Founded in 2000 in Richardson, Texas by Vanessa Ogle, Enseo, Inc. designs and produces hardware and software solutions, called Digital Media Engines, that makes high-definition digital advertising possible.  Digital Media Engines are used in the largest hotels, digital signage systems, digital cinema, airline/cruise ships, education and more.  Ms. Ogle's background prior to starting her own company includes operational experience with technology companies including business development, marketing, finance, engineering and program management, all which contributed to Enseo's growth in revenue of $8 million in 2005, to $10.8 million in 2006, $19.8 million in 2007 and a predicted $21 million for 2008.  Success of this magnitude did not come easy for Enseo.  The sluggish economy in 2003 forced her to slash the salaries of her 23 employee by as much as 15%, and her own pay in half.  However, after landing some major contracts in 2004, she reinstated everyone's salaries and implemented a new profit-sharing program as a reward for her employees' support during the hard financial times.  Ms. Ogle believes that the success of her company is happy employees and has put in place incentives including company trips to reward employees for their hard work.  According to a recent Dallas Business Journal article, Ms. Ogle says of Enseo's teamwork, "There are times when you must make miracles happen, and there are impossible tasks that we have to finish.  Having a team that enjoys their job and enjoys each other allows them to go that extra mile to make those miracles happen, and my team does that."
 
(Source:  www.enseo.com and the Dallas Business Journal)
 

In 1901, Henry Dunant received the first Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Frederic Passy.
 
Born into wealth on May 8, 1828 in Geneva, Switzerland, Henry Dunant grew up in a period of religious awakening with parents who actively participated in and strongly stressed the value of social work.  Through most of his early life, he had been on the top of Genevan society.  He left collage in 1849 due to bad grades and began an apprenticeship at a bank.  In 1852 he founded the Geneva chapter of the YMCA, and three years later participated in the founding of the YMCA's international organization.  In 1856, at the age of 26, he set up a personal business to operate foreign colonies, unfortunately for which land and water rights were not clearly assigned, and colonial authorities were uncooperative.  To resolve this, in June of 1859 he traveled to Solferino, Italy to appeal for these rights from French Emperor Napoleon III, and when there happened upon one of the bloodiest battles of the nineteenth century (38,000 injured, dying and dead remained on the battlefield).  From that experience, in 1862 he self-published a small book of that battle in telling of his memory of the battle itself, the battlefield after the fighting, and of a plan for the nations of the world to form relief societies of trained volunteers to care for the wartime wounded both on the battlefield and later until they recovered.  In 1863, his plan was considered by the Geneva Society for Public Welfare and they put together a 5-person committee to study the possibility of putting his plan into action.  This committee, in effect, established the Red Cross.  Durant personally funded the Red Cross with his own money and time.  On August 22, 1864, 12 nations signed an international treaty, commonly known as the Geneva Convention, "agreeing to guarantee neutrality to sanitary personnel, to expedite supplies for their use, and to adopt a special identifying emblem (a red cross on a field of white)."  Dunant went on to approve the scope of the Red Cross to cover naval personnel in wartime, in peacetime to ease the hardships caused by natural catastrophes, handling prisoners of war and for settling international disputes by courts of arbitration rather than by war.  Because of his concentration on humanitarian rights and not properly taking care of his personal business ventures, he went into bankruptcy in 1867, and was quickly thrust out of Geneva's high society. Within a few years he was living as a beggar, dining on crusts of bread, blackening his coat with ink, whitening his collar with chalk and sleeping outdoors.  He spent the next twenty years in solitude until a teacher found him in 1890 and informed the world that he was alive.  Due to ill health, he was moved to a hospice in 1892 and spent his remaining 18 years in Room 12 where he suffered from depression and paranoia about pursuit by his creditors and others, until his death on October 30, 1920. Durant never spent any of the prize monies bestowed upon him, but bequeathed it to those who had cared for him, left some to care for other sick and poor people in his village, and left the remainder to philanthropic enterprises in Norway and Switzerland.
 
The International Committee of the Red Cross went on to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963 (but that story is saved for another issue!).
 
(Source:  www.nobelprize.org and www.wikipedia.org)

 

 

Myth 3:  Systems are Rigid and Inflexible

Fact:  If your life is so chaotic and unpredictable that it seems like no system could solve it, it's likely that it's because you've resisted adopting some kind of system, rather than because no system is good enough.  (Source:  www.mercola.com)

 

 

The following recent recalls were issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.  More details can be found at www.cpsc.gov.   Green Thumb Twin Wheelbarrows sold at True Value Hardware Stores (Mfg: Qingdau Huatian Hand Truck Co. of China); Personal Cooking Systems and Group Cooking Systems (Mfg: Jetboil of Manchester, NH); Intermatic DT17 Heavy Duty Digital Timers (Mfg: Comutime Ltd of China); "Field & Stream" Dual Burner Camp Stoves (Mfg: Rankam Group Ltd of China); Halogen Clamp Lamps (Mfg: Catalina Lighting, Miami, FL); Spa Factory Aromatherapy Fountain & Bath Benefits Kits (Imp: JAKKS Pacific, Malibu, CA); Stabilicer Lite Cleats (Mfg: 32 Degrees North, Middeford, ME); "Primovolta" and "Primavolta" Warming Gloves (Mfg: Outdoor Research, Seattle, WA); LCD Television Wall Mounts (Mfg: Milestone AV Technoogies, Savage, MN).

 

 

 

 

March 24th commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis (TB), the TB bacillus.  At the time of Koch's announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people.  Koch's discovery opened the way toward diagnosing and curing TB.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), even with this remarkable discovery, newer drugs and treatments, tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world (an estimated 1.5 million people died worldwide from TB in 2006). TB is an airborne infectious disease and people ill with TB bacteria in their lungs can infect others when they cough.   However, not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick.  People who are infected but not sick (called latent TB infection) cannot spread TB to others, but some may go on to develop active TB disease which can be prevented if they seek necessary medical help.  If TB disease is detected early and fully treated, people with the disease quickly become non-infectious and eventually cured.  Multidrug-resistant TB, extensively drug-resistant TB, HIV-associated TB, and weak health systems are major challenges.  WHO is working to dramatically reduce the burden of TB, and halve TB deaths and prevalence by 2015, through its Stop TB Strategy and supporting the Global Plan to Stop TB.  For more information go to www.cdc.gov and www.who.int.