Sharper Image Bankruptcy Prediction Coming True

During the holiday of 2006, I posted a verbose blog about how Sharper Image is going down the tubes. My prediction was off by a few months, but reality has finally hit The Sharper Image management. Sharper Image Bankruptcy is now reality.

I had to update this blog as news about Sharper Image’s Bankruptcy started hitting the news all over the place:

Multi-Channel Merchant
DIRECT Newsline
CNN Money
CNBC
MSNBC
NY Times
Forbes
Reuters

Of course, it was all over the major news networks yesterday and today as well. So, I decided to a couple of section.

When Analyzing the Sharper Image Bankruptcy, You Might Know You’re Crazy If:

• You think Sharper Image won’t be sued by it’s investors
• You think Sharper Image was going to turn things around after firing founder Richard Thalheimer
• You think Brookstone is going to fill the shoes of Sharper Images

The decline of any giant like Sharper Image is always good news for others. For instance, there will be countless lawyers and collection agents who will have additional work because of this monumental blunder. Richard Thalheimer will have to hire additional employees to handle the added traffic to his RichardSolo.com. Also, it gives the media plenty of work and has kept a lot of stockbrokers busy as of late. There are likely bound to be countless books about Sharper Image coming out. Here are a few title suggestions:

• Tarnished Image
• Death of a Gadget Salesman: Why Firing Richard Thalheimer Expedited the Decline of Sharper Image
• The New Face of Innovation: Bankruptcy
• The Rise and Fall of the Holy Gadget Empire

Knight Rider Ratings Won’t Keep It On-Air. But Don’t Count It Out Yet

After having slept through most of the 2 hour premiere of the new Knight Rider on NBC last night, I was about to say it would have one season of life. That was until I paid closer attention to the sponsors: Ford and Microsoft.

The new K.I.T is a Mustang. Depending upon what happens to sales of the mustang over the next television season, we can expect Knight Rider to be back because Ford will be willing to pay for the show.

Microsoft has considerable interest in NBC (MSNBC). Depending upon how well Ford vehicles with Microsoft’s Sync system sell, you can bet that Microsoft will be willing to help pay to keep the show on their television partner, NBC.

In much more simple terms: Knight Rider is an infomercial for Ford and Microsoft. I’ve tried this before on a much lower budget when I produced a television talk show starring Christine Eads. It is a brilliant idea if sales pan out for Ford and Microsoft.

Is Microsoft on the verge of creating the modern equivalent to Soap Operas? Will we call them Sync Operas? Stay tuned to NBC and Knight Rider to find out!

If Everyone Watched The Big Idea…

What would happen if everyone in America watches The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC? First, there would be a run on the cable companies because you can only get CNBC on cable. Second, fellow blogger Tony Iovino would take his $600 check he’ll receive from the Federal government in May and actually cash it to invest it into a new invention (and he would start using the vastly superior WordPress blogging system). Third, the US economy would flourish.

Today, Bush signed his stimulus package, creating checks for millions of people in our economy. Lots of people love to complain about the symantics of the deal. Call it welfare. Call it a rebate. Call it what you want, it is our Federal government giving money to people that live in America.

Using some of the people I’ve seen on The Big Idea as an example, what those $600 checks have the potential to do is generate billions (yes, you read that correctly, BILLIONS) of dollars in revenue/income for Americans. How? Well, you should watch The Big Idea. The show has featured scores of people who have started their business for little more (sometimes even less) than $600. These people has created jobs, used resources that support other businesses, and made people a lot of money.

Sure, if everyone who receives a check goes a spends it on a toy at Walmart, it won’t do much for boosting the economy. However, let’s have a little fun with the math here. 130,000,000 Americans are going to receive a check. If even 0.1% of the people who receive checks become Donny Deutsch success stories, we are talking about generating $130,000,000,000 of revenue for the US economy over the next year! That’s correct, just one-tenth of one percent of the people who receive the checks need to become Donny Deutsch success stories for the checks to pay for themselves in just two year. One-tenth of one percent. That is about the same as a run-of-network banner advertisement on ValueClick!

Think You Are Not Entitled to Overtime?

Think again! Gotovertime.com has compiled a list of common reasons we think we are exempt from overtime:

• Paid on a Salary
• Paid more than $95K
• Supervise two people
• Comp time given for overtime
• Only clocking 40 hours
• Not clocking in and out
• Not paying for travel time

Chances are you’ve fallen into one of these traps. I know plenty of people who have. Most of which are computer programmers. For some reason people in IT seem to really be disgruntled by the amount of work they provide, the amount of value they provide to the company, and how little they are compensated and valued by their employer.

Guess what IT folks? You’re rights to overtime are changing and not for the better. Here’s a bit of news to help you feel even more upset about your unfair treatment at work. Of course, you’ll probably just sit there and complain rather than do something about your unfair treatment. Good luck with that.

oooooooor… Do yourself a favor and be the first guy at your company to must up enough guts to make a difference for all the people in IT who have been taken advantage of before you’re rights to overtime are whittled away to nothing.