Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

His point was you can't sit back and wait.  You have to get out and sell. 

He was not in the sales end, he was part of upper management.  Tho, he held sales persons in all fields in the highest esteem.

I wasn't so young at the time.  I was one of the older crowd in class.  He respected and liked me because I was in business before becoming a college student. 

Carmine D.

"Obsessed " is a poor choice of words IMHO.  As is the lack of a direct link of these pros to vacuum products and technology, its primary business.   As a consumer for a $500 plus household vacuum, I  really don't care/want to know that hundreds of dyson engineers and scientists are obsessed with better products and technology .............that may be totally unrelated to vacuums.  Or that the company filed 635 patents, many of which are unrelated to the vacuum I'm thinking about purchasing.  And that the company is not an inventor of vacuums but a problem solver.  In other words:  Is this hype, unrelated to the vacuum's performance, substitutes for: Never clogs, never loses suction?

Carmine D

The good professor's point was that the students should seek positions in sales.  And yes, most college freshmen need a seasoned professor with both academic credentials and real business world experience to steer/guide them into the right professions.  I can't recall at the time if there were any women in the class.  Probably a couple.  Maybe they even became dyson sales reps?

I have great respect for companies large and small which successfully produce and market their products for consumption.  And contempt for companies that can't and say they do [read: hype].  

Your fave inventor's company prefers to file hundreds of patents in lieu of producing/marketing products.  His hopes are that at some future point in time another company will take all the risks to produce and market a consumer good/product that directly/indirectly infringes on a patent.  Then a potential unrealized gain may be made by selling the patents and/or threatening legal actions for patent right infringements.  It's an innovative business approach, indeed.  Certainly full employment for patent right lawyers.  You think the good history lovers of Bath are onto him?

Carmine D.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'd say the retired CEO and President of one the largest companies in the world, who sat on over a dozen boards of the largest fortune 500 USA companies, and took no salary from a State University for teaching, save the sheer pleasure to teach University students, is a special kind of professor.  Certainly worthy of my registration/enrollment in his classes.  In fact, most students considered attending his classes both an honor and privilege.  Not many absentees even tho it was the first class of the day. 

I don't think he could list his many business accomplishments on a single page and advertise so others might read and know at a quick glance.  He had many careers in his lifetime.  It would take many such pages to do him the justice he deserves.  He is one of the smartest men I ever met in my lifetime.  And I met many. 

Ironically, at the same time he was spending alot of time in Nevada.  He bought and sold real estate in the desert of Las Vegas to build hotel/motels.  In one his many career ventures, he managed to obtain several engineering degrees so he would know how to read blue prints and meet state/local codes for building requirements.  Made multi-millions of dollars.  And still does from his current investment/ownerships in these properties.  Gifts most away to charity, since his Wife and just about all his family members including offspring [and friends] are deceased.  He and I get together for coffee once a week and talk about the good old days.  I still enjoy his business wisdom and humor on current world events.

Carmine D

Thomas A. Edison, an inventor of note, and a New Jerseyan like the good professor and I, initially thought AC current was far inferior to DC current and would never be of value.  I give him a pass on that error.

I'd say Bernie Madoff fits the description of a billionaire with a ruthless dark side who ruins people and companies.  And I'd add to him and the list, greedy companies and executives who use "foreign" slave labor without guilt to enrich themselves at the expense of others.  Their sins cry up to God.  They get their just rewards if not in this life, then the one to come. 

Carmine D.