WCEO Radio hour podcast interview
August 3, 2010
Bruce Peters, one of my early mentors and influencers, recently interviewed me in a 20 minute interview for the CEO Radio hour on WS Radio. We chatted extensively about topics such as using social media, business startups, the Rochester entrepreneurial community, my company (OS-Cubed, Inc.) and giving back to the community by volunteering. Give it a listen, or download it to your ipod. Also check out interviews with other Rochester luminaries.
Website for CEO Hour on WSRadio: http://www.wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio.cfm/shows/The-CEO-Hour.html
Part one of my interview: http://www.wsradio.com/player/wsradio-player2.cfm/type/windows/show/The-CEO-Hour/segment/33821.html
Part two of my interview: http://www.wsradio.com/player/wsradio-player2.cfm/type/windows/show/The-CEO-Hour/segment/33822.html
RSS Feed for the podcast: http://www.wsradio.com/podcasts/405.xml
Important Microsoft Security Update
Please check out my update on a recent and very scary Microsoft Security Issue for which a patch is now available. Spread the word - this one needs to be fixed ASAP to protect your startup company’s infrastructure.
CFO Core Concerns Conference 2010
June 30, 2010
Thanks to my friend at HJMT, Lisa Gordon, I got an opportunity to attend the 2010 CFO Core Concerns conference in Baltimore MD June 27-29, 2010. This conference - a 3 day event - was designed by CFO Magazineto help and assist CFOs to identify and mitigate risks in today’s world, as well as take advantage of opportunities. The topics covered were broad - everything from traditional accounting issues (borrowing and debt) to more IT related topics. So you might ask yourself - why should I, as an entrepreneur, spend time with bean-counters and accountants?
Well one thing you’d find if you actually attended is that bean-counters and accountants and especially CFOs are pretty darn smart people - and not boring at all. They have to handle all sorts of impacts to their companies, evaluate risk, take advantage of opportunities, and in general protect the company and track and optimize it’s progress. This is not an easy task. They have to think like entrepreneurs - trying to get the best bang for the company’s buck, protect the company from catastrophic events, optimize it’s assets, investigate new opportunities for growth, decide when best to invest, and be sure that the company doesn’t run out of money in the process.
Equally interesting were the vendors that showed up for the conference - coming from every avenue of risk that the CFOs might be tackling from health care, to import/export regulations to cloud computing, to general IT support and everything in between. The core concerns identified as important at the conference were:
- Credit Markets/Interest rates
- Federal Government policies and regulation
- Health Care costs
- Managing IT Systems
- Federal Budget Deficit
- Accurately forecasting results
- Managing and obtaining working capital
- Consumer Demand
- Maintaining employee morale and productivity
- Financial regulation and changes in regulation
- Currency risks
- Cost of Fuel
- Margin Maintenance
“So what?” you say - why should I care, I’m just a lowly entrepreneur - most of these are things I don’t have to worry about. My answer is - you are wrong. Now you DO need to worry about some of these things within your own company. If you’re developing a music delivery platform and all of a sudden there is a court decision handed down, or a change in copyright regulation - you could find yourself holding a product that is both useless and suddenly illegal. If you don’t pay attention to patent law you might not have noticed that the supreme court allowed a business method patent to stand - strengthening the status of all business methods patents. Assessing these risk is an important part of your job as an entrepreneur. You must envision both the best case “hockey stick” scenarios and the worst case scenarios as well and develop measurement and contingency structures to be sure you don’t get in over your head.
More importantly though - every concern issued above is a problem looking for a solution. A problem that has been stated as CORE to a business’s ability to thrive and grow in today’s world. A problem that there is probably some funding to solve because CFOs who write the checks across the world share these concerns. It is a built in market, with specific desires and requirements, and an awesome potential for the right entrepreneur to create a solution and step into the fray.
You can check out the twitter history to see my CFOCore tweets from the event, that cover most of the main speakers, and check out the speakers and their topics for the event at CVent. As an entrepreneur I was fascinated by the issues that the various speakers raised. Frank Partnoy, a professor of Law and Finance at USD, covered how today’s recession and lead up to a crash were eerily similar to a time 79 years ago when Ivar Kreuger nearly brought the world economy to it’s knees. He pointed out the similarities - and the differences - to today and how that might affect the economy in the next few years. He also said that the Moody’s and other bond rating agencies were useless and should be replaced by cold hard facts. Moody’s rated many failing banks as “A” or better right up until they collapsed - proving that their predictions for an investments risks were practically useless.
Rita McGrath, a professor at Columbia University, gave an awesome talk on using Discovery Driven techniques to stimulate, encourage and foster innovation and growth within large companies. In discussing the topic with her after her speech I discovered she has a similar presentation that applies to entrepreneurs, and another that applies specifically to software development. Interestingly, she’d heard little of Agile Methodology, which her proposed tactic resembles.
Michael Hughes CIO At Large for C4si, was heard saying that the end of the company sysadmin could well be approaching - that cloud technologies could, and would, shift the burden of technical support off internal staffs and onto remote and outsourced solutions like no other technology before it. He also claimed that systems security wasn’t as big a deal as everyone made it out to be since most data was obsolete after 1 month anyway (I beg to differ with him on this point - maybe I misunderstood what he was saying).
Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist at the Gallup Organization had a fascinating lecture on measurements of consumer demand, company confidence, and the attitude of the general public. He cited, for example, that while 95% of people favored small businesses and entrepreneurialism, 36% of the same group of people believed that socialism (which is antithetical to the aforementioned concepts) was a viable economic alternative for the United States. Consumer confidence has remained flat for over a year, and those with money have not yet tired of saving and begun spending. Jacobe claims that the recession is not ending but we are entering a long tail where there will be considerable volatility and only small organic growth in the marketplace.
Greg Schaffer, Director in charge of Cyber Security at the Department of Homeland Security came and talked to CFOs about the new, more dangerous, online world we now live in - stating that most company manufacturing and production infrastructure had little or no hacking or security protection - endangering the lives and the livelihoods of many major US Firms - as well as our overall global economy. He pressed CFOs to examine carefully their spends when it came to cyber security risks and evaluate them carefully.
We heard encouraging news on the technology front from Edwin Yuen, Microsoft and Hope Cochran, Clearwire on how broadband ip based 4g networks were coming from companies like clearwire, and that virtual technology had allowed some companies to consolidate from over 600 running servers to just 40 at tremendous cost savings.
We heard discouraging news on the health care front, with some analysts predicting 20-40% raises in health care insurance costs for companies witih under 100 employees over the next few years until 2014. Some said that these rate increases would disproportionately affect companies with under 100 employees. This will force many small businesses out of providing health care benefits and into the state-run pools, which may well not be up to the task prior to 2014 of absorbing so many subscribers, and may create two levels of care: one for the “have-nots” on the public funds and one for the “haves” that are in private insurance or are self paid. Most large companies that self insure were interested in creating wellness programs to be sure their rates stayed low - some claimed that could result in discrimination against overweight people, or those with chronic diseases prior to hiring.
We heard a fascinating panel discussion on risk management and how to plan for and mitigate everything from natural disasters, to cyberintrusion to key persons becoming ill. The panel had the Lizabeth Zlatkis, head of risk management for Hartford Insurance, who stated that you have to put most of your risk management eggs into the baskets of problems that would put your company out of business. While it’s good to have plans for smaller risks - you MUST have plans for the risks that can ruin your business.
We heard from the supply chain manager at OfficeMax, Ruben Slone, about how he used the downturn to implement a series of cost reductions and supply chain optimations that saved his company millions of miles of truck time, improving the environment and saving the company millions of dollars - using just a few simple changes. We heard from Ronald Jadin, the CFO of Grainger - one of the largest catalogs in the world - about how, despite the downturn they continued to grow by optimizing their relationships with customers and suppliers to meet their own needs and the needs of both. They cut turn time on inventory by 20 days in less than a year, while improving on-time delivery of product.
We heard from a career expert at Accenture and author of ”The Workforce of One”, David Smith, about how today’s consumer driven world is changing the expectations of employees - that they want their careers and their day to day jobs to be more like their experience outside work - customized to their needs and their desires.
If you read the above and thought to yourself - hey, I could come up with a solution that solves one of those problems (or even a part of one of those problems) then you probably have a pretty good seed of an idea for and entrepreneurial venture. The first thing that they teach you in “entrepreneur school” is that you must come up with a compelling solution to an entrenched and difficult problem or desire that people have. This conference was FULL of such problems and desires - and is a hotbed of ideas for an entrepreneur to live off.
For more information you may want to consider getting one of the books from the presentation authors. I’ve organized the books into an Amazon Store which you can visit by clicking the link. There is even a link there to subscribe to CFO Magazinewhich I highly recommend you do. So if this interests you - think to yourself - what convention can I attend and learn from that might be slightly outside my normal field and how can that enhance my ability to either run my company or come up with awesome sellable entrepreneurial ideas?
Cody Gate Ventures and GRE bring 250 new jobs to Rochester, NY
June 1, 2010
Cody Gate Ventures, a venture capital investment group has selected Rochester, NY as the site of three new start-up, venture-funded companies from its portfolio. The three companies are Intrinsiq Materials, Quintel Technology, and Omni-ID. Combined the three companies plan to hire 250 full-time employees who will specialize in research, development, and manufacturing of advanced technology products. In addition to creating jobs, Intrinsiq, Quintel and Omni-ID will also make a significant capital investment in the Rochester Region through the purchase of machinery and equipment, and through ongoing capital expenditures and operating expenses. The jobs will be located at the Eastman Business Park.
“We chose to expand in Rochester because of the high-quality of its skilled workforce,” said Cody Gate Ventures U.S. Managing Partner Michael Summers. “We consider ourselves to be an innovation firm, and Rochester has a long history of innovation. We have already established substantive synergies with a number of the great companies and universities that are located here. Those opportunities for collaboration combined with Rochester’s connectivity to world-class research and development facilities, and the great facilities at Eastman Business Park, make the Rochester Region the perfect place for these three companies to grow.”
“This huge win for the Greater Rochester Region’s economy is the result of the dedication and teamwork of Greater Rochester Enterprise; Empire State Development; the State of New York, specifically State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Assemblyman Joseph D. Morelle; Monroe County; and the City of Rochester,” said GRE President and CEO Mark S. Peterson. “The 250 jobs that are coming here are high-paying, highly-skilled jobs for three companies who will greatly benefit from our top-ranked knowledge workforce.”
“Attracting innovative companies that base their success on knowledge and technology is an important step in ensuring that New York State remains competitive in the global economy,” said Empire State Development Chairman & CEO Dennis M. Mullen. “Cody Gate Ventures has discovered that Rochester offers an ideal location-strong public and private institutions, a quality talent pool and widespread infrastructure-for companies looking to expand their horizons. Going forward, I intend to continue to attract successful technology and manufacturing-based firms to New York State.”
Intrinsiq Materials (www.intrinsiqmaterials.com), a leading advanced materials company that generates valuable solutions to unmet needs in the advanced metals and health and wellness industries, is bringing its research and development and manufacturing operations to Rochester. Intrinsiq will hire 158 full-time employees.
Quintel Technology (www.quintelsolutions.com), a provider of next generation antenna systems for mobile networks, is creating an additional research and development operation in Rochester. Quintel will hire 68 full-time employees.
Omni-ID (www.omni-id.com), a provider of high performance radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that excels in reliability for any application, including harsh environments such as on, off, and near metals and liquids, is bringing its research and development operation to Rochester. Omni-ID will hire 24 full-time employees.
Intrinsiq, Quintel, and Omni-ID plan to begin hiring and bringing their operations to Rochester this summer.
Cody Gate has it’s home offices in the UK, which means that Rochester was picked from an international portfolio of sites as the proper place for these three companies to grow. Through sponsorship of the Eyes on the Future conference, and other strategic moves to encourage companies to locate in Rochester, GRE has proven again and again that they can be an engine of growth here in the Rochester area.
ABOUT CODY GATE VENTURES
Cody Gate Ventures invests in businesses to meet the important needs of global corporations and government. What makes Cody Gate Ventures unique is its preferential access to disruptive, government-funded technologies to realize high-value opportunities across a range of sectors. Companies created by the Cody Gate Ventures team in recent years have included sectors such as Mobile Infrastructure, Government Security, Internet Infrastructure and Services, Retail, Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, Medical Devices, Drug Delivery and Nanotechnology. For further information on Cody Gate Ventures, visit www.codygate.com .
ABOUT GRE:
Located in the heart of New York’s technology corridor, Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE) is a public-private partnership established to professionally market the Rochester metropolitan region as a competitive, high-profile place for business location and growth. Its efforts support business attraction and expansion, as well as entrepreneurship and innovation. GRE collaborates with businesses, universities, not-for-profit organizations and government leaders to ensure a unified approach to regional economic development. For more information, please go to www.RochesterBiz.com.
The Greater Rochester Enterprise team are here to help you grow your business in Rochester, NY. Call GRE at 585-530-6200 e-mail: info@RochesterBiz.com
Rich Karlgaard talks about the 7 differentiating factors
May 28, 2010
In a recent Forbes Magazine article (June 2101) Rich Karlgaard talks about the 7 differentiating factors that will make or break companies in the recovery. What he’s really talking about though are rules that work for any company regardless of whether they are in boom times, down times or a recovery. And the rules can work to help you figure out what your company’s differentiating factors will be as you create your start-up.
The seven factors that Kalgaard lists in his article are:
- Design - product must STICK OUT to be noticed.
- Speed - you must be able to deliver your product quickly and efficiently, or the consumer will look elsewhere
- Cost - believe it or not, consumers are sensitive to the overall cost of an item - you must be competitive to be in the running.
- Service - over and over awesome customer service has sustained and fed brand growth.
- Communications outside - how are you perceived by the world? How well do your employees promote your product or brand for you?
- Communications inside - how easy is it for your internal staff to collaborate and work together? If you’re running out of a house, like so many entrepreneurs these days, how are you compensating for the lack of daily interaction?
- Purpose - What do you do? No really - WHAT DO YOU DO!? What is the reason your company is on the earth?
Interestingly this list of differentiating factors can be combined with Seth Godin’s idea of each company having a “Purple Cow” - a unique selling point for their company. If you don’t have ANY of these differentiating factors versus your competition - your company might have a hard time selling its wares - or its prospects to a funding entity (grants, angels, venture capital, etc.) I would say that the most successful companies are either at the top, or near the top of each of these categories - the closer to the top you are in each, the more likely you are to succeed.
So walk through each of these with an objective eye. Look at what your competition or potential competition is doing now and answer for yourself (honestly) - am I near the top of my game in one or more of these categories? If so make that your purple cow - and concentrate your marketing and message around that winning strategy. The next thing to do is pick the things you are not so good at and get help improving them. Go for the golden ring!
The best methodology for this is to take each of the factors and give yourself a grade - A, B or F. A means you are better than anyone else at this. And I mean ANYONE else. Four Seasons is better at customer service than virtually any other hotel chain in the world. B means you are “Good enough”, in other words - there are competition that beat you in this factor, and some that are worse than you - but you’re about average. F means everyone is better at this than you. A’s should be targeted for promotion as a strength, F’s should be targeted for immediate improvement, and B’s should be targeted for long term strategic initiatives to move you to an A.
I hope this helps you in finding your strengths and capitalizing on them.
Rochester Featured in Forbes Magazine
May 14, 2010
Rochester, NY was featured in Forbes Magazine as New York’s Home for smart business. The article was done as a direct response to last year’s record attendance at the Eyes on the Future Conference. The magazine article - distributed internationally - mentions Rochester’s high “IDQ” - Intellectual Density Quotient, a measurement of Rochester’s high proportion of college educated innovators, workers and companies. The ranking, done by a 3rd party organization, shows many of the advantages Rochester has over other metropolitan areas when employing local workers.
In addition, the article mentions Rochester’s famous short commute times. GRE’s Mark Peterson says: “A 100-person company in Rochester saves $128,300 per year over the same-sized company in Los Angeles, because the Rochester employees are spending 6,000 hours less per year delayed in traffic.”
For the full text of the article visit Forbes Magazine. For more information on the advantages Rochester has to offer visit the Rochester GRE website. To download a copy of the article check the PDF Link.
Tenrehte brings home top honors in entrepreneur contest
April 30, 2010
The 2010 Rochester Regional Business Plan competition had their award announcements today at a luncheon event in Downtown Rochester. I’m proud to say that two excellent entrepreneurs - both of whom I know well took home first and second place in the competition. Tenrehte - producers of a smartgrid energy monitor and saver for the home that runs off a home wifi system took the top prize of $25,000. Tenrehte has been featured numerous times in this blog for their excellent work and is an example of a successful entrepreneurial company here in Rochester.
Proving yet again that devices tend to draw more attention than software products these days the runner up winner was OS-Cubed supported entrepreneur Floodwatch USA. Floodwatch has a device that allows remote monitoring for moisture in a “smoke alarm” format device. The device does not need to touch the floor, or have moisture directly touch the monitoring to determine if flooding has occurred. It uses a custom designed infrared chip to determine if water is where it should not be.
I would like to personally congratulate both winners - you are among the top entrepreneurs in the area and it’s about time you both were recognized for your efforts.
Retaining Young Talent event
April 8, 2010
Students Tackle “Bright Flight” in Upstate New York
Thursday, April 15, 2010 7 p.m.
Alumni and Advancement Center
300 East River Road
Rochester, NY
In November 2009, students from the University of Rochester, Cornell University, and Syracuse University gathered for a weekend-long collaborative brainstorming session called “Work/Play/Stay//Mitigating Bright Flight: How to Retain Graduates in the Upstate Region.”. Join University alumni, parents, and friends April 15th at the University of Rochester for an enlightening evening with the Rochester students and faculty who participated in that session. There will be a panel presentation, a video, and a discussion about the “bright flight” issue and potential solutions.
Acording to U.S. census data analyses by the New York Times and the Brookings Institution, the population of young adults in upstate New York has been declining at an unprecedented rate. Between 1990 and 2004, the number of 25-to 34-year-old residents in the 52-county upstate region declined by more than 25 percent. In the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Binghamton areas, the decline was more than 30 percent. The rates of emigration were found to be highest among college graduates and termed “bright flight.”
What implications do these trends have on the well-being of upstate communities? What can be done to mitigate this exodus? Please join us in a discussion of the causes and possible solutions to the “bright flight” phenomenon.
Following the program, enjoy a reception sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations.
Admission is free. Advance reservations are required. Special thanks goes to High Tech Rochester for its support of this event!
To Register:
Online: www.rochester.edu/alumnievents
Phone: 877.MELIORA (877.635.4672) toll free or 585.273.5888
Penfield Robotics Team 1511 Rolling Thunder owns Beantown
March 30, 2010
Penfield Robotics Team 1511 Rolling Thunder goes to Beantown - and proves that Rochester can innovate too!
Boston, MA, Sunday, March 28, 2010: The Penfield Robotics Team 1511 “Rolling Thunder” competed this past weekend in the Boston Regional Robotics competition. This team, which had already won the Engineering Inspiration award in the local Finger Lakes Regional in early March, proved to their competitors from Boston and throughout the Northeast that Rochester is a hotbed of innovation and student achievement. The team brought home the competition’s most coveted award (the Chairman’s award) and placed second overall in the robot competition qualifying again as a finalist for the International competition in Atlanta. The team won honors for the “Coopetition bonus - tying with the team seeded first overall in the competition by competing in the matches with the highest total scores. The team won an honorable mention in the Safety Award competition, and one team member, PHS Junior Crystal Vongnaphone, was selected as one of two students at the Regional to be a finalist for the new Dean’s List award - an award for excellence in student performance. Crystal is one of just over 100 Dean’s List finalists worldwide.
The Chairman’s Award represents the spirit of FIRST. It honors the team that, in the judges’ estimation, best represents a model for other teams to emulate, and which embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST. It remains FIRST’s most prestigious award, and qualifies the team to compete internationally in Atlanta for the International Chairman’s Award. The Judges at this year’s event in Boston had one recommendation for improvement: Clone Yourselves!
The Boston Regional was held on the Boston University campus in the Agannis Arena. Over 50 teams from that region and across the Northeast competed. Over 50 team members, mentors and parents travelled to Boston for the event. With, over 40 Penfield high school student team members-the students, their parents, team alumni, and 26 active teachers and mentors dedicate thousands of hours of time to the team. They work together year round, on top of building a competitive robot in 6 weeks. Significant accomplishments for Team 1511 included hundreds of hours of community service, robotics demos, outreach, recruiting, finding sponsors, FIRST Lego League help and assistance, helping rookie teams, helping out other teams at competitions, and even helping start FLL teams in other countries like the Bahamas. The presenters showed a map with Team 1511 “Thunderbolts” marking all the teams they had helped throughout the US and the world. The team was judged against 53 other teams who attended the Boston Regional, including teams from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, England, Brazil, Connecticut, and Maine (More info at www.bostonfirst.org). To qualify the team submitted an essay, a video presentation and 3 team members presented to a judging panel (http://bit.ly/b7eXBk ). This is the 3rd Chairman’s award for the team (the last one being in 2009 when they won the Chesapeake Regional Chairman’s Award). The team can only submit an award application at one regional each year. Penfield Robotics team has an impressive record of over 26 trophies in 6 years, 3 Regional Chairman’s awards and the team won an International Judges Award in Atlanta in 2009.
The teams major sponsor is Harris RF Communications, and many of its 23 mentors are Harris Engineers, led by Larry Lewis the engineering team lead mentor. Other local sponsors include: Comella Orthodontics, Simcona Electronics, Schuler-Haas Electric, S & W Technologies, Penfield Hess, OS-Cubed, Inc., Debbie Supply, Drelick’s Welding, VanBortel Machines, Family First Federal Credit union, Huther Painting, IC2S, International Art Acquisitions, Maxie’s Ice Cream, National Fire Adjustment Company, Park Dental, STEM Robotics, Penfield HS Student Council, Drake Environmental, Town and Country Travel, Penfield HS PTSA and many smaller sponsors.
FIRST (which stands For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international organization that promotes leadership and engineering in the elementary through high school environment by encouraging a cooperative team effort between professional engineers, teachers and parents. More information about FIRST can be found at www.usfirst.org .
The team has many pictures available from the Boston Regional and other events at http://rollingthunder.smugmug.com . More information about Rolling Thunder can be found on our award winning website at www.penfieldrobotics.com .
As usual the reaction from local press was Ho Hum - not worth mentioning. Sigh.
RIT 48 - create an entrepreneurial business in 48 hours
March 14, 2010
Starting this Friday RIT students will have the opportunity to create an entrepreneurial web-based business in 48 hours. RIT 48 has selected this blog author to be a judge for this highly competitive and interesting competition. So what is RIT48? They are glad you asked: RIT48 aims to bring together students from various disciplines to pitch, plan, develop and launch a web startup in one weekend— or, as the name suggests, 48 hours. An intense, energy fueled, entrepreneurial event, RIT48 was designed to showcase the innovative and creative spirit of RIT students while offering the opportunity to learn and meet new people. Always had a cool idea for a web startup but never the time or resources to make it happen? RIT48 is for you. You can form a team, develop your idea, and launch a web startup to the world in a mere 48 hours. We’ll bring the coffee.
The competition is open to Alumi, Students and Faculty, but all development of the website or business plan must be completed during the 48 hours of the competition.
I’m excited to say I’ve been selected to judge this awesome event and I’m really looking forward to working with my fellow Judges - Susan Beebe (SM expert), Aaron Newman (SM2/Techrigy), and Liz Lawley (Director of the Lab for Social Computing at RIT) on this task. The top winning team will receive $600. Here is the schedule for the 2 days:
Friday (9AM-All Night): Introductions, Planning, Developing
Saturday (10am-7pm): Testing, Tweaking, Refining, Presenting
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Good luck to the team members and may the best team win!
