Leadership; Awards; Going Green; Sustainability; 3/03/08 - PHOTOS and Events

451_ Getting Thanked for Doing the Right Thing...Awards Too
Five years ago Dan King and partners bought the Outlook Hotel in Boulder. It had been a Holiday Inn. Dan went onto point out, "We made it an independent hotel and from the beginning we wanted to make it feel like Boulder, act like Boulder, look like Boulder. We really wanted to develop that attitude, and it was a process. We didn’t start out being very ‘green’ – I mean we had some green initiatives, but it’s really grown with our business plan." Today the Boulder Outlook Hotel is Boulder's first Zero Waste hotel" and Dan wants to see more! "This is how we’re reflecting our community, and it is part of what we are about." Larry asked Dan to recommend the beginning steps an organization should take if going 'green'. "Recognize that it is a journey. It’s important for a business to figure out what they can take on first. What can they do and do well and accomplish it. Commit to the journey. I think each business has to look at what is within their reach first. I mean we’re a small business, we don’t have a lot of money to throw around. So I have to look at things that don’t require a lot of capital dollars." Dan went on, "The challenges are, it’s not going to happen until you get corporate buy-in, you’ve got to get everyone to buy-in and make the commitment. You do need commitment from the top. Then you need a champion within the organization who is not from top management. I was lucky enough to have a woman chef, Diane, who is our 'green goddess' at the hotel. And she became our champion. She got staff buy-in. But change is hard." Dan was a speaker at the CORE Sustainable Opportunities Summit. LISTEN 3/3/08

Related Links: Boulder Outook Hotel || Conscious Economy Channel || CORE Colorado || 2008 Sustainable Opportunities Summit || Keywords: Dan King, Outlook Hotel, Boulder, CORE, Going Green, Sustainable Opportunities Summit, Zero Waste Hotel LISTEN

449_ In the Beginning There Was Resistance, But Slowly One Plant at a Time...
At the SOS conference Doug Hietkamp, Director Sustainable Programs, Teknion Corporation – Toronto, Ontario, Canada was addressing the greening of the manufacturing process. The main thing he brought to the discussion was the implementation of ISO 42001 environmental manufacturing system and changing the culture of the company. Teknion is a manufacturer of office furniture products, architectural products and Caven Hill is the District Manager, of Teknion in Denver. They discussed with Larry the challenges, the changes and the future of going 'green'. They pointed out that the biggest challenge was just changing people, changing their minds, getting them to think a little bit differently. Make sure there not afraid of a new approach, that goals coincide with the change in the culture. It’s getting people to start with something, doesn’t matter how small it is, just as long as they start with it and continue to move toward bigger and bigger things. "One of the things we did at the start was to show quick results, that people can see. So instead of starting with wasted kilowatts, you know, nobody can touch or feel a kilowatt. We have our waste programs, people can see waste, they understand reducing it, diverting it, whatever it might be and they can actually be a part of that. That was a good first step where people could grab a hold of it. Caven and Doug talked about the future and how carbon credits will be important and how we interact with those carbon offsets or taxes. There's more... LISTEN 3/3/08

Photo Albums: SOS Day 1 | SOS Day 2 | CleanTech Awards |
Related Links: Teknion || Teammates Commercial Interiors || Conscious Economy Channel || CORE Colorado || 2008 Sustainable Opportunities Summit || Keywords: Doug Hietkamp, Caven Hill, Teknion, Sustainable Programs, Change, CORE, Sustainable Opportunities Summit Bytes: 17878938 LISTEN

442_ Startup Capital: Family, Friends and Fools...or...?
Entrepreneurs specifically, always face the challenge of credibility early on. David Cohen, a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Tech Stars and founder of Colorado Startups understands that challenge, firsthand. David points out a number of the comments (often not heard by the new entrepreneur)... who are these people?, what are they building?, you know, it’s two guys in a garage – are we really going to buy something from these guys?. Just getting great people around them is a big challenge. There are lots of startup companies that are coming out of the woodwork and I think the smart ones go and find great advisors and bounce ideas off of them. Those people are pretty easy to find, but there are so many companies looking for help, sometimes it’s a challenge to find the right people to help you. And if they’re looking for funding, of course you see one percent of people getting funding from angels and VCs, that’s a tough road. Most companies need money to get rolling and they do it with ‘Friends, Family & Fools’; and I think that’s right. You should start and get to the furthest out value point that you can with as little money as humanly possible, to show a prototype and some progress. Most people who need more money say $500k or so, tend to approach angel investors, that’s the range of money typically that angel investors can put together. Listen for more TechStar solutions... LISTEN 2/18/08

447_ Taking the Mystery Out Of Search Engine Optimization
Whether you are a new entrepreneur or successfully growing your company one of the things, top-of-mind for businesses and organizations of all sizes is acquiring new customers. One of the main ways of doing that on the web is acquiring them through search engine optimization. Jeff Finkelstein, founder of Customer Paradigm is an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Pat asked Jeff, “Every business doesn’t sell something on line, why is it important for them to show up in the SEO rankings?" Jeff's reply really got Larry's attention beacuse w3w3.com does not sell online. "Every business doesn’t sell something on line, but if you do come up through word-of-mouth and your company still doesn’t come up top with the search engine rankings, you’re perceived by customers as less relevant, less important because your site isn’t coming up in the search engines. It is unfortunately a zero sum game," pointed out Jeff. He goes on to point out that Google is the overall market leader, they have, depending on who you talk to, between 55-85% of the search business, more so in the business-to-business community, a little bit less in the business-to-consumer realm; Yahoo is the second and MSN is the distant third. Jeff gives specific steps and metrics on how any company can make search engines work for them. LISTEN 2/25/08

Related Links: Customer Paradigm || 12 Strategies for Effective Email || Search Engine Optimization || Find It || Keywords: Jeff Finkelstein, Customer Paradigm, Search Engine, Optimization, SEO, Google, Yahoo, MSN > Bytes: 23684391 LISTEN

Looking for that next role? Networking and Beyond

Related Links: Colorado Capital Conference || Crystal Ball || Entrepreneur Channel || Rockies Venture Club   Keywords: Jim Franklin, Crystal Ball, Decisioneering, Colorado Capital Summit, Oracle, Entrepreneurs, Rockies Venture Club, Technology > Bytes: 18551852 LISTEN