An Online MBA Helps Business Owners Essay Example

An Online MBA Helps Business Owners Essay Example An Online MBA Helps Business Owners Essay An Online MBA Helps Business Owners Essay The world of business is a competitive environment to be sure; and any advantage that businesses and business owners can take to stay ahead of the competition can give them an edge in achieving success. To this end, many business owners understand that a higher education can give them that edge that they desire. By obtaining a higher degree they have the opportunity to learn about modern advancements in their particular industry, as well as general business techniques that can give them a leg up on the competition. The most advantageous degree in this capacity is a Master’s of Business Administration or MBA. Earning an MBA can be an arduous task but well worth the effort, as it can open up a new world for business owners looking for more modern techniques for running their business successfully. Of course, earning an MBA is easier said than done, especially for those students who are already engaged in running their own business. With time being of the utmost concern, many students look for the option of earning an online MBA. An online MBA program is offered by many accredited colleges and universities; some which offer only online programs and some that offer a combination of online classes and on-campus classes. For those choosing to pursue an online MBA the benefits are clear; they can fit their class work and assigned readings into times that are appropriate for them and still run their business. While the workload is the same, students of an online MBA program save the time and inconvenience associated with driving to campus and sitting through traditional classes.

How Mother Nature Became the Inspiration Behind Velcro

How Mother Nature Became the Inspiration Behind Velcro Before the middle of 20th century, people lived in a Velcro-less world where zippers were standard and shoes had to be laced. All that changed though on one lovely summer day in 1941 when an amateur mountaineer and inventor named  George de Mestral  decided to take his dog for a nature hike. De Mestral and his faithful companion both returned home covered with burrs, the plant seed-sacs that clung to animal fur as a way to spread to fertile new planting grounds. He noticed his dog was covered in the stuff. De Mestral was a Swiss engineer who was naturally curious so he took a sample of the many burrs stuck to his pants and placed them under his microscope to see how the properties of the burdock plant allowed it stick to certain surfaces. Perhaps, he thought, they can be used for something useful. Upon closer examination, it was the small hooks that enabled the seed-bearing burr to cling so stubbornly to the tiny loops in the fabric of his pants. It as during this eureka moment that  De Mestral smiled and thought something along the lines of I will design a unique, two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks like the burrs and the other side with soft loops like the fabric of my pants. I will call my invention velcro a combination of the word velour and crochet. It will rival the  zipper  in its ability to fasten. De Mestrals idea was met with resistance and even laughter, but the inventor was undeterred. He worked with a weaver from a textile plant in France to perfect a fastener by experimenting with materials that would hook and loop in a similar manner. Through trial and error, he realized that nylon when sewn under infrared light formed tough hooks for the burr side of the fastener. The discovery led to a completed design that he patented in 1955. He would eventually form Velcro Industries to manufacture and distribute his invention. In the 1960s, Velcro fasteners made its way to outer space as Apollo astronauts wore them to keep items like pens and equipment from floating away while in zero-gravity. In time, the product became kind of a household name as companies like Puma used them in shoes to replace laces. Shoe makers Adidas and Reebok would soon follow. During de Mastral’s lifetime, his company sold an average of over 60 million yards of Velcro per year. Not bad for an invention inspired by mother nature. Today you can’t technically buy velcro because the name is the registered trademark for the Velcro Industries product, but you can have all the velcro brand hook and loop fasteners you need. This distinction was done on purpose and illustrates a problem inventors often face. Many words used frequently in everyday language were once trademarks, but eventually become generic terms. Well-known examples include  escalator, thermos, cellophane and nylon. The problem is that once trademarked names becomes commonplace enough, the U.S. Courts can deny exclusive rights to the trademark.