CAGE, 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 over there 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).

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.

So in that vain of thinking, I highlight a couple of analogies:

• 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 loosely used that framework to analyze a problem happening in corporate IT organizations as technologies like VMware's virtualization 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.
• In Leading Change & Entrepreneurship, we often talk about ways to come up with new ideas or sources of new ways to solve problems. This recent article 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.

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.

A brief look behind the founding of Twitter

As I've discussed many times before, I'm a huge fan of Twitter and the new forms of communication that it opens to users around the world. I found this brief video showing Twitter creator/founder Jack Dorsey 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."

I'm looking forward to utilizing many of they valuable ideas in the two start-ups that I'm working on now.

Are MBAs necessary for Start-Ups or VC?

With our Entrepreneurship course in full swing, and keeping my interest, I thought I'd post another interesting article from one of my new favorite Entrepreneur/VC blogs - "Both Sides of the Table".

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:

• Curriculum - 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.
• Colleagues - 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.
• Sales - 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.

Some Excellent Entrepreneur Blogs

Here's a few of my favorites. Some business starters, and some business investors:

Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) - A VC

Marc Cuban - Blog Maverick

Seth Godin - Blog

Mike Hirshland (Polaris Ventures) - VC Mike

Marc Andreessan - pmarca

Jeff Pulver - Blog

Tim Ferris - Four Hour Work Week

Phil McKinney - Killer Innovations

Andrew Warner - Mixergy

Mark Suster - (GPR Partners) Both Sides of the Table

10 Characteristics of Great Companies and Great Investors

As 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.

• Fred Wilson's 10 Characteristics of Great Companies
• Matt Blumberg's 10 Characteristics of Great Investors

As one of the leading voices in technology and venture capital, Fred's blog (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.

China -

[cross-posted from our WFU MBA China Trip blog]

It's been just over three months since we returned from our International Trip to China 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:

1 - 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.

2 - 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.

3 - 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.

4 - 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.

5 - 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.

6 - 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.

7 - 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 Mike Lord. If you are passionate about International business, Mike will match your passion by 2x.

8 - 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!!

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.

A weekend of Contrasting Viewpoints

Our first weekend back in the final semester was a showcase of contrasting viewpoints, and some very dire predictions.

Our first session was lead by John Allison, 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 10 core values that he used to lead BB&T. Well known for his affinity 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 "expanded home ownership", 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.

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 "it must be done, it's our future" and "it's too expensive, even though it might be needed". Using a framework from the following books, we began to walk through the challenges, opportunities and existing approaches to the US energy economy.

• Natural Capitalism - Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
• The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability
• Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility

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 massive scope 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 "Peak Oil" and that many natural resources on earth could be near extinction levels by the end of the 21st century.

Saturday's classes were a contrast in management and leadership evolution between large corporations (Leading Change course) and start-ups (Entrepreneurship course). Using the 8 step framework 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.

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.

Twitter Usage Recommendations

Over the weekend, our Entrepreneurship professor (Stan Mandel, @stanmandel) 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:

1) I've written about Twitter quite a bit over the past year, including some usage suggestions and feedback I've received:
http://bgracely-exft2009-wfumba.blogspot.com/search/label/twitter

2) Personalization
- People rarely take you seriously (ie. follow you) if you don't personalize your profile
- People almost always check out your info/background before following you back
- Add a picture. Something that will be easy to recognize amongst all their other tweets (face picture, company logo, etc.)
- Add a profile description; whatever will fit in 160 characters (ie. Babcock Demon Incubator; WFU Professor of Entrepreneurship; Angell Center for Entrepreneurship, etc.)
- Add an interesting background picture/images for your page

3) Lots of great ideas come from other people's tweets. You can look up keywords at http://search.twitter.com, and if you see anything interesting, consider following those people.

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.

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. #entrepreneurship, or #babcockdemon or #wfumba). Just add it to the end of your posts (if you have enough space).

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.

• http://crackberry.com/twitter-roundup (Blackberry Clients)
• http://mashable.com/2009/05/02/twitter-iphone-apps/ (iPhone clients)
  
• http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/how_do_you_update_twitter_by_sms (updating twitter via SMS/Text)

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)

8) Re-tweet interesting things you find from other people. This is done using a string like this "RT @bgracely ". Many times, you'll find that people you re-tweet will follow you back.

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.

Free vs. Fee - Learning a Foreign Language

I've written several times about my interest in the nuances of the freemium business model. I've also written about my struggles to learn some basic Chinese (Mandarin) both prior to our China Trip and since then.

So when I came across this article from Bill Gurley (VC) recently, it peaked my interest because of the intersection of these two recent passions. It highlights the differences between Rosetta Stone and Live Mocha, both in their business models (fee vs. free) and their approach to teaching (individual vs. social communities). As Mr.Gurley points out, free or freemium might not be the next generation of business models for everyone, but every company needs to consider how a competitor using those models could impact their business.

Having struggled with the Rosetta Stone model of teaching, I'm going to give the Live Mocha approach a try. I'm intrigued by the community aspects, as I truly believe that the real trick to learning a new language is putting it to use. I was willing to pay for Rosetta Stone in the past, but I truly believe that community-based learning is the way of the future. I hopeful that Live Mocha leads to better success.

The Big Environmental Problem - The First Step to Change

[Cross-posted to The Environmental Capitalist blog]

One of the major themes of our last semester will be Environmental Sustainability, as it will come into play in our Global Strategy, Leading Change and Management Practicum courses.

As prep work, we're reading:

• Natural Capitalism - Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
• The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability
• Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility

I haven't read all of these books yet, but a couple common themes come through in each of them.

• The world's current consumption rate of natural resources will deplete the planet by the end of the 21st century (give or take a few years).
• Much of the technology needed to solve today's problems exist today. It isn't necessarily ready to be deployed in a "cost effective" manner, but it exists today.
• The interconnectedness of many of the problems is extremely complex (ie. Pollution comes from A, affects B/C/D, this depletes E/F/G, causing problems with X/Y/Z, etc.)

Unlike many people that want to bash things like Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, turning it into a political debate, or a science debate, or a morality debate, I don't believe it's really a debate about any of those things. This is a marketing debate and it's being lost by everyone that is passionate about the concept.

Let's break this down a little bit and see if we can make a few suggestions:

• If the scientists are right and the world (at the current or forecasted pace) will run out of natural resources by the end of the 21st century, almost every person that can influence it (financially, politically, etc.) will be dead before that happens.
• As we've seen with things like the Y2K computer bug, or the underfunded U.S. Social Security program, intelligent people don't take action upon well known issues until they are right in front of them and teetering on the edge of chaos.
• As I've mentioned before, almost all of the discussions about sustainability are phrased in such massive scope that the average person can't grasp what that means. Is the rise of the ocean by 6" alot? Is a 1* increase in water near the Arctic Circle alot? 200 years of coal reserves available in the US seems like a long time, isn't it?

So essentially they are asking people to take action on things where they will never see the final act (or maybe even the intermission), they can't economically afford them today, and they can't actually grasp the scope of them other than in simple things like the price of gas in the summer.

So if you're selling this at the G8 summit, then it's a political or economic or moral discussion. But for the average person, it's hard for me to look at this as anything more than a massive marketing problem. And like many marketing problems, we need to convince people to make a change, especially the first change.

Let's try a simpler concept -

What if instead of the massive amount of money used for some of the 2008/2009 Gov't bailouts, that money had been focused on something that almost everyone in the US could grasp (since the US is the largest net-polluter in the world)? What if they had allowed GM and Chrysler to fail (real Chapter 11, not gov't bailout version), and completely focused the "Cash-for-Clunkers" program on trade-ins for vehicles that didn't use gasoline? You have a clunker, you MUST trade it in for a non-gasoline burning vehicle within 18 months. And within 5-10 years, all vehicles in the US must run on non-gasoline products. And while the initial price tags on the vehicles will be slightly higher, that can be blurred through subsidies, alternative taxes (sales tax, tire tax, whatever..). We have no idea where all the taxes dollars go today. And it's the law.

It would be the equivalent to the JFK "Man on the Moon" edict. It would focus all the industries surrounding automobiles to focus on green technologies because there is already a consumer demand for transportation, and it's the law. And it would be something that every person could grasp because cars intersect our lives on a daily basis. It's simple, it has a understandable timeline and it has massive scope of impact.

Would it have political and economic ramifications? Absolutely!! Both positive and negative, but at least they would be tangible by everyday people and governments.

• Less dependence on foreign oil - lower trade deficits; lower military expenditures to protect sea channels which carry oil; less fear of terrorist bombings
• Less pollution - lower healthcare spends on asthma, etc.
• Job creation - new distribution channels for the alternative energy mechanisms (refueling stations, repair services, etc.)

And it might be partially impractical (at this point), but that's OK. All change is considered impractical until you can convince someone to do it.

This isn't a tree-hugger vs. non tree-hugger issue, this is a citizens of Planet Earth issue. It's a massive set of issues and it's a long-term set of issues. But people need to do a better job of starting the discussion.

I'd just ask that the passionate people around this industry consider this approach for a second. See if it makes any sense. Maybe you aren't in the automotive sector, but how could this type of thinking be applied to your sector or sustainability. What is the first step you wish you could get people to take, and then how might you force that to happen? Maybe it wouldn't all happen through a new law, but maybe it happens through some other event. What would be your first step to change?