Business Milestones Time Line
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215 BC
Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi manufactures components separately, ia specialization, for later assembly as The Terracotta Army-- 8,000 life-size clay soldiers and horses.
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1520
The Venetian Arsenal, employing 16,000 people, produced one ship a day using standardized parts on an assembly-line.
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1790
Eli Whitney invents an assembly line where the equipment provides the precision. This opens the door to jobs for unskilled labor.
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1881
The first business school is founded, Wharton Business School.
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1899
Johan Vaaler, Norwegian inventor, patents the paperclip. (Legal and accounting documents continue to be misplaced but are now lost among tidier stacks of paper.)
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1901
Oldsmobile builds the first assembly line with automated machinery. Automobiles roll off at break-neck pace, two miles an hour.
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1925
Alfred Sloan, Chief Executive Officer, GM, introduces an approach to business based on assessing a competitor’s strengths and vulnerabilities.
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1940
WWII brings management science to the forefront, paving the way for quantitative analysis--a cornerstone of contemporary Internet marketing.
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1944
Peter Drucker popularizes the concept of business actively controlling economic markets and assuming adaptive competitive behavior.
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1945
The House Small Business Committee champions lower tax rates to help grow a healthy small business community.
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1947
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William Shockley invent the transistor, making electronic miniaturization possible.
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1951
Edmund Berkeley invents first personal computer. He names it Simon.
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1959
Advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach employs cognitive psychology to create “Think Small,” campaign. Marketers are prompted to rethink principals of selling as DDB succeeds in popularizing a diminutive, underpowered and German car just 15 years after WWII.
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1960
Cloud computing, as a concept, is proposed by John McCarthy. “Computation may someday be organized as a public utility.”
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1961
IBM launches Selectric typewriter. Office productivity advances and document appearance improves as multiple typefaces are easily employed by way of a “typeball.”
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1964
Douglas Engelbart invents computer Mouse and Windows.
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1969
ARPAnet launched, the original Internet. From the outset, ARPAnet was to be, “An intergalactic computer network,” as described by creator J.D.R. Licklider.
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1973
The first personal computer is brought to market, the Scelbi (SCientific, ELectronic and BIological). It sold for $1,000 and had 1k of programmable memory.
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1975
Bill Gates launches Microsoft to develop BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800.
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1976
Graduate schools in business are launched nationwide in response to Viet Nam veterans returning for degrees with funds from GI Bill. Management consulting boom is launched. Business management books proliferate. “Focus groups, branding, segmentation, strategic planning, just-in-time distribution, teaming exercises, workflow management, guerilla marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, cost accounting, and similar concepts emerge, redefining all business operations.
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1983
Apple Lisa born, the first home computer with a GUI (graphic user interface).
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1994
Lycos, Infoseek, Altavista and WebCrawler are among the many search engine companies launched in the early 1990s. 54k modems are suddenly mass produced. A non-tech savvy public quickly outnumbers the early Internet adopter.
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1995
Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford, contest each other’s point-of-view, but team up. "Googling" becomes idiom.
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2000
Advent of “high speed” internet moves cloud computing research from back to front burner, turning it into a technological, “next wave,” business priority. External IT founding partners begin development of OS33, the first commercially available, comprehensive cloud computing platform for small to midsize business. Soon after, External IT joins short list of pioneering IT hosting companies.
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2007
IBM and Google announce multi-university project designed to accelerate advances in cloud computing. (ACAI, Academic Cloud Computing Initiative)
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2015
IBM asks External IT for “just a little peek” at OS33 Portal code.
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2020
Google approaches External IT to host entire Google empire. Migration complete in 12 minutes.
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2025
Self-filing expense report makes debut.
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2030
Emily Post Society announces “Seven Sigma Politeness Award.” (One sigma better than six. A realm of politeness so extreme it’s purely theoretical.) The first recipient, Colin, of External IT, begins on-foot trek across America to thank every business person, personally.
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2035
Microsoft launches Word / Telepathy Mode
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2040
Nike invents golf ball that always gets “a member’s bounce.” Uncoordinated grateful millions are finally able to call Bethpage, Butler National, Quail Hollow and Pebble Beach “the office.”
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2045
Freezing issue with Word / Telepathy Mode fixed. Co-workers no longer have to reboot each other.
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2050
Starbucks achieves goal of franchise in every cubicle. Global productivity hits all time high.

























