Commercialization; Leadership; Clean Tech; Software; 3/24/08 - PHOTOS & Events

461_ Leadership and the Culture of Commitment and Sustainability
There are a lot of people doing a lot of work, more of an engineering process perspective. That is where do things come from, how do they get used, what happens when we’re done using it. So there’s a lot of good work going on at the material level," explains Dan Montgomery, Marpa Center for Business & Economics. What we are emphasizing is what kind of state-of-mind, of leadership, of organizational culture goes with creating a sustainable world. It’s the kind of inner dimension and the social dimension that supports being more responsible in the way that we use the earth’s resources. When we look at business decisions we have a much longer and broader view of the impacts we are having. It’s allowing more stakeholders into the picture, having a longer timeline, thinking about what happens to your product when people are done using it. Business schools 25 years ago taught that business decision making was a zero sum game. There were tough trade-offs involved. The ultimate rationale was shareholder value. Today, other groups that we would call stakeholders such as the communities in which we operate, the communities in which our supply chain operate, were really not a concern before, because they weren’t in the decision making equation. If you talk with today’s business students, they’re starting off with the idea that sustainability is a value that’s just table stakes to be in the game. Collaboration is where we get into talking about culture and commitment. The cycle of commitment, helping people look at this area of agreements and commitments. People are not operating in corporate silos anymore. We’re all dealing with a lot of lateral pier relationships, joint ventures; the business environment is much more complex now than it was a generation ago. What we’re doing in this seminar in June at Naropa, is introducing some methods for looking at that entire web or network of stakeholders and understanding what all the trade-offs and value exchanges are. It gives us a better way of to think about the environment that we operate in. LISTEN Bytes: 25760812 - 3/24/08
Related Links: Business Sustainability || Business and Economics || Leading Through Conflict || Authentic Leadership || Blue Opal Strategies || Keywords: Dan Montgomery, Marpa Center, Business, Economics, Sustainable, Blue Opal Strategies

459_ Software as a Service (SaaS) Meets Software for Security (SfS)
Gerhardt Eschelbeck is the CTO and Senior Vice President of Engineering, at Webroot. Gerhardt is one of the first in the country, maybe the world, to deal with the SaaS model. That’s Software as a Service. This has been a significant transition which has been driven largely by the threat landscape. Today’s threat is fairly stealth and designed to stay undetected for as long a time as possible. The purpose of the thieves is financially motivated. Today’s threats are fundamentally designed to steal information from the user’s computer, the banking information, financial, health information and what not. Therefore, we clearly have to look at this from a protection standpoint. I think the technologies that we developed 10 and 15 years ago which were very effective when applied to the virus threat, are not as applicable for today’s threat. What the industry requires is an approach that is much more sophisticated. We have moved from a purely desktop approach to a multi tiered defense model. I think the goal here is that you need to use a leverage similar to what the bad guys are using to actually detect those spyware technologies. This is where Webroot has been pioneering and working as an organization over the past four years. We have been able to protect, prevent and detect infections for our customers; this is certainly our top priority. Steps that an organization can do to stay clean and healthy from a computer hygiene perspective are; First make sure you update your systems whenever patches become available. “Microsoft Tuesday”. Missing patches are very frequently used within the first 24 – 48 hours by hackers to take advantage of those security holes. Not just the Microsoft programs, but all of the other programs and systems that you use, be it iTunes or Adobe, etc. The Second Recommendation: Make sure that your malware protection is the latest, state-of-the-art, and is updated to the minute. Thirdly, there are typically areas of very sensitive data that you have on your computer. Take a look at that from an encryption perspective, to make sure it is protected properly. 3/24/08 Bytes: 21176636
Related Links: Webroot || E-Mail Security || On Demand Software || Cyber Security || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Gerhardt Eschelbeck, Webroot, SaaS, SfS, user’s computer, banking information, financial, health information, computer virus, malware

ACG Corporate Growth Conference
BUILD, BUY or SELL
Driving Corporate Growth 
PHOTO Album 3/12/08 - Photo Album 3/13/08 (Day 2)

The ACG Corporate Growth Conference, exhibited a culture of innovation from the start... I loved the registration process; in a private room, spacey, organized, friendly and efficient! From there we ran the gauntlet of booths and industry leaders to a fine sit-down breakfast and the first morning keynote at the Fourth Annual "Women in Corporate Growth Breakfast” - inaugurated by Sherry Law.

Colleen Abdoulah - WOW - blew our socks off! Energetic - enthusiastic - fun and funny, she approached her presentation with zeal and enthusiasm. Her spellbound audience members must have hidden the requisite chauvinist, because we didn't see him. Colleen asked, “What is leadership? It is bringing out the best in ourselves and others. Don’t tolerate bad behaviors from anyone, male or female.”
Visit WOW Home Page    In her own words...

The day continued with excellent panels, sparking creative, innovative, enthusiasm and a desire to get back into the action – glad the conference was interactive. David Mead, Mead Consulting, Mike Britti – Trans Union Rental and Dan McCallin, Timberline Steel, shared experiences in “Getting Out On Top” Tidbit: How to determine the value of your business to others:
1) Consistent Improvement of Cash Flows  2) Your Growth Story 3) Capable Management Team and  4) Solid performance history.

Charile Fote & Brian Meegan, Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe discussed “Keys to a Successful Transaction” – “Manage yourself hard on time, dates and spending money. Hold yourself and others feet to the fire!" Certainly seems to work for Charlie!

We've listened to the voices of experience. We heard their warnings and their encouragement. Next, we got to celebrate with the winners, the people who are doing it and doing it right. ACG Denver honored CIBER, Inc. with Outstanding Corporate Growth Award. Mac Slingerlend President & CEO, led CIBER's rise as one of the leading Information technology and e-business solutions companies in the United States.

Emerging Company awarded to Noodles & Company, Kevin Reddy, CEO, demonstrated steady growth for three consecutive years. Additional qualities considered for this award are company leadership and the strategy behind its growth and reputation in the general business community.

Todd Woloson (Izze co-founder) Greenmont Capital said, “Inflection point planning maximizes returns and focuses your business.” Rick Dutkiewicz, CFO, Einstein Noah, said, “In the next 9 months, have your company staged for the growth opportunity. It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

From here we went global. John Lathrop, DU; Douglas Allen, DU and Dave Garrison, Sr. Counsel the Americas, CH2M Hill told us, “… the world is flat… and there is a trend toward a universal standard of conduct. But international projects are not for the faint of heart.”

The full day was wrapped in a great reception. People excited by the ideas and thoughts still had the winning Nuggets game ahead, plus one more thrilling day.

Related Links: || ACG M&A Channel || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || ACG Denver ||   Keywords: Colleen Abdoulah, WOW, ACG, Denver, Dave Mead, Bill Heringer, Mike Britti, Trans Union Rental, Dan McCallin, Timberline Steel, Charlie Fote, Brian Meegan, Todd Woloson, Rick Dutkiewicz, Einstein Noah, Kevin Reddy, Noodles & Company, Howard Putnam, Ralph Christie, Merrick and Company, Joe Calloway, Mergers and Acquisitions,

462_ Commercialization of Innovative Ideas - Far Reaching and Profitable
Eltron Research & Development is one of the largest SBIR companies in the country. Paul Grimmer came out of big business; he worked for Conoco and Conoco Phillips for almost 30 years, and never dealt with SBIR, because it’s for small businesses. About 2 ½ years ago Paul and his wife bought Eltron Research. “Eltron had developed over 100 technologies that we thought had commercial value”, Paul said. But the focus was, ‘let’s get the next project’, not taking the one you finished and going to the market place with it. The big challenge is, there are very few projects ready to go to market after completing a phase two SBIR program ($850K). Some of them may require ½ million, a million, some may require a hundred million dollars, but the key is, there’s no more money from the feds. You’re too early for the VCs, less for the angels who generally don’t understand a lot of the technologies. So, how do we get all this, or at least a significant fraction of these technologies to market? This is really what the SBIR program is all about, to help the small businesses get a jump start in getting their innovations to the market. Classically most SBIR companies are focused on science and maybe to a lesser degree engineering. So, we’ve added engineers, business developers, and of course all this costs money outside of SBIR. So that’s a challenge, just getting the right skill sets in there to help analyze and develop things, and so forth. So how do you bridge that gap? Well, we’ve elected to go down two routes, one (longer term) is to find larger companies in the industry that have deeper pockets that might be interested in forming a new product line or enhancing a product that they’ve got. You work a deal with them and in return for them funding additional development they retain the rights to your technology. Some of that can take a long time. The other thing we’ve done, since I’m not interested in giving away huge chunks of our technology, at least until we get them into the market place, has been to do some things so that we can continue the development ourselves.
Related Links: Eltron Research & Development || SBIR Sources of Info || Looking for Money || w3w3® Blog || Keywords: Paul Grimmer, Eltron, Research, Development, SBIR, Research, Commercialization, Innovative, Grants 3/24/08 - Bytes: 25745766

459_ CTP Celebrates
Exec of the Year
w3w3 Photos on LifePics

Communications Technology Professionals (CTP) celebrated Executive of the Year, Greg Maffei, CEO, Liberty Media. It was a very interesting evening. People came from everywhere - I spoke to one man based in Texas. He'd spent the past three days in Taiwan and came to the 'Brown' straight from his return flight into DIA. It was apparent that the respect and appreciation was at a very high level. Mayor Hickenlooper's wife reminded him, he said, this wasn't a roast. But in his typical fashion, he had fun introducing Greg Maffei. As for "the man" himself, he was all about enjoying and sharing the honor, surrounded by his lovely wife and four children. Graciously thanking everyone, he pointed out that with all the blessings and perks there were also stresses and strains that fell on the shoulders of his wife and children. Kind of makes one proud. Ethics in American business and family looked pretty healthy. Photos and Greg Maffei in his own words...    - SEE Photo Ablum 3/24/08
Related Links: Liberty Media || CTP Home || CTP Communications Executive of the Year Award || CTP Channel   Keywords: Gregory B. Maffei, Liberty Media, John Malone, Bill Gates, Communications Technology Professionals, CTP, Sue Wyman, Larry Polman > Bytes: 29939568

458_And thrilling it was. Our breakfast keynote speaker Howard Putnam took our hearts and minds soaring thru the Southwestern skies. This man professes to surround himself with people smarter and better than himself. He said they plant ideas in his head and he, being the pragmatist, turns those ideas in his head until they become real. “Turbulence is inevitable, but misery is optional.” - VISIT: Howard Putnam.com

The following panels we're extraordinary. The interactive and charged atmosphere was compelling. Responsibility & Accountability of Innovation… Paul Bauer moderated, Frank Kvietok, Jon Nordmark, Doug Taylor and Vic Ahmed generated a torrent of thoughts and experience. Tidbit: Innovations often have unanticipated consequences. Be prepared to listen to bad news. If it’s something you should use or change – do it. But don’t stop innovation.

The Human Capital Dimension of Growth: Ralph Christie, Jr., Pres & CEO of Merrick and Company believes …”Engineering is sexy again! And he’d love to be 27 again. With the energy challenge it is a great time to be an engineer. Ralph is extremely bullish on the future… “Growth is implicit in our plan.” This is an amazing time and Ralph says, “.. he refuses to participate in a recession!” Here we found another CEO that has HR report directly to him and allocates 20 to 30% of his time for human capital management. It’s that important.

457_Then came lunch with Joe Calloway. Let me just say, we bought all of his books, interviewed him and left inspired and in possession of a new friend. Joe's down home but very polished presence caught everyone's imagination. There could not have been a better selection for finishing a stellar event. Joe found a thread (“more like a cable”) running thru this conference and it was ‘culture’! “Benchmark your culture, it is what we think we’re all about.” Courage is the mastery of fear – not the absence of fear. Take a risk and do it. Without action there is no creativity. - VISIT: Joe Calloway.com