?

If you can’t answer yes to the first three questions above, you’re simply NOT an entrepreneur. If you’re an entrepreneur (see questions 1-3 above), and you answered no to question 4, I think you’re either brilliant, lucky or lying. Now, what do you think?

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Posted in Business | 2 Comments »

Your Business and the US Economy

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Every day, when I check in on the business news served up by Google News, the outlook for the US economy seems even more bleak. As I sat and started to type this post yesterday, headlines which jumped out at me included record crude oil prices of $112.21 a barrel, a declaration from the International Monetary Fund that the US economy is going into a recession, and an update on the ever climbing foreclosure rates and possible mortgage bailouts.

In addition to the bleak news stories, it seems like every time we chat with friends and family with corporate jobs, people are going through layoffs and downsizing, and it seems like more and more of my flooring competitors are laying off or going out of business as well.

Thankfully, we’ve never been ones to sit idly by when it comes to business, and “multiple streams of income” has been part of our mantra for as long as I can remember. Still, the current economic trends are less than pleasant, and it’s hard not to worry about what the upcoming year holds. Do you think, like so many people I talk to, that the US economy is improving, or do you believe the worst is yet to come? If you’re one of those who believes the worst is yet to come, what are you doing to protect yourself from the US economic downturn?

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Opinions on a Carbon Footprint Tax

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Over the past two days, I’ve been attending sessions at the Sustainable Opportunities Summit sponsored by CORE.  During my time there, I’ve been hearing a lot about the concept of applying a carbon footprint tax to business in order to encourage (or coerce, depending on how you look at it) businesses to examine and improve on the way they are impacting our ecosystem. I don’t want to get into a debate about global warming, if it’s real, or when exactly Florida is going to be washed into the sea. Instead, I’d like to focus this discussion on the pros and cons of a carbon tax.

In my mind, there are two ways to use taxes to modify behavior. We’ll call those two methods the stick method, and the carrot method. The current discussion of carbon tax is one example of using the tax system as a stick, to force businesses into more ecologically friendly business practices. This method imposes a tax which penalizes companies that have a large carbon footprint, but doesn’t provide any help in implementing these changes.

Instead of using the the carbon footprint tax as a stick, the US could alternatively decide to provide real tax incentives to serve as a carrot for companies who reduce their carbon footprint, allowing them to afford to make changes faster, and stay in business. Our government throws useless tax incentives to large industries on a regular basis, like the $18 billion in tax incentives for oil and gas companies which have been under debate in the House and Senate recently. Why not use some of these incentives to promote good corporate behavior instead of supporting an already thriving, multi-billion dollar industry?

While I firmly believe that both individuals and businesses should be aware of their impact on the earth and our air and water supply, and should work towards minimizing or eliminating pollution and contamination that threatens our planet and our health, I generally hate to see companies taxed out of existence.

What do you think?

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Vote for Startup Story Radio with Rob McNealy Podcasts in Digg & iTunes

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

We are trying to build some Podcast rankings to coincide with our terrestrial radio broadcast. I would so very much appreciate it if you could take a few moments and log into the following links and vote for and review all of the Startup Story Radio episodes. We only need 268 more votes to become the number one business podcast in Digg, and that is the goal.

Digg.com link & iTunes link

The more votes and reviews we get on Digg.com and iTunes, the more the Podcast traffic exponentially increases. That would be my one Christmas wish.

If you are unfamiliar with how to review something in iTunes, here is a link from Dave Taylor (www.AskDaveTaylor.com) that walks you through the process.

 

 

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