Quotes from Tahl Raz

Slick marketing, high-tech production values, and a practical message have created a product that plays well to today's fickle churchgoer. Megachurches - defined as congregations with more than 2,000 members - number close to 600 in the United States.

Always the notorious red-light district of sports, boxing today is as troubled as it was even in the days when the Mob called the shots. There are too many lawsuits and too few heroes. Absurd mismatches and fraudulent rankings by unaccountable offshore sanctioning bodies have disgusted fans.

If you solve both the consumer problems and the corporate problems, you can win at this game. If you reinvent what a corporation is currently selling, it can often make the leap.

'Independents' - the industry term for companies that have more capital and know-how than the typical 'wildcatter' - can grow either by exploring and finding reserves or by buying a company that already has them.

While professional basketball, football, and baseball players make millions and their salaries represent well over 50% of the billions generated by those sports, the spoils of boxing don't often make it to the boxers.

Since its founding, Brooks Instrument has been producing devices that measure and control the flow rate of fluids used in manufacturing processes. And for all those years, the company has relied on the standard marketing package for its sector: earnest, information-crammed manuals and brochures.

Networking is never easier than when people are coming to you.

No sport - maybe no business - is more entrepreneurial than boxing.

One of the first acts during the second coming of Steve Jobs as CEO in 1997 was a major board overhaul.

ReadyMade's first three issues dished out instructions for all sorts of kitschy crafts and odd projects: homemade wallets, Adirondack chairs, even taxidermy.

Edible Arrangements will have to beat back some rivals, including a handful of mom-and-pop vendors and a company in Pennsylvania called Incredibly Edible Delites. And there's always the chance that a deep-pocketed national florist like FTD will decide that pretty produce is profitable and jump into the mix.