Listen to “#759 Inventing the Barcode: How a Team Created World-Changing Technology” on Spreaker.
On this episode of The Small Business Radio Show…
SEGMENT 1 with Paul V. McEnroe, starting at 0:00: Can you imagine business functioning without the barcode? Ten billion or more times each day, electronic scanners read data encoded in black-and-white codes—barcodes—printed on or affixed to physical goods. Where did the ubiquitous barcode come from? Our guest, Paul McEnroe, shares what it was like to be on the team that created a technology that changed the world.
Paul V. McEnroe is an award-winning engineer who developed multiple state-of-the-art technologies during his long career, including more than two decades in leadership roles at IBM. He is best known for his primary role in developing the Universal Product Code (UPC), the barcode used on every product in supermarkets and the retail industry, and the scanners that read them. He has a new book out called “The Barcode: How a Team Created One of the World’s Most Ubiquitous Technologies.”
- How Paul’s team came to invent the barcode scanning that is used today
- What other scanning technology was considered?
- How to effectively manage a team to accomplish seemingly impossible goals
- Winning the barcode revolution: how the barcode team was able to move from no position in the supermarket and retail industry to become its sole leader
- How does it feel to have created something that literally changed the world?
- What new generations can now learn about creating these life-changing technologies based on what Paul and his team did 50 years ago
- The future of the barcode and retail systems
SEGMENT 2 with Laura K. Connell, starting at 25:00: I have found that the biggest thing that gets in the way of our success is us—and we don’t even know it.
Laura K. Connell is a trauma-informed author and coach who helps her clients discover the subconscious reasons they sabotage their own success. She is the author of the book, “It’s Not Your Fault: The Subconscious Reasons We Self-Sabotage and How to Stop.”
- Why do we sabotage our own success? And why is it not our fault?
- How self-sabotage shows up at work
- On top of your own self-sabotage, there usually are some people at work that are trying to sabotage you like they are toxic people. How do you deal with that?
- How to stop negative self-talk and self-imposed isolation
- Why self-sabotage results from unmet childhood needs and how we can overcome this
- Why letting go of escape fantasies will help us succeed
- Why it’s important to declutter your life
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