tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-453147549782798422024-02-07T07:38:05.574-05:00Thoughts and Experiences from WFU MBAWhen the world is moving at the speed of bytes, sometimes it's good to pause and record our thoughts and learnings. Through the eyes and ears of a WFU MBA student, this blog will attempt to give you a perspective of a working professional trying to prepare for the next great opportunities of the 21st century.Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comBlogger216125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-45047329247566702572010-05-22T17:19:00.000-04:002010-05-22T17:19:30.602-04:00The End of a Journey.......and the beginning of a new one.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg647Tb_NFAUqtzEsPjRsh8dKqqLo0D6OXP0HDQEWCADZ9j3U7tR6QixqHral4HkBvmddkBR-jg-FyRJaZj4JcLb80XeI0jkpzFa7WZUPkl5wExasfd_B5i4oWjZjoD7lvA-DfDGWn-xGo/s1600/DSCN5719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg647Tb_NFAUqtzEsPjRsh8dKqqLo0D6OXP0HDQEWCADZ9j3U7tR6QixqHral4HkBvmddkBR-jg-FyRJaZj4JcLb80XeI0jkpzFa7WZUPkl5wExasfd_B5i4oWjZjoD7lvA-DfDGWn-xGo/s320/DSCN5719.JPG" /></a></div>After 225 posts, I've decided that it's time to put an end to this blog. Last week our WFU SOB Exec2009 MBA class had their official "Hooding Ceremony" at Wait Chapel, and with that I'm going to wish a fond farewell to something that truly changed my perspective on work and how I interact with people.<br />
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More than anything else, I want to thank my family for the incredible support they gave me over the last two years. We knew it wouldn't be easy, and there were times when we questioned if it made sense. But in the end it turned out to be invaluable in helping my future career, and I am forever thankful to them.<br />
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When I started the blog, I had just completing my first semester in the program and I felt like my mindset was too focused on the mechanics of learning, on the results (grades), and not enough on the learning process. It was at that point that I decided that I wanted to make my MBA experience more social, more focused on the application of the learning.<br />
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As I look back on the blog now, I'm proud of how it evolved and what it taught me about the use of social media, expressing ideas and concepts succinctly, and making a commitment to using the fundamentals of the program as a model for future learning. If I had to make a list of lessons learned, it would go something like this:<br />
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<ul><li>Get in the habit of writing, everyday if possible. Even if you don't post everyday, it forces you to take an idea from a scrambled thought to something that you feel confident communicating in public.</li>
<li>Look for linkages between concepts and ideas. I tried very hard to find examples of topics from one discipline (eg. finance) and show how it was linked to another discipline (eg. marketing). This forced me to put myself in the shoes of the business owner and example how actions in one area effect many other areas of the business. </li>
<li>Look for analogies between industries. Far too often we repeat the mistakes of the past because we only look for answers within our own industry. Often times there are analogies from other industries that can be examined and applied to help solve problems in your industry. </li>
<li>Don't be afraid to explore a "crazy idea", some interesting things might happen. The Internet has become so social (and searchable) that you'll often find complete strangers will offer suggestions or comment about similar thinking they've had. You may also "shelve" the idea now, but find that you come back to it again a few months later after the dynamics of an industry change (or the global economy changes).</li>
<li>Even though it's "just blogging", learn how to use the digital tools of the Internet to measure how your blog is doing. You'll be amazed at what you can learn about your readers using free tools (eg. Google Analytics). So just like a business owner, it's important to listen to and understand what your readers are doing around your blog (eg. commenting, visiting for xx minutes, reading specific topics more than others, visiting because of certain keywords, etc.)</li>
<li>Write about things that you talk about more than once. You don't need a master strategy for blogging or a novel full of ideas. Just write about topics that come up more than a couple times in your life (or MBA experience). </li>
<li>Create your "personal brand". A blog is a great way to show the world your way of thinking, the depth of your analysis, your sense of humor or your interests. It enhances a boring resume and makes you findable by future job recruiters. </li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifBXNNsmFQWHLEWU7KiMIjF559CxqlYnAVKpIMJAvYMKOa-XIuF9jhbOi_X2hcCDfJrd5qN8Xsu8CBeIVESWMHB-6KwR5Ys42qLBbBA3LXGxRPU41nT1wL4s7GZqzZtiXGVUSZ7Sw0V9s/s1600/Brian_Hooding_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifBXNNsmFQWHLEWU7KiMIjF559CxqlYnAVKpIMJAvYMKOa-XIuF9jhbOi_X2hcCDfJrd5qN8Xsu8CBeIVESWMHB-6KwR5Ys42qLBbBA3LXGxRPU41nT1wL4s7GZqzZtiXGVUSZ7Sw0V9s/s320/Brian_Hooding_4.jpg" /></a></div><div>Thank you to anyone that has ever read the blog, made a comment, or forwarded it along to a friend. It became an extension of my MBA experience, and I'm glad I took the chance to get started 225 posts ago.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- Brian</div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-14223134538463218022010-03-16T14:32:00.000-04:002010-03-16T14:32:09.842-04:00Business Models, New Blog and Missing LinksIt's been a few weeks since I've posted any updates here, but for good reason. I'll tackle the title of this post in reverse order, so bear with me on where this is going.<br />
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<i><b>Missing Links</b></i> - For a while, I was using Fridays to post a set of links that I thought pointed to interesting topics that had relevance back to topics we covered in the MBA program, or pointed out future trends I thought my classmates would benefit from. I've gotten behind on the weekly posts for a couple of reasons: [1] work has kept me busier than normal (not a good excuse, everyone is busy), [2] I'm finding that between Twitter and RSS feeds (mostly blogs) that I am starting to read and consume content in much different ways than just a few months ago and it's not as convenient to aggregate links. Too many concepts and ideas build off the other. I'll do my best to keep the links coming at least bi-weekly.<br />
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<i><b>New Blog</b></i> - While courses like Organizational Behavior and Leading Change were some of my least favorites during the program because they felt very theory-centric and terminology-centric, I'm finding their applicability to be some of the most important in my current business. For example, in the IT industry there is a significant interest in a new paradigm called "Cloud Computing". Cloud Computing allows companies to continue to utilize computing and application resources to service their business needs, but it offers the ability to migrate IT from a CAPEX burden to a OPEX cost model that better aligns usage with needs. While most of the IT industry is debating the technologies to enable Cloud Computing, very few people are diving into the organizational changes that will be required to make this model a reality. So for that reason, I've decided to start a new blog called "<a href="http://www.cloudsofchange.com/">Clouds of Change</a>" to focus on the people and organizational elements required to make Cloud Computing successful for businesses. If you're interested in the discussion, or how it may impact your business, I invite you to visit the site.<br />
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<i><b>Business Models</b></i> - As I've mentioned <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search?q=Gracely+Girl">before</a>, one of my entrepreneurial projects is a new business called <a href="http://www.gracelygirl.com/">Gracely Girl Designs</a>. This is a business that <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/amygracely">my wife</a> leads, focused on fun, unique, handmade clothing for children aged 1-10 years. The business is still only 6 months old and is a hybrid between an online eCommerce store and a physical store. 30 years from now, after I've retired, I will remember two distinct things from B-School: (1) In the long-run, it's very difficult to sustainably make $1 in profit (or any amount), (2) There is a HUGE <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/03/16/lessons-in-phone-marketing-or-why-the-nexus-one-is-sucking-wind/">difference between creating a great product and creating (and executing) a great business model</a>.<br />
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The reason I bring this up is that we tend to get three types of comments from people at shows we attend. From shoppers we get lots of, "those are so cute, we love your designs". We also get plenty of, "do you think you could make me a <insert-customer-order>?" From other vendors we often get, "hmm, do you make those yourself?" (wondering if they could make similar items). We love the compliments and do create custom orders for unique sizes and color combinations, but we often find ourselves having to refer customers to other sources (eg. <a href="http://www.etsy.com/">Etsy</a>) for items that are outside of our target market. Those orders don't fit into our business model (for various reasons). And for other vendors we simply say "yes". Being a hybrid (online/physical) may or may not be the optimum business model in the long run, but we're using it today to allow us to build up the customer base in our local market. Our customers are often mother's of small children, a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gracely-Girl-Designs/150437344862?ref=ts">social network</a> that lives to make recommendations to friends and accept new ideas. We also hope to leverage that to expand our footprint over time, which should drive the online portion of our business. We'll see, it may or may not work out as planned, but the size of the business allows us to rapidly experiment and adjust the model as customer demand changes. </insert-customer-order>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-21342974140546995822010-02-05T20:29:00.003-05:002010-02-05T20:37:20.759-05:00Weekly Links (Feb.1, 2010)<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-craft-a-killer-elevator-pitch-2010-1">How to Craft a Killer Elevator Pitch</a> - A very good set of tips for an elevator pitch, a new concept/idea pitch, or most presentations. <br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/02/quirky-and-the-cone-of-silence.html">Crowdsourcing New Product Ideas </a>(Fred Wilson, A VC- For all the people in class that wanted to bring a new concept to market, but were not exactly sure how to bring the right people, skills, technology together. Fred Wilson introduces <a href="http://www.quirky.com/">Quirky</a>, social product development.<br /><br /><a href="http://heathbrothers.com/2010/01/what-makes-a-great-teacher/">What Makes a Great Teacher</a> (The Atlantic Magazine)- This one is partially for Matt Kirk, but it's helpful for anyone trying to leader a teach via education. Some good tips on matching your style of leadership to proven models to teach and lead people.<br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-72067471806830202692010-02-01T23:32:00.004-05:002010-02-01T23:56:21.451-05:00An Example of Incremental Thinking...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0gNdWc6LUcpfGZG3Px5Atsa9HVainZ91KYoQcXRw5VSbS9mVGLUcN8dUv4UYHqYWWL3_mRAcNnBW0Ua9WnXxMmNnIPtmtGviFZ3T1VipYcMPKgPrYx4lYkMeVeKiRcctEy_rNy3mmBM/s1600-h/9971_600x480.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0gNdWc6LUcpfGZG3Px5Atsa9HVainZ91KYoQcXRw5VSbS9mVGLUcN8dUv4UYHqYWWL3_mRAcNnBW0Ua9WnXxMmNnIPtmtGviFZ3T1VipYcMPKgPrYx4lYkMeVeKiRcctEy_rNy3mmBM/s320/9971_600x480.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433505148666288882" /></a>Three or four years ago, when I was still working at Cisco Systems, I was involved with a number of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35CmeEMrNr4">projects</a> looking at next-generation communications and collaboration. At this point, we were well past the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Voice-over-Fundamentals-Jonathan-Davidson/dp/1578701686">early technologies</a> that we created in 1998. We were spending much of our time thinking about the new ways that people were interacting through Social Media, Interactive 3D worlds, and through Contextual Content. We thought about Mobility and Video and how this would change the thinking about a workspace and interactions with co-workers and customers.<div><br /></div><div>And then one day, we went to a meeting with the group focused on new communication devices. The "next-generation" of IP Telephones. Throughout the meeting, they tried to tell us that they were creating new types of "end-points", but the focus kept coming back to telephone functionality. We tried to tell these engineers, designers and product managers that they needed to stop thinking about the device as phone-centric. We told them to think about it as being a communications portal, where voice was just one of the things it could do. Thinking about it as primarily a phone would only lead to an incremental set of features.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much to my dismay, I saw <a href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10453/index.html">this</a> today as I surfed the Cisco homepage. After three years of engineering, and at least two years of watching the iPhone change the communications landscape, they still produced a phone. </div><div><br /></div><div>Somewhere I'm sure there is a Product Manager with a spreadsheet showing a justification the ROI for making incremental changes. And that spreadsheet is probably right next to this new device that looks eerily similar to my <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/06/feedback-on-netbooks-mobile-computing.html">Asus Eee PC netbook</a>. And as Steve Jobs reminded us last week, "<i>a netbook is not better at anything...</i>".</div><div><br /></div><div>Innovation is difficult. But I've found that breaking the mold of Incremental Thinking is even more difficult.</div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-69599929108270180072010-01-28T22:24:00.009-05:002010-01-28T23:06:56.738-05:00Thoughts on the iPad<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjStUwByiDOf6u25qTd9YD0Etx6P2C_iYG6FtiJ8TTn9Gk6FbubNZOPaz1NG2yP-eYOmp4zdovPiTmMCbscgivwQjZx_sfKTghGtoRoCfmNcqgdFkFIrf5D2SfTCn4SbRfeW1-ML4IXeVA/s1600-h/Picture+2.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjStUwByiDOf6u25qTd9YD0Etx6P2C_iYG6FtiJ8TTn9Gk6FbubNZOPaz1NG2yP-eYOmp4zdovPiTmMCbscgivwQjZx_sfKTghGtoRoCfmNcqgdFkFIrf5D2SfTCn4SbRfeW1-ML4IXeVA/s320/Picture+2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432007311485245186" /></a>A few weeks ago, I made some <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2010/01/some-guesses-on-apple-tablet.html">predictions</a> on what might be announced with the Apple tablet device. I tried to include a mix of new technologies, new usage models, and new business opportunities for both Apple and consumers. To a decent extent, I was in the ballpark on most of my predictions, with some of them still being possibilities at a later date.<div><br /></div><div>Like many people, I read the comments from journalists and "experts" after the launch party. I made a mental checklist of items that appeared to be "missing", and features that appeared to be unique. The technologist in me was driving my evaluation. But then I went and watched the <a href="http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1001q3f8hhr/event/index.html">keynote by Steve Jobs</a>. As he sat in the chair, surfing the web, it dawned on me that this would actually be the "Internet & media consumption" model of the future. While it was obviously staged, the experience of watching Jobs lose himself while he experienced the world offered a glimpse of the future. The experience appears to be a preview (or 1st generation) of the experience where the activity and the computing device begin to blur, and the computer no longer gets in the way. Marc Cuban seems to <a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2010/01/28/talking-the-ipad-kids-making-money-and-video/">agree</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>It doesn't do everything that previous devices do, but it does appear to do certain things uniquely well. The definition of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology">disruptive technology</a>. It will get significantly better over time, just as the iPhone did between the 2G and 3GS models.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sitting on my couch, typing this blog on my MacBook laptop, I wish I was using an iPad instead. My legs are too warm from the laptop, and the power cord keeps getting in my way. Yes in deed, it's time for a new device and a new paradigm.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-91307552919428888872010-01-24T11:13:00.015-05:002010-01-31T15:52:14.025-05:00Weekly Links (Week of Jan.25, 2010)This week's links are somewhat Internet-centric, but I've also tried to mix in some interesting ones on leadership, sustainability, quant/statistics and Internet marketing/measurement.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/01/role-models.html">Role Models</a> - (Fred Wilson, A VC Blog, Jan.2010) - I had a conversation with my wife (<a href="http://twitter.com/GracelyGirl">@GracelyGirl</a>) the other day, as we're starting to see interests from our daughters in various topics. My point to her was if they are interested in things we don't have expertise in (science, art, etc.), we should find someone that can give them guidance and insight. Giving people a role model early in life is so important, especially someone in a nearby age-group, as it helps them understand that their passions and goals are obtainable.<br /><br /><a href="http://cdixon.org/2010/01/23/how-to-disrupt-wall-street/">Will the Internet F* with Wall Street?</a> - (Chris Dixon Blog, Jan.2010) - I haven't written about this theme in a little while, so here goes. This article does a nice job of highlighting the difference between doing things differently with technology, and technology being the differentiator to truly disrupt an industry. The article highlights a company called <a href="https://squareup.com/">Square</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/square">@square</a>), created by the founder of Twitter, which is focused on creating a new way for SMBs and individuals to conduct monetary transactions. Square doesn't disrupt the previous financial industry, but it's thinking like this that could open the doors to new interaction models for the economy.<br /><br /><a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/01/23/will-amazon-be-the-new-wal-mart/">Will Amazon be the New Wal-Mart?</a> - (GigaOm - Jan.2010) - while companies like WalMart and Best buy have been highlighted for their sustainability initiatives, maybe the company to begin focusing on is Amazon. With Amazon's revenues growing faster than their competitors, should they be driving the next stages of consumer/retail sustainability? Do they have any inherent advantage in this space because they are fundamentally virtual, as opposed to the huge physical footprints of Amazon and Best Buy?<br /><br /><a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/01/24/calacanis-takes-on-comscore-and-fred-wilson/">How to Measure the Internet?</a> - For anyone that is getting involved in a business that may drive revenue from online advertising, or will gain share because of online visibility, here are some interesting reads to get a deeper understanding about how the Internet is measure by external agencies. It also highlights how the measurement of the Internet has moved from a sampling-based model to a more direct measurement model.<br /><ul><li><a href="http://blog.comscore.com/2010/01/evolution_comscore_media_metrix_360.html">Comstore announces new measurement policies for website</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://calacanis.com/2010/01/23/why-we-should-boycott-comscore-and-perhaps-why-traders-should-short-their-stock/">Problems with Comstore's measurement methodology</a></li><li><a href="http://thenextweb.com/2010/01/24/comscore-calacanis-wilson-techcrunch/?awesm=tnw.to_14Bxc&utm_medium=tnw.to-twitter&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tweetmeme">The details behind the recent fight over Comstore's changes in measurement policies</a></li></ul><div><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-calculate-a-return-on-investment-2010-1">How to Measure ROI </a>- (Fred Wilson, A VC Blog, Jan.2010) - A quick Entrepreneurial refresher course for anyone starting a business and having to negotiate with investors (Angel, VC, etc.)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.idealog.com/blog/apples-disruption-of-the-ebook-market-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-tablet">Re-examining the Value Chain - Apple Table</a> (The Logical Idea - Jan.2010) - A nice look at how the recently announced Apple iPad show not be evaluated on it's technology, but on it's potential ability to change buying habits of readers of eBooks (or other reading-centric content). A strategic analysis of how it may help or hinder the publishing industry. (note: Some of my <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2010/01/some-guesses-on-apple-tablet.html">pre-announcement</a> and <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2010/01/thoughts-on-ipad.html">post-announcement</a> thoughts on the iPad)<br /><br /><br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-34363611228466102192010-01-22T10:59:00.005-05:002010-01-22T20:51:26.276-05:00Weekly Links (Week of Jan.18, 2010)<a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/142/switch-how-to-change-things-when-change-is-hard.html">Find a Bright Spot, and Clone it</a> (Fast Company, Jan.2010) - An excerpt from the upcoming book <a href="http://heathbrothers.com/switch/">"Switch"</a> by the Heath brothers (authors of "Made to Stick"). I highly recommend the book to all my classmates that are faced with leading changes in their business or their lives.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.viewsflow.com/w/rN7">Shareholders vs. Stakeholders vs. Communities</a> (January, 2010) - A follow-up to a case study in Global Strategy II, looking at the challenge of pharmaceuticals in emerging markets. This specific item looks at the trade offs between shareholder value, crowd-sourcing Intellectual Property and giving back to communities that can benefit from their older R&D.<br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/01/pampers-reputation-crisis-has-pg-crapping-itself.html">New Pampers giving P&G Diaper Rash</a> (January, 2010) - Following up to our Crisis Management discussions with <a href="http://www.amme.com/">Rick Amee</a>, intertwined with the speed and power of Social Media. This looks at the mistakes P&G made in introducing their "new" Pampers without properly communicating to their customers about the changes and benefits. Plus this article seems especially relevant to teammate Portia Mount and her newborn baby :)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_04/b4164050511214.htm">Pepsi Brings in the Health Police</a> (Business Week, Jan.2010) - The current Dean of the Wake Forest Schools of Business hired current Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi. It's interesting to see how an international CEO is taking such dramatic steps to shift the company from US-centric lifestyle foods (soda, chips, pizza), which are less healthy, to a more International-centric approach to nutrition.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/142/attention-walmart-shoppers-clean-up-in-aisle-nine.html">Will Walmart's "Sustainability Index" Really Work?</a> (Fast Company, Jan.2010)- An initial look at the impact that Walmart's "Green" initiative is having on their suppliers, their product mix, and the future of supplier relations. It also looks at the difficulties of creating a universal "sustainability index" and labeling model across a breadth of products.<br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-69739017398348108382010-01-15T10:21:00.004-05:002010-01-15T11:04:42.319-05:00Weekly Links (Week of Jan.11, 2010)Tonight our class will get back together to receive our diplomas at a ceremony in Winston-Salem, but before I make the two hour journey west on I-40, I thought I'd post a few links that I found interesting and relevant to recent areas we analyzed in class.<br /><br /><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/30/technology/best_buy_recycling.fortune/index.htm">Best Buy Wants Your Junk</a> (Fortune: Dec.2009) - A look at how Best Buy not only leverages the "green" movement as a mechanism to drive reputation, but also offers a glimpse into the concept of companies moving from product-centric to service-centric. Towards the end of the article, Best Buy talks about their vision of being directly involved with the recycling of customers old products as part of the overall "eco-value chain".<br /><br /><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/29/news/economy/farming_detroit.fortune/index.htm">Can Farming Save Detroit?</a> (Fortune, Dec.2009) - Having grown up near Detroit, and constantly seeing the abandoned houses (left over from the 1968 riots), I always wondered if that space would ever become productivity or useful again. The signs of problems have been visible in Detroit (and Michigan) for many years, with all their eggs in the automotive basket, but it's still amazing to see how quickly things have declined. While this concept is controversial, I am hopeful that it gets traction and begins to be a catalyst for other positive things in the area. It's going to take radical ideas to change a culture that has been embedded for 75 years, but some many incredible things have come from the area that I still hold out hope.<br /><br />And in honor of our graduation tonight, I'll end with this link from Seth Godin, highlighting the <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/why-ask-why.html">most important aspect</a> that each of us should have taken from the last 18 months. It seems to touch on one of the critical elements that we'd hear if we had <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA">a cool graduation speaker</a>.<br /><br />Stay hungry, Stay foolish my friends...Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-20214460112117934452010-01-11T20:30:00.002-05:002010-01-11T20:55:11.389-05:00Where Middle Age and The Internet CollideI've written <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/12/wrapping-up-program-part-iii.html">before</a> that one of the interesting aspects of an Executive MBA program is the challenge that student face between pursuing that "next big idea.." and existing obligations to family, debt, etc. In more cases than not (unfortunately), people tends to stick with something comfortable, a known entity. Forget the fact that the <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/12/wrapping-up-program-part-iii-working.html">world doesn't reward people for security</a>, and that the world moves faster now than ever before, but it seems to be the nature of many people to take the safe path.<br /><br />In watching the drama at NBC unfold over their late-night schedule (Jay Leno, Conad O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon), it's interesting to see a similar set of decisions being made. On one hand you have the incumbant, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/business/media/11carr.html">NBC</a>, acting like a middle-aged adult that doesn't want to deal with the new rules of life. Being protective, being predictable. On the other hand, you have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jimmy-fallon-ill-do-my-show-at-3-in-the-morning-for-dvd-happy-audience-2010-1">newcomer Jimmy Fallon</a> understanding that "Time doesn't matter to me...We're in a different age now." (reference to Internet video, DVRs, etc), being willing to explore the new rules of the game and accepting that things don't need to match the old behavior to be successful.<br /><br />In a parallel thread, I've just started reading "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin/dp/1591843162">Linchpin</a>" by Seth Godin. I've written about <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search/label/seth%20godin">Seth's influence on me</a> during my MBA many times, but this book is really hitting home for me. The theme of the book is that greatness is the only thing that matters in business anymore. Everything else will be repeatable, and hence replaceable. So each of us need to look at ourselves and find that area of greatness, of passion, or uniqueness and pursuit is with reckless abandon. If you don't, then any short-term security you think you have is probably flawed and could disappear when the next down economy forces your company to rethink your role.<br /><br />At times I think we all get lulled into thinking that security is good, and that only the little guys need to really be great or innovative. This is a dangerous trap and one that needs to be avoided in order to survive. The Internet only accelerates the pace at which that false sense of security can turn into non-competitive or non-innovative weakness. And besides, life is too short to not be passionate about the things that comsume so much time in our life.Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-62205835661970262722010-01-08T21:34:00.005-05:002010-01-10T09:57:31.955-05:00Some Guesses on the Apple TabletThis really has nothing to do with our MBA program, but everyone in our class knows that I was an Apple fanboy and spend a reasonable amount of time exploring how their latest strategy was changing various markets (music, communication, mobile computing, application distribution, etc.).<br /><br />In talking to a colleague at work today, we made some predictions on what might get announced if an Apple tablet does hit the market early this year (rumors of announcements at the end of January). I thought it would be interesting to list some of these for comparison at a later time.<br /><ol><li>I have a hard time believing that Apple would create a purpose built device (like a Kindle). I suspect they are trying to find the sweetspot between an iPhone and a MacBook. Mac OS / Phone OS has too much R&D to not reuse as much as possible. So a form-factor that is similar to a netbook (8-10"), but multi-purpose.</li><li>The device will be more like an iPhone than a netbook in form factor. No need for keyboards, flip tops, hinges, etc. Everything will be wireless (Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G, similar to the Kindle).<br /></li><li>It will have two modes. The first (mobility) will be like a big iPhone, where you can sit it on your lap and type directly on the screen. All movement will be via gestures, or voice-recognition or the touchscreen. The second mode will include a docking station, which sits the device at a 45* or 60* angle for viewing, and the <a href="http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/">virtual keyboard</a> and mouse-pad will be projected onto a flat surface (desk, table, floor, coffee-shop, etc.). All the multi-touch gestures will work on the virtual mouse-pad.</li><li>By default it will come with an incredible eReader application (iRead). Beyond the Kindle-like features of great display and easy download, it will make reading a social activity by allowing people to easily discuss sections of a reading with communities of friends and like-minded people. Highlight a passage and see if other people have commented on it, asked questions about it, referenced it in other forums (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)</li><li>It will allow you to easily do all the things you can do with paper-based reading material today: Highlight passages, added notes and doodles (via text, voice-recognition, finger-gestures), earmark pages, etc.</li><li>The future of education could be significantly changed by the social aspects of iRead, as the discussion of topics could be happening at almost anytime, with the full class or a subset. Teachers could introduce dynamic quizes &/or checkpoints into the readings to validate comprehension, discouraging a student from proceeding if they haven't grasped a basic concept before moving to an advanced topics.<br /></li><li>Through iTunes, it will introduce a self-publishing service for authors. Instead of having to use a publisher and pay for their overhead, it will offer a service to allow people to create professional quality content and distribute it through major channels. People already know how to do self-promotion today (blogs, Twitter, Facebook Fan pages, YouTube, etc.), but they may not have access to editors, graphic artists, speakers for audiobooks, etc. By offering an ala carte menu of services to authors, Apple could radically change the value chain for the publishing landscape, cutting out layers between the author and reader.</li><li>By leveraging their existing customer knowledge from iTunes, and now location-based information (mobile device), combined with their recent acquisition of <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/01/apple-acquires-its-own-mobile-ad-firm-to-one-up-google.ars">Quattro Wireless</a>, Apple could potentially offer Apple tablet specific content to readers from sources like The New Yorker, The Economist, or other outlets committed to great journalism, not just chasing eyeballs. Revenue splits between Apple and the journalists could fund this.</li><li>The tablet will have unique peer-2-peer networking capabilities to share gaming experiences with 6-8 other tablets within close proximity. New games will get written that provide shared experiences.<br /></li><li>One of the complaints about the iPhone is the lack of peer-2-peer video, similar to iChat or Skype. The Apple tablet will resolve this, as well as being a great form factor to watch TV/Videos on the train or bus.</li></ol>Since everyone feels the need to give the new device a name, I'll throw my hat in the ring. Let's go with iBook, combining the concept of a netbook size with the incredible new reading experience and social aspects for consuming content.Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-36008037488481553702010-01-06T17:06:00.009-05:002010-01-15T10:22:07.795-05:00Weekly Links (Week of Jan.4, 2010)<div>During our program, I used to annoy my classmates by constantly sending emails pointing to various links, stories and other content that related to the topics being discussed in class. In hopefully a less annoying manner, I plan to bring that content to this blog on a weekly basis.</div><div><br /></div>One of the things Ram Baliga told us was that analytics would become one of the cornerstone technologies that MBA's should master in the 21st century. Here is a good <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/06/data-business-impact/">write-up on the proliferation of data</a> that is now available for analysis and how it will shape the future of business.<br /><div><br /></div><div>With Chet Miller we evaluated various employee evaluation models, including GE's A-B-C player model. This <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-should-we-fire-everyone-doing-an-adequate-job-2010-1">link</a> explores NetFlix model of trying to hire, retain and compensate almost all "A" players and whether or not that is a good thing.<br /><br />Following up from our <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/07/netflix-hollywood-deal/">case discussion about NetFlix</a> and their eventual migration to a streaming model. Many elements at play here: short-term vs. long-term profits; customer input vs. decisions that lead to eventual business model changes; decisions that could lead to loses due to digital piracy or alternative models solving a customer demand.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This <a href="http://abovethecrowd.com/2010/01/05/android-or-iphone-wrong-question/">article</a> explore the Nexus One phone from Google, in the context of how it will impact Google's overall strategy. VC Brian Gurley does an excellent job of looking at the broader impact of this device, but more importantly the strategic impact of the new business model. The Nexus One was an area of highlight in the final Global Strategy paper that I wrote with <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ric-freeman/6/345/b91">Ric Freeman</a> and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/wendy-perry/a/722/b45">Wendy Perry</a>.<br /><br />Here's another <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/01/07/so-what-should-motorola-do-now/">Nexus One link</a> that follows-up some of the cases we analyzed, including strategic challenges for HTC, Taiwan Semi-Conductor and Google. At least within the technology world, the spread of coopetition and partner/rival scenarios will continue to expand as the value chain is twisted in all sorts of new ways.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Stan Mandel taught us the underlying structures for funding and operating and entrepreneurial venture, but more so he focus on the mindset needed to be a successful entrepreneur. VC/Entrepreneur Mark Suster explorers his views of the <a href="http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/entrepreneur-dna/">characteristics of successful entrepreneurs</a>.<br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-27637981952647217912009-12-21T22:17:00.010-05:002010-01-05T23:50:01.726-05:00Wrapping up the Program - Part IV - "Working harder than ever".....On the last day of the program, we had the chance to have an open and candid discussion about the future with <a href="http://business.wfu.edu/default.aspx?id=357">Ram Baliga</a>, professor of Global Strategy. Ram is incredibly well respected as both a teacher and strategic thinker. He consults globally with some of the world's largest companies, and amazed us every week by leading lecture and discussion without any notes or slides.<div><br /></div><div>Dr.Baliga's comment which left the most lasting impression on me was, "I am now working harder than ever to keep up with the pace of change, forcing myself to learn the critical skills of the 21st century (technology & analytics)". </div><div><br /></div><div>Coming from a man who is world-renowned, tenured and vaguely discussing retirement, it was inspiring. It just shows that you can never stop learning, and that the application of knowledge is critical to retention. Dr.Baliga constantly reminded us that concepts need to be internalized and applied. </div><div><br /></div><div>So it is with that mindset that I have decided not to sunset this blog, even though the program is complete. I will use it to highlight the application of knowledge we gained from our program. To challenge myself to apply theory to real-life, and to challenge the theories and models as the business climate changes in the 21st century.</div><div><br /></div><div>To Dr.Baliga, I say "thank you" for the inspiration. We learned a tremendous amount from you both in knowledge and character over the last 18 months. I hope to be able to apply it with great efficiency over the next 10-20 years.</div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-44422395866357433492009-12-21T22:17:00.009-05:002009-12-30T00:08:22.428-05:00Open TechnologyRecently, Google posted a blog where they provided <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/meaning-of-open.html">Google's definition of "open"</a>. In that post, there was an interesting section about how open systems can be viewed by people with traditional MBA training.<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">To understand our position in more detail, it helps to start with the assertion that open systems win. <span style="font-weight: bold;">This is counter-intuitive to the traditionally trained MBA who is taught to generate a sustainable competitive advantage by creating a closed system, making it popular, then milking it through the product life cycle.</span> The conventional wisdom goes that companies should lock in customers to lock out competitors....</span>"<br /><br />Most of my working career has been centered around an "Internet DNA", so maybe I'm overly biased, but this is a comment that I made to my classmates time and time again as we studied different scenarios and cases during our program. The numbers are fine, and thorough analysis is necessary, but too many times it leads to decisions that don't result in driving new customer value. It results in decisions that create short-term advantages, or temporary "wins", but it often misrepresents whether or not a company is truly prepared to be competitive in the market, and how they can position themselves for the next opportunity.<br /><br />The 21st century is not going to be about long-term sustainable advantages. Advantages will be short-lived, and the companies that survive and succeed will be those with a open mindset that encourages competition. Competition drives innovation.<br /><br />Competition also makes some people &/or companies uncomfortable because they were built around an inflexible model, or one that doesn't allow for radical changes in the market structure. Google is an excellent example of a company that is constantly trying to change the dynamics of markets. They are not always right, and actually fail quite often, but their culture and business are built on the foundation of competition. Many companies would do themselves a favor by studying Google and adopting their mindset to open systems.Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-3194607304765808902009-12-20T21:02:00.021-05:002010-01-05T23:49:33.693-05:00Wrapping up the Program - Part IIIIn previous wrap-up posts (<a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/12/wrapping-up-program-part-i.html">here</a> & <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/12/wrapping-up-program-part-ii.html">here</a>) I talked about broad lessons learned and projects that impacted my new ways of thinking about the world. In this post, I'd like to talk about some of the people in our program. Through the program, I've spoken about our collective journey, often highlighting elements of classmates that caught my attention. As the program progressed, I had the opportunity to better understand the strengths and goals of my classmates.<br /><div><br /></div><div>One of the most challenging things for an Executive MBA is to move outside of their comfort zone. They don't lack for great ideas or leadership, but families and mortgages and job seniority can be a difficult elements of life to sacrifice for the next "what if..."</div><div><br /></div><div>I'd like to highlight some of the projects and "next steps" that graduates of the Executive Class of 2009 will be leading in 2010. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Terra Verde International - </b>After Hurricane Felix ripped through the coastal areas of Nicaragua, much of their forests were downed by the storm. Through a <a href="http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/dec/06/mocksville-pastor-mixes-passion-with-business-to-h/business/">church-mission</a> relationship, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/robbylee">Robbie Lee</a> and his partners become involved in a unique situation to create opportunity out of tragedy. Terre Verde was established to clear the downed trees, mill the wood and byproduct, and take it to market. The mill and operations are staffed by the local Mistiko Indian tribes, and funds from the sale of wood are brought back to the village to establish infrastructure and create new opportunities (farms, education, housing, etc.). In addition to the mill, Terre Verde has plans to create an electrical utility that uses the wood byproduct as a biofuel source to power the electrical grid. In the US we take the electrical grid for granted, but for people that have no light in the evenings, the possibilities are endless. The hope is to allow people to go to school in the evenings, or church, or participate in other activities that are driven by electricity.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TPM Partners </span>- After successful careers at Danaher and Que Pasa, respectively, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-ivan/a/920/80a">David Ivan</a> and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/domingoisasi">Domingo Isasi</a> saw an opportunity to take their knowledge of process-design and operations to start a consulting company focused on Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma improvement. By moving quickly to show clients how change can effect their bottomline, <a href="http://www.tpmpartners.com/"> TPM Partners</a> has already created hundreds of thousands of dollars of cost-reductions in just a few months.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Precision Farming in India (</span>business name TBD<span style="font-weight: bold;">)</span> - Combining his passion for his homeland and expertise in Information Technology, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vish-manickam/a/b11/43a">Vish Manickam</a> is creating a new venture to help rural areas in India that are struggling with poverty and limited food supplies. Working with professors in India and Michigan State University, and utilizing the latest <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vish-manickam/a/b11/43a">Precision Farming</a> techniques to produce vastly better crop yields and a sustainable economy. Vish is not only building a model farm in his home state, but also creating a franchise model to allow others to sell and distribute this technology to other regions of India. By combining technology, government subsidies and market demand, Vish will be able to help a portion of India that rarely see the headlines from the news media.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Commercial Solar Distribution & Installation</span> (business name TBD) - Building on the momentum from the Obama administration and the COP15 talks, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/cbasinger">Chris Basinger</a> is bringing his passion for building the future to commercial properties in North Carolina. Chris is currently working with several large North Carolina-based companies to design and implement a solar power infrastructure for several hundred facilities. By leveraging national and state credits for solar installations and leading-edge <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaics">photovoltaic</a> (PV) technologies, Chris has been able to demonstrated positive NPV returns on these upcoming investments. Chris is working directly with VCs to fund this start-up opportunity, with hopes to operationalize it in 2010.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gracely Girl Design</span> - Highlighted <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/12/wrapping-up-program-part-ii.html">previously</a> as a model for building a completely online business that operates around a part-time or mother's schedule, Gracely Girl has successfully completed 3 months of operations and is now cash-flow positive.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">KinderCulture</span> (tentative name) - This is a project that I pitched to the class as part of our Entrepreneurship program. I was humbled when several of my classmates and professor offered to invest or raise money for the idea on the spot. In 2010 I'm hoping to pull together the team to execute on this concept. It would allow me to combine my interests in Social Media and Internet technology, International culture and children's education.<br /><br />Those are just a few of the projects that I expect to see launched or expanded in 2010. And based on late-night conversations and brainstorming sessions with several other classmates, I wouldn't be surprised to see several more get hatched in some form or another very soon. We were lucky to have such a diverse group of people and backgrounds in our program, and I fully expect them to go on to greater things in the future. My hope is that we are able to continue to leverage the ideas and talents of the group as these new ventures and opportunities arise in 2010 and beyond.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-31775690194818055812009-12-19T10:12:00.015-05:002010-01-05T23:51:40.720-05:00Wrapping up the Program - Part IIFollowing up on <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/12/wrapping-up-program-part-i.html">Part I</a>, I thought I would highlight some of my favorite projects from the program. Some were things that I was a part of, while others came from classmates. I've mentioned some of these before, in previous blog posts.<div><br /></div><div>The first was the summary presentation we gave for Leadership & Organizational Behavior (LOB) class. The 1st semester was an interesting transition for everyone in the class, not only readjusting ourselves to academia but also transitioning into a structure where teamwork and trust were critical factors in success. The focus of the presentation was supposed to be analysis of our personalities against LOB criteria, but what it turned into was a very revealing look into the personalities of our classmates. Their history, their fears, their hopes and dreams, and their ability to trust the people in the room with personal information. For most people in the class, it was the first opportunity we'd had in 3-4 months to really understand who we'd be going through the rest of the journey with. For me personally, I used it as an opportunity to try out a presentation style that I had seen a few times, but had never used before. It's a variation on something called <a href="http://www.pecha-kucha.org/">Pecha Kucha</a>, which we eventually used in the 4th semester for our final Leading Change presentation. When I gave the presentation, I think I made some people uncomfortable (less structured, less formal, limited analysis). I was trying to use the style to convey the pace at which my working environment (Internet Technology) moves, and I believe that came across to some extent. Regardless, it was my first attempt at using the MBA program as a vehicle to try new ideas which could be reused in my working world.<br /><div style="width: 425px; text-align: left;" id="__ss_829766"><a style="margin: 12px 0pt 3px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely/bgracely-lob-personality-semester-project-5dec2008-presentation" title="BGracely LOB Personality Semester Project 5Dec2008">BGracely LOB Personality Semester Project 5Dec2008</a><object style="margin: 0px;" height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=bgracelylobsemesterprojectpresentation5dec2008slideshare-1228762481934413-8&stripped_title=bgracely-lob-personality-semester-project-5dec2008-presentation"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=bgracelylobsemesterprojectpresentation5dec2008slideshare-1228762481934413-8&stripped_title=bgracely-lob-personality-semester-project-5dec2008-presentation" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><div style="font-size: 11px; font-family: tahoma,arial; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely">bgracely</a>.</div></div>Our final Business & Global Economics (BGE) project involved a country/region and investment analysis in Emerging Markets. BGE was the 1st semester course that really taught me that I had much to learn about the complexities and inter-dependencies of the global economy We choose to analyze UAE, which at the time of our selection (Aug.2008) seemed like an exciting, vibrant new beacon of the global economy. Our analysis and recommendation highlighted many of the possibilities being created by the massive influx of petrodollars, but it also cautioned against a potential bubble. Having new eyes for UAE, it has been extremely interesting to watch the reports of the demise of Dubai in the early to mid part of 2009, and then the more recent reports of its resurgence towards the end of the year. I believe the stories of Dubai, and its ultimate success or failure are still to be written, with results being somewhat unknown for another 5-10 years.</div><div><br /><div style="width: 425px; text-align: left;" id="__ss_882221"><a style="margin: 12px 0pt 3px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely/wfumbabgeteam5uae5dec2008-presentation" title="WFU-MBA-BGE-Team5-UAE-5Dec2008">WFU-MBA-BGE-Team5-UAE-5Dec2008</a><object style="margin: 0px;" height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=wfumbateam5uaepresentation5dec2008-1230746638488815-1&stripped_title=wfumbabgeteam5uae5dec2008-presentation"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=wfumbateam5uaepresentation5dec2008-1230746638488815-1&stripped_title=wfumbabgeteam5uae5dec2008-presentation" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><div style="font-size: 11px; font-family: tahoma,arial; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely">bgracely</a>.</div></div>Towards the end of our 2nd semester, our Managerial Accounting professor (Dr.Bern Beatty) asked Brian Healy (EVP, Kindermusik) to come speak with our class about how they implement Open Book Management. Not only was this an excellent look at how an entrepreneurial company was putting unique leadership styles to work, but it also began a business relationship with Mr.Healy that I hope to leverage for another start-up that I may launch in 2010.<br /><div style="width: 425px; text-align: left;" id="__ss_1133427"><a style="margin: 12px 0pt 3px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely/open-book-management-critical-number" title="Open Book Management - Critical Number">Open Book Management - Critical Number</a><object style="margin: 0px;" height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=obmcriticalnumber-090311155010-phpapp01&stripped_title=open-book-management-critical-number"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=obmcriticalnumber-090311155010-phpapp01&stripped_title=open-book-management-critical-number" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><div style="font-size: 11px; font-family: tahoma,arial; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely">bgracely</a>.</div></div>Another 2nd semester project allowed Portia Mount and I to explore an element of Marketing that gets heavy coverage from the press, but is still not well understood my most of the business world or academia. We explored Social Media and Social Marketing in the context of the Obama Election campaign, but tried to constantly bring the context back to everyday business environments. It was an interesting culmination to our Strategic Marketing course, as each sub-team also created a final presentation that focused on an angle of Internet or Social Marketing. Since that presentation, I've actually had 5-6 companies approach me about training/educating their executive teams about Social Media/Marketing best practices and way they can engage with this new media.<br /><div style="width: 425px; text-align: left;" id="__ss_1310599"><a style="margin: 12px 0pt 3px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely/obamanation-lessons-from-the-front-lines-of-social-media" title="ObamaNation - Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Media">ObamaNation - Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Media</a><object style="margin: 0px;" height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=exftstratmktgteam5obamanationpresentationfinal-090418172814-phpapp01&stripped_title=obamanation-lessons-from-the-front-lines-of-social-media"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=exftstratmktgteam5obamanationpresentationfinal-090418172814-phpapp01&stripped_title=obamanation-lessons-from-the-front-lines-of-social-media" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><div style="font-size: 11px; font-family: tahoma,arial; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely">bgracely</a>.</div></div><div>The 3rd semester was all about International Business. We had the option to focus on China, Japan or South America (the India trip was canceled due to the Mumbai bombings). Eight of us choose to spend two weeks in Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We chronically our journey on the <a href="http://business.wfu.edu/apps/blog/china09/index.cfm/Pre-Trip">China Blog</a>. It's still difficult to put the magnitude of that trip into words, but needless to say it completely changed my views on my career and the 21st century.</div><div><br /></div>To conclude our Entrepreneurship course, we were asked to focus on a new business model or idea. I decided to focus on <a href="http://www.gracelygirl.com/">Gracely Girl Designs</a>, which is an online appearal business that I created with my wife in October 2009. The primary motivation for the business was to allow her a creative outlet to coincide with the raising of our children. But what we found in designing the business was an ability to operate almost entirely virtual and with a structure that was incredibly flexible. I presented this business as a model that could be adopted by classmates that wishes to stretch their entrepreneurial legs, but also maintain their existing jobs (at least for a while).<br /><div style="width: 425px; text-align: left;" id="__ss_2559870"><a style="margin: 12px 0pt 3px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely/gracely-girl-design" title="Gracely Girl Design">Gracely Girl Design</a><object style="margin: 0px;" height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=exft2009eebgracelyfinalpresentationgracelygirlv2-091122133754-phpapp02&stripped_title=gracely-girl-design"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=exft2009eebgracelyfinalpresentationgracelygirlv2-091122133754-phpapp02&stripped_title=gracely-girl-design" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><div style="font-size: 11px; font-family: tahoma,arial; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/bgracely">bgracely</a>.</div></div>Our Management Practicum was focused around the theme of Environmental Sustainability, and how we could attack that problem in a way that found balance between environmental challenges and business challenges. Many of my classmates came up with incredible ideas (to be discussed in Part III), presenting ideas to start businesses that will have lasting impacts for thousands of people in the US, Latin America and India. Their work will go beyond business success and will thrive in the future successes of mankind. Our team took a technology focus, looking at ways to more efficiently deploy IT Data Centers, the 21st-century "bit" factories that will drive the output of electronic addictions. Considering that today's Data Centers consume 2-3% of all US electricity, with exponential growth expected as Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles become part of the US economy.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Looking back on the breadth of our projects, I'm still amazed at what can be learned in just 18 months. Not only did we develop domain-level expertise in many areas, but we created a framework of knowledge that will allow us to take on strategic challenges throughout the 21st century. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-86945399347645562002009-12-18T14:48:00.008-05:002010-01-05T23:52:48.806-05:00Wrapping up the Program - Part IAs of 1pm, barring any last minute disasters (not sure what they would be), my journey through the WFU Executive MBA program is complete. Our final grades were posted today. All that's left now is to receive my diploma at a ceremony in January.<div><br /></div><div>As the last group to ever go through the Executive Program, the ending is somewhat bittersweet (the format was canceled in Fall 2009 due to strategic changes by the WFU Schools of Business). Being EOL brought us closer together as a group, but unfortunately we won't have subsequent classes to build the alumni base. The Executive program was started over 25 years, and was the original MBA program offered by Wake Forest.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Instead of just waving good-bye to this blog, I thought I'd finish it with a series of posts recapping some of the most important things I learned over the last 18 months.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Breadth of Knowledge Matters</span><br /><br />Whether you're faced with a Strategy problem, a Marketing problem, a Finance problem or an Organization problem, no decision can be made in a vacuum. Having a fundamental understanding of a breadth of subjects, learned across a wide range of industries (through case studies, classmate experiences, etc.) is invaluable in making executive level decisions. Today's markets move much too fast to build companies that operate in silos, so bringing a breadth of knowledge to daily decisions will make the difference between survival and failure in the 21st century.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The World is Global...and Semi-Global...and Regional...and Local</span><br /><br />While the Thomas Friedman's of the world grab many headlines, not every problem today is global. It is invaluable to have the experience of visiting and working in international markets (which we experienced), but knowing when strategy needs to be global is even more valuable. You must be ABLE to step out of your CAGE and see where it makes sense to bring ADDING solutions to market expansion. You must think globally, but act locally.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Create True and Lasting Value</span><br /><br />As we saw from the financial crisis of 2008, and in numerous other examples, it is incredibly easy to financially engineer the books or manipulate markets in the short-run in return for near-term profits. But the 21st century, with it's hypermedia cycles, will quickly destroy companies that are not competitive and do not create true value for customers or partners. NOTE: "Lasting" is a relative term. It may only be 3-5yrs, but it's a mindset that should be infected into every company that strives to be competitive and differentiate themselves by creating tremendous value with their products and services.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Think like a CEO</span><br /><br />All too often we tend to get caught up in the value of our functional area or market, and fail to see the bigger picture in front of us. Without the correct strategies, financial models and product portfolios aligned to solve customer problems, many ideas are just a set of random details.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Think like a Baby</span><br /><br />At times, we plug all the data into our fancy MBA models and answers emerge. But do they always make sense? Have they taken into consideration local factors, or basic inter-dependencies? Have we thought through the simplest of details, asked the simplest of questions? For parents, we're often amazed at the way children are able to ask the most direct questions for complex topics. That type of questioning is valuable for executives as well.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Build Your Personal Brand</span><br /><br />The personalization of media and the ubiquity of the Internet allows each of us to be our own Marketing/PR/Ad agency. Companies will come and go, but your personal brand is the one element over which you can have direct control. This blog was created for alternative learning purposes, but it eventually became a foundational aspect of me beginning a journey to better understand how a personal brand is built, cultivated and expanded.<br /></div></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-49951549895917106252009-11-04T10:29:00.005-05:002009-11-04T11:35:54.749-05:00Free'er than Freemium, "hmm....BUT...."<div><br /></div>I've written about <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search?q=Freemium">Freemium</a> several times before, discussing it's impact on existing markets and incumbent companies in several industries. Brian Gurley (Partner, Benchmark Capital) does an <a href="http://abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disruption-the-%E2%80%9Cless-than-free%E2%80%9D-business-model/">excellent job</a> explaining how Google is further leveraging their mobile services like StreetView to further move into Mobile Advertising.<div><br /></div><div>As an MBA student, Google is an interesting company to study and analyze. On one hand, so many of their projects are difficult to apply typical MBA skills to (NPV, Cash Flow analysis, etc.) because they are fundamentally experiments, and they make not drive <b>direct</b> revenues. On the other hand, their ability to expand upon their core strategy of "organize all the world's information" is incredibly interesting to follow. It is a massive concept that has so many possibilities, but I suspect it only works within a culture that allows large amounts of freedom to explore "crazy" ideas. </div><div><br /></div><div>Having a cash cow like AdSense or AdWords obviously makes it a little easier to fund and maintain the Google culture, but it still requires employees and managers to take huge risks. Personal risks, technology risks, strategy risks. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm trying to imagine what a conversation at Google a few years ago might have gone like:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Employee:</b> Mobile devices are going to take off and people will consume huge amounts of data on them someday.</div><div><b>Manager: </b> Agreed. We should figure out ways to accelerate this, as we could drive ads to their mobile devices. </div><div><b>Employee:</b> My kid was reading about Lewis & Clark the other day. We should try and be the world's source for mapping information.</div><div><b>Manager:</b> But what can we do interesting with maps?</div><div><b>Employee:</b> Eliminate paper maps. Make maps that move with the touch of a finger. Show live traffic overlaid on a map. Street-level views. Open it up to any location-based service (voting, gatherings, flu outbreaks, restaurant listing, etc..)</div><div><b>Manager: </b> How might we do that, besides buying mapping data?</div><div><b>Employee:</b> What if we had a fleet of cars that drove around the country with a camera on the back? We could pay high-school kids, college kids, starving artists, or anyone willing to drive around?</div><div><br /></div><div>What would your manager have said at that point in the conversation? Would it have started with something like, "Hmm, interesting.....BUT....". I suspect that in most companies it would. At Google, I doubt there are many "hmm....BUT...." moments when ideas are being formulated.</div><div>Imagine the possibilities at your company if you had the ability to hire really smart people and not feel like you had to "hmm..BUT..." them all day long.</div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-6489423793513450322009-10-18T23:03:00.009-04:002009-10-18T23:24:57.829-04:00CAGE, Biomimicry and a big lull....For anyone who reads this blog, I have to apologize for the lack of content and ideas recently. Not only has my day job been extremely busy lately (blog hits <a href="http://blogs.netapp.com/virtualization/">over there</a> are up 500% Y-over-Year), but this semester has left me in a funk. It has no rhythm to it, and the pending 50-page papers for GSM II, Management Practicum and Entrepreneurship haven't left much time for writing about new ideas (let alone tidbits from class).<div> <div> </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the important concepts that we discuss quite a bit with Ram Baliga are analogies, and the importance of making connections outside your current view of a problem. He stresses that many problems have already been solved, just at a different time, or in a different industry, or by looking at the problem outside the context of the existing situation. </div><div><br /></div><div>So in that vain of thinking, I highlight a couple of analogies:</div><div><ul><li>In GSM II (and in International Business), we used a framework called C.A.G.E (Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic) to analyze expansion and M&A activities. I <a href="http://blogs.netapp.com/virtualization/2009/10/the-blurring-line-between-computingnetworkingstorage.html">loosely used</a> that framework to analyze a problem happening in corporate IT organizations as technologies like <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-days-youre-pigeon-someday-days.html">VMware's virtualization</a> are creating organizational problems (although saving companies money). It's not an exact fit for the framework, since we're not really dealing with global expansion, but it seems to have some alignment for groups that speak different languages and have different priorities. Apologies to Dr.Lord and Dr.Baliga for stretching the framework a little more than is probably acceptable in their eyes.</li><li>In Leading Change & Entrepreneurship, we often talk about ways to come up with new ideas or sources of new ways to solve problems. This <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/140/made-to-stick-stop-solving-your-problems.html">recent article</a> in Fast Company by Dan & Chip Heath highlights the concept of biomimicry to help solve some of your company's most head-scratching problems. Dr.Fogel had given us some papers to read on biomimicry, but not having much in the way of free time, I was highly appreciative of Heath's use of brevity to show examples of a powerful concept.</li></ul><div>Analogies can be powerful tools in not only trying to explain new ideas, but also for looking outside your current frame of view for new solutions. Often times an analogy can be the best way to connect you with a customer, especially when you come from different backgrounds and you're trying to find a common language. </div></div></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-76002237493513334872009-09-20T23:37:00.004-04:002009-09-20T23:51:11.362-04:00A brief look behind the founding of TwitterAs I've discussed many times before, I'm a huge fan of <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search/label/twitter">Twitter</a> and the new forms of communication that it opens to users around the world. I found this brief video showing Twitter creator/founder <a href="http://twitter.com/jack">Jack Dorsey</a> discussing how the company was founded and the ways it has been shaped over the past couple of years. Coinciding with our Entrepreneurship course, it's an interesting look at how to take simple concepts (immediacy, transparency, approachability) and align them with powerful forces to create something great. It also conveys the best idea for any entrepreneur, "start....just get started with something small and see what happens." <br /><br />I'm looking forward to utilizing many of they valuable ideas in the two start-ups that I'm working on now.<br /><br /><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" id="embeddedplayer" height="305" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://gannett.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/gannett-ksdk-3325-pub01-live/current/immersiveplayer/immersive/client/embedded/embedded.swf"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="scale" value="noscale"><param name="salign" value="LT"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"><param name="wmode" value="window"><param name="FlashVars" value="playerId=immersiveplayer&referralObject=1268224023&adServerBasePath=http://gannett.gcion.com/adrawdata/.0/5111.1/506905/0/0/header=yes;cc=2;cookie=info;alias=&adPositionId=video_prestream&adSiteId=video.ksdk.com/&gpaperCode=gntbcstksdk&marketName=St. Louis, MO&division=broadcast&pageContentCategory=video&pageContentSubcategory=immersiveplayer"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://gannett.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/gannett-ksdk-3325-pub01-live/current/immersiveplayer/immersive/client/embedded/embedded.swf" id="embeddedplayer" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" menu="false" quality="high" play="false" name="immersiveplayer" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" scale="noscale" salign="LT" bgcolor="#000000" wmode="window" flashvars="playerId=immersiveplayer&referralObject=1268224023&adServerBasePath=http://gannett.gcion.com/adrawdata/.0/5111.1/506905/0/0/header=yes;cc=2;cookie=info;alias=&adPositionId=video_prestream&adSiteId=video.ksdk.com/&gpaperCode=gntbcstksdk&marketName=St. Louis, MO&division=broadcast&pageContentCategory=video&pageContentSubcategory=immersiveplayer" height="305" width="320"></embed></object>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-84375490598981932232009-09-09T00:15:00.006-04:002009-09-18T22:16:07.395-04:00Are MBAs necessary for Start-Ups or VC?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">With our Entrepreneurship course in full swing, and keeping my interest, I thought I'd post another </span></span><a href="http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/09/08/are-mbas-necessary-for-start-ups-or-vc/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">interesting article</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> from one of my new favorite Entrepreneur/VC blogs - "</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Both Sides of the Table</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">".</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I'm not going to get into the argument of whether or not people with MBAs are good fits or not, since that's a generalization and not relevant. People can decide from their experiences if the degree is useful or not. But there were a few points that I found interesting &/or thoughtful:</span></span></div><div><ul><li><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Curriculum</span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> - I would tend to agree that you could learn as much from reading topical books (or internet research) as you do from the topics taught in the classroom. One of the things that I find incredibly valuable in our Executive MBA program is the breadth of experience that I'm able to derive from our classroom discussions and outside discussions. The professors that are valuable to me have been the ones that provided a conceptual framework, but the primary focus of their courses have been the application to our personal experiences or current/future roles.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Colleagues </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">- This is far and away the most valuable interaction from an MBA program, but I believe that if often gets under-estimated if the culture/sub-culture within the program is overly focused on grades/rankings. I've told people many times that I'll be happy if I recall 50% of the coursework concepts in 5yrs, but I'll be extremely disappointed if my work/personal network doesn't include at least 75% of the people from my program in 5-10yrs. </span></span></span></span></i></b></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Sales - </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I completely agree that sales/influencing is a subject that is lacking in most MBA programs. I'm sure it gets neglected (or completely left out) because it's not considered a science or area worthy of academic research, but it is the lifeblood of every company. Not only that, internal selling of new ideas (innovation, change management, etc.) hinges on the ability of leaders to sell. Maybe it needs to be added as an elective. The occasional classroom presentation just doesn't equate to sales. </span></span></span></b></span></li></ul> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><br /></div></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-37935819733844478012009-09-04T10:20:00.005-04:002009-09-09T00:15:04.679-04:00Some Excellent Entrepreneur BlogsHere's a few of my favorites. Some business starters, and some business investors:<div><br /></div><div>Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) - <a href="http://www.avc.com/">A VC</a> </div><div>Marc Cuban - <a href="http://blogmaverick.com/">Blog Maverick</a></div><div>Seth Godin - <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/">Blog</a></div><div>Mike Hirshland (Polaris Ventures) - <a href="http://vcmike.wordpress.com/">VC Mike</a> </div><div>Marc Andreessan - <a href="http://blog.pmarca.com/">pmarca</a> </div><div>Jeff Pulver - <a href="http://pulverblog.pulver.com/">Blog</a></div><div>Tim Ferris - <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/">Four Hour Work Week</a></div><div>Phil McKinney - <a href="http://www.philmckinney.com/">Killer Innovations</a></div><div>Andrew Warner - <a href="http://mixergy.com/">Mixergy</a></div><div>Mark Suster - (GPR Partners) <a href="http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/">Both Sides of the Table</a></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-71145854150018935832009-09-04T09:53:00.003-04:002009-09-04T10:00:56.319-04:0010 Characteristics of Great Companies and Great InvestorsAs we start to dive into our Entrepreneurship course, exploring new ventures, I thought these were a couple of great lists for people to review as they think about new ideas or new places to invest money.<div><br /></div><div><ul><li>Fred Wilson's <a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/09/ten-characteristics-of-great-companies.html">10 Characteristics of Great Companies</a></li><li>Matt Blumberg's <a href="http://onlyonce.blogs.com/onlyonce/2009/09/ten-characteristics-of-great-investors.html">10 Characteristics of Great Investors</a></li></ul><div>As one of the leading voices in technology and venture capital, Fred's <a href="http://www.avc.com/">blog</a> (A VC) is a great daily read. Not only does he give great insight into various aspects of the business, but he encourages complete transparency through the comments and on-going discussions. It's an excellent example of realizing that there are 1000s of great ideas out there if you're willing to listen and be open-minded. He also acknowledges that he's been mentored by some of the greats before him, and he encourages giving back to newcomers to the industry.</div></div><div><br /></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-91761944347801249342009-08-31T21:57:00.003-04:002009-09-01T17:00:42.527-04:00China -[cross-posted from our <a href="http://business.wfu.edu/apps/blog/china09/index.cfm/2009/8/31/China--3-months-later">WFU MBA China Trip</a> blog]<br /><br />It's been just over three months since we returned from our <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search/label/China%20Trip">International Trip to China</a> and it felt like the right time to reflect on how that experience has changed my thinking about the world. This isn't going to be terrible formal, just a list of stuff that I've been thinking about recently:<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">1 - </span>Sort of like the soldiers that returned to the farms after WWII ("you can't send them back to the farm after they have seen Paris"), it's very difficult to get the allure of China our of your consciousness. </p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">2 -</span> When you're in China, the opportunities feel like they are so close and completely within reach. It's only when you're back in the US do you realize how far away they really are (even with today's communications technologies). The immediacy of opportunity in China is intoxicating.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">3 - </span>Like anything else, it takes practice and repetition to get better at China. For the first 45-60 days back, I read the Chinese newspapers online religiously, trying to take in every little nuance. Since then, US life has been creeping back in very quickly and I feel like my China-ese is getting rusty. I need to get back into practice.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">4 - </span>Two weeks doesn't sound like a long time, but it provided an incredible foundation for understanding the basics of the complex world of Chinese business and culture. Our summer and fall semesters incorporated International elements in every session, and our trip more than adequately prepared us with the right mindset to have success in doing business with/in China.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">5 -</span> I miss the food. I miss the adventure of what it was, what it might be, and only using chopsticks. I never felt like I overate in China, yet I also never felt hungry. They seemed to have figured out the perfect mix of variety, healthiness and entertainment with their meals. The US needs to take a page out of the Chinese cookbook.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">6 -</span> I've been thinking about ways to start a business that involves China in some way. I'd say that at least half of the people in our class (from the trip) have been having those same thoughts. I have the skeleton of the business plan in place, and a key first meeting in a couple weeks. It's a great time to be an entrepreneur. </p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">7 -</span> If you are ever part of any of the WFU Business School programs and have an interest in International business, do not hestitate to engage <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Lord">Mike Lord</a>. If you are passionate about International business, Mike will match your passion by 2x. </p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">8 -</span> We have problems here in the US, and they have problems in China too. But their problems just feel much larger in scale. So even if you're not going to doing something China-related or International-related, do something that has some scale to it. Make a difference!!</p><p>OK, I'll end it with #8, since 8 is the number signifying good luck and wealth in China. I hope you all get to visit China some day, as it's an incredible country and one of the highlights of the WFU MBA program. </p> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/ce7315df-e8d4-465e-96c2-3ca3387d2a64/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=ce7315df-e8d4-465e-96c2-3ca3387d2a64" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related more-info pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-23467887258768376142009-08-30T21:56:00.003-04:002009-08-30T23:27:56.460-04:00A weekend of Contrasting ViewpointsOur first weekend back in the final semester was a showcase of contrasting viewpoints, and some very dire predictions.<br /><br />Our first session was lead by <a href="http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/mar/22/new-focus-allison-wants-to-help-students-grow/">John Allison</a>, Chairman of BB&T bank. Mr. Allison is now part of the faculty at the WFU Schools of Business, and his talk was on leadership, focused around the <a href="http://www.bbt.com/about/philosophy/values.html">10 core values</a> that he used to lead BB&T. Well known for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/business/02bbt.html">his affinity</a> for the lessons of Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged, Allison talked about how these values were founded in philosophy and economics and how they guided BB&T to be one of the few US banks that did not "require" TARP funding from the US Gov't. Not only did Allison's talk focus heavily on the strengths of market-based economies and capitalism, but it also highlighted his viewpoints on the errors made both in the present and the past by the Federal Reserve. He spoke about being on committees back in the late 1990s and early 2000s that highlighted flaws in the concept of "<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4568925/">expanded home ownership</a>", but he was unable to convince Congress or the Federal Reserve to modify their policies. He also spoke about recent speeches he gave at the Chicago Federal Reserve where he mathematically proved that the US will be bankrupt by ~2025, unless major changes are made to the structure of the US economy.<br /><br />Our next set of discussions and viewpoints came from our Management Practicum on Environmental Sustainability and Renewable Energy. This session did a pretty good job of dividing the room between "<span style="font-style: italic;">it must be done, it's our future</span>" and "<span style="font-style: italic;">it's too expensive, even though it might be needed</span>". Using a framework from the following books, we began to walk through the challenges, opportunities and existing approaches to the US energy economy. <br /><ul style="font-family: georgia;"><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.natcap.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Natural Capitalism</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - Creating the Next Industrial Revolution</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Edge-World-Environment-Sustainability/dp/0300136110"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Bridge at the Edge of the World</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618658254/ref=cm_li_v_cd_d?tag=linkedin-20"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Break Through</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility</span></span></span></li></ul>Environmental and Energy Sustainability are difficult topics to discuss because not only are they extremely complex technologies and economic models, but they are charged with personal emotions and MBA-learned skills about finding costs (usually near-term costs vs. long-term TCO). I've argued before that it involves <a href="http://theenvironmentalcapitalist.blogspot.com/2009/08/big-environmental-problem-first-step-to.html">massive scope</a> that needs better communication and vision to be successful. And I'm also learning that it very much will require a shift in mindset from Costs of Acquisition to Total Costs of Ownership and Impact. The latter is something that I'm very familiar with from selling large-scale technology solutions in the face of rapidly commoditizing computing devices. And of course all of these discussions were had under the guise that we're reached the level of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil">Peak Oil</a>" and that many natural resources on earth could be near extinction levels by the end of the 21st century.<br /><br />Saturday's classes were a contrast in management and leadership evolution between large corporations (Leading Change course) and start-ups (Entrepreneurship course). Using the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Leading-Change-John-P-Kotter/dp/0875847471">8 step framework</a> laid out by John Cotter, we looked at how leadership skills align to different types/levels of changes within large corporations, and how leaders can adapt their skills to these various changes. This framework served as an interesting contrast between larger corporations that often struggle during times of change because they expect their managers/leaders to adapt to ay type of change, and the skills required by start-up entrepreneurs in our Entrepreneurial Essentials course. While it may often be a VC firm that pushes leadership changes at start-ups as they grow (ie. bring in an experienced CEO/President), this seems to better align to the concept that not all leaders have the skills to manage a company through all types of changes. It will be interesting to explore how successful corporations are able to create leaders with these skills, or how they transition in new leaders as the change-management requirements shift.<br /><br />All in all, it was a very full weekend of new ideas and intense discussion. There is not going to be any let-up in this final semester, and I expect the overall level of discussion to rise quite dramatically as we find the intersections of many of these important topics and how they will shape our world over the next 5, 10, 20 and 50 years.<br /> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/a87df2dc-58ae-4f65-8cbc-b1f933bccfe7/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a87df2dc-58ae-4f65-8cbc-b1f933bccfe7" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related more-info pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45314754978279842.post-59280068630528614172009-08-30T15:50:00.005-04:002009-08-30T15:58:22.999-04:00Twitter Usage Recommendations<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8wfZqElQDimGbEmK80GRNdJyOYBAeZyuPAB7Uq7NSWIasuE6AF_8uIC4EML1DIs971GASVsTpfuuTj26Viaqg1MQ_c_QQHL5TvFCffWEyg2YcwNl4L2CbsdZP6Xjz_eJiCh01h49HQY/s1600-h/twitter-bird.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 184px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8wfZqElQDimGbEmK80GRNdJyOYBAeZyuPAB7Uq7NSWIasuE6AF_8uIC4EML1DIs971GASVsTpfuuTj26Viaqg1MQ_c_QQHL5TvFCffWEyg2YcwNl4L2CbsdZP6Xjz_eJiCh01h49HQY/s320/twitter-bird.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375848128133544466" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Over the weekend, our <a href="http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/2009/08/final-semester-approaches.html">Entrepreneurship</a> professor (Stan Mandel, <a href="http://twitter.com/stanmandel">@stanmandel</a>) let us know that he was beginning to use Twitter to comment about some of his entrepreneurial ideas. Since he's just getting started, I sent him along these tips for better Twitter usage:<br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br />1) I've written about Twitter quite a bit over the past year, including some usage suggestions and feedback I've received:<br /><a href="https://owa.mba.wfu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search/label/twitter" target="_blank">http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search/label/twitter</a><br /><br />2) Personalization<br />- People rarely take you seriously (ie. follow you) if you don't personalize your profile<br />- People almost always check out your info/background before following you back<br />- Add a picture. Something that will be easy to recognize amongst all their other tweets (face picture, company logo, etc.)<br />- Add a profile description; whatever will fit in 160 characters (ie. Babcock Demon Incubator; WFU Professor of Entrepreneurship; Angell Center for Entrepreneurship, etc.)<br />- Add an interesting background picture/images for your page<br /><br />3) Lots of great ideas come from other people's tweets. You can look up keywords at <a href="https://owa.mba.wfu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://search.twitter.com" target="_blank">http://search.twitter.com</a>, and if you see anything interesting, consider following those people.<br /><br />4) When you find interesting people to follow, check out who they follow. As you mentioned yesterday, smart & successful people tend to run in the same crowds.<br /><br />5) It's often useful to add a "hashtag" to your posts, especially if they are about the same concepts. It's a tag that other people can easily search for. Makes it easier for people to find (ie. <span style="font-weight: bold;">#entrepreneurship</span>, or <span style="font-weight: bold;">#babcockdemon</span> or <span style="font-weight: bold;">#wfumba</span>). Just add it to the end of your posts (if you have enough space).<br /><br />6) Download a Twitter client for your phone (assuming it supports applications), or use the SMS/Text function. This makes it much easier to post, as you don't have to wait to be back at your PC to communicate an idea or ask a question.<br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" > </span><ul><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><a href="https://owa.mba.wfu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://crackberry.com/twitter-roundup" target="_blank">http://crackberry.com/twitter-roundup</a> (Blackberry Clients)</span></li><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://mashable.com/2009/05/02/twitter-iphone-apps/">http://mashable.com/2009/05/02/twitter-iphone-apps/</a> (iPhone clients)<br /></span></li><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><a href="https://owa.mba.wfu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/how_do_you_update_twitter_by_sms" target="_blank">http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/how_do_you_update_twitter_by_sms</a> (updating twitter via SMS/Text)</span></li></ul><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br />7) One method of gaining followers (which is very valuable, because they spread your ideas or answer your questions) is to give them background on your ideas. Send out tweets that talk about your goals (ie. find new ideas), your methods (Angell, Babcock Demon), and what you find interesting (URLs)<br /><br />8) Re-tweet interesting things you find from other people. This is done using a string like this "RT <a href="http://twitter.com/bgracely">@bgracely</a> <interesting idea=""><interesting>". Many times, you'll find that people you re-tweet will follow you back.<br /><br />I know that's a lot of stuff, but considering how many people are moving much of their online communication and information finding to Twitter, it's useful to be using some tips/tricks that have been proven to help get you actively involved in the community.</interesting></interesting></span>Brian Gracelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805882840622149543noreply@blogger.com