Thursday, August 19, 2010

Boosting Creativity

How many times have you heard someone…usually a boss say, “We have to be more creative!” (of course the other thing we hear now is that “we have to be entrepreneurial” but we’ll ignore that for now)? In a conversation with Mike Duda this morning, he pointed me to a great article in Newsweek The Creativity Crisis. In reading that piece, I also ran across Forget Brainstorming. Here are some suggestions by the authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman on some techniques that boost the creative process:

Don’t tell someone to ‘be creative.’
Such an instruction may just cause people to freeze up. However, according to the University of Georgia’s Mark Runco, there is a suggestion that works: “Do something only you would come up with—that none of your friends or family would think of.” When Runco gives this advice in experiments, he sees the number of creative responses double.
Get moving.
Almost every dimension of cognition improves from 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, and creativity is no exception. The type of exercise doesn’t matter, and the boost lasts for at least two hours afterward. However, there’s a catch: this is the case only for the physically fit. For those who rarely exercise, the fatigue from aerobic activity counteracts the short-term benefits.
Take a break.
Those who study multi-tasking report that you can’t work on two projects simultaneously, but the dynamic is different when you have more than one creative project to complete. In that situation, more projects get completed on time when you allow yourself to switch between them if solutions don’t come immediately. This corroborates surveys showing that professors who set papers aside to incubate ultimately publish more papers. Similarly, preeminent mathematicians usually work on more than one proof at a time.
Reduce screen time.
According to University of Texas professor Elizabeth Vandewater, for every hour a kid regularly watches television, his overall time in creative activities—from fantasy play to arts projects—drops as much as 11 percent. With kids spending about three hours in front of televisions each day, that could be a one-third reduction in creative time—less time to develop a sense of creative self-efficacy through play.
Explore other cultures.
Five experiments by Northwestern’s Adam Galinsky showed that those who have lived abroad outperform others on creativity tasks. Creativity is also higher on average for first- or second-generation immigrants and bilinguals. The theory is that cross-cultural experiences force people to adapt and be more flexible. Just studying another culture can help. In Galinsky’s lab, people were more creative after watching a slide show about China: a 45-minute session increased creativity scores for a week.
Follow a passion.
Rena Subotnik, a researcher with the American Psychological Association, has studied children’s progression into adult creative careers. Kids do best when they are allowed to develop deep passions and pursue them wholeheartedly—at the expense of well-roundedness. “Kids who have deep identification with a field have better discipline and handle setbacks better,” she noted. By contrast, kids given superficial exposure to many activities don’t have the same centeredness to overcome periods of difficulty.
Ditch the suggestion box.
If you want to increase innovation within an organization, one of the first things to do is tear out the suggestion box, advises Isaac Getz, professor at ESCP Europe Business School in Paris. Formalized suggestion protocols, whether a box on the wall, an e-mailed form, or an internal Web site, actually stifle innovation because employees feel that their ideas go into a black hole of bureaucracy. Instead, employees need to be able to put their own ideas into practice. One of the reasons that Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Ky., is so successful is that it implements up to 99 percent of employees’ ideas
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The Bully in the Workplace

As entrepreneurs, we have to be aware of what’s going on in our organization. As we caught up in the day to day of running the business, it’s easy to sometimes miss cues of bullying in the workplace. I had not been following this story, but the article Did Depression or an Alleged Bully Boss Prompt Editor's Suicide? by Ray Sanchez certainly tells this story in vivid detail. Most of us, as we grow our companies, don’t have the luxury of a full-time HR staff, so we have to be particularly aware of what’s going on around us and do all that we can to stop bullying in our workplace. Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many cases where the entrepreneurial owner is the bully. If that’s the case, it’s up to the Board’s or top executives of the venture to rein the offending boss in. This is one of those things that just can’t be a part of the entrepreneurial experience.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us

Yesterday, flying back from Washington DC on US Airways, I read in the in-flight magazine the story by Emily Yellin, Your Call is (Not That) Important to Us. Take the time to read this…great story and a fun read that should remind all of us entrepreneurs that providing great customer service is one of the keys to beating the big guys!

From the story:

Trouble for the nation’s largest cable television and broadband provider started in earnest with the story of LaChania Govan, a mother of two in her mid-twenties who inadvertently became a public symbol of mistreated customers everywhere. Govan lives in suburban Chicago. She goes to work all week and attends church every Sunday. She has a pleasant and welcoming voice. She also has a strong sense of fairness.
In July 2005, Govan’s digital video recorder wouldn’t work. She called Comcast’s customer service line in Chicago but couldn’t get through. During the course of four weeks, she called more than forty times. She was repeatedly disconnected, put on hold, or transferred to inept or inert representatives and technicians. One customer service representative transferred her to the Spanish-speaking line. Govan knows only English. She just wanted someone to resolve her seemingly simple case.
She says she never raised her voice, but she was resolute. “Calling Comcast became my second job,” Govan said. “I had to ensure the cordless phone was fully charged and the kids were content. And I sat and called. I cooked and called. I cleaned and called, and just called.” Almost every day, Govan prodded the big company’s customer service department as best she could. Finally, she found a rep who heard her out and took her case in hand. A technician was sent to replace her cable box at no charge, and she was credited with a free month of service. Govan’s perseverance paid off. Her headaches seemed to be over.
Then Govan’s August cable bill arrived. Her name did not appear on the bill. Instead it was addressed to “Bitch Dog.” Someone at Comcast had changed her account name. Govan said, “I was so mad I couldn’t even cuss.”
Instead of becoming just another unnoticed casualty in the adversarial relationship between many companies and their customers, Govan went public. The Chicago Tribune ran her story. Within days, the mainstream news media, bloggers, and consumer advocates from everywhere were spreading her tale of woe. She appeared as the number-one story on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann. A Comcast executive left an apology on Govan’s home voice mail. The company claimed it identified and fired two employees responsible for changing the name on Govan’s bill. She was offered all sorts of free service, which she refused. She wanted nothing more to do with Comcast.
Govan, who also happens to be a customer service representative for a major credit card company, is studying criminal justice with plans to go to law school one day. Eventually, she says, she hopes to become a judge. Her inherent sense of justice is what drove her to persevere. So she was speaking with conviction when she told the Washington Post that she believes customer service means “being friendly, helpful, and respectful. I know how it feels to be a customer service rep and a consumer on the other end. You do not have to settle for less, and you do not have to be mistreated.”
In 2006, Comcast was dealing with another public display of customer service missteps. A subscriber in the Washington, D.C., area found the technician that Comcast sent to fix his cable system had fallen asleep on his couch. The worker was kept on hold for so long by his own company when he called for help that he dozed off. The customer shot video of the napping technician and posted it on the Internet, where it went viral. Comcast issued another apology and again said the worker in question had been fired.
Then in August 2007, Comcast suffered what was perhaps its worst embarrassment to date when seventy-six-year-old Mona Shaw took her outrage with its customer service a few steps further than any disgruntled customer had done before. As she has told the story, it started when a technician scheduled to come out to her suburban Washington, D.C., home on a Monday didn’t show up. Comcast was supposed to install what it calls its triple-play service, which included the company’s new telephone service, along with its traditional Internet and cable television connection, all for under $100 per month. Shaw, a retired military nurse and secretary of her local AARP, as well as a square dancer who fosters stray dogs until they can be adopted, waited all day Monday. When Comcast finally arrived two days later, the technician left the job half done and never came back. On Friday, the company cut off what service Mona and her husband, Don, still had.
Without phone service, the Shaws couldn’t call to get help, so they drove over to their local Comcast office in Manassas, Virginia. They asked for a manager and were told to wait outside in the August heat.
They say they sat on a bench for two hours, until the same woman who had asked them to wait leaned out the door, told them the manager had gone home for the day, and thanked them for coming. Shaw told the Washington Post, “They thought just because we’re old enough to get Social Security that we lack both brains and backbone.”
By Monday, after a weekend with no phone, TV, or Internet, Shaw was so angry that she took matters into her own hands, literally. She got her husband’s hammer, and they went back to the local Comcast office. This is how Washington Post reporter Neely Tucker described Shaw’s account of what happened next:Hammer time: Shaw storms into the company’s office. BAM! She whacks the keyboard of the customer service rep. BAM! Down goes the monitor. BAM! She totals the telephone. People scatter, scream, cops show up and what does she do? POW! A parting shot to the phone!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Keep an Eye on Consigliere

Take a look at a story that brings together sports and entrepreneurship…can there be anything better? The story is called Steve Nash Drives in Venture Capital…but focus in on the mention of Consigliere, a New York-based group that plans to “invest in seed-stage, consumer-oriented companies with scalable, large-growth brand potential. It also will do select Series A and Series B deals, and occasionally sign on as a strategic partner (i.e., the consulting piece) for larger transactions. Those latter deals are designed, in part, to help forge partnerships with large brands that can help out Consigliere’s younger investments.” Mike Duda formerly one of the top folks at Deutsche, Inc. is the driving force behind this very interesting company.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

EBV on CNN

Here is a link to a wonderful story today on our Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities program that has appeared on CNN and HLN(Headline News): http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2010/08/12/n_veterans_ebv.cnnmoney/

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Cost of Starting Up

One more item...On August 1 I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal. During the week previous I had the chance to have a very nice conversation with Sarah Needleman from the WSJ on the topic of start-up costs. Here is the link to the entire story: Becoming the Boss Can Cost Plenty.

Trademarks and the Entrepreneur

Students and entrepreneurs usually have questions on trademarks, IP, etc. as it relates to their start-up venture. Because this area is a place where a specialist is required, I always refer those questions to an attorney. However, two days ago one of my favorite blogs had a great piece on the proper use of trademarks, so I thought it would made sense to mention it here. IP Law for Startups by Jill Hubbard Bowman is a great blog post for entrepreneurs to read…here is the post on trademarks Protect Your Brand: The Proper Use of Trademarks:

I know that proper use of trademarks and service marks gets confusing for many entrepreneurs. The following is a simple and handy guide on the proper use of the marks in your business. It’s important to review your website and marketing material and make sure that you are preserving potential legal protection for your marks.
Trademarks and service marks are essentially brand names. A mark identifies and distinguishes products or services of one company from the products or services of others.
Trademarks identify goods. Service marks identify services. In contrast, a trade name is a name that identifies a business.
Confusingly, sometimes the same name may be a trade name, a trademark and a service mark. GOOGLE is a trade name, a registered trademark for mugs, bags and t-shirts, and a registered service mark for search engine services.
A critical issue is that improper use of a mark may cause the loss of legal protection.
A federal registration may be denied because the owner used the mark in a generic way to describe its goods or services. Moreover, a court or the PTO may determine that even a registered mark has become generic and therefore free for all to use. Once upon a time, aspirin, escalator, and cellophane were all trademarks. Eventually, the names began to represent the goods rather than the source of the goods and trademark protection was lost.
Improper descriptive use by the trademark owner in advertising or other materials is a factor in deciding whether the name will get legal protection. Widespread use of the mark as the common name for similar goods or services may ultimately allow free use of the mark, even by competitors.
A key issue is whether the public understands whether the name is a common name or a brand name.
If the public thinks the name is the common name—like aspirin—then the law will not protect the mark from competitive use. But if the public thinks the name is a brand name, trademark status may be preserved.
Proper Use of a Trademark or Service Mark
1. Use the mark with a generic term
To preserve legal protection for a brand name, the mark should be used in conjunction with a generic term, like using the mark
Kleenex with tissue. Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. is very careful to write: Kleenex tissue or Kleenex brand tissue. If you use the common name in conjunction with your brand name it is far less likely that your brand will become the common name. Your brand will be seen as separate and distinct from the common name.
Remember, generic or descriptive names do not have trademark protection upon initial use. Generic names may never be a trademark. Descriptive names may only receive trademark protection after they become famous for identifying the goods as coming from a single source.
2. Use the mark as an Adjective NOT a noun or verb
Use the mark to modify the generic term for the goods instead of describing the goods. This point is similar to the previous one. An example is Google search services. Google needs to be careful that google doesn’t cross the line into becoming the common noun and verb for using any search engine.
Also, don’t use the mark as a possessive or plural.
3. Make the mark look distinctive
To preserve protection, it is good practice to make the mark look distinctive.
Good ways to distinguish a mark include:
Capitalizing the mark;
using color; or
using stylized lettering or a special font.
4. Use the TM or SM symbols
When you initially claim use of a mark as a brand name, after the mark you can use the TM symbol for goods and SM for services. You don’t need to wait until you have filed a registration.
After receiving a federal registration, you can use the ® symbol.
With a little bit of care, you can preserve the value of your trademarks and service marks.
For related posts on Trademark Law:
How to Avoid Trademark Infringement When Selecting Business or Product Names
Consider Whether You Can or Want to File a Federal Trademark Registration


Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Restitching a Firm

I was talking last week with Neale Godfrey, the chairman of the Children’s Financial Network at our Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities program. Neale was a guest speaker, and she asked me a great question right before she went into the classroom to talk to the vet’s. She asked, “Do you tell the vet’s the whole story about entrepreneurship”…meaning are we sharing with them stories of success, as well as failure. As it turns out, we do tell the vet’s as well as our undergrad and graduate students the whole story, but an article in the Wall Street Journal today Restitching a Firm That Nearly Unraveled, brings home Neale’s point…that entrepreneurship is more than just success, but it can also be filled with road bumps(and more) along the way. Read the article by Julie Jargon about, J.W. Hulme Co., a Minnesota luggage maker that almost went bankrupt but is now on the way back.