When was the last time you read or received a personal letter? It’s hard to remember, isn’t it. Here’s a letter you might want to read. It’s written annually by Warren Buffet, the world’s third richest person and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, to all his company’s shareholders.
It’s probably the longest letter you will ever see, much less read. You can find it here: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2006ltr.pdf No one would expect you to read it all, but do take a few minutes to look through it to find Mr. Buffett’s gems of business wisdom. You’ll be enlightened for having done so.
Before you email me to tell me that Warren Buffet is the world’s second richest person, I just found out that Bill Gates is still the world’s richest person, but Carlos Slim from Mexico has now surpassed Warren Buffet as the world’s second richest person. Do you think any of them noticed the change when it happened? Probably not.
The EPA issued their “Proposed Emission Standards for New Non-road Spark-Ignition Engines, Equipment and Vessels” on April 17.
These proposed exhaust emission standards cover small land-based non-road engines. The standards also propose new evaporative emission standards for equipment and vessels using these engines.
The proposed standards would take effect in 2011 for riding mowers and 2012 for push mowers and apply only to new engines.
For an overview of the standards, go to this site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/nonroad/marinesi-equipld/420f07032.pdf . This four page document makes for quick and interesting reading.
If you¹d like to bookmark the EPA site for “Lawn and Garden (Small Gasoline) Equipment,” go to this site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/equip-ld.htm . You will find links for related EPA documents going back to 1991.
You will also find links for the complete draft of the new proposed standards. The pre-publication Preamble is 280 pages, the pre-publication Regulations is 265 pages, and the Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis is 709 pages. Happy reading!
I recently received an issue of Executive Travel magazine in the mail at the office. The cover headline reads “Technology 2007 - This Issue Expires in Five Minutes.” What a great headline!
In the January, 2007 issue of Appliance magazine, there was an article by Bill Harley, Executive Director of OPEI, about the state of our industry for 2007. There was also a chart a few pages before Bill’s article that listed US manufacturer shipments of OPE equipment (excluding commercial categories.)
If you totaled all category OPE manufacturer shipments for each of the five years listed, you get the yearly grand totals in the chart below. Remember no commercial OPE equipment shipments are included.
2005 Actual shipments 22,005,200 units
2006 Projected shipments 20,073,851 units
2007 Forecasted shipments 19,357,045 units
2008 Forecasted shipments 18,715,406 units
2009 Forecasted shipments 20,121,989 units.
Is there a message for us in this data?
If you were in Vidin, Bulgaria on February 14, would you please let me know how attendance was at the Balkan Festival of Love and Wine and who won the Best Balkan Wine competition, the best Balkan home-made wine contest and the longest kiss contest. Yes, it is a real festival. And I think it would have been great fun to be there, especially with a festival name like that. What do you bet there were no language barriers?
Ever noticed how positive most customer reviews are on Internet sites like Amazon, Sears, Macy’s etc. A recent study mentioned in Kiplinger’s Smart Money magazine of 585,000 Amazon reviews noted that more than 80% of consumers award at least 4 stars, with the average of all Amazon consumer reviews being 4.2 stars out of a possible 5.
Apparently consumers review only those items they love or hate. There was a stapler on Amazon that 27 consumer reviews out of 42 awarded 5 stars, but five really hated their stapler and gave it 1 star. There was only one 3 star rating out of the 42 reviews. And the typical review read like this actual one: “It works very well and staples many papers together.” Don’t you love it! Makes you want to go read them all!
Ok, for you intellectuals here’s the sentence that sums up the study’s findings: “Whenever the pool of reviewers is self-selecting, you’ll get a positive bias.” Now you know that we really don’t live in a consumers’ paradise where everything merits 4 or 5 stars! Sorry I had to be the one to tell you!
It’s probably the longest letter you will ever see, much less read. You can find it here: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2006ltr.pdf No one would expect you to read it all, but do take a few minutes to look through it to find Mr. Buffett’s gems of business wisdom. You’ll be enlightened for having done so.
Before you email me to tell me that Warren Buffet is the world’s second richest person, I just found out that Bill Gates is still the world’s richest person, but Carlos Slim from Mexico has now surpassed Warren Buffet as the world’s second richest person. Do you think any of them noticed the change when it happened? Probably not.
The EPA issued their “Proposed Emission Standards for New Non-road Spark-Ignition Engines, Equipment and Vessels” on April 17.
These proposed exhaust emission standards cover small land-based non-road engines. The standards also propose new evaporative emission standards for equipment and vessels using these engines.
The proposed standards would take effect in 2011 for riding mowers and 2012 for push mowers and apply only to new engines.
For an overview of the standards, go to this site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/nonroad/marinesi-equipld/420f07032.pdf . This four page document makes for quick and interesting reading.
If you¹d like to bookmark the EPA site for “Lawn and Garden (Small Gasoline) Equipment,” go to this site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/equip-ld.htm . You will find links for related EPA documents going back to 1991.
You will also find links for the complete draft of the new proposed standards. The pre-publication Preamble is 280 pages, the pre-publication Regulations is 265 pages, and the Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis is 709 pages. Happy reading!
I recently received an issue of Executive Travel magazine in the mail at the office. The cover headline reads “Technology 2007 - This Issue Expires in Five Minutes.” What a great headline!
In the January, 2007 issue of Appliance magazine, there was an article by Bill Harley, Executive Director of OPEI, about the state of our industry for 2007. There was also a chart a few pages before Bill’s article that listed US manufacturer shipments of OPE equipment (excluding commercial categories.)
If you totaled all category OPE manufacturer shipments for each of the five years listed, you get the yearly grand totals in the chart below. Remember no commercial OPE equipment shipments are included.
2005 Actual shipments 22,005,200 units
2006 Projected shipments 20,073,851 units
2007 Forecasted shipments 19,357,045 units
2008 Forecasted shipments 18,715,406 units
2009 Forecasted shipments 20,121,989 units.
Is there a message for us in this data?
If you were in Vidin, Bulgaria on February 14, would you please let me know how attendance was at the Balkan Festival of Love and Wine and who won the Best Balkan Wine competition, the best Balkan home-made wine contest and the longest kiss contest. Yes, it is a real festival. And I think it would have been great fun to be there, especially with a festival name like that. What do you bet there were no language barriers?
Ever noticed how positive most customer reviews are on Internet sites like Amazon, Sears, Macy’s etc. A recent study mentioned in Kiplinger’s Smart Money magazine of 585,000 Amazon reviews noted that more than 80% of consumers award at least 4 stars, with the average of all Amazon consumer reviews being 4.2 stars out of a possible 5.
Apparently consumers review only those items they love or hate. There was a stapler on Amazon that 27 consumer reviews out of 42 awarded 5 stars, but five really hated their stapler and gave it 1 star. There was only one 3 star rating out of the 42 reviews. And the typical review read like this actual one: “It works very well and staples many papers together.” Don’t you love it! Makes you want to go read them all!
Ok, for you intellectuals here’s the sentence that sums up the study’s findings: “Whenever the pool of reviewers is self-selecting, you’ll get a positive bias.” Now you know that we really don’t live in a consumers’ paradise where everything merits 4 or 5 stars! Sorry I had to be the one to tell you!
