Every Country, Every State, Every Geography, Every 4 Million People |
Background On July 20, 2007 Hattie and Bruce departed from Dallas for Japan, then China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Dubai, Russia, Norway and Iceland. They were off to visit with independent producers and those television stations that have aired the show through rebroadcasting the signal from the Voice of America. There are over 4000 such stations in over 100 countries around the world. A goal was to study the dynamics of a global television production with a local focus with local producers and stations. The legacy show, Small Business School, was considered for educational television. And, "The Best Businesses of the World." became the working title for a commercial version of a global series. Each production would involve local television broadcasting executives and their producers, independent producers of television shows and films, economic development people, chambers of commerce, private equity investors, local stock exchanges, and excellent local businesses with a solid history within their country and beyond. A focus of this series will be to tell the stories of the oldest businesses with each country, especially family businesses, so we can learn about the heart of continuity, the first step within the first principles of this show. Another focus will be those businesses that have created the most jobs within any given year. Here we look deeply at the dynamics of creativity. Always, the business owners who are studied will be deeply respected within their industry for their best practices and ethics, for their generosity in their local community, and for their openness to share their insights about the meaning and value of life and business. Global listings of good businesses All to be dynamically online: Every listing in every country will be made from somebody who loves that business. Every listing will eventually be qualified by a group of business advocates within that country and the second list from every country will emerge. Tis listing will always be of the top 100 businesses and as many as 2000 businesses within a given geography. Eventually every geography will be divided by television signals to every 4 million people. Within this entire global village, there should be less than 2000 yet more than 1000 listings! 6.7 Billion people Our focus will be on the countries of the world by population and where they might take the signal from the broadcasts of the Voice of America. The G8 + 5 Countries: Brazil (5) Canada: The people of Canada tune into the show from the rebroadcasts from Vermont Public Television, Watertown WPBS, Buffalo's WNED, Erie's WQED, Detroit's Public Broadcasting, North Dakota's KFME, and others. France Germany India (5) Italy Mexico (5) Russia The new focus, opening new doors: Arab Nations (first draft, a working document) Iceland Ireland Norway Vietnam |
Until You Have The World's Population: Approximately 6.7 Billion People This is the marketplace for all of us today. We are a global people. We all have customers. We all have learned a little about their demographics. Now, the key question that naturally follows is, "How do we find people like them throughout the world?" So, increasingly our challenge is to begin to comprehend 6.7 billion people. In many ways we are all returning to our 3rd, 4th and 5th grades to learn world geography all over again. Yet, everyday it gets easier. And, one of the goals of this part of this website is to share our own experiences as a model to help everyone else. Of course, the most natural division of the world's people is first by country. In the largest countries, the goal of this television show is to identify at least 100 excellent businesses for every million people (1:10,000). In the smaller countries, the ratio will get progressively lower -- maybe even 1:1000 -- so every country is represented. There is a discussion about a new series,"The Best Businesses of the World." There is a discussion about the "Billionaires' Millionaires," another series concept. We will be encouraging every chamber to organize global tours for their membership. We have even engaged a travel expert to help. History The Small Business School listings of wonderful businesses began in 1994, first with the people who were nominated and selected to become the focus of an episode of the show. And, as people watched those first episodes, many wrote or called and said, "I know a business that is as good as that one! Do an episode of the show about these people. They are wonderful!" The Not-so-modest Goal: Stories of Millions of Good People Every worthy business has a story that should be told. Every television channel in the world should be saturated with stories about people who create value (that's a business) with creativity, integrity, and graciousness -- the antithesis of the general media's portrayal of business. As a global culture, we already know enough about exploitive people and exploitive companies of people. We need to know more about good people doing good things to make our world a better place. The Process: Nominate a Business! With the web, the nomination process is always open because it is online. Then, the final selection process will always be opened – it, too, will also always be online. Let the people choose who should be profiled next! Why not have a show like American Idol for good businesses? From the open nomination to the open voting, there will be a group in the middle. These are all the small business advocates -- the leaders of local business organizations, economic development groups, CPAs, business editors, business professors... Within a given geography these people really know the heart and soul of the business leaders within their community. These people will take any given list of 100 people and select the best 10. They will also caution us on those businesses that they believe probably should not be listed at all. If enough suggest so, the business is delisted. Any list that goes up for a given geography will have a rank order for "the next 100 companies" to be considered for an episode of the show in that region. Yet, based on the people who vote, that rank order can change. With the open nominations, the experts rankings, and the final selection made by the viewing public, this process will be a bit like American Idol, but here we are always looking for the best businesses with the most ethical, creative, and courageous founders and owners. The list of countries of the world will be indexed and cross-indexed as activities in each country develops. The Collaborative Countries: People within these countries have been watching the show since 1995. They receive the show through a local station's re-broadcast of the Voice of America signal. Although the show has extensively aired in China on CCTV and some of the local cable stations, the "G8+ 5" listings are in the next column. Bolivia Gambia Ghana Mauritius Mongolia New Zealand Niger Peru Poland United Arab Emirates (Dubai) (many more to come) |