Each Sunday morning, I get my coffee and turn to the “Corner Office” column in the New York Times. Today’s was an interview with Karen May, VP for People Development at Google and written by Adam Bryant. It deals with a favorite topic of mine …getting and giving feedback in the workplace.
From the column:
Q. Many C.E.O.’s I’ve interviewed talk about how hard it is for people to give direct feedback. Have you seen that, too?
A. Absolutely. I would say it happens for a couple of reasons. It’s simply harder to give difficult feedback than positive feedback or no feedback. It’s harder because it can be an uncomfortable conversation. It creates tension. You might be disappointing somebody or potentially leading them to feel worse about themselves.
If you’ve identified something that isn’t going well, then you’re likely to be asked, “How do I fix it?” If you don’t know the answer, you might not want to start the conversation. I think that’s the primary reason managers don’t give feedback. They’re willing to give the feedback, but then they won’t know how to help fix it, so why start the conversation?
As a coach, I was often in the position of giving people feedback they hadn’t heard before, after I interviewed a bunch of people they work with. It was always difficult for me, too. Just at a human level, it’s difficult to tell somebody that something that isn’t working about them. But I came to find that people are incredibly grateful. If I’m not doing well and I don’t know it or I don’t know why or I can’t put my finger on what’s not working and no one will tell me, I won’t be able to fix it.
And if you give me the information, the moment that the information is being transferred is painful, but then I have the opportunity to change it. I’ve come to realize that one of the most valuable things I could do for somebody is tell them exactly what nobody else had told them before.
Q. How often does that have a positive outcome?
A. People can do something with the feedback probably 70 percent of the time. And for the other 30 percent, they are either not willing to take it in, it doesn’t fit their self-image, they’re too resistant, in denial, or they don’t have the wherewithal to change it. And the reality is that most change happens in small increments. So if you’re watching to see if someone’s changing, you have to watch for the incremental change. It’s not a straight line.
We have people sit in chairs and they’re knee to knee. Then we start the speed-back and say, “You have three minutes to answer the question, ‘How have you experienced me during this learning program?’ ” Then the bell rings and the person giving feedback hears how the other perceived them. Many people say it’s some of the best feedback they’d ever received. We’ve experimented with different questions, like, “What advice would you give me based on the experience that you’ve had with me here?”
Here’s the link to entire story: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/business/karen-may-of-google-on-conquering-fears-of-giving-feedback.html?ref=business&_r=0
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Ethics and B-School Education
A few weeks ago, I was talking with our Marketing team here at Lynn University, and I told them about the way that we were now teaching ethics in the College of Business. As a result, they developed an information piece and placed it on our website on Thursday. The timing of the piece (which I’ve placed below) couldn’t be more relevant. In just this weekend alone, we’ve seen stories published about ethical lapses at organizations as varied as Lockheed, the BBC, and the US Government. Lance Armstrong’s issues were raised in another story, while the sports page discussed an athlete leaving a school because of alleged abuse from the coaching staff. Clearly since these five stories were topics of the news in just the last two days, then whatever we’re currently doing to instill ethics into our leaders isn’t working.
So take a look at the article below, and learn about the new model that we’re using to integrate ethics into business education. (Here is the link to the Lynn University news page: http://www.lynn.edu/about-lynn/news-and-events/news/business-dean-says-ethics-are-guiding-values-for-decision-making)
Published November 8, 2012
Business dean says ethics are guiding values for decision-making
“It seems the traditional separate ethics class method isn’t producing the optimum result,” said Kruczek. “We’re trying to change that.”
Unlike many business schools across the nation, Lynn University’s College of Business and Management does not offer stand-alone courses on business ethics, business communications and/or sustainable enterprises.
“We believe ethics – and other key business values – are such important topics that they should be embedded into all of our business courses,” said Thomas Kruczek, dean of Lynn’s College of Business. “The discussion of ethics, both personal and business, warrants far more in-depth attention than a one-semester class that meets twice a week.”
Lynn’s College of Business is working to change the outdated model of having only one or two courses specifically dedicated to guiding business principles. The university’s core curriculum, the Dialogues of Learning, also works to buck the trend by embedding life lessons throughout all Lynn classes.
“As educators, our hope is that we are helping to make the world a better place by training our students to enter the world as productive, contributing and ethical business leaders,” said Kruczek. “Our ethics and guiding values are at the root of every decision we make.”
ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING
Ethical decision-making is the foundation for building a successful business. However, in the wake of the financial crisis, unethical business agendas seem to garner the most attention.
“Enron, Global Crossing and WorldCom are key examples of the poor choices we hear about,” said Kruczek. “That’s one of the reasons we emphasize ethics so strongly here at Lynn. We are seeing questionable decisions in too many businesses, so it seems the traditional separate ethics class method isn’t producing the optimum result. We’re trying to change that.”
So take a look at the article below, and learn about the new model that we’re using to integrate ethics into business education. (Here is the link to the Lynn University news page: http://www.lynn.edu/about-lynn/news-and-events/news/business-dean-says-ethics-are-guiding-values-for-decision-making)
Published November 8, 2012
Business dean says ethics are guiding values for decision-making
“It seems the traditional separate ethics class method isn’t producing the optimum result,” said Kruczek. “We’re trying to change that.”
Unlike many business schools across the nation, Lynn University’s College of Business and Management does not offer stand-alone courses on business ethics, business communications and/or sustainable enterprises.
“We believe ethics – and other key business values – are such important topics that they should be embedded into all of our business courses,” said Thomas Kruczek, dean of Lynn’s College of Business. “The discussion of ethics, both personal and business, warrants far more in-depth attention than a one-semester class that meets twice a week.”
Lynn’s College of Business is working to change the outdated model of having only one or two courses specifically dedicated to guiding business principles. The university’s core curriculum, the Dialogues of Learning, also works to buck the trend by embedding life lessons throughout all Lynn classes.
“As educators, our hope is that we are helping to make the world a better place by training our students to enter the world as productive, contributing and ethical business leaders,” said Kruczek. “Our ethics and guiding values are at the root of every decision we make.”
ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING
Ethical decision-making is the foundation for building a successful business. However, in the wake of the financial crisis, unethical business agendas seem to garner the most attention.
“Enron, Global Crossing and WorldCom are key examples of the poor choices we hear about,” said Kruczek. “That’s one of the reasons we emphasize ethics so strongly here at Lynn. We are seeing questionable decisions in too many businesses, so it seems the traditional separate ethics class method isn’t producing the optimum result. We’re trying to change that.”
Monday, November 5, 2012
Leadership...The Carrot or the Stick? I Vote for Salami!
Part of leadership is being able to motivate people to do what you want them to do. It’s not (always) about ‘barking’ out orders…but it can be useful to treat your staff like, well... dogs. Just the other night I put my leadership/management skills to work to get my wife’s dog off the bed after he climbed up during a thunderstorm. Believe me, that was harder than it sounds. This is no labradoodle, her beloved boy is a 160 pound man-stopper, and I’m not a dog guy. I walked into the bedroom after a late football game, my wife was fast asleep, and her canine shadow was snuggled next to her with his head on my pillow! Sigh, thunder makes him nervous.
Now here’s the leadership lesson: I had a couple of choices, I could go for strong-arm dictatorial tactics or work towards collaboration. Trying to force the situation could result in opposition. The dog had his own agenda that didn’t coincide with mine. If I pushed hard he could growl (scary) and a confrontation would wake my sleeping wife (scarier.) Since I was dealing with a 160 lb immovable object with teeth, I was leaning towards negotiation and persuasion. I needed to consider both our needs, but my management goal was clear…I wanted that damn dog off the bed. The options were the classic carrot or the stick. Instead of the carrot, I went with a slice of salami. It worked, and both big boy and I were happy. For that particular situation that style worked. It wasn’t weakness... it was a win-win. In my current field (higher education) this style is a go-to choice. But leadership works different ways in different businesses, and sometimes a tougher style can be more effective. If the dog had been chomping on my cat, for instance, my management style would have been more hands-on!
Good leadership involves influencing those you lead, not about constantly dominating them. You’re not the hall monitor at school, it’s in your best interest to consider your employee’s concerns and desires (which unfortunately are not as simple as a slice of salami!) so that you can inspire and motivate them to help you succeed. When you have a choice in a situation, aim for the win, not just for you but for the other person. You can still be the “alpha” by making that choice.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
From Bloomberg Businessweek About Lynn and the Presidential Debate
This post is an article that was published in Bloomberg Businessweek on October 22, 2012...the day of the final presidential debate which took place at Lynn University. The author of the article is Alison Damast
About a year ago, Lynn University, a sleepy private liberal arts school in Boca Raton, Fla., learned it was going to be one of three schools in the U.S. hosting a presidential debate on its campus. Tom Kruczek, dean of Lynn University’s College of Business and Management, knew immediately that he wanted the debate to have lasting impact on the school’s 1,000 undergraduate and graduate business students, rather than pass as just an “eventful day or week in the life of our students,” he says. He challenged the school’s faculty last year to come up with creative ways to embed the third presidential debate into their existing classes, a charge they took on enthusiastically.
“It is a wonderful opportunity to capitalize on the interest by integrating the debate and election into our classroom discussion and assignments,” Kruczek says. “It really shows students the intersection between government and business.”
Kruczek and his faculty’s efforts have paid off this fall. Students in the business school have been busy studying the debate and its economic implications in many of the school’s electives and core classes during preparations for the third and final presidential debate on foreign policy, which will take place at Lynn tonight, Oct. 22.
For example, students in the Managing Organizations class were asked to pick a presidential candidate and then write a paper that described what would happen in their prospective career field if their choice were elected. Accounting students studied the first debate and then examined the candidates’ differences on economic policy, as well as some possible tax consequences if the policies the candidates support go into effect. Even students taking the school’s aviation-management and sport-management courses have organized class projects around campaign issues that impact their sectors, Kruczek said.
Lynn’s business school is one of several capitalizing on holding presidential debates on campus. Business schools at the University of Denver and Hofstra University, which respectively hosted presidential debates on Oct. 3 and 16, have also used classroom time to study the debates. Students there spent the season analyzing candidates’ leadership styles, studying campaign finance, and examining the impact that proposed economic plans will have not only on the country’s economy, but on their own wallets, school administrators said.
For example, at Hofstra’s Zarb School of Business, finance students in the school’s investment courses were asked to analyze what impact the economic plans of each candidate would have on the value of their simulated class portfolios. In another class, undergraduate and graduate management students researched leadership styles and then posted clips of the debates online that illustrated examples of those leadership aspects, said Gioia Bales, the Zarb School’s associate dean, in an e-mail.
At the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, accounting professor Hugh Grove discussed the second presidential debate as a capital budgeting project with his students, analyzing what some of the monetary and non-monetary benefits were for the university, the school says. Daniels also organized a number of panels around the election, including discussions on such topics as campaign finance, restoring fiscal responsibility, and the issues that will most influence swing states this year.
At Lynn, the lead-up to tonight’s debate has busied students with class discussions, in-class debates, and research presentations on debate topics related to the economy. Professor Farideh Farazmand, a professor of international business, asked students in her macroeconomics class to break into teams and research socioeconomic topics she assigned to them, such as tax cuts for working families and whether every American should have affordable heath insurance, and then debate these issues in front of their classmates. She is also having her students conduct an economic survey on the impact of the debate on the local community.
“They can now follow the campaign and debates closer because they are much more informed,” Farazmand says. “It also enhances their citizenship and personality development because this way, they will get involved. Hopefully they will vote and they’ll be more involved in community and national issues.”
Akash Isrania, 19, a freshman at Lynn’s business school, participated in one of the debates in Farazmand’s class last week, with his team tackling the issue of whether government spending on social programs should be cut. The assignment opened his eyes to many of the most pressing economic problems that Republican nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama face.
“I didn’t know too much about these issues until this class, but now I can finally sit back on Monday, watch the debate, have my opinion, and know exactly what is going on,” Isrania said.
John Cipolla, another Lynn professor, is hoping the work he’s done this fall with his introductory global management class will make his students pay closer attention to candidates’ positions on international economic issues. He has asked students to select three statements made by each candidate about global trade, fact-check them, and pinpoint what economic theories they are based on. The students then made class presentations about what they believe will happen to the U.S. and global economy if some of the policies come to fruition.
Says Cipolla: “It has opened their eyes to what realistically can and can’t be done, and how much of what the candidates are talking about is actually bluster.”’
About a year ago, Lynn University, a sleepy private liberal arts school in Boca Raton, Fla., learned it was going to be one of three schools in the U.S. hosting a presidential debate on its campus. Tom Kruczek, dean of Lynn University’s College of Business and Management, knew immediately that he wanted the debate to have lasting impact on the school’s 1,000 undergraduate and graduate business students, rather than pass as just an “eventful day or week in the life of our students,” he says. He challenged the school’s faculty last year to come up with creative ways to embed the third presidential debate into their existing classes, a charge they took on enthusiastically.
“It is a wonderful opportunity to capitalize on the interest by integrating the debate and election into our classroom discussion and assignments,” Kruczek says. “It really shows students the intersection between government and business.”
Kruczek and his faculty’s efforts have paid off this fall. Students in the business school have been busy studying the debate and its economic implications in many of the school’s electives and core classes during preparations for the third and final presidential debate on foreign policy, which will take place at Lynn tonight, Oct. 22.
For example, students in the Managing Organizations class were asked to pick a presidential candidate and then write a paper that described what would happen in their prospective career field if their choice were elected. Accounting students studied the first debate and then examined the candidates’ differences on economic policy, as well as some possible tax consequences if the policies the candidates support go into effect. Even students taking the school’s aviation-management and sport-management courses have organized class projects around campaign issues that impact their sectors, Kruczek said.
Lynn’s business school is one of several capitalizing on holding presidential debates on campus. Business schools at the University of Denver and Hofstra University, which respectively hosted presidential debates on Oct. 3 and 16, have also used classroom time to study the debates. Students there spent the season analyzing candidates’ leadership styles, studying campaign finance, and examining the impact that proposed economic plans will have not only on the country’s economy, but on their own wallets, school administrators said.
For example, at Hofstra’s Zarb School of Business, finance students in the school’s investment courses were asked to analyze what impact the economic plans of each candidate would have on the value of their simulated class portfolios. In another class, undergraduate and graduate management students researched leadership styles and then posted clips of the debates online that illustrated examples of those leadership aspects, said Gioia Bales, the Zarb School’s associate dean, in an e-mail.
At the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, accounting professor Hugh Grove discussed the second presidential debate as a capital budgeting project with his students, analyzing what some of the monetary and non-monetary benefits were for the university, the school says. Daniels also organized a number of panels around the election, including discussions on such topics as campaign finance, restoring fiscal responsibility, and the issues that will most influence swing states this year.
At Lynn, the lead-up to tonight’s debate has busied students with class discussions, in-class debates, and research presentations on debate topics related to the economy. Professor Farideh Farazmand, a professor of international business, asked students in her macroeconomics class to break into teams and research socioeconomic topics she assigned to them, such as tax cuts for working families and whether every American should have affordable heath insurance, and then debate these issues in front of their classmates. She is also having her students conduct an economic survey on the impact of the debate on the local community.
“They can now follow the campaign and debates closer because they are much more informed,” Farazmand says. “It also enhances their citizenship and personality development because this way, they will get involved. Hopefully they will vote and they’ll be more involved in community and national issues.”
Akash Isrania, 19, a freshman at Lynn’s business school, participated in one of the debates in Farazmand’s class last week, with his team tackling the issue of whether government spending on social programs should be cut. The assignment opened his eyes to many of the most pressing economic problems that Republican nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama face.
“I didn’t know too much about these issues until this class, but now I can finally sit back on Monday, watch the debate, have my opinion, and know exactly what is going on,” Isrania said.
John Cipolla, another Lynn professor, is hoping the work he’s done this fall with his introductory global management class will make his students pay closer attention to candidates’ positions on international economic issues. He has asked students to select three statements made by each candidate about global trade, fact-check them, and pinpoint what economic theories they are based on. The students then made class presentations about what they believe will happen to the U.S. and global economy if some of the policies come to fruition.
Says Cipolla: “It has opened their eyes to what realistically can and can’t be done, and how much of what the candidates are talking about is actually bluster.”’
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Bringing Innovation to the Ivory Tower
Here is my blog that appeared today in the Huffington Post:
A college campus should be an exciting interface between the academic and the real world, an institution at the cutting edge of social and technological change, an incubator for new ideas. We’re educating our students for the future…and many of our graduates will have careers that we couldn’t have imagined during our college days. To prepare them for a rapidly-changing world, we have to stay ahead of the curve.
If we expect our graduates to be leaders and innovators, then we need to model that by finding cutting edge real world opportunities to bring back to our campuses. We have to take learning beyond the classroom and give our students the chance to put theory to work.
The bad news? It’s not easy, it means shaking up the old “but that’s the way we’ve always done it.” The good news is that it’s fun, exciting, empowering and satisfying. If you are passionate, dedicated and creative, these opportunities can be found anywhere, even in your hometown!
Lynn University just finished a great student project with a hot tech startup, because the president of our school grew up in Boca Raton, home of the university, and happened to be friends with an entrepreneur with an interesting idea.
Sidebar: What many may not know is that this would not be the first new idea for our town or Lynn for that matter. Boca Raton was birth place of IBMs PC, in fact Lynn is across the street from where it was built and helped test the prototype keyboards. And Boca continues to be a fertile place for new ideas.
The idea our president heard about was a new venture called Voispot, and he was intrigued with the potential for a link to the university. Did he have an instant plan? No, but he saw possibilities…and he acted. There was no committee—just a quick email inviting the company’s founders, local business people, and campus leadership to a brainstorming session.
From that first meeting, we made the development and launch of Voispot a get-your-hands-dirty project for an MBA class, and our students worked with the founders to learn first-hand what it means to start a real-world business on the forefront of technology. Voispot is a brand new social talk platform that allows people to have group conversations about common interests. Voispot is a free, cloud-based, mobile app where users can speak, listen, ask questions, and engage in discussions using voice (no typing or texting needed) in real-time. The technology allows organized conversations with a virtually limitless number of people—think of the digital version of an audience participation panel event, except your audience is not limited by the number of seats.
Too often we’re accused of sitting in our ivory towers, out-of-touch and out-of-date. And, yeah, sometimes it’s true. But it doesn’t have to be. The “ivory tower” gives us access to the best and brightest, and can give us a vantage point that allows us scan the horizon, always searching for the newest and best educational experiences for our students. It’s about fostering a culture of innovation on our campuses, and it can begin in small ways but can make a big difference!
A college campus should be an exciting interface between the academic and the real world, an institution at the cutting edge of social and technological change, an incubator for new ideas. We’re educating our students for the future…and many of our graduates will have careers that we couldn’t have imagined during our college days. To prepare them for a rapidly-changing world, we have to stay ahead of the curve.
If we expect our graduates to be leaders and innovators, then we need to model that by finding cutting edge real world opportunities to bring back to our campuses. We have to take learning beyond the classroom and give our students the chance to put theory to work.
The bad news? It’s not easy, it means shaking up the old “but that’s the way we’ve always done it.” The good news is that it’s fun, exciting, empowering and satisfying. If you are passionate, dedicated and creative, these opportunities can be found anywhere, even in your hometown!
Lynn University just finished a great student project with a hot tech startup, because the president of our school grew up in Boca Raton, home of the university, and happened to be friends with an entrepreneur with an interesting idea.
Sidebar: What many may not know is that this would not be the first new idea for our town or Lynn for that matter. Boca Raton was birth place of IBMs PC, in fact Lynn is across the street from where it was built and helped test the prototype keyboards. And Boca continues to be a fertile place for new ideas.
The idea our president heard about was a new venture called Voispot, and he was intrigued with the potential for a link to the university. Did he have an instant plan? No, but he saw possibilities…and he acted. There was no committee—just a quick email inviting the company’s founders, local business people, and campus leadership to a brainstorming session.
From that first meeting, we made the development and launch of Voispot a get-your-hands-dirty project for an MBA class, and our students worked with the founders to learn first-hand what it means to start a real-world business on the forefront of technology. Voispot is a brand new social talk platform that allows people to have group conversations about common interests. Voispot is a free, cloud-based, mobile app where users can speak, listen, ask questions, and engage in discussions using voice (no typing or texting needed) in real-time. The technology allows organized conversations with a virtually limitless number of people—think of the digital version of an audience participation panel event, except your audience is not limited by the number of seats.
Too often we’re accused of sitting in our ivory towers, out-of-touch and out-of-date. And, yeah, sometimes it’s true. But it doesn’t have to be. The “ivory tower” gives us access to the best and brightest, and can give us a vantage point that allows us scan the horizon, always searching for the newest and best educational experiences for our students. It’s about fostering a culture of innovation on our campuses, and it can begin in small ways but can make a big difference!
Monday, August 6, 2012
A Chef, Some Vodka and a Tweeting Teddy Bear
Some interesting articles from this weekend’s papers:
From the Sunday NY Times, an interesting article on developing a brand, especially when considering the incredible story of chef, Marcus Samuelsson. It’s a great story that tells of his incredible journey as a child in Ethiopia, to his adoption by Swedish parents, to Aquavit in NYC…to the development of his current restaurant Red Rooster. From the article:
The question for Mr. Samuelsson and other rising stars is how far and how fast they can push a personal brand. The more business ventures they start, the less they can personally control the quality. It is a quandary that any successful entrepreneur faces as a business grows.
“We constantly have to edit, curate, sift through our brand,” Mr. Samuelsson says. “Where is the stretch? Where is the perfect fit? Where does it make sense?”
An equally interesting piece about the evolution of a career by Tito Beveridge, the CEO of Tito’s Handmade Vodka. From the article:
I saw a motivational speaker on TV who suggested that people at a crossroads consider what they enjoy doing and what they’re good at doing — and to to find a job where the two intersect. I had been making infused vodka to give to friends at Christmas, and I really enjoyed that. I thought that was my answer.
First, I tried selling my infused vodka to liquor store owners. They said the market was too crowded, but that if I could make a smooth vodka that young women could drink straight, I’d have something. I asked how. They said they didn’t know, and told me to figure it out.
My friends and I built a shack, and I constructed a small still, boiler and copper condenser. I tried cooking potatoes, rye, sorghum, wheat and other bases for vodka and decided that I liked corn best. My science background was perfect for this field.
I found a distributor, invested all I had and took out 19 credit cards. I expanded the shack and the still as necessary and sold the first case in 1997. It took eight years to make a profit, so, to support myself, I also sold commercial mortgages. Last year, we sold more than 500,000 cases. We distribute in all 50 states and two Canadian provinces.
Fear of failure paralyzes some people when trying something new. As in sailing, you have to set your course — and it rarely follows a straight line.
And from Friday’s Wall Street Journal, the fascinating story, Twitter Goes to the Movies about the selling of the movie Ted along with success (and failure) of other movies thanks to social media. The marketing of Ted through twitter reminds me of the early days of Twitter when Sea World’s whale, Shamu, was an equally interestingly irreverant tweeter. From the article:
The teddy bear's first tweet, from an account called @WhatTedSaid set up by the Universal Pictures marketing department, was "Hello, Twitter. Kindly go f— yourself."
The author of the greeting was Alec Sulkin, co-screenwriter of the R-rated comedy "Ted," who together with his collaborator Wellesley Wild was paid extra by the studio to build buzz on social media ahead of the film's June 29 release. Who better to embody the random musings of a foul-mouthed stuffed animal than the writers of the script? The suits left them alone.
"The parameters were, 'Just go to town,' " says Doug Neil, Universal's senior vice president of digital marketing. The tweeting started March 30, two days before the "red band" (uncensored) trailer appeared online, depicting the namesake bear smoking weed, cuddling with co-star Mark Wahlberg and pantomiming suggestive acts for a supermarket checkout girl.
From the Sunday NY Times, an interesting article on developing a brand, especially when considering the incredible story of chef, Marcus Samuelsson. It’s a great story that tells of his incredible journey as a child in Ethiopia, to his adoption by Swedish parents, to Aquavit in NYC…to the development of his current restaurant Red Rooster. From the article:
The question for Mr. Samuelsson and other rising stars is how far and how fast they can push a personal brand. The more business ventures they start, the less they can personally control the quality. It is a quandary that any successful entrepreneur faces as a business grows.
“We constantly have to edit, curate, sift through our brand,” Mr. Samuelsson says. “Where is the stretch? Where is the perfect fit? Where does it make sense?”
An equally interesting piece about the evolution of a career by Tito Beveridge, the CEO of Tito’s Handmade Vodka. From the article:
I saw a motivational speaker on TV who suggested that people at a crossroads consider what they enjoy doing and what they’re good at doing — and to to find a job where the two intersect. I had been making infused vodka to give to friends at Christmas, and I really enjoyed that. I thought that was my answer.
First, I tried selling my infused vodka to liquor store owners. They said the market was too crowded, but that if I could make a smooth vodka that young women could drink straight, I’d have something. I asked how. They said they didn’t know, and told me to figure it out.
My friends and I built a shack, and I constructed a small still, boiler and copper condenser. I tried cooking potatoes, rye, sorghum, wheat and other bases for vodka and decided that I liked corn best. My science background was perfect for this field.
I found a distributor, invested all I had and took out 19 credit cards. I expanded the shack and the still as necessary and sold the first case in 1997. It took eight years to make a profit, so, to support myself, I also sold commercial mortgages. Last year, we sold more than 500,000 cases. We distribute in all 50 states and two Canadian provinces.
Fear of failure paralyzes some people when trying something new. As in sailing, you have to set your course — and it rarely follows a straight line.
And from Friday’s Wall Street Journal, the fascinating story, Twitter Goes to the Movies about the selling of the movie Ted along with success (and failure) of other movies thanks to social media. The marketing of Ted through twitter reminds me of the early days of Twitter when Sea World’s whale, Shamu, was an equally interestingly irreverant tweeter. From the article:
The teddy bear's first tweet, from an account called @WhatTedSaid set up by the Universal Pictures marketing department, was "Hello, Twitter. Kindly go f— yourself."
The author of the greeting was Alec Sulkin, co-screenwriter of the R-rated comedy "Ted," who together with his collaborator Wellesley Wild was paid extra by the studio to build buzz on social media ahead of the film's June 29 release. Who better to embody the random musings of a foul-mouthed stuffed animal than the writers of the script? The suits left them alone.
"The parameters were, 'Just go to town,' " says Doug Neil, Universal's senior vice president of digital marketing. The tweeting started March 30, two days before the "red band" (uncensored) trailer appeared online, depicting the namesake bear smoking weed, cuddling with co-star Mark Wahlberg and pantomiming suggestive acts for a supermarket checkout girl.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
That Devil Really is In the Details...
Over the last few years, I've been reading the NY Times blogs from entrepreneurs. While I've always enjoyed the articles, which are really dispatches from the front-lines of the entrepreneur's world, I particularly liked this post (from Jay Goltz, an entrepreneur who owns multiple businesses in Chicago)
as it really provides some interesting insights into what makes an entrepreneur a success. I'm not thrilled with the drill-instructor nature of his comments, but they still provide some insight into the focus on detail that needs to be a part of every start-up. Here is the post from Jay Goltz:
I recently had a conversation with a woman, Leah Rosch, who has been asking herself the kinds of questions that many business owners ask after a few years of struggling: Will this business ever make money? Do I have what it takes to succeed? Is it time to quit?
About six years ago, Ms. Rosch started a company called “What a Cookie!” It is an artisanal, decorated-cookie business, specializing in party favors — holidays, birthdays, corporate events — and gift arrangements. She told me that she had never owned a business before and has been “spiraling slowly downward” of late, ever since her accountant told her that her cookies were too labor-intensive to build a business around — one that will pay a living wage, in any case. As a last-ditch effort, she e-mailed me her “assessment for the future” along with some questions.
I have found that most people who start businesses are talented, passionate, and experienced at doing something, whether it’s writing software, cleaning houses, selling clothes or making cookies. If their businesses fail, the reasons generally have little to do with that talent, passion, or ability to make their product or provide their service. More often, the problems have more to do with marketing, management and finance, but they come disguised as a lack of cash, a lack of customers and a lack of good employees.
Because Ms. Rosch is struggling with the kinds of issues that many owners encounter, I wanted to share our exchange, and she graciously agreed. I hope the conversation, which has been condensed and edited, will be helpful to other owners facing similar problems.
Me: Your accountant is telling you what your financials say, and have been saying — that you can’t make money doing business the way you are doing business. That is just an accounting conclusion. Now you need an accounting solution, changing the business so that the numbers work.
Ms. Rosch: I understand about my accountant, but I think he’s looking at my bottom line the past several years and sees no significant income, and he figured he needed to warn me! Fact is, it’s hard not making any money, but easy — especially when the business is young — to get caught up in the mindset that money will come in eventually.
Me: I understand. My point is, you need to look at whether the business can be fixed. There is no question that continuing what you are doing is not going to all of a sudden start producing a profit. Let’s talk about your prices. Do you know your cost per cookie?
Ms. Rosch: I did a painstaking cost analysis several years ago and keep extrapolating upwards to keep up with costs. So now, with everything — ingredients, printed labels, cellophane bag, ribbon and labor per average one cookie — the real cost per cookie is about $2.25 per, for which we charge between $3.85 and $5.
Me: How did you figure how long it takes to decorate one cookie?
Ms. Rosch: We ballpark it at 10 cookies an hour, which is on the high side for the typical styles.
Me: Better to start high. What are you paying?
Ms. Rosch: Highest is $15 an hour to the top cookie decorator.
Me: Which means, with FICA, etc., it’s at least $16.50 an hour. So $16.50 divided by 10 per hour is $1.65, just for labor. Add in everything else, and it is probably costing you more than $3 per cookie. Which doesn’t leave you enough to cover your fixed costs.
Ms. Rosch: No wonder I am going broke!
Me: Exactly. That’s a rookie mistake. You’re underpricing to attract business — or at least not to discourage business — and you are not making any money. You need to stop this cold. There are three things you need to figure out: What does it really cost to make a cookie? What margin do you need? And how much do you need to live on, or what kind of profit do you need? For example — and let’s keep numbers easy for the sake of figuring this out — if you determine that you need to have a gross profit of $120,000 to cover your all of your fixed costs, including advertising and your salary, and your gross profit margin is 60 percent, you need to have sales of $200,000 per year.
Can you do that? Can you command a 60 percent margin, or more, selling specialty cookies to a corporate market? Can you make $200,000 worth of product out of your existing facility? That is $800 per day. That is a lot of cookies. My guess is that you can’t do this making a commodity product. You need to find a business model that works. These numbers are just examples, but is there a market for high-end specialty cookies?
Ms. Rosch: I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out! Maybe I need to change the direction of the company, streamline our offerings and better target the corporate crowd. For instance, I love the concept of creating highly custom corporate cookie gifts …
Me: I don’t want to know you’re in love with a concept — you need to be objective, but I like how that sounds. You need to sit down with a blank piece of paper and figure out how to build a business that would net you the money you need.
Ms. Rosch: I’ll try to figure out costs and stuff for this. But I’m not sure I can do the business as we’ve been doing it, producing this line. I think it would need volume …
Me: I think you keep this very high end. It’s corporate gifts — law firms, Realtors, all kinds of businesses need some novel thank-you gift to send clients. Who wouldn’t want a knockout really good tasting cookie with a clever saying? I’m talking, make one killer cookie that’s in a great box. It’s all about presentation.
Ms. Rosch: O.K., well, maybe. But I still have the whole thing about being out of my element running a business. For example, in the past year, I’ve gone through four cookie decorators. It’s exhausting to keep training people only to have them leave for a better-paying job.
Me: You’re not hiring the right people.
Ms. Rosch: So how do I hire the right people?
Me: How are you finding people?
Ms. Rosch: Ads on Craigslist, mostly. Because newspapers charge a minimum of $100 to run an ad for two weeks, which can add up to a small fortune, after a while.
Me: I don’t know … I think hiring the wrong person is what can really add up to a small fortune. My business has actually had some success with community newspapers. Are you requesting culinary degrees or experience?
Ms. Rosch: No, in fact we often do better with non-culinary types because we’re not “culinary” enough. Decorating cookies is more like a craft, so it’s often easier to train people with artistic ability. But it does help if someone has had some bakery work experience in that they get the production end of things — how to work efficiently. The decorator I just lost went to a private bakery where she’s getting $25 an hour, which of course I couldn’t begin to compete with. But she has worked in big production settings and so was helpful with setting up efficiency and prioritizing and speeding people along.
Me: Well, no reason you need to be paying $25 per hour. You need to look at who you are hiring. No offense, but this isn’t brain surgery. You don’t need someone with a college degree. You need to hire people who are good with their hands, and expect to get paid a production wage that will work for the business.
Ms. Rosch: I’m not looking for college degrees, but because it’s a small artisanal concept, I do think I need people I can communicate with. And if I’m paying less than a competitive rate, it’s like a quote-unquote sweat shop …
Me: Stop! Stop with these preconceived notions. Why is it a sweat shop? Will you have 60-hour work weeks? Bad working conditions? You certainly are not paying minimum wage. You need a paradigm shift. You need to hire people who need and want the job; they are less likely to leave if you treat them well. You told me that the other bakeries you have talked to have the same problem, finding and keeping employees. But I can tell you that talking to other people in your industry is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s not where you get solutions; maybe commiseration, which can be useful in a different way. And if you want people to “communicate with,” make some friends! Look, every business has challenges and problems and puzzles, and you need to address each one. And just because you’ve tried something one or two ways with no success doesn’t mean the third way won’t work. Running a small business is puzzle-solving. I think you have the raw ingredients — if you can make the math work.
The bigger question: Are you willing to do what it takes? Or to put it another way, how bad do you want this?
Ms. Rosch: Well, I’m certainly willing to try to figure this out.
Me: There is no try! There is either do or not do. That’s from Yoda in Star Wars. Success is about your resolve and persistence — and, of course, whether there’s enough of a market for what you want to do. And again, some of the problems that you have been having, like not understanding your true costs, are common mistakes among rookies.
Ms. Rosch: How long is one a rookie? I’ve been at this for more than six years!
Me: In some ways, we’re all rookies if it’s a new venture or we’re targeting a new market. But you’ll stop being a rookie when you start learning from your mistakes and stop repeating them. In learning-business years, six years is not that long. Do everything you can to fix your problems before you decide to quit: cost accounting, a budget that works, a doable marketing plan, a better hiring and management strategy. You can do it. I think.
Here is a link to the story and the rest of the posts: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/will-this-business-ever-make-money/?ref=business
.
as it really provides some interesting insights into what makes an entrepreneur a success. I'm not thrilled with the drill-instructor nature of his comments, but they still provide some insight into the focus on detail that needs to be a part of every start-up. Here is the post from Jay Goltz:
I recently had a conversation with a woman, Leah Rosch, who has been asking herself the kinds of questions that many business owners ask after a few years of struggling: Will this business ever make money? Do I have what it takes to succeed? Is it time to quit?
About six years ago, Ms. Rosch started a company called “What a Cookie!” It is an artisanal, decorated-cookie business, specializing in party favors — holidays, birthdays, corporate events — and gift arrangements. She told me that she had never owned a business before and has been “spiraling slowly downward” of late, ever since her accountant told her that her cookies were too labor-intensive to build a business around — one that will pay a living wage, in any case. As a last-ditch effort, she e-mailed me her “assessment for the future” along with some questions.
I have found that most people who start businesses are talented, passionate, and experienced at doing something, whether it’s writing software, cleaning houses, selling clothes or making cookies. If their businesses fail, the reasons generally have little to do with that talent, passion, or ability to make their product or provide their service. More often, the problems have more to do with marketing, management and finance, but they come disguised as a lack of cash, a lack of customers and a lack of good employees.
Because Ms. Rosch is struggling with the kinds of issues that many owners encounter, I wanted to share our exchange, and she graciously agreed. I hope the conversation, which has been condensed and edited, will be helpful to other owners facing similar problems.
Me: Your accountant is telling you what your financials say, and have been saying — that you can’t make money doing business the way you are doing business. That is just an accounting conclusion. Now you need an accounting solution, changing the business so that the numbers work.
Ms. Rosch: I understand about my accountant, but I think he’s looking at my bottom line the past several years and sees no significant income, and he figured he needed to warn me! Fact is, it’s hard not making any money, but easy — especially when the business is young — to get caught up in the mindset that money will come in eventually.
Me: I understand. My point is, you need to look at whether the business can be fixed. There is no question that continuing what you are doing is not going to all of a sudden start producing a profit. Let’s talk about your prices. Do you know your cost per cookie?
Ms. Rosch: I did a painstaking cost analysis several years ago and keep extrapolating upwards to keep up with costs. So now, with everything — ingredients, printed labels, cellophane bag, ribbon and labor per average one cookie — the real cost per cookie is about $2.25 per, for which we charge between $3.85 and $5.
Me: How did you figure how long it takes to decorate one cookie?
Ms. Rosch: We ballpark it at 10 cookies an hour, which is on the high side for the typical styles.
Me: Better to start high. What are you paying?
Ms. Rosch: Highest is $15 an hour to the top cookie decorator.
Me: Which means, with FICA, etc., it’s at least $16.50 an hour. So $16.50 divided by 10 per hour is $1.65, just for labor. Add in everything else, and it is probably costing you more than $3 per cookie. Which doesn’t leave you enough to cover your fixed costs.
Ms. Rosch: No wonder I am going broke!
Me: Exactly. That’s a rookie mistake. You’re underpricing to attract business — or at least not to discourage business — and you are not making any money. You need to stop this cold. There are three things you need to figure out: What does it really cost to make a cookie? What margin do you need? And how much do you need to live on, or what kind of profit do you need? For example — and let’s keep numbers easy for the sake of figuring this out — if you determine that you need to have a gross profit of $120,000 to cover your all of your fixed costs, including advertising and your salary, and your gross profit margin is 60 percent, you need to have sales of $200,000 per year.
Can you do that? Can you command a 60 percent margin, or more, selling specialty cookies to a corporate market? Can you make $200,000 worth of product out of your existing facility? That is $800 per day. That is a lot of cookies. My guess is that you can’t do this making a commodity product. You need to find a business model that works. These numbers are just examples, but is there a market for high-end specialty cookies?
Ms. Rosch: I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out! Maybe I need to change the direction of the company, streamline our offerings and better target the corporate crowd. For instance, I love the concept of creating highly custom corporate cookie gifts …
Me: I don’t want to know you’re in love with a concept — you need to be objective, but I like how that sounds. You need to sit down with a blank piece of paper and figure out how to build a business that would net you the money you need.
Ms. Rosch: I’ll try to figure out costs and stuff for this. But I’m not sure I can do the business as we’ve been doing it, producing this line. I think it would need volume …
Me: I think you keep this very high end. It’s corporate gifts — law firms, Realtors, all kinds of businesses need some novel thank-you gift to send clients. Who wouldn’t want a knockout really good tasting cookie with a clever saying? I’m talking, make one killer cookie that’s in a great box. It’s all about presentation.
Ms. Rosch: O.K., well, maybe. But I still have the whole thing about being out of my element running a business. For example, in the past year, I’ve gone through four cookie decorators. It’s exhausting to keep training people only to have them leave for a better-paying job.
Me: You’re not hiring the right people.
Ms. Rosch: So how do I hire the right people?
Me: How are you finding people?
Ms. Rosch: Ads on Craigslist, mostly. Because newspapers charge a minimum of $100 to run an ad for two weeks, which can add up to a small fortune, after a while.
Me: I don’t know … I think hiring the wrong person is what can really add up to a small fortune. My business has actually had some success with community newspapers. Are you requesting culinary degrees or experience?
Ms. Rosch: No, in fact we often do better with non-culinary types because we’re not “culinary” enough. Decorating cookies is more like a craft, so it’s often easier to train people with artistic ability. But it does help if someone has had some bakery work experience in that they get the production end of things — how to work efficiently. The decorator I just lost went to a private bakery where she’s getting $25 an hour, which of course I couldn’t begin to compete with. But she has worked in big production settings and so was helpful with setting up efficiency and prioritizing and speeding people along.
Me: Well, no reason you need to be paying $25 per hour. You need to look at who you are hiring. No offense, but this isn’t brain surgery. You don’t need someone with a college degree. You need to hire people who are good with their hands, and expect to get paid a production wage that will work for the business.
Ms. Rosch: I’m not looking for college degrees, but because it’s a small artisanal concept, I do think I need people I can communicate with. And if I’m paying less than a competitive rate, it’s like a quote-unquote sweat shop …
Me: Stop! Stop with these preconceived notions. Why is it a sweat shop? Will you have 60-hour work weeks? Bad working conditions? You certainly are not paying minimum wage. You need a paradigm shift. You need to hire people who need and want the job; they are less likely to leave if you treat them well. You told me that the other bakeries you have talked to have the same problem, finding and keeping employees. But I can tell you that talking to other people in your industry is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s not where you get solutions; maybe commiseration, which can be useful in a different way. And if you want people to “communicate with,” make some friends! Look, every business has challenges and problems and puzzles, and you need to address each one. And just because you’ve tried something one or two ways with no success doesn’t mean the third way won’t work. Running a small business is puzzle-solving. I think you have the raw ingredients — if you can make the math work.
The bigger question: Are you willing to do what it takes? Or to put it another way, how bad do you want this?
Ms. Rosch: Well, I’m certainly willing to try to figure this out.
Me: There is no try! There is either do or not do. That’s from Yoda in Star Wars. Success is about your resolve and persistence — and, of course, whether there’s enough of a market for what you want to do. And again, some of the problems that you have been having, like not understanding your true costs, are common mistakes among rookies.
Ms. Rosch: How long is one a rookie? I’ve been at this for more than six years!
Me: In some ways, we’re all rookies if it’s a new venture or we’re targeting a new market. But you’ll stop being a rookie when you start learning from your mistakes and stop repeating them. In learning-business years, six years is not that long. Do everything you can to fix your problems before you decide to quit: cost accounting, a budget that works, a doable marketing plan, a better hiring and management strategy. You can do it. I think.
Here is a link to the story and the rest of the posts: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/will-this-business-ever-make-money/?ref=business
.
Monday, July 16, 2012
The Value of Internships for Students
As a follow-up to a recent post of mine regarding the value of interships, here is an aricle from the Palm Beach Post, by Emily Roach on that subject.
FSU finance major Melysa Gross has spent the summer at Office Depot headquarters, helping choose products for sales ads, learning about changes in office supply retailing and meeting people in all departments.
And getting a job. Next week Gross, who graduated Florida State University in May, starts as a category assistant in merchandising.
Executive Vice President of Human Resources Michael Allison said he’s excited about the interns Office Depot hired this summer and that the program worked just the way it should for Gross.
“Retailers all over the world are hiring top-notch merchandisers,” he said. “In five or six years, our challenge will be to keep her.”
More 16- to 24-year-olds were working in June than in the prior three years, showing a small improvement for this age group who has been squeezed out of jobs by the recession and lingering labor market malaise. The unemployment rate was lower for 16- to 19-year-olds and 20- to 24-year-olds as summer jobs and internships started up in June compared to the past three years.
Lynn University Business Dean Tom Kruczek said an internship gives a graduate a competitive edge in this job market.
“It’s more important than ever right now,” Kruczek said.”It can be the door to a permanent job, it can enhance your education.”
The school takes an active role in matching students with internships and coaches them on interviewing skills, proper conduct and networking.
Gross said not all internships are the same. The difference at Office Depot was “night and day” compared to her two previous internships as far as giving her responsibility and developing new skills.
Florida Atlantic University senior Katie Gootenberg said her Office Depot internship “empowered” her. She worked on the company’s new partnership with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, which will be featured in back-to-school promotions.
As a recent graduate, Gootenberg is also hoping for a job. So is Sumit Bajracharya, an FAU MBA candidate who is one class away from his degree.
“You’re here to make networks,” he said. And Office Depot’s approach encourages that by promoting communication among its 40 interns and holding information sessions that introduce interns to all departments of the company.
The company hires for “capability and capacity,” bringing in bright students who will become even better performers once they are cross-trained, said Robyn Tyler, vice president for Global Talent Management. Many get an opportunity to lead projects.
And managers who will guide those interns are also trained for the job.
Gwyn Bonasoro, director of Talent Acquisition, said managers go through an orientation and HR managers like herself keep close tabs on how things are going.
“You can see, they’re going to grow into leaders in this company — or some company,” Allison said.
Yasmine Clarke, whose technology company Agile Bees is located in Palm Beach Gardens, trains interns as young as middle-school aged in website development, software engineering and digital communication.
Her young workers can get college credit, but they also put themselves in line for a job with the company if the bid they work on becomes a new project. Interns who are a part of the Bee2Bee Network may also work directly with businesses who are Clarke’s clients and are expected to share their newly learned skills.
“Having the appropriate skills and knowledge in the technology industry will only further assist a student’s chances for success,” she said.
Here is a link to the article: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/office-depot-internship-program-grooms-future-merc/nPshF/
FSU finance major Melysa Gross has spent the summer at Office Depot headquarters, helping choose products for sales ads, learning about changes in office supply retailing and meeting people in all departments.
And getting a job. Next week Gross, who graduated Florida State University in May, starts as a category assistant in merchandising.
Executive Vice President of Human Resources Michael Allison said he’s excited about the interns Office Depot hired this summer and that the program worked just the way it should for Gross.
“Retailers all over the world are hiring top-notch merchandisers,” he said. “In five or six years, our challenge will be to keep her.”
More 16- to 24-year-olds were working in June than in the prior three years, showing a small improvement for this age group who has been squeezed out of jobs by the recession and lingering labor market malaise. The unemployment rate was lower for 16- to 19-year-olds and 20- to 24-year-olds as summer jobs and internships started up in June compared to the past three years.
Lynn University Business Dean Tom Kruczek said an internship gives a graduate a competitive edge in this job market.
“It’s more important than ever right now,” Kruczek said.”It can be the door to a permanent job, it can enhance your education.”
The school takes an active role in matching students with internships and coaches them on interviewing skills, proper conduct and networking.
Gross said not all internships are the same. The difference at Office Depot was “night and day” compared to her two previous internships as far as giving her responsibility and developing new skills.
Florida Atlantic University senior Katie Gootenberg said her Office Depot internship “empowered” her. She worked on the company’s new partnership with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, which will be featured in back-to-school promotions.
As a recent graduate, Gootenberg is also hoping for a job. So is Sumit Bajracharya, an FAU MBA candidate who is one class away from his degree.
“You’re here to make networks,” he said. And Office Depot’s approach encourages that by promoting communication among its 40 interns and holding information sessions that introduce interns to all departments of the company.
The company hires for “capability and capacity,” bringing in bright students who will become even better performers once they are cross-trained, said Robyn Tyler, vice president for Global Talent Management. Many get an opportunity to lead projects.
And managers who will guide those interns are also trained for the job.
Gwyn Bonasoro, director of Talent Acquisition, said managers go through an orientation and HR managers like herself keep close tabs on how things are going.
“You can see, they’re going to grow into leaders in this company — or some company,” Allison said.
Yasmine Clarke, whose technology company Agile Bees is located in Palm Beach Gardens, trains interns as young as middle-school aged in website development, software engineering and digital communication.
Her young workers can get college credit, but they also put themselves in line for a job with the company if the bid they work on becomes a new project. Interns who are a part of the Bee2Bee Network may also work directly with businesses who are Clarke’s clients and are expected to share their newly learned skills.
“Having the appropriate skills and knowledge in the technology industry will only further assist a student’s chances for success,” she said.
Here is a link to the article: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/office-depot-internship-program-grooms-future-merc/nPshF/
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Helping Students Get Internships and Jobs
Lynn University has created an innovative new program to support and help prepare students in the College of Business and Management for a career in the business world. Rick Sayers, who has served as the executive in residence of the college for the past three years, has been named executive director of new Internships and Cooperative Education Program.
The program’s goal is to help students discover their intellectual and personal strengths through formal preparation to include: mock interviews (face-to-face, phone and Skype), resume and cover letter writing, business etiquette skills and personality profile (Myers-Briggs).
“Getting Lynn students ready for a successful professional life after college is a primary responsibility,” says Sayers. “This program will give them an advantage in obtaining internships and cooperative education experience and make them better prepared to meet, interview and work with individuals in the business community.”
An important component of the program will be the business relationships that will be developed with the corporate and business community.
“We will reach out to organizations that match up with the skills, interests and global diversity of our students for mutually beneficial partnerships,” he says.
Contacts have already been made with Office Depot, PwC, Sherwin Williams, Parker Hannifin, Jarden, Via Mizner, 02 media Inc., AXA Equitable and C3 Interactive and others.
In hiring students for internships Sayers says corporations are looking for intelligent, energetic talent with summer and/or school year projects. Students benefit by experiencing the company culture, management style and other organizational dynamics before having to make a decision for full time employment as well.
Internships are required in all COBM curriculums. Though this program will initially be rolled out in the COBM, it is expected to expand to the other colleges.
“We are very fortunate to have Rick as executive director to lead this new program,” said Thomas Kruczek, dean of the College of Business and Management. “With his extensive background in human resources in the corporate space, he knows exactly what corporations are looking for in new hires and he will do an outstanding job of getting our students ready.”
The program’s goal is to help students discover their intellectual and personal strengths through formal preparation to include: mock interviews (face-to-face, phone and Skype), resume and cover letter writing, business etiquette skills and personality profile (Myers-Briggs).
“Getting Lynn students ready for a successful professional life after college is a primary responsibility,” says Sayers. “This program will give them an advantage in obtaining internships and cooperative education experience and make them better prepared to meet, interview and work with individuals in the business community.”
An important component of the program will be the business relationships that will be developed with the corporate and business community.
“We will reach out to organizations that match up with the skills, interests and global diversity of our students for mutually beneficial partnerships,” he says.
Contacts have already been made with Office Depot, PwC, Sherwin Williams, Parker Hannifin, Jarden, Via Mizner, 02 media Inc., AXA Equitable and C3 Interactive and others.
In hiring students for internships Sayers says corporations are looking for intelligent, energetic talent with summer and/or school year projects. Students benefit by experiencing the company culture, management style and other organizational dynamics before having to make a decision for full time employment as well.
Internships are required in all COBM curriculums. Though this program will initially be rolled out in the COBM, it is expected to expand to the other colleges.
“We are very fortunate to have Rick as executive director to lead this new program,” said Thomas Kruczek, dean of the College of Business and Management. “With his extensive background in human resources in the corporate space, he knows exactly what corporations are looking for in new hires and he will do an outstanding job of getting our students ready.”
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Can't Find a Job...Make One!
Here is my post recent blog for the Huffington Post. It appeared on July 2, 2012.
Last week I talked to several students -- recent graduates -- who were excited about their future. They were ready to embark on the next step of their lives; they knew where they were going (at least in the near term) and were optimistic and ready to go. What jobs did they have and how did they find them? They made them. These students were entrepreneurs, who had created their jobs by launching their own businesses.
I'm not talking about huge start-ups funded by angel investors or trust funds. These were cobbled together with small savings accounts, maybe a few bucks from family and friends. Will any of these small businesses be the next Facebook? With luck and hard work it's possible.
But, it's important not to get caught up in trying to create the next Facebook! For so many folks, the thought of launching is so daunting that they never try. How can I create a billion dollar company? How can I figure out ways to raise millions of dollars from angel and Venture Capital investors? Next thing you know they are overwhelmed and the idea dies. Most businesses start out small, and grow over time. Someone sees a need in the marketplace and comes up with a way to fill it. It can be as simple as that.
Seven years ago when I made the transition from the business world to the world of higher education running a center for entrepreneurship, I had parents who complained to me when their kids decided to take a course in entrepreneurship. "Why should my son study that?" or "That's a waste of my daughter's time," were remarks I heard more than once. Today, thanks to the success of folks like Mark Zuckerberg, Dennis Crowley and Jack Dorsey, parents are telling me with pride, "My kid wants to be an entrepreneur."
For many just-graduating students, entrepreneurship is a path forward, an opportunity to control their own destiny. Thanks to the wide range of entrepreneurship and small business management classes that are offered in higher education, students are coming out of school better prepared than any generation before them to start and grow their own business. My own College of Business at Lynn University, has just launched an Entrepreneurship and Family Business Management major at the request of many of our students and their parents. Like any good business, we listen to our customers and clients and so we're launching that major for the students entering in the fall of 2013. Not only that, every one of our freshman will take a class in Entrepreneurship and Innovation as one of their first business courses.
Students today approach the notion of starting their own business with a sense of optimism and hope and with the knowledge that if they do launch and fail, no one will tattoo an 'L' on their forehead branding them a loser. They know that even if they launch and fail, they will accumulate experience, skill sets, and knowledge, that will make them a more valuable and mature team member to an employer. If they succeed, they win, and if they fail they can still win.
Several years ago, when I was at Syracuse University, a young sophomore named Ryan came to me about an idea he had for a business. He had a long list of questions, he asked for help, and then he listened. Every time Ryan and I talked, he was moving his idea farther down the road. He was smart, he listened to me and other mentors and perhaps more importantly, he was a hard worker. Ryan was a broke college student, but he had a dream. Two years after that first meeting Ryan appeared as the cover of a story in a national publication on Cool Campus Startups. Ryan is now a graduate, his company Rylaxer is still small, but it's growing, and he's hiring recent graduates.
The students I talked to recently have every opportunity to be like Ryan. They're smart, they're good networkers, they know how critical it is to listen to their mentors, they know the value of working really, really hard and they want to take their idea, adjust it as necessary and see if it has potential. Will it be an easy path? Absolutely not. But, it is a start. They made themselves a job. For some of them, it may not work out, but it will be the pathway to a job at a corporation or maybe even a non-profit venture. For others though, this will be a lifelong entrepreneurial journey. Maybe, just maybe, they do create the next Facebook. But in the meantime, they'll be in control of their own lives, they'll be hiring other graduates and folks from the community and oh yeah, they'll also be helping our economy grow.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-kruczek/start-up-entrepreneur-_b_1641234.html
Last week I talked to several students -- recent graduates -- who were excited about their future. They were ready to embark on the next step of their lives; they knew where they were going (at least in the near term) and were optimistic and ready to go. What jobs did they have and how did they find them? They made them. These students were entrepreneurs, who had created their jobs by launching their own businesses.
I'm not talking about huge start-ups funded by angel investors or trust funds. These were cobbled together with small savings accounts, maybe a few bucks from family and friends. Will any of these small businesses be the next Facebook? With luck and hard work it's possible.
But, it's important not to get caught up in trying to create the next Facebook! For so many folks, the thought of launching is so daunting that they never try. How can I create a billion dollar company? How can I figure out ways to raise millions of dollars from angel and Venture Capital investors? Next thing you know they are overwhelmed and the idea dies. Most businesses start out small, and grow over time. Someone sees a need in the marketplace and comes up with a way to fill it. It can be as simple as that.
Seven years ago when I made the transition from the business world to the world of higher education running a center for entrepreneurship, I had parents who complained to me when their kids decided to take a course in entrepreneurship. "Why should my son study that?" or "That's a waste of my daughter's time," were remarks I heard more than once. Today, thanks to the success of folks like Mark Zuckerberg, Dennis Crowley and Jack Dorsey, parents are telling me with pride, "My kid wants to be an entrepreneur."
For many just-graduating students, entrepreneurship is a path forward, an opportunity to control their own destiny. Thanks to the wide range of entrepreneurship and small business management classes that are offered in higher education, students are coming out of school better prepared than any generation before them to start and grow their own business. My own College of Business at Lynn University, has just launched an Entrepreneurship and Family Business Management major at the request of many of our students and their parents. Like any good business, we listen to our customers and clients and so we're launching that major for the students entering in the fall of 2013. Not only that, every one of our freshman will take a class in Entrepreneurship and Innovation as one of their first business courses.
Students today approach the notion of starting their own business with a sense of optimism and hope and with the knowledge that if they do launch and fail, no one will tattoo an 'L' on their forehead branding them a loser. They know that even if they launch and fail, they will accumulate experience, skill sets, and knowledge, that will make them a more valuable and mature team member to an employer. If they succeed, they win, and if they fail they can still win.
Several years ago, when I was at Syracuse University, a young sophomore named Ryan came to me about an idea he had for a business. He had a long list of questions, he asked for help, and then he listened. Every time Ryan and I talked, he was moving his idea farther down the road. He was smart, he listened to me and other mentors and perhaps more importantly, he was a hard worker. Ryan was a broke college student, but he had a dream. Two years after that first meeting Ryan appeared as the cover of a story in a national publication on Cool Campus Startups. Ryan is now a graduate, his company Rylaxer is still small, but it's growing, and he's hiring recent graduates.
The students I talked to recently have every opportunity to be like Ryan. They're smart, they're good networkers, they know how critical it is to listen to their mentors, they know the value of working really, really hard and they want to take their idea, adjust it as necessary and see if it has potential. Will it be an easy path? Absolutely not. But, it is a start. They made themselves a job. For some of them, it may not work out, but it will be the pathway to a job at a corporation or maybe even a non-profit venture. For others though, this will be a lifelong entrepreneurial journey. Maybe, just maybe, they do create the next Facebook. But in the meantime, they'll be in control of their own lives, they'll be hiring other graduates and folks from the community and oh yeah, they'll also be helping our economy grow.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-kruczek/start-up-entrepreneur-_b_1641234.html
How Peter Diamandis Left Me Feeling Better About the World's Future
Here is a copy of a May blog that I did regarding time I spent with Peter Diamandis, and which appeared on the Huffington Post.
I feel better today than I did yesterday. I still know that there are problems with the global economy, that America's unemployment is still high, and that the housing market is still unsettled. Despite these facts, I still feel better, because I've just spent the last 24 hours with Dr. Peter Diamandis while he visited Lynn University to give our 2012 commencement address.
Peter is the author of the New York Times bestseller Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think and the CEO and founder of the X PRIZE Foundation, which awards millions of dollars to small groups of people who do extraordinary things. He definitely believes in the power of positive energy. However, the main reason I feel better is that during my visit with him, and in his commencement speech to our graduates, he laid out a compelling argument that even though the world may seem to be going to hell in a handbasket, in fact it is not. In his view the world that the class of 2012 is entering is a world where abundance, which he defines as providing everyone with a life of possibility, is within our grasp.
He starts by pointing out that the world today is so different from the world of just a few years ago, thanks in part to the rapid change in technology. For example, in Africa, mobile-phone penetration is growing exponentially, from single-digit percentages in 2000 to 70 percent by next year. This means that vast numbers of people with little or no education have access to the enhanced communications, knowledge, and power a cellphone provides -- including access to the Internet. As he puts it, "A Masai warrior with a cellphone has better mobile-phone capabilities than the president did 25 years ago." And as he told our students, the smartphones they were carrying to graduation provide better mobile communication than world leaders had just 15 years ago.
Peter essentially believes there are three main forces at work that, when coupled with the unprecedented power of growing technologies mentioned above, provide significant, abundance-producing potential. These forces include:
1.The do-it-yourself revolution that is allowing small teams of very committed people to do things that previously only large companies or governments could do. The successful Arab Spring revolutions and cases of individuals making real change thanks to their ability to connect with billions through social media and other communications technologies are all part of this force. "You and a small team of classmates can touch 1 billion people," he told our graduates.
2.The money that is flowing into world-changing innovation as a result of wealthy technophilanthropists (for example, Bill Gates and his mission to wipe out malaria) who are helping solve global issues such as unclean water, lack of energy, etc.
3.The rise of the poorest of the poor. The "bottom billion" are "plugging into the global economy" and are ready to become what he calls "the rising billion." According to Peter, "the Internet, microfinance, and wireless technology" have the potential "to transform the poorest of the poor into an emerging market force."
As he said, each of these three forces is amazingly powerful on its own. But together, with the growing potential of technologies, "the unimaginable becomes the now actually possible."
During our time together, we also talked about a topic important to both of us: innovation. If there is one thing that the students I have met share in common, it's their desire to make a difference in their world. This is good because, according to Peter, this desire is one of the key motivators that drive innovation.
For example, Peter wanted to make spaceflight more possible for more people. He said it took him 10 years to get the first X PRIZE for spaceflight started. But by the time it was awarded in 2004, 26 teams in seven countries raced to do something that experts (whom Peter defines as "people who will tell you exactly how something can't be done") said just couldn't be done by private firms: build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the Earth, twice within two weeks. The $10-million X PRIZE launched an entirely new industry, pushed technological innovation. and helped make it possible for more people to experience spaceflight. This all started with Peter's desire to make a difference.
There are countless other examples of people, some famous and some whose names you've never heard, who are attacking the world's greatest challenges with new possibilities fueled by ever-improving technologies, in areas as diverse as food, water, energy, health care, and education. Although the challenges they take on may differ, all their efforts will help fulfill the promise of abundance for all people on the planet during the lifetime of our 2012 graduates.
This is the knowledge Peter Diamandis left me with, and this is why I feel better today than I did yesterday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-kruczek/peter-diamandis_b_1519792.html
Monday, February 6, 2012
Commercials Are for...
Last night’s Super Bowl commercials made me wonder about what commercials are for. It’s always been my thought that commercials are to make you buy something, inform you about a product, improve the image of a brand, or give you a call to action. The incredibly expensive commercials yesterday mostly made me…do nothing. I had no desire to look up information about a product, I certainly had no desire to buy anything (even the Doritos commercial didn’t make me wish we had a bag at home). I did watch the car commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and think that I wanted to catch the episodes of his old show with the Soup guy…but I don’t think that was the purpose of the spot. I did watch the Go Daddy spot and wonder where Danica was going to race this year…is it NASCAR or Indy? There were commercials that were powerful (GE) and there were commercials that were just plain silly (end of the world car commercial). There were commercials that were depressing (Clint Eastwood car commercial which reminded me that most of the problems in Detroit were as a result of bad decision-making by auto executives) and there were plenty of beer and soft drink commercials. But today, in the clear light of morning, there should also be some Boards of Directors that ask some very pointed questions of CEOs and Chief Marketing Officers about why in the world they dropped $3.5 million dollars (plus the creative cost) for those spots?
Here’s what the NY Times says about the commercials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/business/media/super-bowl-commercials-from-charming-to-smarmy.html
Here’s what the NY Times says about the commercials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/business/media/super-bowl-commercials-from-charming-to-smarmy.html
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The Future Via Tech
I haven’t been blogging much of late, as I’ve really spent more time with the quicker tweets on Twitter. But, this article which I saw in Allen Kupetz’s fine blog Future of Less, was so good, that I felt compelled to post.
The Coming Tech-led Boom
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203471004577140413041646048-lMyQjAxMTAyMDMwMDEzNDAyWj.html
Three breakthroughs are poised to transform this century as much as telephony and electricity did the last.By MARK P. MILLS AND JULIO M. OTTINOIn January 1912, the United States emerged from a two-year recession. Nineteen more followed—along with a century of phenomenal economic growth. Americans in real terms are 700% wealthier today.In hindsight it seems obvious that emerging technologies circa 1912—electrification, telephony, the dawn of the automobile age, the invention of stainless steel and the radio amplifier—would foster such growth. Yet even knowledgeable contemporary observers failed to grasp their transformational power.In January 2012, we sit again on the cusp of three grand technological transformations with the potential to rival that of the past century. All find their epicenters in America: big data, smart manufacturing and the wireless revolution.Information technology has entered a big-data era. Processing power and data storage are virtually free. A hand-held device, the iPhone, has computing power that shames the 1970s-era IBM mainframe. The Internet is evolving into the "cloud"—a network of thousands of data centers any one of which makes a 1990 supercomputer look antediluvian. From social media to medical revolutions anchored in metadata analyses, wherein astronomical feats of data crunching enable heretofore unimaginable services and businesses, we are on the cusp of unimaginable new markets.The second transformation? Smart manufacturing. This is the first structural shift since Henry Ford launched the economic power of "mass production." While we see evidence already in automation and information systems applied to supply-chain management, we are just entering an era where the very fabrication of physical things is revolutionized by emerging materials science. Engineers will soon design and build from the molecular level, optimizing features and even creating new materials, radically improving quality and reducing waste.Devices and products are already appearing based on computationally engineered materials that literally did not exist a few years ago: novel metal alloys, graphene instead of silicon transistors (graphene and carbon enable a radically new class of electronic and structural materials), and meta-materials that possess properties not possible in nature; e.g., rendering an object invisible—speculation about which received understandable recent publicity.This era of new materials will be economically explosive when combined with 3-D printing, also known as direct-digital manufacturing—literally "printing" parts and devices using computational power, lasers and basic powdered metals and plastics. Already emerging are printed parts for high-value applications like patient-specific implants for hip joints or teeth, or lighter and stronger aircraft parts. Then one day, the Holy Grail: "desktop" printing of entire final products from wheels to even washing machines.The era of near-perfect computational design and production will unleash as big a change in how we make things as the agricultural revolution did in how we grew things. And it will be defined by high talent not cheap labor.Finally, there is the unfolding communications revolution where soon most humans on the planet will be connected wirelessly. Never before have a billion people—soon billions more—been able to communicate, socialize and trade in real time.The implications of the radical collapse in the cost of wireless connectivity are as big as those following the dawn of telegraphy/telephony. Coupled with the cloud, the wireless world provides cheap connectivity, information and processing power to nearly everyone, everywhere. This introduces both rapid change—e.g., the Arab Spring—and great opportunity. Again, both the launch and epicenter of this technology reside in America.Few deny that technology fuels economic growth as well as both social and lifestyle progress, the latter largely seen in health and environmental metrics. But consider three features that most define America, and that are essential for unleashing the promises of technological change: our youthful demographics, dynamic culture and diverse educational system.First, demographics. By 2020, America will be younger than both China and the euro zone, if the latter still exists. Youth brings more than a base of workers and taxpayers; it brings the ineluctable energy that propels everything. Amplified and leavened by the experience of their elders, youth and economic scale (the U.S. is still the world's largest economy) are not to be underestimated, especially in the context of the other two great forces: our culture and educational system.The American culture is particularly suited to times of tumult and challenge. Culture cannot be changed or copied overnight; it is a feature of a people that has, to use a physics term, high inertia. Ours is distinguished by incontrovertibly powerful features, namely open-mindedness, risk-taking, hard work, playfulness, and, critical for nascent new ideas, a healthy dose of anti-establishment thinking. Where else could an Apple or a Steve Jobs have emerged?Then there's our educational system, often criticized as inadequate to global challenges. But American higher education eludes simple statistical measures since its most salient features are flexibility and diversity of educational philosophies, curricula and the professoriate. There is a dizzying range of approaches in American universities and colleges. Good. One size definitely does not fit all for students or the future.
The Coming Tech-led Boom
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203471004577140413041646048-lMyQjAxMTAyMDMwMDEzNDAyWj.html
Three breakthroughs are poised to transform this century as much as telephony and electricity did the last.By MARK P. MILLS AND JULIO M. OTTINOIn January 1912, the United States emerged from a two-year recession. Nineteen more followed—along with a century of phenomenal economic growth. Americans in real terms are 700% wealthier today.In hindsight it seems obvious that emerging technologies circa 1912—electrification, telephony, the dawn of the automobile age, the invention of stainless steel and the radio amplifier—would foster such growth. Yet even knowledgeable contemporary observers failed to grasp their transformational power.In January 2012, we sit again on the cusp of three grand technological transformations with the potential to rival that of the past century. All find their epicenters in America: big data, smart manufacturing and the wireless revolution.Information technology has entered a big-data era. Processing power and data storage are virtually free. A hand-held device, the iPhone, has computing power that shames the 1970s-era IBM mainframe. The Internet is evolving into the "cloud"—a network of thousands of data centers any one of which makes a 1990 supercomputer look antediluvian. From social media to medical revolutions anchored in metadata analyses, wherein astronomical feats of data crunching enable heretofore unimaginable services and businesses, we are on the cusp of unimaginable new markets.The second transformation? Smart manufacturing. This is the first structural shift since Henry Ford launched the economic power of "mass production." While we see evidence already in automation and information systems applied to supply-chain management, we are just entering an era where the very fabrication of physical things is revolutionized by emerging materials science. Engineers will soon design and build from the molecular level, optimizing features and even creating new materials, radically improving quality and reducing waste.Devices and products are already appearing based on computationally engineered materials that literally did not exist a few years ago: novel metal alloys, graphene instead of silicon transistors (graphene and carbon enable a radically new class of electronic and structural materials), and meta-materials that possess properties not possible in nature; e.g., rendering an object invisible—speculation about which received understandable recent publicity.This era of new materials will be economically explosive when combined with 3-D printing, also known as direct-digital manufacturing—literally "printing" parts and devices using computational power, lasers and basic powdered metals and plastics. Already emerging are printed parts for high-value applications like patient-specific implants for hip joints or teeth, or lighter and stronger aircraft parts. Then one day, the Holy Grail: "desktop" printing of entire final products from wheels to even washing machines.The era of near-perfect computational design and production will unleash as big a change in how we make things as the agricultural revolution did in how we grew things. And it will be defined by high talent not cheap labor.Finally, there is the unfolding communications revolution where soon most humans on the planet will be connected wirelessly. Never before have a billion people—soon billions more—been able to communicate, socialize and trade in real time.The implications of the radical collapse in the cost of wireless connectivity are as big as those following the dawn of telegraphy/telephony. Coupled with the cloud, the wireless world provides cheap connectivity, information and processing power to nearly everyone, everywhere. This introduces both rapid change—e.g., the Arab Spring—and great opportunity. Again, both the launch and epicenter of this technology reside in America.Few deny that technology fuels economic growth as well as both social and lifestyle progress, the latter largely seen in health and environmental metrics. But consider three features that most define America, and that are essential for unleashing the promises of technological change: our youthful demographics, dynamic culture and diverse educational system.First, demographics. By 2020, America will be younger than both China and the euro zone, if the latter still exists. Youth brings more than a base of workers and taxpayers; it brings the ineluctable energy that propels everything. Amplified and leavened by the experience of their elders, youth and economic scale (the U.S. is still the world's largest economy) are not to be underestimated, especially in the context of the other two great forces: our culture and educational system.The American culture is particularly suited to times of tumult and challenge. Culture cannot be changed or copied overnight; it is a feature of a people that has, to use a physics term, high inertia. Ours is distinguished by incontrovertibly powerful features, namely open-mindedness, risk-taking, hard work, playfulness, and, critical for nascent new ideas, a healthy dose of anti-establishment thinking. Where else could an Apple or a Steve Jobs have emerged?Then there's our educational system, often criticized as inadequate to global challenges. But American higher education eludes simple statistical measures since its most salient features are flexibility and diversity of educational philosophies, curricula and the professoriate. There is a dizzying range of approaches in American universities and colleges. Good. One size definitely does not fit all for students or the future.
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