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401_ Social Entrepreneurship: A Giant Step for Mankind and Profits
Social Entrepreneurship is the 'final frontier' of philanthropy. Steve Bigari and America’s Family work with employers like McDonalds to help their low income employees break the cycle of poverty. This will benefit us all. Steve's journey really began at McDonalds, watching people struggle. He employed 600 people at any given time, and the rule, not the exception, the rule – these folks struggled on a day to day basis to make ends meet. "What I found, by getting involved and connecting with them, so basically creating relationships for them, if I could add education and relationships to their hard work, that’s central to everything we learned. If somebody doesn’t want in the worst way to break the binds of poverty, they’re not going to be able to." The most important ingredient is they must be willing and able to work hard. Steve is a keynote panelist at an ACG Denver Luncheon - Social Entrepreneurship - When Greed Is Good: Creating Value and Making a Difference Through Common Good Capitalism. His motto: Inspiration, Instigation and Innovation.
Related Links:  America's Family || America's Family PodCasts || The Box You Got || Program Details || ACG Channel || Today's Competitive Advantage || Keywords:Steve Bigari, America’s Family, The Box You Got, DU, Social Entrepreneurship, ACG, McDonalds, 10/29/07 Bytes: 12801988 > LISTEN

400_ Don't Undervalue Luck: An Entrepreneurial Message
Dan Caruso was a founding executive member and officer of Level 3 Communications, Inc., where he was group vice president of Lines of Business and Marketing and group vice president of Network Services. Today, Dan is CEO and President of Zayo Bandwidth, Executive Chairman of Envysion and Chairman of VoicePipe. In this Profile of a Leader interview, Sue Wyman founder of the Jivaro Group and Chairman of the Communications Technology Professionals, CTP along with Gary Gaessler founder of DTP/CTP talked with Dan about the lessons learned on his path to becoming an entrepreneur. Dan was a founding executive member and officer of Level 3 Communications, Inc., where he was group vice president of Lines of Business and Marketing and group vice president of Network Services. Dan has 21 years of experience in the Telecommunications and Internet industries and was most recently the President and CEO of ICG Communications. They discussed mentors, values, turning point, and Dan said, "Don't undervalue Luck."
Related Links:  Zayo || Envysion || CTP || CTP Channel || Jivaro Group || Trillion || Keywords: Dan Caruso, Zayo Bandwidth, Envysion, Communications Technology Professionals, CTP, Sue Wyman, Gary Gaessler > 10/29/07 Bytes: 11613730  LISTEN

399_ M&A News: ABA Private Target Deal Points Study
The 2007 Private Target Deal Points Study, a project of the Mergers & Acquisitions Market Trends Subcommittee of the Committee on Negotiated Acquisitions of the American Bar Association’s Section of Business Law, is widely recognized as the gold standard for market metrics of key negotiated issues in M&A agreements and has achieved notable popularity among investment bankers, private equity investors, CFO’s and other non-lawyer deal professionals as an “unfair advantage” in negotiating private company acquisition agreements. The Study analyzes publicly available acquisition agreements for transactions of between $25 and $500 million in size completed in 2006 that involved private targets being acquired by public companies. The final Study included 143 acquisition agreements. Hendrik Jordaan of Holme Roberts & Owen and Clifford Pearl of Solomon Pearl Blum Heymann & Stich talked about other issues covered by the study: Purchase price adjustments and earnouts; Catch-all representations and warranties; Closing conditions; Indemnification survival periods, baskets, and caps; Dispute resolution provisions.
Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || Solomon Pearl Blum Heymann & Stich || Mergers & Acquisitions || It's the Law || Keywords:Hendrik Jordaan of Holme Roberts & Owen and Clifford Pearl, Solomon Pearl Blum Heymann & Stich, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Target Deal Points Study Channels: HRO & ACG - 10/29/07 Bytes: 14207585 > LISTEN

397_Making Business Sense with Diverse Diversity
What does diversity mean? Terry Morreale, Senior Engineer, Applied Trust and producer of the Women in IT Channel explored that question with Susan Kunz, CEO and Co-Founder of Solidware Technologies. In addition to how 'diversity' is traditionally defined such as differences in gender, ethnicity, nationality, Sue and Terry went outside of the box and looked at other areas and discussed the business benefits of really being diverse. Sue points out that, "It comes in lots of flavors. Socio-economic background, age, family placement (I love having interns as well as folks who have been in their careers for a long time). This brings a great balance of new ideas, energy, and experience to a team. Char, Co-founder of Solidware is Afro-American but her real diversity has to do with family placement; as oldest of 12, Char can manage anything, experience base, gender, education, and style. And how about team dynamics? "Diverse teams tend to be much more creative and innovative than those who think alike. Sometimes they can be more challenging to manage, but I'll take this challenge before striving for uniformity." Then they talked about the growing IT shortage.  LISTEN

Related Links:  Solidware || Women in IT Channel || Applied Trust Engineering || Wikipedia || Keywords: Susan Kunz, Terry Morreale, Diversity, Solidware Technologies, Applied Trust, IT > Bytes: 14895963> 10/22/07 LISTEN

396_ Effective Sales: People, Processes and Tools
Jerry Comer, an experienced sales and marketing trainer and consultant discusses with Larry Nelson, w3w3® the necessary elements of an 'effective sales system'. Jerry, Co-Founder of the popular Comer & Associates, LLC., also gave a clean and clear definition of the differences between sales and marketing. He shares the 'Big 5" pitfalls to avoid. 1) Not being prepared 2) Talking about features and not benefits 3) Asking questions but not listening 4) Not knowing how to handle objections 5) Not asking for the order.
Jerry laid the groundwork by pointing out how 'sales' has changed and how the sales dynamic has changed in favor of the buyer. His advice can really help sales managers put together the best 'system' for managing the effort of both small and large sales forces. New and experienced sales people will benefit from his 5 Steps of Selling - from Awareness to Commitment. Remember, selling is a highly professional activity that is frequently not done well and is often confused with marketing.. LISTEN

Related Links:  Comer & Associates || Training Trends || Find It || PodCast Directory || Keywords: Jerry Comer, Comer & Associates, Sales, Marketing, Pitfalls to Avoid, Benefits, Training > 10/22/07 Bytes: 13003862 LISTEN

395_ Going from Chief Technology Officer to Entrepreneur
Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy talked to Jeanette Symons is the founder, CEO of Industrious Kid, and mother of two. ut she doesn't stop there. Prior to founding Industrious Kid, Jeanette co-founded Zhone Technologies, a telecommunications company that builds "last mile" access solutions, where she served as the company's Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Engineering. Prior to Zhone, Ms. Symons was Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President of Ascend Communications, Inc., which Ms. Symons co-founded, from January 1989 until June 1999 when the company was purchased by Lucent Technologies. In addition, Jeanette was a software engineer at Hayes Microcomputer, a modem manufacturer, where she developed and managed its ISDN program. How does she do it? She has a number of suggestions for success but for Jeanette Symons, motherhood has proved to be good for business. Her kids helped her come up with the idea for her award-winning social networking site, imbee.com. LISTEN

Related Links:  Industrious Kid || Imbee || NCWIT Heroes || NCWIT Blog || CO Coalition for Gender and IT || NCWIT Practice|| NCWIT Channel || Keywords: Jeanette Symons, Imbee, Industrious Kid, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes 10/22/07 Bytes: 16577413 > LISTEN

A $750M High-Tech Deal Leads to Space Exploration

394_ Anousheh Ansari earned a place in history in 2006 as the fourth private explorer, the first woman private explorer, and the first astronaut of Iranian descent to visit space. Back on Earth, Anousheh returned to her job as co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, a company that hopes to dramatically alter and simplify consumers' digital living experience. Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy discuss the path and the passion of Anousheh in her high-tech entrepreneurial journey. She loves to 'give birth' to new things and to help people. Anousheh immigrated to the United States as a teenager who did not speak English. She immersed herself in education. Prior to founding Prodea Systems, Anousheh served as co-founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the board for Telecom Technologies, inc. The company successfully merged with Sonus Networks, Inc., a provider of IP-based voice infrastructure products in a deal worth approximately $750M.  LISTEN
Related Links: Prodea Systems ||  Double Launch || NCWIT Heroes || NCWIT Blog || CO Coalition for Gender and IT || NCWIT Practice|| NCWIT Channel || Keywords: Anousheh Ansari, Prodea Systems, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes 10/15/07 > Bytes: 18973991 LISTEN