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Bringing America Online: Case Changes An Industry

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Bringing America Online: Case Changes An Industry
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When Case entered the world of computers in the late 1970s, personal computing was still a relatively foreign concept. “I remember even when I was in college and writing, sending resumes out to different companies, my cover letter really talked about, ‘We're about to usher in a new visual age, and with two-way televisions and more of an electronic frontier,’” recalls Case. “Most people 25 years ago, I think, thought I was a little bit loony, but I just believed. And so I just kept pursuing that.”

With his company’s new name, Case merged its Apple and PC services all together under America Online. In just three years, the new AOL service had over 1 million subscribers. Quantum Link was officially dropped that same year. “We focused – once people turn on that PC and wanted to use the service – on providing something that people would like and want to pay a monthly fee for,” says Case.

His time with the failed Control Video had taught Case a number of important lessons that he would come to use in growing AOL. “I think, the fact that we saw how hard it was to build a consumer product and make it successful led us to this, I think, very pragmatic strategy of focusing on PCs,” says Case, “and partnering with the companies that already had brand recognition and already had distribution, and could help attract customers much more efficiently.”

Under Case, AOL became known as one of the most innovative companies in its field. He was personally involved in launching several of the programs that would give AOL this reputation. The company led the way in graphical chat software with the release of Habitat in 1986, and Club Caribe in 1989. In 1988, AOL created the first ever online interactive fiction series, QuantumLink Serial. The next year, it launched the first fully automated game played by email. AOL was also responsible for the original Dungeons & Dragons multiplayer game.

Over the next decade, AOL continued to grow at a rapid pace. So much so that in 2001, Case oversaw a $106 billion merger of his company with Time Warner. Although it was the largest media merger in history, the coming dot-com recession would lead to Case resigning as chairman in 2003. He remained on the company’s board of directors for the next three years, but moved his personal focus to a new company he had launched, Revolution LLC, which is a luxury resort and health care business.

Today, Case splits his time between his family, his new business and his philanthropic endeavour, the Case Foundation, which focuses largely on social entrepreneurship. And, while he has no intention of launching additional start-ups in the future, he admits that he has not lost the entrepreneurial bug. “I do like building business,” says Case. “I'm not likely to go off and start something myself, because I did that and had a good run at it, but partnering with entrepreneurs if they're doing interesting things in consumer markets where there is some kind of big breakout disruptive potential and the opportunity to build significant companies that really have a profound impact on people's lives – that is of interest.”





Bringing America Online Case Changes An Industry

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Linda Richardson
Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website

John Alexander
John has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center.
I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website

Cheryl Matthynssens

Cheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur.  Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well.  A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles.  She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide-  to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being.  Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com

- Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website

John Brennan
John Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website

Richard Jefferies
For an online Car Loan Calculator and finance for a cheap car loan. Get approved on car loans or car finance in Australia with cheap bank car loans and finding a car finance broker. Commercial car loans including business car finance and car lease. Car Loan Calculator has information on finance companies and getting the right cheap car loan from banks at best car loan rates and a online car loan calculator for all finance in Australia. Get the best car finance with our help at Car Loan Calculator and Finance Ezi. - Visit Richard Jefferies's Website

Stephanie Robey
Stephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals.

She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com   Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences.  Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

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- Visit Stephanie Robey's Website

Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website

David Acheson
David Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns.  David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website


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Steve Case Video - Charlene Hunter Gault of PBS's The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour introduces America Online and interviews AOL CEO Steve Case. Case discusses the new popularity of online services, niche content, the "right to connect," and the future wired world.
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