OBAMA - THE TECH PRESIDENT

12:35 pm | Daniel Disano | Be the first to comment

History has been made and Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.  Never in the history of this country have we seen a presidential candidate use the power of technology to the degree he did to help win an election.  Let’s be clear – technology didn’t win the election, Barack Obama did, but technology was certainly an enabler.  President-elect (“PE”) Obama and the Obama for America campaign used the power of the Internet, web 2.0 technologies such as blogging, automated communications tools and the like to create a true grassroots campaign.  His use of technology allowed PE Obama to make his message of Change viral and enabled a groundswell and campaign to be built block by block and community by community rather than the traditional state by state organization.  This was critical because PE Obama was not nationally known.  Essentially, his use of technology allowed PE Obama to attract and engage with more donors and a younger generation than any candidate has ever experienced.

Why should Barack Obama’s technology savviness matter?  It is much easier to be an advocate for technological change if you actually understand and use technology.  PE Obama gets it.  He has been living it.  He knows the power of technology and what it can mean and do in real life situations.

I am hopeful for big ideas and real change when it comes to government’s and corporate’s use and investment in information technology.  The President-elect can show leadership in technology through action and example.  The commercial technology sector has to operate on its own but if our leaders are technologically savvy and demonstrate thought leadership, companies will invent and invest in technology that will lead our country to long-term sustainable growth.  This is key as I truly believe technology is not only an enabler for change, but an enabler for growth.

There are still places in America that don’t have the technology infrastructure such as broadband connectivity and wireless that are necessary for growth.  Many companies are using antiquated technologies that hinder their ability to effectively communicate internally among employees and externally with their customers.  Now is the time for America to be the technology powerhouse it can be and lead the world from a recession back to growth and prosperity.  We need investment in infrastructure and wireless; we need to be at the forefront of Web 2.0 technologies and beyond; we need to get our companies to adopt social networking technologies that many of our employees have already embraced in their personal lives; we need to not only grow revenue but gain efficiency through technologies such as VoIP, virtualization and automation; we need to develop applications that truly allow our companies and government agencies to compete in a global economy; we need to focus on green power and energy efficient computing; and we need to embrace technology in industries, such as health care, alternative energy and education that will really make a difference in our lives.

Even in a down market, the future looks bright for technology and long term economic growth, particularly with a new administration that gets it and knows its value and importance.  Can we work with President-elect Obama to bring this technology innovation to bear and move our country forward?  Yes we can.

Speaker suggestions for 2008?

11:51 am | Meghan Day | 1 comment

The Inc. events team is actively recruiting speakers for the 2008 Inc. 500 Conference and Awards ceremony. Who would you like to see speak at the next conference? And if you're interested in speaking yourself, be sure to send me a message!

INC 500 Conference Review

12:06 am | Charles Wu | 3 comments

I am 27 years old and own a company that hit $15 million in revenue for 2007.  Starting from my fraternity house, I have financed growth these past 6 years through internal operations with our only debt consisting of company car loans and a line of credit against open receivables to ensure that checks don’t bounce due to clearing delays (this will be going away soon due to a newly negotiated banking arrangement).  However, in reviewing the last 6 years, hindsight has shown that better decisions could have been made. As a subscriber and reader of INC magazine, one might wonder why I have never bothered, with 5,125% 2001-2004 and 973% 2002-2005 Growth Rates, to apply for the INC 500.  I have never applied before due to a bad experience I had with publicity back when I initially started my business.  That said, with a woefully lacking network of people / peers / advisors to discuss ideas, I decided to apply for the INC 500/5000 competition this year to attend the INC 500 conference in order to: 

1. Learn more about developing an effective People Strategy
2. Meet people (peers / potential advisors) who would provide me “context” of my current situation.

 In July, I was notified that CTI made the INC 5000 list and that I had qualified for an invite to the INC 500 Conference from September 6-8, 2007 in Chicago, IL.
Conference Day 1: Thursday, September 6, 2007 

Due to the fact that the conference was in Chicago, I missed the pre-conference golf-tournament and company tours due to the proximity of the office.  There is always work to get done.  I arrived at the conference at 2:30 pm in time to spend some time browsing the marketplace before the opening session began.

 Registration & Marketplace 

After picking up my badge, the first booth that I walked into was manned by a company called Greenleaf Publishing.  There are two things I remember about Greenleaf Publishing. 

 

1. The booth staff thought that the provided furniture made their layout look like the set of a porn (we probably wasted 10-15 minutes joking about this due to the fact I know a little more about the industry than I probably should from my friend who owns a hosting company that services that space).
2. Greenleaf is promoting a self-publication and distribution program for INC500 & INC5000 company leaders who want to self-publish “advice books.” Personally, having very little knowledge of business, this is a product that won’t be very useful.  However, I have a lot of customers with large egos who would love to be able to “leave their legacy.”  Something to think about…

 

The next stop in the marketplace was Vistage.  Vistage International (formerly known as TEC) claims to be the world’s largest CEO membership organization.  I spent some time talking to several of the representatives from Vistage, told them my story and my goals, and learned about the Vistage’s service offerings.  Vistage is founded on the principle of idea, knowledge and experience sharing between executive CEOs.  At a $12k / year price tag, I am unsure of whether it is a good deal.  $12k to join a social-club is a bit steep, and $12k to get high-level management and strategy consulting seems like too good of a deal. They did offer me a free 90 minute coaching session as a trial; can’t beat free.  I’ll probably take them up on that offer.

 Thursday Opening Session 

3:30 rolled around and it was time to go inside to listen to the opening session.  The first session was a panel entitled “Great Entrepreneurial Minds: Unlocking the Secrets of Small Business Growth.”  Sitting on the panel was Gigi Chang, founder of Plum Organics, a recent startup, Clint Greenleaf, founder of the Greenleaf Book Group (I had just talked to them outside in the marketplace), Joanna Meiseles, founder of Snip-Its (a kids hair cutlery, which, with the current spending habits of my wife on our daughter, I know there DEFINITELY is a market for), and Jack Stack, president and CEO of SRC Holdings (~$300 million business conglomerate).  From that session, I took away one point, which incidentally, was the answer to a question that I asked.

 

Me: Everyone talks about a people strategy, and how great our employees are, how we want to treat them with respect and get them engaged in our business.  Can you comment on how you get your people engaged in your business?

 

Jack: I use a technique called Open Book Management, where ALL the employees see the financials of the company, learn about their specific role and how it impacts the company, and then gain ownership of their personal “P&L.”  How well does this work?  Back in the late 80s, I was walking down the building when I struck up a conversation with a janitor, who happened to be in a bad mood and was languishing around.  I approached him and asked him what was bothering him.  He replied, “Approximately 90% of SRC Holdings’ business is in the engine truck (or some industry-specific manufacturing vertical) industry which seems to be headed for disaster in a few years.  We are over leveraged and extremely vulnerable…Additionally, given the way market pressures are going, our specific industry is headed for recession in a few years…if we don’t diversify, I don’t think we’ll be around for much longer…”

 

Wow!

 

On this answer alone, I (and probably many others in the room) ended up running over to the Border’s kiosk and buying a copy of Jack Stack’s book.

 

The first panel was followed up with a presentation from Gauri Nanda.  She presented a “How I Did It” session about the creation of her company, Nanda Home.  Nanda Home was started as a class project at MIT and has garnered significant media attention through viral marketing, which is extremely helpful for a consumer products company.  I personally didn’t get very much from this session due to the fact that (a) Gauri seemed to be a bit timid on stage and thus wasn’t very engaging and (b) At my current stage, the start-up process isn’t all too interesting.

 

After Gauri’s presentation, Mark Jarvis, the CMO of Dell, gave a presentation on Marketing in the Digital World.  I found his presentation extremely interesting and engaging (and if I was in the mind-set of marketing, I would venture to say that this would be one of the best presentations at the conference).  However, I needed to stay focused on my initial conference goals so I ended up forcing myself to check email on my PocketPC.  I did take some notes on some of the more interesting points made (to be filed away for future analysis).

 

1. Consumer is in Control: Being in B2B, this wasn’t anything new or revolutionary…I can see how this might apply to B2C type companies.

 

2. Focus on “Word of Mouse” Marketing: Incidentally, this made me think of WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association)…I don’t very know much about WOMMA, other than the fact that the web site is www.womma.org and that it has a catchy name.

 

3. Create Advocacy: this really rang a bell, due to the fact that I am currently trying to apply the principles of Ken Blanchard’s “Raving Fans” within my organization…incidentally, this also reinforced to me that I need to pay less attention to Mark and focus more on people strategy, because you can’t expect your people to treat your customers right if they aren’t rightly treated.

 

4. Be Part of the Community: Makes sense, I built our business initially through viral marketing on Internet Discussion List Serves, and a major piece of our current existing corporate strategy is based upon regional 1-day educational “road shows” where we facilitate learning and networking within our market niche.

 

This ended the first day’s general session.

 Thursday Welcome Reception: 

With the conclusion of Mark Jarvis’ presentation, everyone went into the Marketplace to enjoy the Welcome Reception and to mingle with attendees and vendors (free food and SWAG).  At this point, since I really didn’t know anyone (but wanted to network), I went back to talking with vendors.

 

The next vendor that I had a substantive conversation with was the CEO Project.  I had a good feeling that the lady standing there (seeing that I was a 27 year old kid in cargo pants who really needed to shave) didn’t want to talk to me, but I politely kept on her for information and after awhile, she warmed up to me and we had a meaningful and interesting conversation (I need to thank Steven Covey’s 7 Habits for giving me the know-how for my success here).  As things turned out, I may fit the criteria of a target CEO Project customer / member (don’t judge a book by its cover, eh?).

 

As I browsed further amongst the vendors, I stumbled across the booth of United Bank Card.  As a business, we are now having an increasing number of customers paying with credit cards, and processing fees are starting to creep up (we pay on average close to $10k / month in credit card processing and taking AMEX costs us almost 4% of sales revenue) so their offering was something that was definitely worth investigating (well, not for me personally, but for my internal operations people).

 

Here’s something that I found interesting.  After waiting a few minutes, a young guy standing at the booth with a United Bank Card shirt approached me and we had a decent conversation.  I told them about the challenges that my organization was facing and he, being extremely knowledgeable, was able to give me insight about the industry and how he would be able to provide me with a solution to save me money.  This was wonderful.  Then I asked him for his card.  Turns out it was Jared Isaacman, who at the age of 24, holds the title of Founder and CEO.  For some reason (and I’m not quite sure exactly), I was shocked to see such a young person as the CEO of what appeared to be a fairly well established and professional company.  Being in a similar situation, this doesn’t make much sense, but at the time, I was really taken aback.

One thing to note, there was a company in the Marketplace that gave away what I believe was the best SWAG (a portable cell-phone charger) but hadn’t bothered to put their name and/or logo on the giveaway.  I’m definitely going to keep and use that giveaway, but I’ve already forgotten who I got it from.

 

United Bankcard Poker Tournament:

 

Free Food, Free Drinks, Free Poker, Prizes…what’s there to complain about?

 

Coincidentally, I had the opportunity of sharing a poker table with Jared and learned about how he started the company.  His accomplishments are quite impressive, (starting the company at age 16 with a $10,000 note from his grandfather, $50-60 million / year in annual revenues, flush with cash) and I was truly humbled.  I spent some time talking with other members of his organization, and everything else that I learned about him only increased my level of respect for him.  He’s someone that I DEFINITELY would like to get to know better.

 
Conference Day 2: Friday, September 7, 2007 

Friday began with a session from Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, the maker of the Quickbooks accounting system that we use to run our business (we’ve actually only use Quickbooks as our GL and have integrated it with an add-on web-based ERP application called Oasis).  His session focused on people strategy, which was EXACTLY what I had came to this conference looking to learn.

 

Point 1: Your People are Your Greatest Asset: Treat THEM as a Volunteer Workforce

 

Point 2: Give Your Employees the Ability to Experiment and Change Workplace Process

 Summary: Ultimately the work is done by people and process 

Scott was an extremely engaging speaker, and I enjoyed his speech so much that I didn’t take my customary detailed notes.  All I have to take away from this session are my impressions above (hopefully, one can find / purchase videos / conference proceedings).

 

After Scott, Donald Katz from Audible, Inc gave his “How I Did It” presentation.  Donald was a very good speaker, but being a completely bootstrapped company, I’m not particularly interested or impressed with a company that, after spending a lot of VC money on unnecessary things, was just starting to turn the corner. (I’m not saying that VCs or funding are a bad thing).  I actually spent most of this session checking and responding to office-related emails on my PocketPC.

 

After Donald, Susan from American Express went on stage to unveil the Plum Card.  The session started with customary vendor brown-nosing… you entrepreneurs are so great, smart, innovative…<YAWN> – coupled with the customary feature pitch…you’ll get this and this and this with American Express.  Even though it may have been a good presentation, American Express’ rising merchant credit card processing fees (almost 4%) has given me such a bad perspective that each of the presented benefits only makes me think that higher processing fees are just around the corner.  Apple iPhones are nice, but I’d happily exchange that for a reduction of my $60k+ annual AMEX merchant processing fees.

 

Friday Breakout Session I: Leaders on Leadership

 

Originally, I was planning on attending the Second City comedy troupe session, but Jack Stack’s answer to my question from Thursday changed my mind.

The session was moderated by Bo Burlingham and a panel consisting of Joe Mansueto from Morningstar and Jack Stack from SRC Holdings.  Bo did a good job of asking questions, and fortunately, the majority of the discussion was centered around People Strategy issues.  Here are my takeaway points from that session:

 

1. Don’t be (or call yourself) “Boss”
   
   1. The term Boss is a function of the “command and control” mentality of the industrial age, and in today’s information age, in addition to the physical engagement of our workforce, we also need their mental, emotional and spiritual engagement.

 

2. Credibility and Integrity are KEY to building a positive winning environment

 

3. Build Trust in your organization

 

• Joe Mansueto’s 4 Characteristics of Leadership
  
  • Talent Developer
  • Strategic Thinker
  • Relationship Builder
  • Change Manager

 

• Jack Stack added to Joe Mansueto’s Leadership Characteristics by highlighting “Succession Planning” and his “Pluck and Place” policy

 

I was again given the ability to ask a question.

 

Me: As a young founder of a company, I am not scared / hindered by any of the challenges that we face.  However, I have learned to some extent that I cannot seem to apply this metric to my people, as I often am faced with the “I am not you” excuse from them.  Honestly, I’m really not that bright; I’m just bull headed enough to jump in the pool without thinking.  How do you deal with this in your respective organizations?

 Answer (It’s a bit of a blur between who said what): 

1. When you’re looking at your people, you may sometimes have people who are just getting the job done but who don’t seem to have the potential for future growth.  Although every business needs the Average Joe, if they’re not an A player, you are ultimately better off making a change now rather than waiting.

 

2. Jack Stack again referred back to his “Great Game of Business” which focuses on the following points
   
   1. After your employees understand their impact on the Company Financials, have them provide forecasts of what they’re going to do
   2. Hold them ACCOUNTABLE to their forecasts
   3. Numbers need to come from the people

 

3. Ultimately, it’s the pattern (and the way people follow the pattern) which defines what makes a company great.

 

On a side note, part of my “context” goal included the initial formation of a Board of Advisors / Directors for my company to add a sounding board for me due to the fact that:

 

1. Marc, having never grown a business beyond $10 million, is breaking new ground
2. I don’t know anything

 

I approached both Joe and Jack about this possibility after the session concluded.  Joe, being an extremely nice guy, gave the impression that he was somewhat interested.  (Optimism aside, he has much better things to do than to help out some clueless 27 year old kid and probably didn’t want to sound mean).  However, he did give me his card.  I also talked to Jack, another extremely busy person, and though he declined my proposal, he mentioned that he would be willing to spend some time on the phone with me to draft a framework of what I would need (position wise) for such a Board.

 

Obviously, as things currently stand, even though I’m naïve, I am smart enough to realize that there’s little reason for either Joe and Jack to help me out as an advisor…what I need to do is to put together a compelling win-win scenario where the gain of advising me and helping my company succeed outweighs the opportunity cost of time spent.

 

Friday Lunch & General Session

 

The general session during lunch was presented by a distinguished panel of academics that everyone, in the midst of eating and networking, ignored.  I have to give credit to the presenters; they (or so it seems from my perspective) had a good sense of humor about the situation.  Had I continued my academic pursuits in college and advanced in the field of economics, I believe that I would have found the content fascinating.  Unfortunately, I, like many others, got caught up in a conversation with the person sitting right next to me, in my case, it was a person by the name of Scott Medintz, who is working on creating a new type of magazine under Mansueto Ventures specifically for the start-up entrepreneur (this new publication is being launched to fill a market gap that both INC and Fast Company currently miss).  For the next 30-45 minutes, I filled his ears with nonsensical ideas about the type of content that this new venture should cover.  Hopefully, he’s smart enough to ignore my suggestions.

  
Friday Breakout II: Customer Love: How to Develop Best in Class Customer Service 

Following lunch, I went to a session presented by Mike Faith, the president and CEO of Headsets.com.  Mike runs a B2C business that generates the vast majority of its revenue through its call center operations.  That’s a business where it’s all about customer service.  On top of being an incredibly funny and engaging speaker, Mike gave a wonderful presentation on developing a Customer-centric organization.  Here is what I got from his session.

 

1. Customer service is a company culture, not just a departmental function

 

2. Be truthful to your Customers even if it costs you the sale…ultimately, it’s the right thing to do and in the long run, it will reap benefits for you

 

3. Regularly test you and the competition’s Customer service by being an actual customer to see what you can do to improve your Customer experience

 

4. Remember the technology is a tool – don’t let technology create your process, bend technology around Customer service.

 

5. Be respectful of your Customer (value their time as much as your own, don’t leave them on hold, give them up-front accurate information, try to answer their question / issue while they’re on the line)…never allow disrespect towards a customer, even when they’re off the line

 

6. Begin every call with a “Thank You”

 

7. Solicit Customer feedback as much as possible.

 

8. LOVE your Customer

 

Later that evening, I was able to hook up with Mike and his partner at the YPO reception and spend some time with him…He’s awesome.

 
Friday General Session:  

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

 

Generally speaking, I am a skeptic when it comes to “experts” due to the fact that very few of them actually “walk-the-walk” (Remember the Dilbert 1% Rule).  However, Dr. Goldsmith definitely knows his stuff.  His session was centered around self-improvement with a specific emphasis on people strategy and interaction.  Dr. Goldsmith does an excellent job of combining humor and audience participation to really drive home his point.

 

I arrived at the session just in time for his listening exercise; everyone in the room was supposed to pick a bad habit that they wanted to get rid of and then walk around and talk to as many people as possible in order to solicit feedback and suggestions for improvement with the only response to the feedback being a simple “Thank You.”  I personally have a bad habit of being late to things, and that’s what I picked.  In this exercise, I received the following suggestions.

 

Me: I have a habit of being late

 

Suggestion 1: Get a watch (3 people told me that)

 Me: Thank you.  

Me: I have a habit of being late

 

Suggestion 2: Set your watch 5 minutes early

 Me: Thank you.  

Me: I have a habit of being late

 

Suggestion 3: Don’t try to “squeeze in” that additional task before you need to leave

 Me: Wow…er…Thank You 

Bill Clinton: How Entrepreneurs Can Transform Communities – And Change the World

 

Former president Bill Clinton was the next speaker.  I have heard that he is an incredibly engaging speaker, but unfortunately for me, I lack the mental ability to multi-task; I was still digesting everything from Dr. Goldsmith’s presentation and didn’t take in very much from Clinton.  That’s probably my loss.

 

In looking back at this, a story popped into my head about Bill Clinton and John F Kennedy.  Back in 1963, Bill Clinton met President John Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden.  The encounter inspired Clinton to seek a life of public service.  True or not, I remember reading an urban legend about this encounter, in which Bill Clinton introduces himself to John Kennedy and lets John Kennedy know that one day his name will be as well known as John Kennedy.

 

In hindsight, I should have taken the initiative to shake Bill Clinton’s hand.

 YPO Reception 

The Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) hosted a reception that evening for INC500/5000 honorees.  The YPO is a global network for young CEOs that support peer information and idea exchange on both a business and social level.  Specifically, YPO is a peer group for young CEOs.  I met several YPO members at the reception and had many good conversations.  There were 2 things about YPO that stood out to me

 

1. There is a wives forum for YPO members
2. Scott Cook gave a YPO endorsement at the end of his speech earlier in the day

 

In my search for context, a peer group is definitely something that would be extremely helpful.  In addition, Marc has recommended that of all “peer group” organizations out there, YPO is probably the one most worth joining.  I was extremely impressed with YPO and I plan on submitting an application to join YPO.

 House of Blues 

Parties are always fun.  However, one interesting note; it seemed that the vast majority of people on the dance floor were INC staff members and employees of other exhibiting companies.  I would think that entrepreneurs would be more willing than employees to “let loose” due to the fact that they “buck the trend” on a daily basis.  Maybe not…

 
Conference Day 3: Saturday, September 8, 2007 

Waking up and getting to the conference in time for the 8 AM session wasn’t the easiest thing after a late night at the House of Blues, but listening to Michael Kobold’s “How I did it” story about starting the Kobold Watch Company was worth that lack of sleep.  In my search for context, I am looking for peers and Michael, like Jared Isaacman, is someone I want to get to know better.  Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to personally catch him after his presentation.

 

Making Your Ideas Stick

 

Chip and Dan Heath gave a fascinating presentation about marketing, which, like Mark Jarvis’ presentation, I had to force myself to “filter” in order to stay focused on my conference goal.

 Sticky Idea Paradigm 

SUCCES

imple

nexpected

oncrete

redible

motional

tories

 Try as I might, their presentation was so good that I couldn’t help but walk away with ideas.  For now, I’ll just Refuse to say “Hey…” 

Bob Galvin: Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Opportunities

 

Chip and Dan Heath are an extremely tough act to follow.  Robert Galvin, former CEO and chairman of Motorola, is an older gentleman who is more determined to achieve his goals than many 20 year olds that I know.  I find this admirable.  In regards to session content, it was focused primarily on strategic entrepreneurial opportunities. 

 

After missing out on shaking Bill Clinton’s hand, I was determined to redeem myself and right after the presentation, walked up to Robert Galvin, shook his hand and introduced myself.  This may sound silly, but it is extremely difficult to muster the confidence to walk up to someone who is extremely successful, shake their hand, and inform them that you will be as successful as them in the near future.

 Making a Fool Out of Myself 

During the general session, Dell had made an announcement that copies of Chip and Dan Heath’s book, Made to Stick, where available outside.  After shaking Robert Galvin’s hand, while looking for either Chip or Dan Heath to get their autograph, I ran into a nice lady and asked her if (1) she worked for INC and (2) if she knew where Chip and Dan were signing books.  The lady’s name was Jane Berentson, editor of INC Magazine.  I think I offended her.

 Breakout Session III: Creating a Performance-Driven Culture 

This session, moderated by Ellen Brodsky, co-owner of CitiStorage, was actually led by 3 employees of the company.  In this era of gurus, it’s extremely impressive to find someone who actually practices the mantra of “work through your employees.”  I was extremely impressed by the confidence of the CitiStorage employees who had to address a room full of “bosses.”  Ellen came into the organization 13 years ago to help her husband, and has transformed Citistorage from a culture of fear and intimidation into a highly productive and fun environment.  I will be looking at CitiStorage as a model for my company’s People Strategy.

 

1. Combine Fun & the Job: Productivity and fun go hand-in-hand

 

2. Promote from Within: Brining in “Outside Bosses” kills employee morale

 

3. Employee Culture IS the Competitive Advantage

 

4. 401K Matching: I found it fascinating that CitiStorage uses 401K matching as metric for employee effectiveness.  In short, they want people who care about 401K benefits, due to the fact that employees who care to build THEIR future are employees who will work to build the company’s future.

 

5. GYM Membership: Fostering an employee gym actually creates a culture and environment for meetings / get-togethers in an informal setting

 

General Session:

 

The general session started with Shoba Purushothaman giving a “How I Did It” presentation.  Here’s what I got from that

 

-          Use customers to fund your business (e.g., charter programs)

-          It’s better to recruit inexperienced but SMART people

 

Katrina Markoff, the founder of Vosges Haut-Chocolat, gave her “How I Did It” presentation after Shoba.  The presentation was hilarious, but from a business perspective, I found Katrina extremely flaky and scatter brained…however, as a parent with a 2 year old daughter, I really admire her mother.

 

After Katrina, Tom Szaky, the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, gave his “How I Did It” presentation.  I was happy to listen to his story and afterwards, exchanged contact information with him.  I have found another peer.

CEOs' Hopes Are Higher in Texas

10:20 am | Anonymous | Be the first to comment

The Dallas Morning News published an article regarding Texas CEOs:

 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-CEO_08bus.ART0.State.Edition1.35a9f4b.html

 

DFW adds 91,000 jobs

10:16 am | Anonymous | Be the first to comment

The Dallas Morning News published an article last Friday regarding the DFW job market:

 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/sbrown/stories/DN-recol_14bus.ART.State.Edition1.35b5764.html

 

Congratulations to Colorado Inc 500 and Inc 5000 companies

11:11 am | Gyan Saxena | 2 comments

Congratulations to all companies from Rocky Mountain region. 
Lets organize a get-together of all Inc 500/5000 companies from this region.

Congratulations to Arizona 2007 Inc 500 Winners

10:34 am | Rick Randall | 1 comment

Had a great time at conference. I think we need a way to set up an annual meeting at Inc conference to meet local AZ businesses.

Welcome From Norm Brodsky

10:53 am | Sherri Smith | Be the first to comment

Inc.’s annual conference honoring the fastest growing private companies in America opens today in Chicago. If you’re at the conference, please come by and say hi. You’ll have several opportunities to do that:

First, I’ve got a breakout session Friday morning at 10:45 where I’m going to take questions about my attempt to sell my businesses and the nine-part series I wrote for Inc. chronicling the whole fiasco. I might even tell you what my plans are going forward.

Second, whenever there’s a break in the program, I’m going to be hanging out at the IncBizNet booth in the Marketplace in the grand ballroom. Look for me at 10:15, 1:00, and 4:30. The IncBizNet is the new social networking site Inc. is introducing -- think Facebook for entrepreneurs -- and I strongly encourage you to stop by the booth and give it a test run.

Third, Friday at 5:00, I’m taping a session of MSNBC’s “Your Business” in the International Ballroom. I’ve done the show before -- in fact, one of my appearances will air Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. -- but this time I’m going to be a co-host. I’ll be interviewing other entrepreneurs, including Tom Szaky of TerraCycle, Greg Wittstock of Aquascape, Katrina Markoff of Vosges Haut Chocolat, and Tom Stern, who created the CEO Dad comic strip. I’m not sure when this show will air,
but I’ll let you know in my blog.