The weekly newsletter for everyone interested in barter--the world's most versatile business tool!

April 2, 2002

BarterNet Unveils Name Change

BarterNet has changed its name to The Intagio Group is the new name for the former BarterNet Corporation. The name change coincides with the integration of the company's acquisitions, AllBusiness and Tradaq.

Intagio means to "trade within an exchange," and is derived from the Latin root "intr," which means within, and the Latin word "agio," which means exchange.

The Intagio Group operates two divisions: A) Intagio Trading Network, for servicing commercial clients through their 25,000 trade exchange network, and B) Intagio International Corporation, for servicing larger corporate clients. Visit www.intagio.com for more information.

Media Looking Forward To Normalcy

The U.S. advertising market suffered its worst decline since World War II. So the current movement toward a rebound isn't a real surprise, but it certainly is welcomed.

A return to a more normal trend is expected, according to Bob Coen the director of forecasting at Universal McCann. Ad sales are expected to grow, aggregately, some 2.4% to $239.3 billion this year, with cable TV leading the way, up over 5%.

Magazines will still be struggling with yearly growth a minus 1%. (Last year more than 100 major magazines shut down, more than double that of a normal year.)

The once-hot Internet ad sector will be flat this year at about $4 billion in sales, down from the dot-com spending peak in 2000 of $5.5 billion.

Marty The Dot-Com Liquidator Says More To Come

CEO Martin D. Pichinson, of Sherwood Partners Inc., is the mop-up man to the tech industry and the one the venture capitalists turn to when their companies are crumbling.

While his 22-person firm handled 76 cleanups last year he sees more on the horizon, despite the optimism about our economic recovery. In short, he expects a second wave of shutdowns that will go far beyond the dot-com wreck.

The new wave of losses will be much larger, as the bigger bets were placed in telecom equipment, software, and optical net-working...which are the companies that will likely go under this time around.

Why? Because the VCs funded too many tech companies at once, and they all hit the market just as their potential clients were slashing capital spending.

TAC A Force In Southern California's Sports Scene

The oldest independent trade exchange in Orange County, TradeAmericanCard, has been a conduit for their members when it comes time to see major league sports. TAC works with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks and the MLB's California Angels, offering season tickets and suites on trade.

Also available from TAC is the recently signed up 2002 International Men's Conference, "Dare to Dream," to be held April 18-20 in San Juan Capistrano (known for its centuries old Mission and the annual return of the swallows). The conference promises practical step-by-step advice that will enable attendees to develop a strategy for reaching their dreams.

Speakers include: "Rudy" Ruettiger, the Notre Dame footballer whose 27 seconds makes him the most ramous graduate of the University; Nido Queblin, who came to the U.S. with $50 in his pocket and no knowledge of English and ended up a multimillionaire; Dr. Ken Blanchard, Krish Dhaham, Danny Cox, and Andy Stanley.

• According to the nonprofit Aspen Institute, acquiring an MBA changes a person's values. The Institute found that students enter business school with relatively idealistic ambitions, such as creating quality products. But by the time they graduate, these goals have taken a backseat to such priorities as boosting share prices.

  In short, the MBAs' philosophy becomes "show me the money," rather than their prior idealistic ambitions of "doing well by doing good."

• Russia is intent on rebuilding its military. Moscow has a vast defense industry staffed by highly skilled people that has to be sustained. So for next decade they plan to focus on exports, to build their economic health.

  Their targets primarily are Southeast Asian nations, which have been denied technology and weapons by Western countries concerned over political reform and human rights. However, many of the poorer countries in the region are unable to pay for military hardware other than barter deals.

  Russia is more flexible on price and terms, and with respect to human rights they are also less concerned. A good example is Moscow's sale of fighter jets to Myanmar, and its agreement to supply the impoverished military-ruled nation with a nuclear research reactor in return for timber and agricultural products.

• Thirty percent of firms with more than 100 employees now have formal telecommuting policies, as the number of telecommuters (employees working from home) has increased from 19 million in 2000 to 25.2 million today. By 2004 the numbers will jump to 31.5 million.

• Recent studies by University of Pittsburgh economist Thomas Rawski, suggests that China's growth since 1997 may have been no more than 40% of official rates. The proof, according to Rawski, is that Beijing acknowledges a 12.8% drop in energy consumption from 1997-2000, suggesting the official GDP expansion of 24.7% is implausible.

• An unusually powerful program on the global economy will be aired April 3, 10, & 17 on Public Broadcasting System's three-part series, "The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy," drawn from the 1998 book by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw.

  Yergin, a Pulitzer prize winner, asserts "the best hope for economic growth everywhere depends on trade expansion and an open world economy. With a lot of effort, we should be able to maintain the course we've been on. History shows there are no good alternatives."

• International travel is recovering unevenly. Europe and other overseas markets have revived relatively quickly, but travel from North America to other parts of the world remains fairly weak.

  Routes between North America and Europe are not expected to return to normal before 2005. North American business travelers venturing overseas are presently spending less and turning to low-cost carriers for international travel.

• Columbia University business professor Amar Bhide calculated one year that 70% of the companies in Inc. magazine's Inc. 500 were started by entrepreneurs who got the original ideas while working for other employers. Reconfirming the fact that the most important unmeasured assets of a company aren't really assets at all--they're the company's key employees.

• Attention trade exchange owners! Knowledge and education about a subject are always a pre-requisite to taking action...especially sustained action.

  If you expect your members to be active traders, and are perplexed when they aren't, there's a good reason. You have neglected to provide the necessary "education" about the many benefits of barter.

  Admittedly, most exchanges are deficient in this important area because it takes a substantial amount of time, effort, and ability to provide such information on a regular basis.

  However, there is an easy and inexpensive answer to the problem... purchase The Competitive Edge newsletter. It's a camera-ready, 4-page, professionally written, informational marketing tool...available in PDF format as well as print.

  Written especially for trade exchange owners, it will be the best investment you ever make.

  For more information about The Competitive Edge, and how it can benefit you, contact Bob Meyer at bmeyer@barternews.com or call 949.831.0607 (PST).