Throwback Thursday: Millennials May Need Their Parents For This One

Stan Krozel and his partner Kevin Ullery founded the business after the real estate downturn stopped their careers dead in its tracks. Instead of capitulating, they looked at reinventing themselves by making an old idea new again.

Good Morning Folks,

Today's photos have been supplied by retired Frager Creative copywriter Elizabeth Cutler who is the real-life inspiration for the character known as Elaine on Seinfeld. Yes she wrote the J. Peterman catalog and also wrote great advertising lines like BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine and also Archer Management Services: We're Not Business As Usual.

Incredible. Some of these I had not thought about in years. What a trip back in time!!!

The Juke box, Toni hair products, Lepages glue (a k-12 essential), Sealtest ice cream, Crayola and Brunswick Gummed Reinforcements!. The mimeograph machine. The rotary dial phone where the "digits" were a name and digits like "Bigelow 2-3479 and you'd talk to a real live operator for long distance (which could be $39 for a 3 minute call) so some kept 3-minute sand timers by the phone to keep them on budget. 

And who could forget the librarian or the hand-written store receipts with carbon copy for the customer! Or the gas station attendant whop pumped your gas, checked your oil and washed your windows all for 40 cents a gallon while you bought a green coke bottle from the machine for a nickel.

I know I am losing Millennials on this. But for our ALA friends :).... Interesting that what is old is new again. Especially when you can combine hospitality, fun and a personal touch. This recent presentation on Shark Tank is case in point that there are other million dollar ideas on right here on this page... all you have to do is put your (re) IMAGINATION caps on.

Fun Time Express is a unique and memorable trackless train ride that is sure to delight the entire family.

The Shark Tank example: Trackless train-ride provider Fun Time Express on Friday night became the second Chicago-based company this season to come away with six-figure funding from ABC's "Shark Tank" television program. The idea was inspired by the guys seeing an old film where kids were kept busy on coin operated horses and merry-go-rounds when parents shopped at strip malls. Seeds planted in their heads as the above photos could plant in yours.

Fun Time Express received a $125,000 investment from "Shark Tank" investors Lori Grenier and Kevin O’Leary, who will receive a combined 20 percent equity in the company.

Stan Krozel, left, and his partner
Kevin Ullery founded the
business after the real estate
downturn stopped their careers
dead in its tracks. Instead of
capitulating, they looked at
reinventing themselves
by making an old idea new again.

Fun Time Express founders Stan Krozel and Kevin Ullery appeared on the program, taped in September, and asked for $125,000. Just when it seemed like the sharks were losing interest, O’Leary took note of Fun Time Express’ impressive margins — up to 30 percent on 2013’s revenues, which topped $300,000, according to Krozel.

“If we did absolutely nothing [different] next year, that’s $150,000 in net profit,” said Krozel, the majority owner. “That’s passive income.”

Yet O'Leary said he didn't see big enough money in the company. He declared himself out of the running as an investor, leaving Grenier as the only shark not to drop out.

Grenier, a Chicagoan, said she would put up half the asking price and asked O'Leary to put up the other half.

Krozel amended his deal to get O’Leary on board. Instead of a straight exchange for equity, Krozel offered to use 100 percent of profits to pay back the $125,000. The investors then would receive 10 percent equity each.

Fun Time Express operates eight trains in five malls across the U.S. On the show, Ullery said the trains could be used in other arenas, such as at private parties. O'Leary said he had ideas for tweaking the business to gain even better returns.

Be great and (re)IMAGINE!

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

ABOUT FSO:

• The fastest growing and most successful national onsite outsourcing in the U.S. focused on 1) improving services, 2) reducing costs, and 3) giving employees  an opportunity to grow.
• We outsource functions like: Mail, Copy, Reception, Switchboard, Office Services, Records, Messenger, IT, Concierge, Front & Back Office and much more.
• 1600+ employees, operating in 60+ cities, 225+ operational sites, 98% employee retention & 100% client retention.
• We (re)imagine the ways businesses are run.

ABOUT FSO CEO & FOUNDER – MITCH WEINER:

• Pioneer of the onsite outsourcing business model.
• 20+ years of industry experience.
•  Previous owner of Archer, which he sold to Canon.

VIDEO:
Brief "corporate portrait" video shows who we are and what we can do for you HERE

Throw Back Thursday: In 1961 This Invention Revolutionized Business Documents For Lawyers and Enterprises Everywhere

"By 1986, more than 13 million Selectric typewriters had been sold. For more than 25 years, the Selectric was the typewriter found on most office desks. Leaving today 25 years of paper records ripe for retention innovations."

Good Morning Folks,


It was known as The 'Selectric" typewriter. Members of the ALA remember it. It was revolutionary in its day having memory so you didn't have to retype or use carbon paper (covered here before). 

For me as a young salesperson, it meant not having to wait in line for weeks with 20 other sales folks for getting the basically same proposal template output one at a time. Believe it or not sometimes it took a month to get a proposal. You can only compare the frustration to that of getting a trial or hearing date and all the postponements due to emergencies that come up, absences, few backup employees trained on the technology.

We've come so far from then, yet with the pace of invention, the possibilities of technology and employment and economic models changing all around us, looking back ten years from now on today, one can not phantom what business will become. 

That's why FSO is always looking out to your future. So as I bring you this snippet of history from IBM's 100 Centennial and historical record, our (re)IMAGINE teams are hard at work conceiving of business plans will make a positive and powerful impact on our clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

By making the golf ball interchangeable, the Selectric enabled different fonts,
including italics, scientific notation and other languages, to be swapped in

==> Black and white of the Selectric typewriter

.

The Selectric typewriter, launched in 1961, was an overnight hit. “Sales of [the Selectric] in the first 30 days exceeded the forecast for six months. We figured in our branch office that we’d sell 50 or 60 and sold 500 to 600,” IBM salesman John Vinlove told USA Today in 1986 for a story about the typewriter’s 25th anniversary. 




The manufacturing facility expected to make 20,000 Selectric typewriters in its first year. By the end of 1961, they had orders for 80,000. And by 1986, more than 13 million Selectric typewriters had been sold. For more than 25 years, the Selectric was the typewriter found on most office desks.

With 2800 parts, many designed from scratch, the Selectric was a radical departure even for IBM, which had been in the typewriter business since the 1930s and was already a market leader. It took seven years to work out the manufacturing and design challenges before the first Selectric was ready for sale.

At the physical heart of the Selectric typewriter’s innovation was a golf-ball-shaped type head that replaced the conventional typewriter’s basket of type bars. The design eliminated the bane of rapid typing: jammed type bars. And with no bars to jam, typists’ speed and productivity soared.

The golf ball typing element was designed by an engineering team led by Horace “Bud” Beattie. The team members, according to a 1961 advertisement for the Selectric, “began their search by forgetting the past fifty years of typewriter design.” The first type head design had been shaped more like a mushroom, but under Beattie’s direction, IBM engineer John Hickerson revised the type head toward its ultimate spherical configuration.

One other innovation in the design—a changeable typeface—was borrowed from a turn-of-the-century model, the Blickensderfer typewriter. Although it is not documented, it is believed that the Selectric name was inspired by adding this changeable typeface selection to an electric typewriter. By making the golf ball interchangeable, the Selectric enabled different fonts, including italics, scientific notation and other languages, to be swapped in. With the addition in 1964 of a magnetic tape system for storing characters, the Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter (MT/ST) model became the first, albeit analog, word-processor device.

The aesthetic design of the Selectric was the responsibility of Eliot Noyes, an architect and industrial designer who served as consulting design director to IBM for 21 years. The elegant, curvaceous form he created followed the Selectric typewriter’s distinctive function: the golf ball, which moved across the page, eliminated the traditional carriage return. That enabled the Selectric to operate in a smaller footprint and opened up possibilities for a new profile. For the Selectric, Noyes drew on some of the sculptural qualities of Olivetti typewriters in Italy. The result was a patented, timeless shape, and a high-water mark for IBM’s industrial design and product innovation. “A writer’s machine if ever there was one,” noted Jane Smiley in Writers on Writing, Vol. II.

Less well-known is the Selectric typewriter’s role as one of the first computer terminals. While personal computers, notebook computers and word processing software may have relegated the paper-based typewriter to twentieth-century artifact, the Selectric was the basis for the keyboard input on the revolutionary IBM System/360. A modified version of the Selectric, dubbed the IBM 2741 Terminal, was adapted to plug into the System/360, and enabled a wider range of engineers and researchers to begin talking to and interacting with their computers.

Yet to IBM computer scientist Bob Bemer, the Selectric represented “one of the biggest professional failures of my life.” Bemer had pioneered the creation of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, or ASCII, which still defines the alphabet for computers. When prototypes of the Selectric were already being manufactured at IBM’s typewriter plant in Lexington, Kentucky, Bemer reviewed the Selectric typewriter’s specifications. To him, the Selectric would make a natural computer keyboard. He argued that the type ball should be designed to carry 64 characters required for ASCII, rather than the typewriter standard 44. That would make it relatively easy to convert the Selectric for computer input. The response, as Bemer remembers it, was dismissive. As a result, the Selectric never spoke ASCII, instead employing a unique code based on the tilt and rotate commands to the golf ball. While Bemer viewed this as his failure, engineers continued to rig Selectric typewriters to function as the first generation of computer keyboards and input devices.

In 1971, the Selectric II was released, with sharper corners and squarer lines, as well as new features such as the ability to change “pitch” from 10 to 12 characters per inch and, starting in 1973, a ribbon to correct mistakes. The final model, the Selectric III, was sold in the 1980s with more advanced word processing capabilities and a 96-character printing element. But as personal computers and daisy-wheel printers began to dominate, the Selectric brand was retired in 1986.

For those who remember IBM Selectric typing and retyping and previously making "carbon copies" in law firms (and other enterprises too) , it's not a pleasant memory. So while we like to throw back on Thursday, think of it as one of the main reasons everyone is whistling while they work today.

The end of the Selectric ushered in decades of productivity and progress in law firms that their retirees could never have imagined.

On the other hand, with pressure on law firms to cut costs, an obvious starting point is in that expensive real estate you are using to store what may include "carbon copies" that you haven’t looked at in 50 years, nor ever will.

Over time — decades in many cases — the volume of retained records grows, as does the cost of storing them. But by (re)IMAGINING the records retention process, and with a thoughtful policy to change it, law firms (and other enterprises too) who have been pressured to cut costs can find help from professionals like FSO who will help you solve it. 

Have a GREAT Day. Love Life.

I'll be a seeing you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

==> Going Paperless 
We recently completed the largest and most successful document conversion in the New York area, migrating over 35 million pages to electronic format. Savings come not just from eliminating each $900 lateral file, but also from not buying or leasing Class A office space to store paper, and reducing the costs of utilities, equipment maintenance and consumables associated with paper copies.

Can your incumbent do this?

ThrowBack Thursday: GE's Brilliant Machines (re)Visits 1985

"The thing about science and technologies that what's cutting edge today is quickly replaced tomorrow. At FSO we know that similarly the best cutting edge outsourcing strategies that work today are quickly replaced tomorrow. That's why our(re)imagine the Future team has always got your back— constantly pushing the envelope to build better, more brilliant  services that will power us into the future."

Good Morning Folks,

General Electric's technology is making time travel easier. Kind of. Not really. Still, that hasn't stopped the brand from making a new ad based on Back to the Future.

The spot, from BBDO in New York, part of the client's "Brilliant Machines" campaign, features enough of the essential cues: the souped-up DeLorean with the "Outatime" license plate; Marty McFly's scuffed Nike sneakers; and a voiceover by Michael J. Fox. The commercial doesn't actually show Fox, perhaps because it would shatter the illusion to see a middle-aged McFly droning on about how you kids don't know how good you have it. Back in his day, it wasn't so easy to find 1.21 gigawatts of electricity.

The thing about science and technology is that what's cutting edge today is quickly replaced tomorrow. And that's a good thing — constantly pushing the envelope to build better, more brilliant machines will power us into the future. To celebrate the next chapter in General Electric's Brilliant Machines story, head back in time and see just how far we've come since 1985.

Below, Mashable's rounded up 14 brilliant machines from 1985.

1. Polaroid 600

Image: flickr, mpclemens

This instant-print camera was a classic in the '80s — the distinctive square prints with white borders fueled instant gratification. The photos took approximately three minutes to develop, and some of the cameras had sonar autofocus and featured glass lenses, though most came equipped with plastic lenses and a fixed focus of four feet. The camera was bulky enough to require a two-hand snap, but despite its size, the Polaroid 600 etched itself into our collective nostalgia.

2. The Original Macintosh

Image courtesy of Flickr, MattsMacintosh

A far cry from the sleek design of today’s MacBook Pro, the original Macintosh computer seems clunky by modern standards (it weighs 16.5 pounds). At the time, however, consumers touted the machine as a mastery of technological design. The Macintosh’s primary features included 128K of memory (limiting even by 1985 standards), a user-friendly interface and revolutionary elements such as pull-down menus, windows and icons. Reviewers cited usability as the Mac’s primary advantage over the competition: Consumer Reports declared the original Mac “far and away the easiest computer to learn and use that we have ever seen,” citing the “mouse” and “icons” (that’s right — in quotes) as major technological advances.

3. Commodore 128

Image: Wikipedia

Three years junior to the best-selling Commodore 64, Commodore 128 was the last 8-bit machine released by CBM. While the 80 column screen and large disk drive were essential for business use, the C128 didn't offer many upgrades for gamers, the primary buyers of the C64. Despite the computer being 100% compatible with its predecessor, the C128 only saw sales of 4 million (compared to 17 million for the C64). But the C128 did introduce the keyboard still present on many IBM PCs today, such as four arrow keys (C64 only had down and right buttons). By 1989, the C128 was nearly obsolete as 16/31-bit systems dominated the market.

4. Sony Discman D-50 MK2

Image: Wikipedia

Sony's 1984 Discman D-50 MK2 introduced a new era of music enjoyment and improved upon the tape-based Walkman. The Discman played compact discs, which had emerged commercially in 1982 and reached critical mass to merit their own player. But don't try running or even walking fast while holding a Discman — while it was a handheld device that could play music from a plastic disc (that you could see spinning), it was prone to skipping.

5. The Casio SK-1 Keyboard

Image: Wikipedia

The Casio SK-1, the junior version of the popular SK-5, was a staple in many households in 1985. A small sampling keyboard, the SK-1 was one of the first affordable samplers. Highly portable and featuring a built-in microphone as well as sampling/synthesizing functions, the Casio SK-1 remained one of the most popular samplers throughout the '80s and '90s. Today, some musicians still turn to the SK-1 for its coarse, lo-fi sound quality, despite major advancements in sampler technology.

6. The Fuji ES-1

Image: DigiCam History

In 1985, the Fuji ES-1 offered the tech-savvy photographer a welcome break from constant trips to and from the photo shop to develop film. A precursor to the digital camera, this “still video camera” enabled users to snap 640px by 480px photos. The camera boasted the then-revolutionary ability to save images to a 3.5-inch floppy disk on a brand new digital format — the JPEG.

7. Amiga 1000

Image: Wikipedia

The "Amiga," as it was known in 1985, was a preemptive multitasking operating systems so advanced that even its marketing team didn't know what to do with it. Following on the heels of the Commodore 64, the Commodore Amiga was a massive upgrade to previous models and featured four channel stereo sounds, 512KB memory and video modes that displayed up to 4026 colors at the same time, making it the most advanced computer of its era. While it became a favorite for graphic artists and animators, due to poor marketing, it never became a huge PC hit. In hindsight, the Amiga was a huge step forward for computer technology and in 2006, PC World rated it the 7th greatest PC of all time. It's just too bad no one really knew about it (which left the door open wide open for Apple) and less than a decade later Commodore filed for bankruptcy.

8. Nintendo NES

Image: Wikipedia

Before there was Zynga and OMGPOP, there was a Japanese gaming company, Nintendo, whose Famicom (Family Computer) was shipped to the U.S. as Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, in 1985. The 8-bit video game console revolutionized gaming and gave a much-needed boon to the gaming industry after the "video game crash of 1983," becoming the best-selling gaming console of its time. Nintendo games came in the form of cartridges, which popped into a spring-loaded slot (and often required a good, hard blow if it wasn't working properly). Game controllers were hardwired directly into the NES console, so you couldn't stray too far from the game. Of course we're even closer to the game now — it's in the palm of our hands.

9. Nokia's Mobira Talkman

Image: Nokia Museum

The world's first mobile phone weighed in at nearly 11 pounds and required a large bag for the haul and a car for any and all recharging opportunities. To critics' surprise, Talkman sales boomed and the phone experienced a heyday of sorts lasting from 1984, when it first launched, through 1987, when a handheld model was released to replace it.

10. Apple LaserWriter

Image: Flickr

Laser printing began as early as 1969 but was not available to home offices until 1985 with the launch of Apple's LaserWriter. The printer solidified Apple as the choice for designers — not only could its programs allow graphic designers to make great things, now they could turn their designs into print. It was also the first networked laser printer, so although it was more expensive than products from competitors, it could be used by an entire lab of computers, so the price per user was much lower. While early Macs made computing personal, the LaserWriter brought publishing to the personal office — much in the same way companies like Makerbot now bring manufacturing into the home with 3D printers.

11. Panasonic NV-F65 HQ VCR

Panasonic first began manufacturing VCRs to play VHS tapes in 1977, one of the first Japanese companies to do so. Before the days of On-Demand, Netflix and TiVo, television shows and movies had to be manually copied to VHS tapes.

12. Windows 1.0

Image: Flickr

If you've dabbled in programming, you might have used the command line (called Terminal on Macs), which requires you to type in a specific code to get your computer to do something. If you used a computer prior to the release of Windows 1.0, you know that this was how everyone used computers. Windows 1.0 was the first graphical interface — think clicking on icons rather than typing in code — and was also the first program that allowed you to multitask, such as using a text document and a calendar at the same time. It was revolutionary the same way the first iPhone and its default apps were — but of course it was also just the beginning. It was replaced by Windows 2.0 and yet Windows still offered support for the program, for 16 years. All good things must eventually come to an end, eh? Check out this video of a man upgrading from Windows 1.0 to Windows 7.

13. Texas Instruments TI 4100

Image: Institute of Navigation

The Texas Instruments TI 4100 was the first commercial GPS receiver, manufactured in 1981. Running on large scale integrated (LSI) components, it was the highest speed low-power digital technology of the era. The device was a breakthrough technology utilized by the military, and it provided consumers navigation within an accuracy of 10 meters.

14. Tissot F1 Electronic LCD Watch

Image: RetroWatches

The Tissot F1 had innovative features including a timer, alarm, chronograph, time zone options and a calendar. You were definitely ahead of the curve if you were seen sporting one of these digital watches. It is probably most well-known for having the first touch-sensitive panel, which was used to select the mode and change the time.

Thumbnail image: Flickr, MattsMacintosh

As GE said, ""The thing about science and technology is that what's cutting edge today is quickly replaced tomorrow. And that's a good thing — constantly pushing the envelope to build better, more brilliant machines will power us into the future.

At FSO we know that similarly the best cutting edge outsourcing ideas that work today are quickly replaced tomorrow. That's why out (re)imagine the Future team has always got your back. Let us show you how. Call me at xxxxxxx for a FREE consultation

Have a GREAT day and LOVE LIFE as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

..........................................................
“Not everyone will understand your journey. 

Especially if they've never walked your path"

...........................................................

Connect with GE Online:
Visit GE's Website: http://full.sc/12xawCV
Find GE on Google +: http://full.sc/YDDmMz
Find GE on Tumblr: http://full.sc/12xaDhI
Find GE on Facebook: http://full.sc/12xaJGm
Follow GE on Twitter: http://full.sc/YDDz2o
Follow GE on Pinterest: http://full.sc/12xaQ4w
Follow GE on Instagram: http://full.sc/YDDImq
Find GE on LinkedIn: http://full.sc/YDDPhC

The Future Is Now - GE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QN79E...