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413_ Solutions to Complexity and Changes in the Work Environment

Today's leaders are facing issues and challenges they’ve never faced before -- including rapid changes in technology, laws, and ways of working. This is how the discussion began between Mark Wilding, director of Naropa's Marpa Center for Business and Economics and Susan Skjei. Susan is the director and founder of the Authentic Leadership Certificate Program at the Marpa Center, and is president of SANE Systems, her own consulting firm. Formerly she was the chief learning officer at StorageTek. They explained, "The complexity of our environment is much greater than it was before. Even if you have a local business, you’re competing on a global level. Even if your workforce is global, you’re faced with challenges of how to work with diversity, how to work with different education levels, different language levels and cultural issues. Some people are working on site, some from home and some are working from India... So how do you as a leader create an environment where all of those people feel they are part of the team? And the generational issues are coming on very strongly, as well as the talk about the brain drain coming on with the retirement of the baby boomers." Susan and Mark suggest that the answer can be found in Authentic Leadership. It’s really a concept and a process whose time has come. Authentic Leadership can be found in the leader who is in touch with his or her authenticity, who comes from that place in addressing ethical issues and problems in defining their purpose, and also when engaging other people and implementing change in an effective manner. There's more, listen now.
Related Links:  Marpa Center || Authentic Leadership || Money and Values Project || PodCast Directory || Keywords: Susan Skjei, Mark Wilding, Marpa Center, Business and Economics, Naropa University, Human Dimension, Authentic Leadership 11/26/07 Bytes: 28438259 LISTEN

412_ Sponsored Research: How it works; How to Get in the Door
Last year the University of Colorado received $266 Million dollars in research awards. It takes a great deal of work from "the bench" to the CU Tech Transfer Office, and further coordinated with a variety of CU research initiatives. Dr. Stein Sture identified three federal grant agencies, each were responsible to over $60 million in research awards for CU. They are National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and National Institutes for Health (NIH) The Associate Vice President for Technology Transfer David Allen works with Dr. Sture and is very proud of their results. Dr. Sture is the Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School. Prior to his current roles, he served as the faculty director of special projects and initiatives in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and also served as interim vice chancellor for research and dean of the Graduate School from October 2005 through July 2006. Professor Stein Sture is the Huber and Helen Croft Endowed Professor in the department of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He received his bachelor's, masters and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from CU-Boulder.
Related Links:  CU TTO Channel || CU Tech Transfer Office || NASA || NIH || NSF || Keywords:Dr. Stein Sture, David Allen, Technology Transfer, CU, University of Colorado, Research Community, Research Initiatives, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes for Health (NIH) 11/26/07 Bytes: 34639101 LISTEN

411_ Patience and Getting a Deal Closed in China
We all realize we are part of a global marketplace, but in many ways, the steps to take or avoid are not always as apparent. Garth Jensen, partner at Holme Roberts & Owen (HRO) had an in-depth discussion with his guest, Robert Lamb, also from HRO and expert on doing business in China. Rob spent the last several years in China on the ground, understands the culture, and speaks the language well. Garth asked him, "Many US companies come to you wanting to do business in China. How do you get them started?" The following is quite eye-opening to many. Rob answers, "Often, they come to me looking for direct China access. Sometimes it’s very basic, sometimes it’s more complex in the finance world. Ultimately they want to know how they go to China with whatever venture they have in their pocket, and be successful in China. There’s an array of things. You come to a lawyer and they might tell you the 9th or 10th thing you need to worry about are legal issues. That there’s a whole array of different cultural issues, administrative issues and different things that you need to be aware of before you even jump into the legal aspect. I learned early if I was going to have this sort of unique practice, I had to be able to counsel my clients on all aspects of China. The number one and most important thing that you are going to do is to identify key partnership/relationships." There's much more.
Related Links: U.S. Commercial Service || Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law || Find It || Keywords: Robert Lamb, China, , Holme Roberts & Owen, Garth Jensen, International, Cultural Issues >> 11/26/07 Bytes: 22905315  LISTEN

410_ They Would Hardly Ever Refer to Themselves as Gamers
Lucy Sanders, CEO and co-founder of the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), which is based in CU-Boulder’s ATLAS Institute and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy, co-founder of Tricalyx discuss the topic of casual gaming with Margaret Wallace, Co-Founder and CEO of Rebel Monkey -- a New York-based game development studio focusing on casual games. Margaret went on to point out that there’s no question about it: casual games are hot. Once a cottage industry, casual games have become the fastest growing segment of the video game sector. The primary audience for casual games is typically comprised of mothers and grandmothers – and yet these people would hardly ever refer to themselves as gamers, despite untold hours spent playing. For many, casual games have become the primary way to relax and unwind – even taking the place of television. Here are some of the questions that are answered: Why don’t they think of themselves as gamers? What sets these players apart from more “traditional” gamers? How do they participate in game culture? What social relations are reinforced or weakened as a result of playing casual games? Finally, how do these play patterns and perceptions influence our work as content producers?
Related Links:  Rebel Monkey || NCWIT Heroes || NCWIT Blog || CO Coalition for Gender and IT || NCWIT Practice || NCWIT Channel ||Keywords: Margaret Wallace, Rebel Monkey, Casual Games, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes, 11/12/07 Bytes: 24163372> LISTEN

409_ Disruptive Technology: Unified Communications Will Change It All
Unified Communications is a lot of things to a lot of people; it is kind of an umbrella term really. But when you get down to it, It is the idea of taking your email and your voice mail, your text chat, your conferencing, even video conferencing and pulling them together in a way that they really work well together. That's how Terry Gold, Founder and CEO of Gold Systems answered when Mark Richtermeyer co-founder of the Spitfire Group and co-producer of the new "Disruptive Technology" Channel on w3w3.com brought up the 'disruptive technology' topic. Terry went on to explain, "For instance I no longer have to check my voice mail on two or three different phones, it all comes into my email inbox – it just has really simplified my life. You know we started out working with AT&T (16 years ago) and continue to work with AT&T – we work with transitional companies – AVAYA. But then CISCO came along and said “Hey, let’s put voice and video on the network” – we did work with them. Then about four years ago, Microsoft came along and said, 'We have a great messaging system and a superior form of exchange, and we’re going to be putting voice, video and conferencing – and bring all this together into a package you can have on your desktop' and we began working with them."
Related Links:  Gold Systems || Unified Communications ||  Spitfire Group || Disruptive Technology || Keywords: Terry Gold, Gold Systems, Disruptive Technology, Unified Communications, Mark Richtermeyer, Spitfire Group, Microsoft 11/12/07 Bytes: 23412718 LISTEN

408_ Establishing an Overseas Presence - An Executive Primer
In today’s competitive business environment, executives and members of management are often faced with determining how to enter their company’s products and services into international markets. Garth Jensen, partner at Holme Roberts & Owen discusses international expansion with Thomas Yih, Associate General Counsel-International for Sun Microsystems formerly, Storage Technology Corporation. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel to international divisions on transactional matters, corporate governance, M&A, employment and U.S. export compliance. A host of questions were answered by Garth and Thomas. What is the best entry vehicle into a country (distributor, representative office, subsidiary, joint venture)? What are the critical and necessary considerations to make in order to make an informed decision regarding international market entry? What measures can be taken to reduce due diligence and initial market entry costs? What steps can assist in managing an efficient market entry process? In addition key issues like Intellectual Property, Corporate Responsibility/Risk , Regulatory Matters, Currency, Banking, Finance, and Foreign Investment, Local Law Issues and Applicable U.S Laws.
Related Links:   U. S. Commercial Service ||  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law || Find It || Keywords: Thomas Yih, Overseas Presence, Holme Roberts & Owen, Garth Jensen, International - 11/12/07 Bytes: 26750540 > LISTEN

407_ The University of Colorado Research Community
CU Associate Vice President for Technology Transfer David Allen explains to Larry Nelson how the CU Research Community works with leaders at all three CU Universities. This is part of a three-part series and will include interviews with Dr. Stein Sture, Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, CU-Boulder, Dr. Richard Traystman, Vice Chancellor for Research, UCDHSC, and Dr. Jeremy Haefner, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Dean of the Graduate School (and Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences). David points out these research teams are one of the primary reasons why the University of Colorado has such high national rankings even though their budget doesn't touch the universities on the east and west coast. The synergy between the CU Research Community and the CU Technology Transfer Office has a tremendous 'economic development' for the state of Colorado. Listen to how it's done.
Related Links:  CU TTO Channel || CU TTO Winners || CU Tech Transfer Office || Award Photos || Keywords:David Allen, Technology Transfer, CU, University of Colorado, Research Community, Economic Development, Colorado
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