Tag Archives: Washington State University

About 4373 days ago E-Commerce

Best Cellars

Best of the Net Internet wine sellers offer a great selection of labels and vintages. But laws governing interstate wine shipments can put a cork in your festivities Imagine uncorking your favorite wine one night — maybe a nicely aged 1990 California Cabernet Sauvignon or a terrific bargain Pinot Noir — only to realize that you’re down to your last bottle. No problem: glass in hand, you turn to the Internet and root through virtual cellars packed with thousands of bottles of wine. At first blush, wine and the Web look like a natural match. But ordering wine online isn’t quite as easy as ordering books or CDs. The number of suppliers is not the problem. Hundreds of Web sites peddle wine, including those of Internet retailers, wineries, and established brick-and-mortar wine merchants. But state laws governing the sale of wine across state lines make the process of finding a site that both suits your tastes and ships to your state a challenge indeed. We asked three company leaders with varying degrees of wine expertise to test six wine-selling sites: those of three online retailers, two big brick-and-mortar retailers (one located on the East Coast, the other on the West Coast), and an online cooperative made up of some 50 California wineries. The panel evaluated the sites for quality and variety of merchandise, interactive features such as wine searches, and ease of use and technical performance. The reviewers purchased wine from a variety of growing regions, including California’s Napa Valley, Washington State, Italy, and Chile. Two of our panelists had in fact bought wine online previously, and all three panelists enjoyed the experience of reviewing wine-selling Internet sites, but they said they wouldn’t be ditching their local wine store just yet. “A nice complement to wine stores — not a replacement,” says Shawn Kravetz, president of Esplanade Capital LLC in Boston and a wine enthusiast for more than a decade. In stores, “it’s nice to see the bottles, clipped articles, and prices in front of you.” The main benefit of these Internet sites: the vast selection of wines available, particularly rare or high-end bottles. One site offered a case of 1865 sweet wine from France’s famed Château d’Yquem for $208,550. For the more budget-conscious, a case of Bordeaux from the legendary 1961 vintage was available for about $4,000. The enormous selection of wines online was both a blessing and a curse, according to our judges. Panelist Jim Roop, president of the James J. Roop Co. in Cleveland, complained that most sites did a poor job of allowing customers to narrow their search. Sometimes, he says, you wind up with a list of “400 different wines” instead of the “40 Merlots between $20 and $40 you’re really trying to get to.’ And those state liquor-shipment laws were a hassle, preventing two of the panelists from buying bottles from some merchants. A labyrinth of state laws restricting who could sell liquor, and how, cropped up at the end of Prohibition, in 1933, when the details were resolved on a state-by-state rather than a federal level. “Every state is different,’ says Richard Blau, a lawyer at Holland & Knight LLC in Tampa and an expert on the laws that govern the alcohol industry. Many states prohibit wineries and retailers outside their borders from shipping wine directly to their own residents. However, a dozen states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, and Missouri, are more liberal than others in permitting wineries and retailers outside their lines to make direct shipments to the states’ consumers. Those 12 states have struck so-called “reciprocal agreements,” which basically say, “If I can ship to you, you can ship to me.” Some Web sites have been known to fulfill orders in violation of state laws — a move that can trigger legal action against the supplier and seizure of the wine. (For more information about pertinent state laws, visit www.wineinstitute.org.) Our Massachusetts and Ohio panelists came up dry at both K&L Wine Merchants and Winetasting.com. Massachusetts and Ohio are among approximately 30 states that restrict or bar outright direct shipments from other states. To circumnavigate prohibitions, some online sellers make special arrangements with local wholesalers and retailers to supply wines that are already available in a particular state, or they get licensed as retailers in the state. But K&L and Winetasting.com didn’t have either of those selling mechanisms in place for Massachusetts and Ohio and so declined to fulfill Internet orders there. Delivery, too, can be an issue, since an adult must sign for the wine. And shipping costs of $13.95 a bottle, as was the case in several transactions, can make online shopping uneconomical. “For an expensive or rare wine, it might make sense. But why pay the shipping costs when I can pick up the same bottles at my local wine shop?’ asks panelist Chris Dominguez, president of Stockpoint Inc. in San Francisco. No clear-cut winner emerged from our survey, although retailer Wine .com got solid marks from two panelists for its “decent” to “great” selection and “reasonable” shipping charges. (Unfortunately, Wine.com was swallowed up by competitor eVineyard as we were going to press and was consequently cut from the rest of this article.) In general our panelists tended to prefer sites that catered to their personal regional preferences, be it Bordeaux or Napa. Dominguez’s number one choice was the Web site of K&L Wine Merchants, a brick-and-mortar retailer in Redwood City, Calif. The California-wine lover praised K&L’s site for its ease of use and “excellent” choices. Roop’s first pick was WineBins.com, an online seller. Roop, a Bordeaux enthusiast, liked the “absolutely huge range of product, particularly older French wines.” Kravetz liked best the Web site of New York retailer Sherry-Lehmann. “Seems like a wine store instead of an Internet business,” he says. And there was no obvious loser either, although our panelists did find fault with some offerings. Dominguez dinged Sherry-Lehmann. The second time he visited its site, the pages failed to load. His wine took more than four weeks to arrive, and he thought the shipping costs from New York to California were high at $13.95 a bottle — although the company agreed to waive those fees because of the shipping delay. Roop handed the booby prize to Winetasting.com, the online cooperative of California wineries. It didn’t help that the Ohioan couldn’t place an order with that site. “But most aggravating of all is that there is no pricing listed next to the wine,” he says. A browser must click on a particular wine to see its price. Kravetz said WineBins.com was his least favorite, criticizing the “average selection” and the site’s “impossible” loading time. “Maybe the wine ages while the page loads,” he jokes. Roger Fillion is a freelance writer living in Evergreen, Colo. The Savvy Entrepreneur’s Guide to Wine Online eVineyard What it’s good for Reasonable shipping fees. Good variety. Wine ratings. Don’t waste your time if You’re looking for a particular bottle. Although the site boasts more than 5,000 wines, one panelist complained of unsatisfactory selections among the California wine makers he was interested in. What our CEOs had to say “Enjoyed their variety, incorporation of Wine Spectator [magazine] ratings, and higher-end offerings, coupled with a very reasonable $4.95 blanket shipping charge for a bottle or a case,” said one CEO. But another panelist stated: “Simple, decent, a bit entry-level.” What you should know Offers Amazon.com-style recommendations by listing other wines purchased by shoppers who chose your wine. K&L Wine Merchants What it’s good for Rare U.S. and European wines. Ease of use. Tasting notes from own staff, Wine Spectator, and wine gurus like Robert Parker. Don’t waste your time if You live in a state with restrictive alcohol-shipping laws. Internet orders are accepted from just 13 states. What our CEOs had to say “Will not deliver to my state. Too bad. I like their top-10 list and their site overall. Not fancy, but good.” What you should know Web site for big California retailer in Redwood City. Site typically offers about 3,000 wines. Sherry-Lehmann What it’s good for Wines of all prices. Good descriptions. Free delivery for New York state residents who spend in excess of $95. Don’t waste your time if You live outside New York state and don’t want to pay steep shipping charges. What our CEOs had to say “A good selection of both high-end and low-end product. But you better buy only high end, because their shipping charges are through the roof, at $13.95 for one to three bottles and $55.80 for a case of 12.” What you should know Will not ship to nine U.S. states. Oenophiles can buy wine futures — lock in a price for a 1999 Bordeaux that won’t arrive until June 2002. WineBins.com What it’s good for Less expensive California bottles to older Bordeaux dating back to the 1800s. Shipping fee for one case is a reasonable $9.50. Don’t waste your time if You really dislike slow-loading pages — which one panelist complained about — and don’t want to pay the same $9.50 shipping fee for just one bottle. What our CEOs had to say “Offers by far the widest range of product of the group,” said one judge. But another criticized: “Searching by ‘flavor’ is good [only] for novices.” What you should know Virtual retailer owned by Geerlings & Wade Inc., a direct marketer and Internet retailer of wines. Offers 1,000 wines. Serves 29 states. Winetasting.com What it’s good for California wines, especially hard-to-find product such as bottles available only from the wineries themselves. Examples: Cabernets from the 1980s or Merryvale’s highly rated 1997 Profile, a red blend. Don’t waste your time if You don’t want California wines. What our CEOs had to say “Requires some effort to search. Limited selection. But very high quality. Kind of like shopping at a boutique instead of a wine emporium.” What you should know Virtual cooperative made up of some 50 California wineries. Site is a hub from which you’re transported to a winegrower’s own site. Serves 20 states. Our panelists Chris Dominguez is president and cofounder of Stockpoint Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of online and wireless investment-analysis tools and financial information. A resident of northern California for the past dozen years, he regularly visits Napa Valley. Shawn Kravetz is president of Esplanade Capital LLC, a hedge-fund-management company in Boston. A wine enthusiast for more than a decade, he especially enjoys red Bordeaux. Jim Roop is president of the James J. Roop Co., a corporate-communications consulting firm in Cleveland. Roop is past chairman of the Cleveland Wine Auction, a benefit event, and a member of Commanderie de Bordeaux, an international society of Bordeaux lovers. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4738 days ago Computer Security

War Stories

Book Value Tales from the battlefield: public and private Workplace Warrior, by Kay Hammer (Amacom, 2000) Kay Hammer’s ride to the top of a two-time Inc. 500 company has been remarkable. For Hammer, who was trained as a linguist, that ride began in the fall of 1979. Newly divorced and up for tenure at Washington State University, she was faced with trying to eke out a living for herself and her two daughters on an assistant professor’s salary. She realized then and there that Prince Charming wasn’t about to swoop in and make substantive changes in her life. If changes were to be made, she was the one who had to make them. The next 20 years would be fraught with experiences — personal and professional — that would make her feel as if she were fighting a war. This book describes the skirmishes and all-out battles Hammer had to endure while building Evolutionary Technologies International, the company she founded in 1990. Her notion is that if you recognize those looming battles before they strike, you’ll be more prepared than she once was to survive and thrive. In the abstract, it’s hard not to picture Hammer’s world as a mighty bleak place. But her stories and tone don’t come off as being grim or bitter. Instead they are an honest assessment of how grueling the start-up experience can be. But frankly, the gory details make Hammer’s book interesting. To reinforce the warrior metaphor, she uses some vivid examples of life on the corporate battlefield: a boss who undermined her work on a project by secretly setting up shadow teams to produce alternatives and then calling a meeting to ask for her on-the-spot response to those alternatives. There’s also an employee she had mentored and established a close friendship with, only to have that person later battle to take over Hammer’s responsibilities. (The protÉgÉe lost.) To win, she learned, you have to understand the enemy. Becoming a warrior also requires learning how to deal with a lot of frustration and anger. To back that up, Hammer describes experiences from her own life in which those emotions were put to the test. Such honesty is certainly refreshing, but it’s a relief when the corporate carnage lets up for a spell. It would have been easy for a book of this ilk to come off as one giant screed against anyone who had ever done Hammer wrong. But the overall impression is, here’s a person who faced her fears and conquered the workplace. And rather than stopping there, she tells you how you can overcome the primary fears that may stand in the way of your becoming a leader: fear of judging, fear of violating trust, and fear of courage. Overcome those, and you’re well on your way. Junk Bucks eBoys, by Randall E. Stross (Crown Business, 2000) In the competition among online auction sites, think of Pierre Omidyar, cofounder of eBay, as the average unassuming, benignly behaving hero. Think of Jerry Kaplan, CEO and cofounder of competitor Onsale (and author of Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure, about his failed exploits at Go Corp.), as the untrustworthy wanna-be nipping at Omidyar’s heels. At least that’s the picture Randall E. Stross paints in eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work. It’s doubtful that Stross’s book is in fact the first inside account of venture capitalists at work. (That subtitle sounds more like the work of an overzealous book editor.) But you’ll be able to follow Stross as he tags along with the six partners of Benchmark Capital — the eBoys — in their quest to raise venture-capital funds. It’s a wild ride on the Internet’s start-’em-up, take-’em-public, sell-’em-off trail. On the way, we meet Omidyar and his newly hired CEO, Meg Whitman, and watch the eBoys’ $6.7-million investment in eBay in 1997 grow to more than $5 billion by early 1999. That growth helps explain why the average net worth of each Benchmark partner has increased by roughly $350 million in the past four years. You’ll also meet Jay Walker, founder of Priceline, and learn that after a prolonged courtship, the Benchmark guys passed on investing in that now well-known and highly lucrative venture. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some. In eBoys, Stross delivers a romp with details galore about the venture-capital world. We see it through the adventures of the young partners, the shortest of whom is six-foot-two. (I told you there was a lot of detail.) The strength of eBoys, though, is that you learn how these guys ran their business, decided they’d all be equal partners, decided they’d price themselves as aggressively as the top VC firms in the land, and mulled over deals. At times, the book can be a bit over the top. And the good-guy-versus-bad-guy mentality is clearly in the subjective minds of Stross and the partners. In a world where conventional rules of finance and business seem tossed asunder, who’s to say when one man’s junk is another man’s treasure? Come to think of it, I guess you could take it to eBay and let the market decide. Your Own Beeswax The Hundredth Window, by Charles Jennings and Lori Fena (The Free Press, 2000) Charles Jennings and Lori Fena are the cofounders of TRUSTe, a nonprofit that endorses Web sites that agree to post and adhere to privacy policies. If the sites follow those rules, then they get to exhibit the TRUSTe seal on their site. That should tip you off right away that The Hundredth Window is a book by advocates of privacy protection on the Web. If that doesn’t do it, then the subtitle — Protecting Your Privacy and Security in the Age of the Internet — certainly will. The title is drawn from the old yarn that security experts often tell: If you have 100 windows and put bars on only 99, you still can be invaded. Jennings and Fena want you to know when, where, and how you might have left windows open in your personally identifiable information. In a decidedly practical approach, the authors go beyond just ranting about the loss of privacy and include “tips and tricks” that relate to each chapter’s focus. But the book is not just for protection of personal privacy. There’s also solid information on how companies fall short of protecting data. Even if you don’t especially care, it’s increasingly important to know when and how — and how often — you’re being watched and tracked. And when companies don’t disclose their tracking practices, well, that’s just plain wrong. EXECUTIVE READER Michelle Lemmons-Poscente President and CEO of International Speakers Bureau Inc., a $6-million conference-speaker agency in Dallas On the nightstand The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, by Michael Lewis. “What I picked up from the book is, when you’re taking a company public, you should be strong about how much of it you want to give away. If you have the right product quality, you should be able to go public on your terms,” says Lemmons-Poscente. Favorite biography Portrait of an Artist, by Laurie Lisle. “This is a biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. I see her as a role model. At the time when she was painting, women didn’t do that for money. But she moved to New York and forged a new career and was successful.” Longtime favorite Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. “We are so used to seeing the media showing entrepreneurs as being motivated by money. I think that entrepreneurs are really motivated more by freedom, and money’s really a side effect to that. That’s what Atlas Shrugged is about. It reveals the process of creating a scenario for freedom.” –Mike Hofman Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.