Engineering Students Invent Simple, Elegant Anemia Test for Developing Nations

As readers of my blogs know, I am passionate about promoting the power of simplicity, minimalism, and elegance.

Today, I came across an article about two bio-engineering students who used simplicity and elegance in a way that will probably save countless lives in the developing world.

I feel excited for them: At a young age, as part of a class project, they have made an impact on the world.

These students, Rice University undergraduates Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis, were challenged to find a portable, low cost way to diagnose anemia without power.

Their solution was creative and elegantly simple: they modified a common kitchen salad spinner to create a device that separates blood samples (and diagnosis anemia) without electricity.

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Business Lessons From Holiday Inn Express

Rich Karlgaard, the editor of Forbes Magazine, recently had a blog post called "The Holiday Inn Express Solution".

In the post, Karlgaard, who travels a lot as a speaker, explained how economic conditions have made him switch from his regular hotels (Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, JW Marriott) to lower-priced ones (Residence Inn, Hyatt Place, and Holiday Inn Express). He found the new hotels surprisingly good (free wireless internet, fresh beds, flat panel TVs, self-serve breakfast buffets, etc).

Karlgaard goes on to explain how these Inns are the "Charles Schwabs" (i.e. discount brokers) of the hotel world. In other words, they are examples of disruptive technology - cheap, easy to use, focus on a simple mission, and achieve it.

He then brainstormed about the need and opportunity to apply this kind of thinking to "broken" industries like cars, banking, health care, and energy. What would be their equivalent "Holiday Inn Express?"

i.e. for the auto industry, in might be a way to configure and build cars like Dell computers.

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"The 15-Second Principle" - Great book for Self-Growth and Entrepreneurs

15-Second Principle, The , Revised Edition
by Al Secunda.

This book is meant to be a general self-help book, but I found the principles have really helped me in business. The book's premise is that, when we try to pursue our dreams, we get paralyzed by fear and procrastination. So, it offers two main solutions:

1. Instead of putting something off, promise yourself to at least work on it for a short time (i.e. 15 seconds or a minute), and then you are free to stop. Usually momentum will cause you to work longer on it.

2. Pleasure vs. perfection. When learning or doing something new, favor pleasure (i.e. enjoying yourself) over mastery. The author taught tennis, and felt his students had longer term success if they enjoyed themselves, rather than if they got a stroke completely correct right away.

I found these 2 principles helping me tackle difficult business challenges, instead of procrastinating.

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Niche Business Focus: Dental Consultants

I have a regular feature of this blog where I like to spotlight interesting niche websites and businesses that I come across.

I think that the best way for small businesses to be successful is to find a niche that they enjoy, and then fill it.

Today's post is on Jameson Management, who specialize as Dental Consultants.

In other words, rather than join the crowded field of coaching and consulting for small businesses in general, they focused on the niche of dental practices.

This is a win-win situation, because dentists can benefit from the specialized advice, experience, and expertise that Jameson has acquired over time. In return, Jameson stands out among dentists from the more general management consultant firms.

This will create the positive cycle found in successful niche businesses: dentists in need of business consulting will be attracted to Jameson since they focus on the niche, and then Jameson will get better at servicing this niche, and dentists will be morel likely to refer their colleagues to Jameson.

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Niche Business Focus: Astrologists Sara Freder and Larry Pesavento

I have always been amazed by people who have a successful businesses in areas like astrology or astrological trading - as opposed to a traditional industry like a McDonald's franchise. A lot of people don't believe in astrology, and I used to think that it would be hard to find customers.

This was before I understood the power of niche marketing. The truth is that, if you take a controversial stand by, for example, selling astrological services, you will turn off one segment of the population, but you connect with those who believe, and they can become your fans.

The internet makes niche marketing very effective. Sara Freder, for example, is an astrologist who has embraced internet marketing and become successful. Rather than using hard selling techniques, she uses the "free line" concept by giving away Free astrology reading
s.

This gives me confidence because, even though my own stock trading method(Stock Trading Riches) is based on down-to-earth mathematics, and has nothing to do with astrology, it is different than the usual technical indicators, and I sometimes think that people don't consider my system with an open mind.

Yet, Larry Pesavento has sold a lot of astrological trading books, such as Astro-Cycles: The Trader's Viewpoint
. In fact, when I was learning to trade, I even bought some astrological trading books because I was willing to keep an open mind while searching for an edge. On paper, I actually saw some correlation between turning points in the S&P500 and full moons - but not enough to profit by when I actually tried to trade the signals.

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MuVChat: Combining Movie Theaters and Twitter

I read a story in the Chicago Tribune about a clever idea that lets movie theaters make money with cult classic movies (such as "Zoolander").

It's called MuVChat, which was created by Rien Heald, an inventor from the western Chicago suburb of Naperville, IL.

MuVChat is currently being used on 3 screens at the Charlestowne 18 theater, in St. Charles (another western suburb).

Audience members can text funny comments to a phone number, and the comments will appear on screen.

So, it is like mashing Twitter with "Mystery Science Theater 3000".

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A Great Interview With Billionaire Sam Zell

YouTube has a lot of heavily watched clips of Zell (CEO of the Chicago Tribune)swearing in front of reporters at townhall meetings.

But, only 40 people have viewed this interesting video of Zell being interviewed by the dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH3LxFnEVXo

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Students from "Engineering Entrepreneur" Program Develop Low-Cost TB Test

While other students in the program do projects related to things like cell phones or video games, these three worked in a neglected area - simple, low cost tests that can be administered by untrained personnel to diagnose poor, rural people. They designed a TB Test where you just need to put someone's spit under the microscope part, and then the attached computer screen will show white dots if there are any TB bacteria present. It seems like a simple invention, but almost 2 million people die of TB a year - mostly not from lack of medicine, but from lack of timely diagnosis.

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The University of Chicago "Bump" for iPhone: Innovation Can Be Simple

Today, I read an article in the Chicago Tribune that caused me to experience one of those "slap your head - why didn't I think of it!" moments.

President Obama, a former U of C professor, helped to popularize the fist bump.

Now, two students at the University of Chicago business school developed a company called Bump Technologies. Their iPhone app, called Bump, lets users transfer data from one iPhone (or iPod Touch)to another by bumping them.

You can transfer all your contact info or just some data (like phone numbers).

This shows that there are always simple and elegant opportunities waiting to be capitalized on.

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