Georgette Mosbacher's business idea will alarm you -- literally. Mosbacher, the 47-year-old founder of Georgette Mosbacher Enterprises, a marketing firm that also houses a cosmetics company, proposes to launch a business that sells security devices door-to-door and by mail order. "I mean everything, across the board, very popularly priced, so that for under $100 you could have an alarm system for your trailer if you lived in a trailer park," she says. "And protective devices for your home, your car, your business. . . from helmets for riding bicycles to devices for your children when you are in a shopping mall."
Mosbacher, who propounds a philosophy she dubs "feminine force," believes that much less savory forces are lurking everywhere. "A decade or so ago we thought that alarm systems were only for the rich, but that's not true anymore," she notes. Mosbacher would also market devices that protect users from all manner of threats besides crime, such as a product that could be put on a hot-water tap so children couldn't be scalded. "You are already seeing dogs being hooked up to alarm systems," she claims, "and you will be seeing more of that."
Feeling equally insecure, apparently, is Victor Kiam, the entrepreneur who liked Remington Corp.'s shavers so much he bought the company in 1979. He envisions a market of "travel security items." An example? A product "you hang on a hotel door. When you leave, if anyone touches the doorknob, the alarm will go off."
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Good Idea, but Have You Considered Hiring Outside Management?
Tim Zagat, restaurant-guide publisher: Customer-service training
Tim Zagat's concept: a consulting firm that provides training in customer service to such nontraditional clients as doctors and lawyers. "I don't feel that it costs any more to smile and to be hospitable," says the founder of Zagat Survey, the guide publisher.
Tim Zagat, speaking later to an Inc. reporter who returned a call from his company: "There is nobody here who wants to talk to you."
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Do We Detect a Pattern Here?
A spokeswoman for H. Ross Perot first told us that he might be able to grant us an interview. Two weeks later she said he would consider participating. A week after that, Perot pulled out.
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Then Again, Ed, Maybe You Should Keep That $10 Million for Yourself
Ed McMahon, former Tonight Show announcer: Home remodeling
Is anyone out there surprised to hear that famous sidekick Ed McMahon has been frustrated all these years? To be specific, "I'm a frustrated architect," admits the current host of Star Search. McMahon would like to remodel homes in California and resell them. "In other words, take a house that didn't have a good kitchen, that didn't have a good bathroom, and remodel it," he explains. "You put in a really lavish bathroom and functional kitchen. The kitchen need not be exceptionally large, but it must function well."
Not that McMahon would undertake such a business right away. After all, he notes, the California real estate market is pretty bad just now. To which we can only ask, "How bad is it?"
And After We Finish, We'll Solve That Health-Care Thing
Earl Graves, publisher of Black Enterprise: Inner-city reconstruction
"The rebuilding of the inner cities is not going to get done all by itself," says Earl Graves. "The water systems are antiquated, the train and transportation systems are antiquated. We're talking about the subway systems, too. I think there continue to be enormous opportunities, especially for minorities, in the area of construction and rehabilitation. It would be an exciting business to get into."
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The Next Big Thing? Educational Innovation
Stephen R. Covey, best-selling author: Character-building schools
Seymour Merrin, pioneering computer retailer: Educational software
When are we going to learn?
Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, believes there is a profitable opportunity in starting private schools that provide "character education" -- teaching such qualities as integrity, courage, and humility. "There's a growing awareness of the need for character," he says. "The biggest challenge that we see companies having is building high-trust cultures. Most cultures are duplicitous and adversarial. People have not been trained in how to cooperate."
Covey contends that positive traits can be imparted through modeling and mentoring by teachers and administrators, and that such schools could pay for themselves. "The tuition would be lower than that of most private schools because of the endowment and foundation money we would get."
He believes that attracting students would not be a problem. "There's a growing disillusionment with public education," Covey says. "And the next generation is being fed a diet of the low road through the media: violence, fighting, selfishness, hedonism, promiscuity, and drugs. We need to get back to fundamental principles."
Seymour Merrin, who was visionary enough to open a now-fabled retail computer outlet back in 1978, argues that educators too often use the machines to "take over classic teaching techniques, either by doing repetitious stuff -- training for the SATs, or doing grammar and math -- or to automate tasks such as physics and mathematics calculations."
Instead, he envisions a company that makes software that "allows students to rise to their own level, as opposed to being dragged down to the common level. The software technology is capable of it, and the machines are fast enough to handle it. There is nothing lacking but a visionary to put it together."
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Virtual Fun
Robert W. Pittman, MTV founder: Interactive entertainment
