"It is impossible for ideas to compete in the marketplace if no forum for
their presentation is provided or available." Thomas Mann, 1896
Letter from the President
John Hathaway-Bates
President & Executive Director
Please Note: The "Letter from the President" evolved in 2001 from "Tomorrow's News" that we had previously published in The Business Forum Calendar & Report since 1984. It started out as a simple way for me to convey the benefits from conversations I have with leaders in Government, Academia and Business and potential problems that I learn about during my occupation as a Moderator of Think Groups for The Business Forum. However, since we began publishing on-line it has over the years become a personal "Bantering" from someone (me) surrounded day by day in the endeavor of Change. Usually it is whimsical in nature, and nothing more than my viewpoints on what I see happening around me on a daily basis. The "Letter from the President" therefore, has little to do anymore with The Business Forum, it is just me sharing my thoughts and ideas with anyone who cares to read them. Please feel free to publish it, in part or in total, or to pass it on.
Twenty five years ago a few of us established The Business Forum,
(Charter
Members) under the
real impression that we were just going to organize one Luncheon Discussion group every three months in Los Angeles. You only have to browse through our site to see what happened after that, and here we are now, a quarter of century later, and we are still doing it,
plus some. If anyone had told me back in 1982 that I would spend over forty (40%) percent of my life having lunch with intelligent people and staying in 5 Star Hotels for a living, I would have thought them
to be crazy - but that is precisely how it happened my friends.
You will also notice that
after a decade of running a completely naked site, we have now added
advertising (administered by Google) to help offset the
costs of maintaining the site.
So if you see
an advertisement that interests you my friends, click away!
Please - for it increases my income!
If everyone who visited
our site
341,288 Visitors
last month
from
183 Countries
around the
Planet last month were to click on just one of the Ads by Google on
our site, all of our financial problems would end!
The problem is a simple
one, people go to our site for information and get it from what we
publish; they appear to have little or no interest in the commercial
advertising we list.
There is also the
problem that we were formed to provide information sourcing "at no
cost and no obligation", and we have done exactly that for 25 years,
therefore becoming a member (even though it costs your organization
nothing, as it is tax deductible, does not seem to be a priority for
our visitors How I would like a hundred or so people to click
on JOIN
and become a member, or at least make a donation to our
operations!
A Thank You:
I am also very grateful to those of you who forwarded our site to
friends, schools, colleges and universities; (especially I thank you for forwarding our
World Information pages), for today we
are getting more than 2,500,000 hits from more than 175
countries every month! - and we know that students all over
the world are benefiting from this absolutely free access to
unbiased information - because they email us to tell us so. Thank
you
again my friends, it just goes to show what passing the word on can
do.
Please:
What is also gratifying, is that IT professionals across the globe
are already opting into our email lists for White Papers and updates
at an amazing pace. So the task for the coming month for our friends,
members and supporters is to forward our site to
colleagues and friends in the Information Technology Industry, where
so ever in the world they may reside. My goal and hope for 2007 is to
build the largest international database of "friendly" IT
professionals The Business Forum has ever been able to assemble.
As an aside note, it is strange to realize that many of the
once well known organizations that sponsored our luncheons over the
last twenty-five years, are now gone and all but forgotten. The aerospace industry, which
25 years ago during the Cold War seemed to be the backbone of California business and
once made up a sizable percentage of both our sponsors and our guests, is now all but gone, or has merged into giant conglomerates and
much of it has moved out of the Pacific States. Many of the West Coast's metal
and plastic Industries have also long been replaced by manufacturers in China and the Third World. A lot of the Banks,
and the once seemingly indestructible Big 8 Accounting firms,
that we worked with over the years have also disappeared into mergers that I watched
happen as they shed loyal and qualified people to the mantra of
ever greater profits
and captive customer lists. "C'est la vie
Capitalism" as my grandfather called it.
Today it is the Computer and Technology industry that rules supreme it would seem - companies with names that were not even known back in 1982
have now become household words; and I am very proud to say that we worked to help launch
many of them back when no one had heard of them.
What comes next my friends? God only knows!
I
do hope that I will see you at one of our luncheons very soon:
John Hathaway-Bates
You can email me at john@bizforum.org
You can telephone me at 310-550-1984
or Fax me at 310-550-6121

President & Executive Director
On February 14th, 1982, John Hathaway-Bates founded The Business Forum in Beverly Hills, California. At the time of establishing The Business Forum John was recognized as a Commercial Tactician with wide experience on four continents having served as President, or Corporate Vice President, for several multi-national Corporations. He was elected a Fellow of the British Society of Commerce, the Institute of Buyers, the British Institute of Directors, the British Institute of Administrative Accountants, the Institute of Purchasing and Supply; and was elected to be a member of the Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Management and the Institute of Journalists. He has written many articles and several books, including :"Tactics". "How to Promote Your Business", "How to Organize Your Marketing" and "Fast Track Marketing in a Global Economy", he also wrote the "Contract Procedure and Specification Advice" sections of the Architect's and Specifier's Guide Series for A4 Publications, Ltd. and innovated and wrote for The Office Planner published by Benn Brothers of London; he has also had published several articles on "Color, Texture & Design", and he wrote the "Executive Guide to Office Space Planning & Design" for the American Management Association. He has had published many other works in Europe and America and has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, at Universities and to professional audiences on subjects that have ranged from multi-national accounting practices, to business development, to office management, industrial, interior, product and commercial design to tactical and strategic international marketing and management. He has also written and lectured on etiquette and business ethics.
Previous Letters from the President
April 2001
May 2001
June 2001
July 2001
August 2001
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