Denis Hayes

By: Martha Issue: Vision Section: Community

A Lifelong Environmental Advocate

Denis Hayes, the founder of Earth Day and current president and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, has devoted his life seeking to harmonize human needs and desires with the planet’s ability to support mankind. Utilizing every available venue to educate and evangelize, including articles, books and speaking engagements, and when necessary the courts and legal system, Hayes promotes the application of the principles of the science of ecology to the design of human ecosystems.

So, what does that mean?

The science of ecology’s fundamental principal is that everything is connected to and dependent upon everything else. Nothing survives when the delicate balance of clean air, water, food, sunshine, predator and prey is disrupted. We do not know the precise tipping point for any given species to become extinct, but we know extinction is a fact. The million dollar questions then are: What is the tipping point for extinction of the human race? What are the key tipping points of other species along the way?

Progress And Its Impacts

Progress is generally seen as a good thing. The Industrial Revolution is often touted as a major inflection point of progress that brought massive changes in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and economic policies. It brought people out of rural living into urban environments and created the middle class. It also brought mass production of goods, making them affordable to this new middle class. It brought improved transportation, enabling rapid movement of goods from coast to coast and border to border.

However, progress has a significant downside, specifically the unintended consequences of rapid change. The Industrial Revolution brought an extensive increase in population, consumption, and the associated waste. It brought massive increases in pollution of every type—including air and water—from the base source of energy production all the way through the production, distribution, and disposal of these mass produced goods.

It is through examining the impacts of unbridled economic gains that Denis Hayes’ vision of balancing human wants and needs with ecological science came to fruition.

Hayes’ Roots

Hayes’ work was spurred by his childhood community and the signs of progress that were literally sickening the residents and surrounding environment. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, he witnessed massive deforestation in the name of economic growth. The deforestation brought environmental issues such as erosion and water pollution. The paper mill that dominated his hometown introduced excessive air and water pollutants that cascaded to human impacts, including respiratory illnesses.

Hayes dropped out of college and traveled the world, visiting developed and undeveloped countries. He witnessed firsthand what Charles Darwin wrote about in The Origin of Species, “All life on the planet is capable of adapting up to a certain degree then it will fail and become extinct.” This knowledge and message has been shared and published for over a hundred years from Henry Thoreau to Jared Diamond. Hayes returned to the United States and set out on his life’s mission, to make sure people understand that societies will collapse if not nurtured.

Ecology And The 1960s

Hayes’ work as the national coordinator of the first Earth Day started in the mid-1960s, a period of time when big business was at odds with workers and the environment; when citizens were at odds with all levels of their government; and when governments were at odds with each other. The 1960s saw the impact of DDT, Lake Erie being nearly killed by industrial and agricultural runoff, rivers in Ohio spontaneously combusting, and the introduction of Walmart and the promotion of mass consumption.

Mass media, specifically television, was also introduced into the family home in the early 1960s. With television came news, video footage and the education of large numbers of people to the issues of the times. There were widespread calls to action. The 1960s became the decade of protests. The time was ripe for Hayes to share his vision of harmonizing the needs and desires of mankind and earth.

As Hayes described the emerging period, “It was the Environmental Golden Age.” After the first Earth Day held April 22, 1970, President Richard Nixon saw an opportunity to engage the 20 million people in the streets who spanned all electoral demographics. He created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with an executive order and signed the landmark Clean Air Act of 1970. Additional legislation over the next few years included numerous bills specific to water and marine life, and most notably the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

Current State of Affairs

Since the 1960s and 1970s, environmental awareness has ebbed and flowed—recently tilting more to the ebbing than the flowing. Politics have grown more contentious, corporations more powerful in terms of guiding public policy, constituents more distracted and disengaged. However, Hayes has stayed with his mission for the past forty-plus years.

Hayes notes, “Environmental issues are global in nature. The institutions involved in driving change are slow, as they should be. I have faith that the issues are sufficiently important that the changes we need to see will come.”

Hayes is accurate in his assessment that change, albeit slowly, is occurring. Earth Day has expanded to over 190 countries, environmental awareness is on the radar of people around the globe, and food and sustainable energy issues make the news cycle on a regular basis.

The protestors of the 1960s are industry leaders of today. They come to the boardrooms and executive suites with more knowledge and understanding of the complex interrelationships of raw materials, production, distribution, consumption, disposal and the environment than their predecessors. They are also faced with new and different issues never before seen—genetically engineered foods, peak oil, widening education and wealth gaps, and the rise of Second and Third World countries into First World consuming nations. The net result of the additional challenges facing the globe is that Hayes’ vision has expanded to include them. For example, he argues, “We now need to not just reduce carbon emissions, or even to just reach ‘net zero,’ but we need to actually pull large volumes of CO2 permanently out of the atmosphere.”

The Vision Going Forward

We have come full circle forty-plus years later, with Time naming The Protestor as Person of the Year in 2011. The tools for information dissemination, especially video footage, have improved with the introduction of social media, crowdsourcing, and flash crowds. The Internet offers near real-time communication between constituents and members of Congress, and local and state representatives. The ability to engage the average person has become as easy as a few key strokes and clicking send.

Hayes’ progress has not stopped since those early days. He continues his educational outreach efforts through the Bullitt Foundation. He remains active on the speaking circuit, spreading his vision of using ecological science to map growth and development of human ecosystems.

You can get a taste of Mr. Hayes’ low key, yet impassioned style, by watching him deliver a brief synopsis of his vision and the driving factors behind developing Earth Day at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idKB0vrZwX4. Hayes will be sharing his thoughts and message as keynote speaker and honorary chair of the 4th Annual Global New Energy Summit being held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, April 9-11. In addition to his honed vision, Hayes brings deep knowledge specific to energy issues to the Summit. He wrote a bestselling book, Rays of Hope, which was influential to energy policy decisions during the Carter Administration. He was director of the Solar Energy Research Institute, known today as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. And he taught energy engineering and policy at Stanford University for five years. To attend the Global New Energy Summit visit http://www.globalnewenergysummit.org/.

To learn more about the Bullitt Foundation visit http://bullitt.org/. Martha Young is principal at NovaAmber, LLC, a business strategy company based in Golden. Young has held positions as industry analyst, director of market research, competitive intelligence analyst, and sales associate. She has written books, articles, and papers regarding the intersection of technology and business for over 15 years. She has co-authored four books on the topics of virtual business processes, virtual business implementations, and project management for IT. Young can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @myoung_vbiz.

Visionary Leaders Bring City Year to Denver

By: Rebecca Saltman Issue: Vision Section: Community

Impacting the National Dropout Crisis One Student at a Time

A little over two years ago business and community leaders from around metro Denver began raising the question of whether the organization garnering so much praise across the country—City Year—could address some of the issues confronting students in Denver Public Schools. Inquiries were made to the City Year headquarters in Boston to see what would be needed to cultivate a location in Denver. As local leaders joined the conversation, support increased, and the wheels started turning. However, attracting the forces for change took much more than a few conversations. It took great leadership, collaboration across multiple sectors, and a shared vision to make it a reality.

City Year is a nationwide nonprofit organization founded by Michael Brown, who still serves as CEO, and Alan Khazei whose mission is focused specifically on the high school dropout crisis. With 23 locations across the United States, as well as affiliates in London and Johannesburg, the organization has a tremendous reputation of success. The model identifies young leaders ages 17-24, called Corps Members, and leverages their talent, energy, and idealism to serve full-time in teams at local schools as tutors, mentors, and role models.

There are over 2,000 Corps Members across the country serving thousands of children and youth in urban school settings. These young leaders deliver targeted and school-wide interventions in literacy, math, attendance, and behavior, as well as providing support for after school programming. This intervention strategy targets third through ninth graders, providing consistent support to students throughout the entire school year. Corps Members serve high schools and the "feeder" elementary and middle schools generating the most dropouts.

Recent metrics compiled by program administrators revealed that 90 percent of all students tutored by City Year in 2010 improved raw literacy scores. Perhaps not so surprisingly, there was also a 55 percent reduction in the number of students with less than 90 percent attendance as a result of programmatic attendance support activities. These numbers are just samples of the impact that is being made across the country. In the Denver metro area, leaders had a shared vision to actively address the dropout crisis in Denver Public Schools—its hallmark was the 51.8 percent graduation rate.

The founding committee for City Year Denver was comprised of Ben Walton (Walton Family Foundation), Christine Benero (Mile High United Way), Scott Binder (formerly of Comcast), Barry Curtiss-Lusher (Bay Philanthropic Fund), Vanecia B. Kerr (formerly of TIAA-CREF), Nina Lopez (Colorado Department of Education), Jacqueline Lundquist (1874 Chairperson at Colorado College), Melanie Melcher (Colorado State Land Board) and Colorado State House Representative Joe Miklosi. These individuals, under the leadership of Ben Walton's initial $1million Challenge Grant, worked to provide leadership with introductions to key political, business, and civic influencers in Denver's cityscape. The idea was to develop a collaborative team from the government, education, and private sectors, who also wanted to improve education for Denver students.

This concept of collaboration was not new to those involved in the startup of City Year Denver. In fact, the entire organization operates as a collaborative model between multiple sectors. City Year, as an AmeriCorps organization, receives a portion of their financial support from the federal budget that spurs general volunteerism. Additionally, City Year partners with school districts and enthusiastic private sector resources, all of whom are valued partners in the success of the program.

One of the founding committee members, Vanecia Kerr, was instrumental in helping organize the initial meeting with Superintendent Tom Boasberg and members of his leadership team. Kerr attended this meeting with leaders from City Year to demonstrate that the business community was also interested in working with Denver Public Schools to address the issues.

After 18 months of planning, including intensive efforts to raise the necessary initial investments to match the $1 million challenge grant from the Walton Family Foundation, the implementation of a City Year Denver site received a favorable vote from the National Board of Trustees in January 2011. The founding committee was excited and Denver Public Schools immediately started planning to have its own Corps Members deployed in local schools by the fall of 2011.

In preparation for the new site, there was much work to do. A startup team was quickly identified and began hiring the initial 50 Corps Members. Marc Morgan, the startup director for Denver, had a rich history with the organization and was a great fit for the growth of the Denver work. He had worked his way up through the organization, serving in various roles at City Year Greater Philadelphia and City Year Boston. Because of his background, Morgan was instrumental in laying the groundwork for a full deployment in a few short months—one of the fastest startups in the history of the organization.

With less than two fiscal quarters to create a startup team and full time staff, City Year continued their partnership with Denver Public Schools (DPS) to outline where the work was needed the most. Five schools within the DPS system were targeted including Lake Middle School, North High School, Rachel B. Noel Middle School, Montebello High School, and the Denver Center for 21st Century Learning. Each of these schools would have "feet in the street" a team of Corps Members dedicated to serving their students.

By July 2011, the team was in place. Not only did City Year successfully partner with Denver Public Schools to establish the program, but a full-time team was selected to coordinate this effort. Jeff Park was identified as the executive director based upon his experience as a teacher, principal and leader of several nonprofit organizations in the past. Vanecia Kerr was selected as the managing director for external responsibilities overseeing marketing, intra-organization communications, and program development. Marc Morgan was also identified to continue in a leadership role for the site as the managing director overseeing the program and service efforts. The mission is clear—keep students in school and on track to graduate.

Every 26 seconds a student quits school in America. We know that high school dropouts are three times more likely than college graduates to be unemployed and eight times more likely to be incarcerated than high school graduates. We also know that barely 50 percent of all African American students and less than 66 percent of Hispanic students will graduate with their class. With more than 12 million students projected to drop out over the next decade, it is estimated to cost the nation more than $3 trillion. And, thanks to the breakthrough research by Johns Hopkins, we also know who these students are as early as the sixth grade. So if we know who they are, City Year believes they can put the resources behind them to ensure they stay in school and on track and change the nation’s educational structure, one student at a time.

As for Denver, the City Year program is growing. They now have 50 Corps Members working 10-12 hour days with 500-700 students each day. The initial results are showing more consistent attendance and broader acceptance of school culture. With their red jackets and khaki pants, Corps Members have developed relationships with students that defy easy classification. Some students say that if it wasn’t for their City Year Corps Member they wouldn’t even be in school. It’s a fact, there is a special synergy in these peer relationships that transforms the students on a daily basis.

Going forward, City Year Denver is expected to expand beyond the initial five schools. But to reach the enormous amounts of students who are not on-track to graduate, the organization will need nearly 300 total Corps Members. Plans to generate the funding necessary in support of this goal are moving forward.

“Now that I’ve transitioned from the founding committee for City Year Denver to managing director, I have been able to see the full cycle of the startup process. When we first met with Superintendent Tom Boasberg, he expressed enthusiasm and a sincere willingness to partner with City Year to ensure the best possible outcome for the students. This commitment has continued through today and has now involved multiple leaders within DPS, partners in the nonprofit community and a growing list of support from companies like Comcast, Xcel Energy, and EnCana. We are so thankful for Ben Walton and the Walton Family Foundation, along with the Daniels Fund and the Anschutz Foundation who have all provided the initial investment to start City Year Denver. It is the collaboration from multiple sectors of our community that continues to fuel the success of our organization and ultimately the success of our students,” said Vanecia Kerr.

At City Year they believe that by engaging school districts, the private sector and the federal government through AmeriCorps, they can change the trajectory of students in America. In fact, they already are.

If you would like to support City Year Denver, please contact Vanecia B. Kerr at [email protected] or 720-308-7475. For more information on City Year, please visit their website at www.cityyear.org.

Rebecca Saltman is a social entrepreneur and the president and founder of an independent collaboration building firm designed to bridge business, government, nonprofits and academia. To learn more visit www.foot-in-door.com.

Service Above Self

By: Kim DeCoste Issue: Vision Section: Community

Rotary International

The careful balance of tradition and innovation marks the success of Rotary International, one of the largest and most renowned membership organizations in the world. Rotary has a legacy of leadership that was born in the United States in 1905, when Chicago lawyer, Paul P. Harris, sought to create a club reminiscent of the friendly small town spirit he remembered from his youth. Harris and three other men began meeting regularly, “rotating” from one office to the other. Harris’s idea was to “have a fellowship composed of businessmen from different occupations, without restrictions of politics or religion.” Most of the early members were self-made—or still self-making—men who had “fought their way unaided” from farms or small villages to Chicago to build their lives. In fact, “Rotary afforded the first real opportunity (for members) to enjoy the intimate first-name acquaintance reminiscent of boyhood days far from maddening crowds.”

The Chicago group quickly added to its ranks and over the next five years Harris helped launch similar clubs in San Francisco (2), Oakland (3), Seattle (4), and Los Angeles (5). The vision quickly expanded as Paul Harris imagined as an “Around the World Rotary.” Rotary’s egalitarian view encouraged members to know one another by first name as people first. Though business often transpires through Rotary relationships, even today Rotarians’ badges in the United States have the first name featured prominently and do not bear the names of the companies they represent, but rather the industry areas in which they serve.

The notion of fellowship is not a unique one, but the fact that Rotary’s earliest members recognized the power of their mutual association to connect and collaborate for the good of others is inspirational. By 1925, with more than 2,000 clubs internationally and an estimated 108,000 members, the organization adopted its motto, “Service Above Self.” Rotarians had realized they could help one another, of course, but they could also spread their efforts more broadly for the benefit of others. In so doing, they strengthened their personal relationships, professional ties, and built stronger communities. By 1932, Herbert J. Taylor created The Four Way Test, which is the code of ethics that still guides the organization. It was adopted 11 years later and has since been translated into more than 100 languages. The test is a simple means by which Rotarians gauge their undertakings. It says, “Of the things we think, say or do: Is it the TRUTH?; Is it FAIR to all concerned?; Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?; and Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

It is remarkable now when one looks at these simple foundational elements to see what an incredible organization Rotary has become. From the small handful of men in 1905, today Rotary has burgeoned with membership of 1.2 million Rotarians in over 34,000 Clubs with more than 500 Districts in more than 200 countries or geographic areas. The roots of fellowship run deep and wide to form a dynamic and ever-relevant organization of like-minded albeit different people who seek, through fellowship, to do more not only for themselves and their communities, but for people a world apart whom they may never meet.

What truly differentiates Rotary is the audacity of its vision. Under its long tradition of varied global leadership, Rotary has identified enormously ambitious goals and continues to push forward with determination. Goals such as eradicating polio, for example, seem impossible. Or, ensuring clean drinking water for the people of the world, or promoting basic education and literacy internationally—are just a few of the goals the organization has undertaken. Wisely, Rotary also understands that it cannot do this work alone. It has assumed a leadership role not only in defining these ambitious goals but also in seeking partners who are equally motivated and invested to finding solutions.

Take the case of eradicating polio. When Rotary undertook this goal in 1988, more than 350,000 children globally were reported to have the illness. Thanks to the diligent effort of Rotarians around the world through fundraising and hard work, over 99 percent of the cases have been eradicated, with fewer than 650 cases reported in 2011. Polio, with which most young Americans today are unfamiliar, is a devastatingly crippling disease and potentially fatal infection, which mostly strikes children under the age of five in countries in Asia, Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. It has no cure but can be prevented by a vaccine that can cost as little as 60 cents. Polio paralysis can occur within hours of infection and is almost always irreversible. It has been the world’s greatest cause of disability. Rotary proudly announced on January 18, 2012, that it had succeeded in meeting the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s $200 million match to fund polio eradication.

$200 million!

“The fundraising milestone was reached in response to $355 million in challenge grants awarded to The Rotary Foundation by the Gates Foundation to be earmarked specifically for polio immunization activities.” Happily, on January 13 of this year, India marked a full year with no new cases reported. Progress in the remaining areas will be challenging for various reasons, but Rotary and its partners in this effort remain determined to see the disease eliminated from our planet. Other partners in the effort include the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF as well as several United Nations agencies.

Part of the success of any visionary organization must come from its ability to define its goals. Rotary has done an excellent job of defining focus areas for its Foundation, which therefore helps individual clubs align their efforts. The Rotary Foundation is a charitable organization supported solely by voluntary contributions. It is managed by a board of trustees and trustee chair and provides financial support to the clubs and districts. This type of consistent planning and infrastructure alignment is essential to successful connection and collaboration as ICOSA defines it. The service areas that the Rotary Foundation seeks to support are: • Peace and conflict prevention/resolution • Disease prevention and treatment • Water and sanitation • Maternal and child health • Basic education and literacy • Economic and community development

For each of these focus areas, Rotary has identified internal and external resources and it encourages individual clubs to align their efforts behind these goals. This ensures streamlined and effective funding, accountability, and benchmarked, transparent progress that is consistent internationally.

Clubs take on their own signature projects globally and locally and support their district’s causes not only through donations but also through true involvement. Rotarians travel extensively and do much of the physical work as well. One only need pick up a copy of The Rotarian, a monthly members’ magazine to see the “World Roundup” where Rotary news from around the world is featured. In January, 2012, the highlights include 1) a window safety campaign in Oregon to prevent children from falling from buildings; 2) a 5.3 million Peso campaign in Tlalnepantla, Mexico to fund a school construction project; 3) a French club’s Opera fundraiser which funded 23,600 polio vaccine doses; 4) a Coronado, California club’s efforts to get 80,000 pairs of shoes to a shantytown outside of Port Elizabeth, South Africa; 5) a Vancouver Island, B.C., club worked with a school in Ghana to improve facilities at a school as well as provide necessary materials to support health and education; 6) a joint project between Indian and Finnish clubs funded desks for 83 schools in Hyderabad; 7) Rotarians worked on an “I wish” program in Korea to help elementary school children with funds to support their dreams; and 8) in the Philippines where only 1 in 100,000 women can afford vaccinations for cervical cancer, several clubs are working together from Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia and Taiwan to get necessary health care to women. These highlights represent a fraction of the work Rotarians are doing around the world! One can only imagine the kind of leader required to drive actions and outcomes of such a diverse international organization. Currently Mr. Kalyan Banerjee of Vapi, Gujarat, India is the President of Rotary International. Mr. Banerjee is the epitome of what a Rotary leader should be. He is the chair of United Phosphorus, Bangladesh and a director of United Phosphorous, Ltd., which is one the largest manufacturers of agrochemicals in India. Mr. Banerjee and his wife, Binota, a social worker, moved to Vapi when it was a tiny town with no infrastructure. As he built a successful company and was able to contribute time and resources to his community through Rotary, they have been instrumental to the construction and success of multiple schools and the local hospital. As Mr. Banerjee said in an interview about the partnership with his wife in his work, “one cannot clap with one hand.”

Mr. Banerjee joined the Rotary Club of Vapi in 1972—mostly out of “curiosity”—and has served in multiple roles from club president to district governor before beginning his international service in 1995, when he was appointed to the board of directors. He has served on multiple international committees ranging from the Poverty and Hunger Alleviation Task Force to the Child Mortality Emphasis Coordinating Team. He has come to understand the broad reach of Rotary International’s vision around the world and challenged Rotarians to “reach within and embrace humanity.” He went on to say in his acceptance of the presidency that he “can’t wait to write the history of good.”

Such is the way Rotarians at every level seem to be motivated, from the local club to the current and future leadership. In January of this year, ICOSA sponsored and attended the sixth Annual State of the State Luncheon and Culmination of 100 Years of Rotary Service to Colorado in Denver. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who is also a Rotarian spoke, as did several distinguished Rotarians. Among them was Ron Burton, who is the choice for the 2013-2014 Rotary International Presidency. We had a chance to sit down with Mr. Burton and were struck by his passionate dedication to Rotary and the potential for good it represents. Mr. Burton spoke of the good work being done now with polio and in other areas.

He has been a trustee of the Rotary Foundation and worked on multiple task forces. For all that Rotary has done, he talked about the “iceberg effect” and how they have just touched the tiny top (above the water) of the massive potential they have as Rotarians to “be the best they can be” and “give of them-selves.” Burton said he could “never repay Rotary for what it has done for me” and believes that through Rotary, members have more opportunity “to make a difference in the world and repay for the space we occupy.”

Burton is fully committed to continuing to build meaningful partnerships and alliances to spread Rotary’s reach. There is discussion of a possible alliance with the Peace Corps, about which he is excited. He wants to see the number of Rotarians continue to grow and suggests that recruitment should be a “constant thrust” of members not only to “replace themselves not just every year, but as often as they can.” Rotary has made great strides, by the way, in expanding its ranks to women and younger people. There are still traditional clubs around the world that are men-only, but the majority have reached out to women since 1987 when they were first admitted. Burton, embraces women in the Rotary and said of them, “They reinforce our number and help us to do more good.” He looks forward to working closely with Mrs. Jetta Burton, saying, “My wife will be an integral part of my time as president.” He was instrumental in helping his club in Norman, Oklahoma and surrounding areas break down the barriers of membership for women and continues to advocate for their involvement. The face of Rotary continues to change with new clubs springing up full of young people with greater vision of what Rotary’s potential may be in the future.

In the foreword of his book, My Road to Rotary, founder Paul Harris wrote about the journey from boy to man. He reflected on how the lessons he was taught as a boy helped him grown into the man he had become, and he reflects on the positive changes his younger self brought upon his older self. Rotary International is on a similar journey of discovery and growth and continues to learn and improve. The organization, which Harris founded, has become instrumental in so many parts of the world in making lives better, people stronger, and communities richer in talent and resources. The fellowship of Rotary has solidified relationships that expand beyond the reach of any individual member and collectively reflect the good that is within each of us when we connect and collaborate.

Harris’s words ring as true today as when they were first penned and they inspire us with the strength of one man’s vision, which was granted to millions for the good of all. Harris wrote, “The boy taught the man the necessity of being tolerant of all forms of religious and political faiths. He taught him not to be too critical of the views of others, whatever those views might be. The boy taught the man of the joys of neighborliness and friendliness and good will toward all. It took considerable time for these lessons to sink in—the grown up boy was too busy having a good time—but I am glad to be able to say that eventually the man took the teachings of the boy seriously and tried to extend them to all men.”

Goal Zero

By: Michael Dale Issue: Vision Section: Community

Harnessing Power From The Sun

As portable devices grow in popularity and use, the market for portable power to recharge them has grown exponentially. However, the majority of the solutions provided by some of the industry giants do not meet the needs of portable device users. While there are currently short-term solutions to recharging, GOAL ZERO has designed a long-term sustainable solution.

GOAL ZERO’s solar-based products are the first and only truly effective portable mobile power products on the market. With their fully integrated, full system technology, they are also the only products designed to be widely versatile.

Over the past several years, the mobile device industry has revolutionized the way we work, entertain, and communicate by providing us advanced mobile devices such as smart phones, laptops, MP3 players and lGPS devices. As part of this revolution, users are now given the tools to access the Internet and work remotely, but are now consuming power in places where they previously did not. GOAL ZERO systems can provide a “plug” for any power need anywhere, anytime.

The company’s solar panels utilize mono-crystalline technology, which is the most efficient and reliable type of panel, offering the highest wattage per square foot in comparison to other types of panels. Made from a single silicon crystal (as opposed to many smaller pieces of crystal fused together), the mono-crystalline solar panel also performs the best in low light and extreme temperature conditions. The solar panels are very durable and will only begin to see a very slight degradation after seven continuous years of use. They work extremely well in sunny conditions but will work even on an overcast day unless the clouds are extremely dense. The fewer clouds in the sky, the more effective the solar panels. Many GOAL ZERO power packs use lithium ion phosphate batteries, which in addition to being environmentally responsible, can be charged 2000+ times before beginning to lose optimal charge.

Providing a perfect blend of portability and power, GOAL ZERO products feature full solar energy systems—solar panels, power packs and accessories—each designed to work in concert with each other. And, unique daisy chain technology allows users to link multiple power sources together. These easy-to-use products come in a variety of sizes and wattage for any need, ranging from the ultra-portable Guide 10 Adventure Kit, which can power a cell phone, GPS device, and speakers on an overnight hike, to the Extreme Explorer Kit, which provides enough power to fuel an entire base camp.

In many parts of the world, electricity is an expensive commodity. GOAL ZERO solar power kits provide a solution that is both sustainable and economical. For people living in areas affected by natural catastrophes, solar kits are an extremely useful and economical solution for power needs. In addition, the rechargeable solar kits are a more economical solution to continually buying traditional disposable batteries. For consumers who are interested in decreasing their dependence on traditional energy sources, GOAL ZERO products provide an off-the-grid power supply.

“We’re excited to be part of this new industry and provide portable energy to adventurers who need power in remote locations; humanitarian organizations and emergency preparedness groups providing power and light in extreme situations; or to soccer mom’s on the go. They all benefit from our products,” said Joe Atkin, President of GOAL ZERO.

In 2012, GOAL ZERO introduced two landmark products to the portable power industry. The launch of the new Sherpa 50 Portable Recharger and the YETI 1250 Solar Generator at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas marked a major milestone for consumers looking to improve their experience while working or playing off the grid, as well as those seeking to secure the latest technology in emergency preparedness solutions.

The new Sherpa 50 portable recharger, which was recently recognized by the CEA as CES Innovation Honoree for Portable Power, will change how consumers power vital devices like phones and laptops. Weighing only 14 oz. (0.9 lbs.), this latest addition to the mid-size Sherpa line is less than half the load of its predecessor, yet it harnesses the same 50-watt hour power capacity. The most compact of the Sherpa line, the new Sherpa 50 truly represents on-the-go power, as it measures less than 5 inches on each side and is only 1 ½ inches thick, allowing it to easily fit in any bag or briefcase. It also features a unique “Power Port” that will enable users to charge laptops directly from the recharger, thus eliminating the need for an AC inverter, as well as the computer’s AC power cable. Instead, users will be able to plug their device directly into the Sherpa 50 using one of its included connector cables. The Sherpa 50 charges fully via solar panel in 5-10 hours or within 2-3 hours via wall outlet. It can in turn, power a smart phone for 10 hours; deliver 25 hours of music on an iPod; and afford users a valuable, extra hour of life on a dying laptop when a traditional wall outlet is nowhere in sight.

The Yeti 1250 Solar Generator is GOAL ZERO’s highest-capacity portable recharger to date and is the most easy to use, affordable, dependable and complete solution available for those looking to “trade-up” from their conventional gas-powered back-ups. The Yeti 1250 is a generating beast, standing 16 inches tall, 11.6 inches wide and 14.5 inches deep and weighing 103 pounds. Much like its namesake, the Yeti 1250 is extremely powerful, but rarely seen or heard. It not only features multiple ports so you can charge several devices at once, but it offers a variety of output types, including AC, 1.5 amp USB, 33amp 12V DC, 6.6 amp 12V DC, which are compatible with a wide array of electronics from GPS units to refrigerators. All of the ports are easily activated with a flick of the master switch, but can also be micro-managed by a power group to individually protect circuits.

The Yeti 1250 charges fully in 20-22 hours via sun or in 16-20 hours via a wall outlet. It can power a laptop for 30+ hours; support a printer through 18,000+ pages of printing; keep a full-sized refrigerator cold for two to four days straight and maintain subzero temperatures in a chest freezer for eight days. Furthermore, unlike traditional gas-fueled generators, the Yeti 1250 never produces more power than is being drawn from it, so users needn’t worry about wasting power or unnecessary maintenance.

“At GOAL ZERO it’s not just about making an amazing product—it’s about the application of our products in consumers’ daily lives,” Atkin said. “We strive to take out the complicated guess work of utilizing a solar unit and build simplicity in, so that we can deliver the most dependable and useful solutions to our customers.”

GOAL ZERO believes the need for power solutions will continue to grow exponentially and is aggressively building solutions to meet those needs. Within five years, the company seeks to be recognized as the leader of portable solar power products. Within 10 years, the company plans to have millions of customers creating power on every continent.

GOAL ZERO is not an inventor of new technology, but rather an innovator of solutions. Solar panels and rechargers aren’t new by any means, however by empowering customers with innovative solutions and using existing technology in a way that has not been done before, GOAL ZERO is leading the revolution within the portable power industry.

For more information, visit www.goalzero.com.

American Petroleum Institute - Houston

By: Emily Haggstrom Issue: Vision Section: Community

The Beginning of the Production Division

The first commercial oil well in the United States was developed largely through happenstance in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859, with petroleum originally being produced as a byproduct when distillers were manufacturing kerosene for lighting fuel prior to electricity. Once the light bulb was discovered, the need for kerosene diminished, and oil lost its favor. Technological advances continued to be made, however, as scientists established base formulas showing the importance of the substance as a source of energy as well as a lubricant.

By 1870 Standard Oil was established and petroleum production had drilled down to the core of America, injecting itself into industries and seeping into the lives of private citizens. By the early 1900’s, after some refining, the automobile had won favor amongst those that could afford them. The design of these coaches became more practical once their engines used gasoline in place of original engine designs that had required electricity. The need for gasoline solidified its place in society as filling stations were built to provide a steady stream of fuel to vehicle owners.

Recognizing the increasing need of oil, John D. Rockefeller, founder and chairman of Standard Oil, started guzzling up smaller independents in his quest to expand the company’s empire. By 1909, it controlled everything from production, refining and sales to manufacturing. Standard Oil was king, and its monopolized commodity was amassing a fortune. Although an antitrust case had already been filed against Standard Oil in 1906, it wasn’t until 1909 that the U.S. Department of Justice sued the company to abolish its monopoly. By 1911, under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was to be dissolved and divided into roughly 33 subsidiary companies.

As nations diverged on the battlefields of Europe in 1914, the United States chose neutrality. The barbarism of trench warfare eluded officials and in an election year, the prospect of initiating a war against the Central Powers was very unfavorable. Neutrality only lasted so long, however, after Germany declared that it would invoke unrestricted submarine warfare, which ended up killing American’s on the Lusitania passenger ship in addition to seven merchant ships. On April 6, 1917 Congress issued a declaration of war.

As America became more involved in the war, President Woodrow Wilson assessed programs at home that effected proper mobilization. He came to realize that many of these agencies and their programs were in dire need of reorganization. One such organization formed from these changes was a group called The National Petroleum War Service Committee, designed to develop a closer cooperative relationship between oilmen and federal agencies.1

Soon, the independents that were formed from the dissolution of Standard Oil, came together in an effort to quickly mobilize vital resources and supplies that would help the war efforts and servicemen overseas. Motorized vehicles and oil had transformed the war front evidenced by Britain’s propulsion over the course of the war. However, it was after the war that it became apparent how important of a role the industry played during the war and how much more important they would become to the public through automobiles and manufacturing.

Demand plummeted and the industry became focused on how to stabilize production following the war. Policies were changing and the administration at the time was concerned mostly with foreign policy. Those within the petroleum industry worked together toward cooperation and adopted decisive measures to self-regulate and ensure best practices. Every facet of the industry from refining and production to drilling and equipment manufacturers all agreed that a central trade organization to represent the industry, as it had been in wartime, was necessary. It would also help to establish consistency, enhance cooperation and solidify a voice for oil within public policy spheres.

Leaders from the Fuel Administration and members from the National Petroleum War Services Committee came together to develop a new trade association and the bylaws that they would operate under. On March 20, 1919 the American Petroleum Institute (API) was formed to “afford a means of cooperation with the government in all matters of national concern, foster foreign and domestic trade in American petroleum products, promote in general the interests of the petroleum industry in all its branches, and to promote mutual improvement of its members and the study of the arts and sciences connected with the oil and natural gas industry.”2

To this day the API is known for its advocacy, standardized oil field equipment and certifications. But at its inception, Mark Requa, Director of the Fuel Administration for API, stressed conservation and also advocated that the API should standardize its own business procedures and accounts before the federal government instilled its own. At the end of 1919, the Wilson administration had abolished all wartime agencies and the petroleum industry once again, was on its own.3

Texas, on the other hand had always been on its own; locals in the area had heard of documented cases of Spanish explorers using asphalt, tar and petroleum to fix their ships in 1543.4 Like discoveries on the East Coast, settlers had seen oil seeping from the ground in Texas, which led to the state’s first successful well and commensurately the states first successful oil field. Oilmen from out east recognized the development occurring in the Gulf Coast and descended on the region. Most of the production at the beginning of the 20th century was from wells in Beaumont, the boomtown; but like most boomtowns, production declined and companies eyed new areas to explore and lease.

Oil companies soon came to capitalize on the salt dome gushers that were quickly being discovered around Southeast Texas. As geologists and drillers sought new locations to explore and develop, administration and management for the oil companies moved to Texas. After the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Houston, the railroad hub of East Texas and the newest city to open its own shipping port, saw increased development. Infrastructure and transportation, transformed the city from just another boomtown to the epicenter of oil.

With extensive production occurring outside of Houston and the Gulf Coast region, it could only be expected that a chapter of the API would form in Houston. On October 30, 1934, at the Rice Hotel in downtown Houston, a meeting was called amongst the Southwestern District of the API to organize the city’s chapter. 75 oilmen attended the meeting discussing the benefits provided by local chapters that would produce direct and positive results to the local industry. It was then that the acting advisory committee elected the first officers to serve for the Houston chapter; electing A.W. Thompson, of Thompson Drilling; C.A. Warner, of Houston Oil Company; Warren L. Baker, of the Gulf Publishing Company and; W.S. Crake of the Shell Oil Corporation.

From the conclusion of that first meeting, the city’s new group would be known as the Houston Chapter of the American Petroleum Institute, sponsored by the organization’s Division of Production. The group was tasked with organizing and fostering the spirit of economic cooperation among those directly engaged in the production of oil and gas, by promoting a free exchange of ideas among members.5 Anyone who was actively engaged in the petroleum industry or whose aim was to further their work, was accepted into the group in exchange for their one dollar annual membership fee. The groups first meeting was held November 20, 1934.

At its onset, the chapter’s officers included executives and other managers from major producers like the Texas Co. (Texaco), Humble Oil & Refining (ExxonMobil), the Gulf Production Company (Chevron) and Shell. The unregulated environment brought members together at general meetings to discuss topics pertinent to the oil and gas industry and provided a forum where specifically skilled individuals could talk to their side of the trade; bringing crucial pieces of information through cross-sections of the industry. As oil continued to dominate the city, Houston’s Chapter of the API became the largest chapter in the United States.

By the 1940s the U.S. lead the world in oil production. Oil and its industry were soaring. The Chapter thrived from the inclusive knowledge and benefits its members provided. The chairmen from previous years continued to support the group’s efforts and business outside of the group went on as usual. Products, technology and procedures continued to transform the industry. The group hosted events and conducted meetings as usual.

Texas was leading the nation in production. In an effort to prevent resources waste, the Railroad Commission of Texas established the Oil and Gas Division to regulate the exploration, production and transportation of oil and natural gas in Texas.6 Hearings were conducted each month to determine how much oil the pipelines and refineries needed to transport and process, announcing “allowable” maximum production limits for every oilfield in the state and restricting production to those levels. This effectively set nationwide pricing for many years.

Supply and demand continued to rise in the 1950s, but at the expense of foreign nations. The Organization of Petroleum Producing States (OPEC) unified, imposing an embargo, which sent prices skyrocketing. Because the United States was so dependent on foreign oil, when OPEC unilaterally reduced supply, America faced its first oil crisis. Demand for oil fell and producers struggled to find new sources of oil through exploration. The countries next oil shock in the 1980s led to another sharp increase in pricing. The effects of the second shock proved to be economically overwhelming, as drilling drastically curtailed and employment decreased the sustainability for demand.

The Houston Chapter felt the sting from the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s. “We’ve handled these swings as best we could,” said Clyde Perrere, the Chapter’s Chairman in 1974, “But we’ve never closed our doors.” Because Houston’s base was, and continues to be, not so labor intensive, its economy bounced back as oil field services, production and refining jobs continued to be a pillar for economic prosperity. As the landscape changed, imposing new and increasing regulations the chapter’s membership continued to be encouraged by many organizations throughout the community. And while some of the larger companies were not participating like they used to, small and medium-sized companies within the industry continued to play a vital role in the Chapter’s legacy by volunteering to assist running the group.

Lower pricing and the deflated dollar helped not just the city but the Chapter rebound once again. The group continued to conduct its tournaments offering activities like clay shooting, tennis and golf. Over the course of several years, the events helped to raise $10,000, which the board decided to invest into the educational system, as well as other charitable and civic organizations.

The group noted that over the years, through spikes and slumps, the industry had received and continued to receive support from the community at large that were either a part of the trade or directly benefited from it. In an effort to uphold the image of the oil and gas community, API’s Houston Chapter continued to encourage citizens, individuals and groups to become involved or affiliated to better understand the benefits that the industry provided both socially, economically and educationally.

The board’s decision led to the establishment of scholarship endowments in 1985 as well as an additional contribution fund for affiliated and complementary organizations that same year. The endowments were written so that the universities would select the recipients and present them to the board for approval. This gave all students vying for the scholarships an equal chance and helped forgo any favoritism that could arise within the group. The only conditions of the scholarships were that the student must attend a state supported public university and pursuing a degree in petroleum or geological engineering.

The terms of their charter stipulates that the group must work in cooperation and not competition with groups and individuals that lead to the success and betterment of the industry. So for years, from September to May the Chapter conducts monthly luncheons to educate members about new technology, trends, policies and regulations. Many people across the industry attend these lunches, but the ones that hold the most value are those conducted in unison with other leading industry associations like the Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Association of Drilling Engineers and the International Association of Drilling Contractors.

To really make the lunches valuable for all, the Houston Chapter also invites teens from local high schools whose focus is pre-engineering. Because networking and education are so important, API Houston also holds five recurring events each year, where the income generated is applied to the Chapters endowment and other contribution funds. To date, Houston API has contributed over $2.3 million to Texas A&M, University of Texas, Austin, Kingsville, the University of Houston, Texas Tech and Louisiana State University. Other large contributions are given to organizations like the Offshore Energy Center, The Houston Science Engineering Fair, The High School Engineering Professions and the Weiss Energy Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

“I see API, really as a way to get involved and get young people involved and interested in the industry,” said Perrere, “By creating fun things for our members, it gives them a chance to get close to their customers and learn about different companies. It helps develop camaraderie. Overall, it’s just a great group of guys and gals.” Overtime, policy issues, advocacy and public outreach about issues impacting the industry are now acted upon decisively in Washington. They continue to push educational endeavors while staying involved in issues facing the trade and supporting its members through cooperation and industry updates.

While the allure of the unregulated days of old still lingers on the faces of past chairman looking down from their framed perches lining the walls of the Houston Petroleum Club. A new era of regulation and policies continues to usher guests back into a world of fresh pressed suits and regal indulgence; where men come together to discuss the times. It is from atop the 43rdmfloor of the ExxonMobil building, just off the elevator, where Tuscan Travertine tiles lay along the oak carved paneled corridors guiding members and guests alike into warm stately designed lounges and dining areas. From here they are dazzled by a prodigiously designed Spanish tapestry and 30 foot floor-to-ceiling windows giving way to breathtaking views of Houston, where the API Chapter holds their meetings. Unruffled, this group and the spirits of their past come together year-after-year for the sake of industry cooperation, to deliver trade knowledge and awareness to the next generation of oilmen and their communities.

Changing One Life Can Often Change Others Along The Way

By: Laurie Peterson Issue: Vision Section: Community It was the first time that I can remember driving home in silence—no music, no talk shows, no noise. I had just finished speaking with an absolutely amazing woman, Anna, who was selfless, content, and resilient. It is a true pleasure knowing her.

Anna and I met one evening at her place of work, The Corner Office in Denver. We sat down to a meal that she had prepared that day, and it was her first time actually sitting in the dining room of the restaurant.

I first met Anna last November at the Work Options for Women (WOW) fall/winter graduation. WOW helps impoverished women gain the skills and confidence they need to work their way out of poverty and become gainfully and permanently employed in the food service industry.

As friends and families filed into the church pews, Anna had a group of over 30 people in attendance supporting her. Shy and quiet, she was unsure of sitting down for a brief interview to discuss what the WOW program meant to her and her family. However, as we spoke, Anna easily opened up about her experience with Work Options for Women. A returned Gulf War Veteran, she found herself homeless after her six year service in the Navy as a medical assistant and ambulance driver.

Unexpectedly, Anna found herself in a life-changing situation—she and her significant other would become the guardian of two children for the next ten years. If they couldn’t take these children, they would have been put into the foster care system. Being a child of the system herself, Anna did not want that to happen. Sacrificing herself and her own needs, she set everything aside to raise these two boys in a home that provided love, guidance, and structure.

After 10 years and realizing it was now time for her, Anna knew it she needed to re-enter the workforce. However, she did not want to rely on her previous experience in the medical field and with the Navy. She says, “I saw too many things and didn’t want to return.” Nearly homeless and having no work skills for the past decade other than taking care of the boys, she went to the Homeless Initiative. There, they recommended her to the Work Options for Women culinary training program.

Anna wasn’t the ideal candidate coming into the program because of her lack of skills. She was going to face an uphill battle where she would have to learn new skills while teaching herself how to refocus. Anna also had to relearn how to physically take care of herself. Growing tired during the day, she was forced to visit the doctor and was diagnosed with diabetes. She had to embrace a different lifestyle—and WOW worked with her through all of it—the trials and the tribulations. During this time, she learned to put herself first and sustained herself with the personal motto—accomplish, conquer, succeed!

Taking me on a tour of the kitchen, I saw where Anna worked as a prep cook, getting everything ready for the day. Spices were lined up perfectly; the workspace was spotless, organized, and extremely tidy.

As we talked about what was next, Anna just laughed and repeated the question back to me. For her what’s next is starting small. “Deal with tomorrow and learn as much as possible. There is so much to learn. That is what is next for now,” she says.

As we wrapped up our tour and interview, I had the pleasure of seeing another WOW graduate that had been hired at The Corner Office. The camaraderie of coming from the same program was undeniable.

I applaud Anna, thank her for her time, her positive attitude, and her willingness to share her story. What’s more, WOW has trained and placed more than 300 women in similar situations in the cooking and food service industry. WOWs job placement and retention metrics are very impressive. Each year from 2006 through 2009, 94 – 100 percent of WOW's students were placed in jobs. During those years, 75 percent of WOW graduates scheduled to mark their one year anniversary of employment successfully did so. And, all of the WOW graduates significantly increased their employment income by working hard, maintaining employment, and receiving raises.

After twelve years of service, WOW remains the only comprehensive job-training program in the Denver area with a consistent track record of helping women end welfare dependence and build the skills necessary to become self-sufficient. To learn more visit www.workoptions.org.

Continuing To Fight The Green Revolution

By: Jan Mazotti Issue: Vision Section: Community

The World Food Prize Foundation

Civilization as it is known today could not have evolved, nor can it survive, without an adequate food supply. Yet food is something that is taken for granted by most world leaders despite the fact that more than half of the population of the world is hungry. Man seems to insist on ignoring the lessons available from history. Man's survival, from the time of Adam and Eve until the invention of agriculture, must have been precarious because of his inability to ensure his food supply. During the long, obscure, dimly defined prehistoric period when man lived as a wandering hunter and food gatherer, frequent food shortages must have prevented the development of village civilizations. Under these conditions the growth of human population was also automatically limited by the limitations of food supplies.” - Dr. Norman Borlaug

In December 1970, Dr. Norman Borlaug, a native Iowan, presented his work and findings to the Nobel Committee. He knew a thing or two about the challenges of feeding the world’s hungry and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his research surrounding wheat improvement—getting more from the plants and helping them stand up better in difficult conditions such as disease or drought. He took his initial findings and new “miracle wheat” from fields in Mexico and worked tirelessly in India and Pakistan, which were facing imminent starvation. By working with the two governments, enhancing agricultural methods and introducing new varieties of wheat, he saved millions of lives. A pragmatic guy, Borlaug avoided “academic butterflies” interested only in publishing. He was a devoted and competitive spirit who didn’t mind the manual labor of the fields. That is why he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Understanding the criticality of hunger in the world and after winning the Nobel Prize, Borlaug approached the Nobel Committee and asked them to add a new prize—one for agriculture—to the mix. They said no, as Alfred Nobel, the man behind the prize, had already stipulated the components of the Nobel Prize in his will. There was nothing they could do. Frustrated, but not out, Dr. Borlaug, started the World Food Prize in 1986 in New York with the sponsorship of the General Foods Company. It functioned well for a few years, but a 1990 New York Times story detailed the loss of sponsorship by General Foods upon their acquisition by Philip Morris. Realizing that Des Moines was the bread basket of the world, The Des Moines Register picked the story up and business leaders all over Iowa discussed hosting the World Food Prize. Shortly thereafter, the Iowa legislature and a businessman named John Ruan stepped up and together sponsored the Prize. Over time, the Prize has become the “Nobel Prize for food and agriculture,” and with an endowment by the Ruan family, a $250,000 annual prize is given annually to individuals who have advanced human development by increasing the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals call for decreasing by half the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015. The bad news is that hunger may have spiked in 2009, as a result of the global food and financial crisis, causing progress toward alleviating hunger to be stymied in most underdeveloped regions. Despite some progress over the last few years, one in four children in the developing world is still underweight—and that number is twice as high in rural areas. However, those engaged with the World Food Prize appear to be making great strides in that area.

“Right now there is a huge challenge before us regarding population growth and how we will be able to feed the world. How are we going to make the best use of our global resources for the population? These are the same questions Dr. Borlaug and his teams were dealing with in the 1970s.” said Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize. “He had seen firsthand the starving people around the world during his travels. He knew these issues up close and personal. And he felt so strongly that he started our organization to shine a spotlight on those who were making strides in enhancing the world’s food supply,” he said.

THE PRIZE

The Prize has gone to many internationally renowned people who have helped increase the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world or who have been instrumental in moving the needle forward in the food, hunger, and agriculture industries including, recently, David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World; Jo Luck, CEO of Heifer International, as well as others from around the world including the United States, Ethiopia, Brazil, India, China, Sierra Leone, Denmark, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Bangladesh. It’s been awarded to everyone from politicians, to economists who give small farmers microloans, to people who work in NGOs, to scientists. The 2011 World Food Prize Laureates, celebrated at the 2011 Laureate Award Ceremony and Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in Des Moines, were John Agyekum Kufuor, former President of Ghana, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former President of Brazil. Both were chosen for their personal commitment and visionary leadership while serving as the presidents of Ghana and of Brazil, respectively, in creating and implementing government policies to alleviate hunger and poverty in their countries and their ties to the Millennium Development Goals.

The significant achievements of these two former heads of state illustrate that visionary and transformational leadership truly can effect positive change and greatly improve people’s lives. President Kufuor launched the Ghana School Feeding Program, which provides one nutritious, locally-produced meal per day to over one million children in kindergarten through junior high school, dramatically reducing chronic hunger and malnutrition while boosting attendance. Under President Kufuor’s leadership, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and poverty, in alignment with UN Millennium Development Goals. President Kufuor also significantly increased smallholder (small farm) production through economic investment in the agricultural sector and by creating incentives for private investors to partner with local farmers.

President Lula made it a priority to build critical policies that would ensure three meals a day for all Brazilians, achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger and poverty. President Lula created the “Zero Hunger” initiative to provide greater access to food, strengthen family farms and significantly enhance rural incomes and today, 93 percent of children and 82 percent of adults now eat three meals a day in Brazil. President Lula’s policies focused on improving educational opportunities for the poor and ensuring their inclusion in society. He used a collaborative approach, calling upon all levels of government and society to implement reforms.

THE BORLAUG DIALOGUE & THE GLOBAL YOUTH INSTITUTE

The Borlaug Dialogue is a three-day event which has been called “the premier conference in the world on global food security.” In 2011, the symposium brought in 1,400+ people from 75 countries that included political leaders, researchers from around the world, business executives, and farmers to discuss how their efforts connect and what they can do to improve global food security. With the world population projected to climb to 9 billion by 2050, amidst a wide range of new agricultural, environmental, climate, health, geopolitical, economic, and demographic challenges, the World Food Prize is “trying to connect all of the players and the next generation to work in these fields and make progress. That’s one of our main goals!” Quinn said.

And, it’s working. Celebrating their 25th Anniversary, The World Food Prize actively addressed how everyone can effectively work together to create more and better food in the decades ahead. They brought in global leaders—U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack; USAID Administrator, Rajiv Shah; UN Messenger of Peace, Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Al Hussein; and President of Malawi, Bingu Wa Mutharika. They brought in business leaders as well including World Food Prize Chairman John Ruan III; Deere & Co. Chairman & CEO Samuel Allen; Monsanto Company Chairman, President, & CEO Hugh Grant; DuPont President, Chair & CEO Ellen Kullman and other notables from related industries. The symposium has addressed everything from how participants could confront the hunger challenges of tomorrow, to the dualities of global hunger and obesity, to the challenges of global aging and nutrition, to dealing with cultural differences.

The Global Youth Institute is another program sponsored by the World Food Prize. It brings together more than 100 high school students from across the U.S. and other countries to interact with the experts at the Borlaug Dialogue and discuss pressing food security and agricultural issues with international experts. Students must write a five-page paper on a food security issue from a preselected list of countries and topics—it might be irrigation, it might be women’s land rights, it might be nutrition—look at the issues, and come up with their own solutions. The students present their ideas on these issues surrounding global food security and hunger to global experts and former laureates. The top students are sent on international internships during the summer where they work at global research centers or in a new program with the USDA. “One of the things that Dr. Borlaug really believed in was inspiring the next generation to carry on this work—that they understand the importance of agriculture, as well as the whole food system,” said Megan Forgrave, director of communications for the World Food Prize. She went on, “These days kids think that their food comes from the grocery store. Because so many people live in cities now, we’re a bit removed from farms and the agricultural sector.”

“The World Food Prize is the forum for hunger and agriculture-related discussions. We have many partnerships with different organizations that really hold the expertise—we’re just the place to bring them all together and put a spotlight on this huge global issue,” said Forgrave.

Also in 2011, the World Food Prize opened its headquarters known as the Hall of Laureates in the former Des Moines Public Library. Built in 1903 and sitting majestically on the Mississippi riverfront, the building has been fully refurbished and is designed to earn a LEED Platinum certification—one of a handful in the U.S. that are LEED Platinum certified and on the National Historic Register. Because of the global implications of hunger and food security, the building was infused with murals of humanitarian stories of those affiliated with the organization, agricultural history, global challenges, the great achievements of the laureates and Dr. Borlaug—making it a beautiful hall and an educational center.

When Dr. Borlaug and John Ruan talked about bringing The Prize to Iowa in 1990 they were both over 70 years old. “Here were these two older guys starting off to build this new thing—most people are retired by then. They were men with vision, and they worked to make that vision a reality,” stated Forgrave.

And indeed, Borlaug and Ruan have left this legacy that has engaged all of the key elements of true community involvement—academia, business, community and government organizations—to come to fruition and cause positive change. It’s women, it’s men, it’s Africa, it’s India, it’s the U.S., it’s the biggest names in business, it’s the biggest names in NGOs, all coming together. The World Food Prize is a story of true vision, courage, and hard work. “They have engaged a diverse array of people at the World Food Prize, more than any other conference I go to,” said Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator.

“When the Nobel Peace Prize Committee designated me the recipient of the 1970 award for my contribution to the "green revolution", they were in effect, I believe, selecting an individual to symbolize the vital role of agriculture and food production in a world that is hungry, both for bread and for peace. I am but one member of a vast team made up of many organizations, officials, thousands of scientists, and millions of farmers, mostly small and humble, who for many years have been fighting a quiet, oftentimes losing war on the food production front,” said Borlaug in his 1970 Nobel Lecture.

He went on, “For the underprivileged billions in the forgotten world, hunger has been a constant companion, and starvation has all too often lurked in the nearby shadows. To millions of these unfortunates, who have long lived in despair, the green revolution seems like a miracle that has generated new hope for the future. There can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort. Fighting alone, they may win temporary skirmishes, but united they can win a decisive and lasting victory to provide food and other amenities of a progressive civilization for the benefit of all mankind.”

Because of his achievements to prevent hunger, famine and misery around the world, it is said that the visionary and determined Dr. Borlaug has "saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived."

Now that is vision in action!

Mike Stemple

By: Maria E. Luna Issue: Vision Section: Business

Visionary, Entrepreneur, and Innovative Best Practices Guru

Mike Stemple’s business acumen has accrued over a decade of experience, including career accomplishments that encompass art, entrepreneurship and athletics. Stemple is a Colorado native most famous for the hockey mural on downtown Denver’s Old Chicago wall. These murals ultimately paid for his college education.

Stemple decided to stop making other people money and start his own business in 2000, and over a 10 year period, created 15 businesses in all. One of the more successful companies was SkinIt, which boasted a $100+ million valuation. One of its subsidiaries was Original Wraps (SkinIt for cars), which he sold to 3M. Or, in 2009 Stemple created Odojo, a software application allowing parents to monitor children’s social networks for inappropriate content, as well as leaks of children’s personal information. In 2010, Odojo was acquired by SafetyWeb. Currently Stemple is working on building Mosoro, a tech company that develops leading edge Bluetooth accessory solutions, also known as Appcessories, for smartphones.

An avid runner, Stemple is a sponsored athlete who runs nearly 155 miles at once in the Sahara and Gobi deserts.

Stemple serves as a director and mentor with The Founder Institute, a global network of startups and mentors that helps entrepreneurs launch meaningful and enduring technology companies. The Institute has a four month idea-stage incubator program, which helps entrepreneurs launch their dream company, all while receiving expert training, feedback, and support from experienced startup CEOs. “It’s an incubator program for people who have a day job. So how do you learn from mentors who have been there and done it and been successful? But you can’t take two months off to go to Boulder to do Tech Stars. You can’t take a couple months off to go to the Silicon Valley and do Y Combinator. The Founders Institute fills that gap,” he says.

Because The Founder Institute only runs certain times of the year in certain markets, Stemple is trying to fill the gap with another innovative company, Inspirer. He says, “There are so many people who have brilliant ideas and want to go create a company—they just don’t know how to do it. And then there are guys like me who have built 15 companies across all industries including technology that want to share that information. There is just no formal framework to do it. Inspirer was created to fill the niche of helping corporations build better products, processes, and technologies. Our culture has finally accepted a career choice of being an entrepreneur. It’s finally in vogue.”

ICOSA had the distinct pleasure to discuss Stemple’s newest adventures.

Teaching Innovation

Stemple: Inspirer is my 15th company and probably my last. Building technology-based businesses I’ve amassed a great deal of knowledge. I’ve also been a director at the Founders Institute; an incubator that has helped launched over 400 companies in 20 different markets all around the world. Running the Denver branch I have learned much more about innovation and building companies. I wanted to encapsulate all of the lessons learned into a series of lectures and workshops where I could go out to larger companies that are having problems with innovation and demonstrate best practices, as well as thoughts and ideas that I have picked up along the way to help them be more effective innovators or innovation companies.

Personally teaching and sharing my philosophies on innovation mean a great deal to me. That is why I created Inspirer. Over time I think it will morph into an innovation talent agency. It just so happens I know several smart and talented individuals who all have created amazing tech companies, who are all passionate about sharing their life lessons and the lessons they have learned about building tech companies with other people. They just need a framework. I think Inspirer will be at a point next year where we are a kind of a middle-ware provider of innovation, helping innovators work with large and small companies.

People want to be in control of their own security. Innovators in large companies have largely left to create start-ups and what is left is a lot of MBA’s. The big brain drain of the Fortune 500 has happened. But Fortune 500 has brand recognition with the consumer. They have infrastructure, money, they have all the things that make innovation successful. So there is this big gap between innovators in the start-up world and large Fortune 500 to Fortune 1000 worldwide that are craving innovation. That is where you see a lot of mergers & acquisitions activity. For example, Google does a tremendous amount of M&A activity where they innovate somewhat internally, but they have a lot of innovation through acquisition. And a considerable amount of people think they can get into that supply line.

Inspirer is approaching it from a different point of view. I believe everyone is an innovator. Everyone has the same capabilities from childhood to come up with fanciful creative ideas. If you watch any five year old with a sketch pad and a crayon you see very innovative children. Along the way they get caught up in this belief that they are either left brain or right brain. They start to think I’m a technologist, I’m a designer. I need to do this or I need to do that. They don’t spend much time in the American education process focusing on making our children more well-rounded. They try to make factory workers and we don’t have factories in American anymore. We are not educating our kids to be knowledge workers—being a knowledge worker takes both creativity and analytical skills.

Inspirer is helping Fortune 500 companies figure out how to foster innovation internally. How do we turn an MBA into an innovator? Just because we lost innovators to the start-up world doesn’t mean that we can’t innovate. We can teach our accountants, our finance people, manufacturers, even the director of products to be better innovators. We can foster a sense of innovation by helping people understand a toolset to be an innovator is really knowing how to think analyticity, but explain visually. Inspirer’s vision is to foster innovation at any company with the existing employees already in place.

For many, accounting seems monotonous. Why is that? We are taught that it’s boring and monotonous. There is magic in numbers. There is a sense of satisfaction when everything adds up. There’s a sense of power in numbers. And when you understand numbers you understand a trend. So accountants are the first ones in a business to understand the potential in a trend. I just did a talk on trends and how you model trends and make trends visual. Accountants are usually the first ones, to detect trends in the numbers and express them visually so everyone can understand it. They could be the largest source of innovation in the business.

If you put a white board marker in anyone’s hands and give them the tools necessary to think like an artist and think like an innovator, anyone, at any time, can come up with a product that could move the needle for the business in a positive way. Everyone in every business is a trend hunter for the business. The best ideas are going to happen if everyone is monitoring and creating their own trends in their department and are visually able to explain it. And if the management team creates a set of symbols, charts and graphs that anyone, at any time can draw the business model, then anyone at the organization at lunch can communicate with one another on a common framework and come up with the next big thing.

That is why I have built so many companies—because I can visually express ideas. I know how to monitor trends and create opportunities. That is what I teach at Inspire.

Stemple uses “visual innovation” using a white board to encapsulate processes. He monitors a series of trends continuously ranging from blog posts on a variety of subject matter and reads hundreds of magazines each month. He then searches for the future opportunity where trends come together. Where the trends interact is where ideas come from and the possibility to form a company. He then estimates a day the trends will interact. From that date he goes back to the current time and speculates what he needs to start building to bridge the gap to that opportunity—the technologies and the infrastructure. It’s about thinking backwards from the future, or closing the “innovation gap.”

Collaboration And Innovation

Stemple: “Collaboration is valuable. I approach it from an innovators point of view. I see innovation as art and it’s hard to create artwork through collaboration. Numerous people can contribute to creating market opportunity and finding when trends collapse to an opportunity. You need one person to takes ownership of the innovation. Apple Inc. is very effective with that. A large team of individuals create the iPhone, but only a few people are in charge of the actual aesthetics, design, and capabilities. For example, there are considerable amounts of people who build a skyscraper, but there is usually only one architect. That is what is missing in America and I think that is why innovation in the Fortune 500 has disappeared. The whole idea of teamwork is trumped above and beyond the product that any one individual can contribute.

We don’t idealize certain members of the team that perform at higher level, so what happens at larger organizations is that if employees don’t feel like they are ever going to be recognized as better than or greater than their contemporaries, they kind of just become “part of the machine.” This fosters a culture where employees never want to take a risk—never want to take a gamble—because they know they are never going to get recognized. So they keep their head down and collect the paycheck. Those that don’t fit that mold—the innovators—are very different. The group that invented open source code is a great example. Team-based programming was adopted so that open source code could grow exponentially. And instead of writing just one piece of code and being recognized, the work becomes a collaborative team effort. They all get the credit.

We all want to be seen as unique and different—to be recognized and respected. It’s hard to get that anymore. The number one thing people want in the workforce is to be recognized for their job, efforts and abilities. If you give that respect and credit to the employee you will get someone who is loyal and who will do everything they can to help the organization.

For more information about Mosoro, visit www.mosoro.com. Or for more information about Inspirer, visit www.inspirer.com.

Diversity Capital Markets

By: James Pérez Foster Issue: Vision Section: Business

A Visceral-Based Approach

When looking through the statistical lens of demographic trending, we find a U.S. Hispanic market, north of 50 million individuals large and representing one out of every six Americans. According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau Survey, by 2050, one out of every three Americans will be of Hispanic-decent. Is this a statistical anomaly, or bona-fide mega trend that will shape and define new corporate DNA, retail strategies and consumption behaviors?

Goldman Sachs recently wrote; “The Hispanic market growth is the most meaningful demographic shift in the U.S. Economy since the Baby Boomer Generation.” The Census Bureau also acknowledges not only the Latino population growth but recognizes that it now represents the fastest growing small business segment in the U.S. economy with over nearly $50 billion in annual capital requirements and a hiring source to a vast unemployed market place. With U.S. small businesses now responsible for over 60 percent of new job creation over the last 10 years, we start to understand the opportunity and necessity to educate and incubate small business owners.

Washington D.C. has not only thematically embraced these growth markets, but it has also recognized that financial services firms can act as catalyst for small business growth and job creation. The global economic landscape has heightened stakeholder demands among the larger global financial institutions for increased transparency and more focused efforts on community regeneration and socially responsible capital deployment initiatives. With the phased rollout of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act, there are now mandated Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requirements among U.S.-based OCC and FDIC chartered banking institutions. Additionally, the new CRA requirements place a particular mandate on these institutions to establish and/or increase their efforts towards accessing under-recognized, minority and socio-economically diverse demographic markets. As these institutions evolve their underwriting credit criteria, banks in general will seek CRA credit and minority-market access and educational platforms via capital investment and joint venture opportunities. For some financial institutions, donating money towards an annual community-based financial literacy event may suffice alone but for others, the need to support, advocate and advance the under-recognized, is to also incorporate these priorities into the DNA of an organization.

Financial services companies of all sizes are quickly evolving their marketing and access strategies to court the country’s diversity markets by distinguishing their marketing preferences, as well as social, consumption, and spending behaviors. While some term and often rebuke reference to the immigrant-centric profile of the U.S. population as a “melting pot”, many now opt for the more contemporary description of immigrant societal integration as a “mixed salad” by maintaining their cultural heritage and belief systems. One thing for certain is that the U.S. minority markets are requiring a more tailored, authentic approach that can be achieved though focused community mobilization.

Examining the unprecedented growth within the U.S. Hispanic market alone, 2010 U.S. Census data now confirms a demographic market with $1 trillion in household purchasing power. This market, containing geographic, socio-economic, linguistic and religious diversity defines a highly segmented opportunity, each requiring an approach defined by authenticity and cultural relevance. A culturally effective approach considers the subtleties and nuances of a fluid and highly dynamic changing immigrant profile. One of many proven channels of success focuses on the micro-leadership circles within community-based centers. Migrant and non-migrant markets habitually rely on community and faith-based resources for information and direction cues. Effectively courting the leaders within these markets begins with the understanding that a grassroots and cultural approach can add credibility to a “message” and significantly shorten the closing process. The scalability of a financial services firm is effectively enhanced when achieving “buy-in” and support from community leaders who ostensibly place their endorsement behind a corporate community initiative. With the foundation of a trusted relationship in place, “messaging” within these community centers can include: Initiative led education and literacy programs, awareness programs and access to specific target markets through the empowerment of key “ambassador” community members to support on-going initiatives.

The impact achieved through measured and meaningful community mobilization is often times, a more receptive and ultimately more reactive target audience. For me, as a former Wall Street portfolio manager, I saw the economic viability of the diversity markets and turned it into a personal crusade to make a difference in the world. How could I ever forget my second month on the job as a wide-eyed freshman with Merrill Lynch’s Private Client Group in New York City? With our professional development training managers encouraging us “newbies” to focus our target market efforts on professional segments that felt accessible to us, I spent my first couple of weeks focusing on cultivating financial advisory relationships with doctors. My parents both being doctors, this felt like a natural hand-in-glove scenario, until I quickly realized that doctors, for the most part, were only available to speak for the 30-seconds they had in-between patients. I knew I needed something deeper than commercial-length conversations. I sought to build meaningful relationships with my clients and I opted for a more general demographic target. Being the grandson of both Dominican and Cuban immigrants my mother and grandmother, had instilled into our family a rich exposure to Latino culture and heritage. While vast in its segmentation and dynamic fluidity, I felt that tapping this historically under-recognized market from the perspective of Wall Street was worth trying. But culturally speaking, I had much to learn.

At Merrill Lynch, I quickly came to know a senior financial advisor who had focused his portfolio on Hispanic-owned businesses. Having an early collegial relationship with him, I sought his advice. Jorge sat me down and explained to me that if I was truly directed to work with the Hispanic market, than I would have to expect a different type of client courtship process. I would come to expect and experience a visceral-based, relationship with my clients that didn’t always materialize into closed business right away. But rather, with the proper invested time, with coming to know my prospects at near-familial level, I would blossom these prospects into long-term and trusted financial relationships.

As a living tribute to my now, late-grandmother Patria, my wife and I moved to the Denver Metropolitan market to found the first national Hispanic-focused commercial bank in the United States—Solera National Bank. The bank, originally founded as Patria Corporation became a city-wide cause marketing campaign to embrace and ultimately solve the economic, financial and education gaps with a financial banking solution. The ownership of this new bank, and eventual accountability for the bank’s early success, was within the community in which it now serves. It started with coffee meetings, literally hundreds of meetings with area executives to proactively solicit feedback for bank concept. Individual meetings then led to larger town-hall meetings, four to be exact, that were conducted more similar to a focus group setting, while playing the role of educator and provocative cheerleader. Culturally speaking these sessions achieved something far more important than just buy-in, but rather me showing a token of my respect to my new Denver community that this bank also belonged to them. Alas, a community awareness initiative that quickly became a cause-driven campaign to fill that gap.

Once a sole passion project, the proposed bank became a shared vision of a dedicated 25-person organizer group—a group of impressive community leaders including lawyers, CEOs, retired bankers and teachers who rode with me through the ebbs, flows and intricacies of the national and state banking regulatory process. Our group came to obtain its conditional approvals from the federal government in 2007, and as such, became the first national banking charter in the state of Colorado in over seven years. At the same time, Solera National Bank became one of the first Hispanic-focused national banks in the U.S. The incumbency of our organizer group fueled a grueling, but thrilling capital raise process that raised the bank over $25M in capitalization in only a few short months. The mammoth proposition to the Denver community was a bank whose ethos centered on the fundamental truth that a single bank could change the lives of its community members—one individual, one family, one business at a time.

I spoke to Patria every day on my long drive to the bank. She became a beacon of light and a rainbow of positivity through the triumphs and hardships within the bank opening process. Embedded into me everyday was her simple message to stay positive, knowing that once opened, the bank would be changing the lives of individuals who once felt overlooked and ignored. The bank would serve as a touchstone to a demographic of hard working Hispanic individuals who shared the same financial goals as any other segment of our economy—the affordability of a child’s educations, the ownership of a home, and the financial dignity of retirement. This is what drove us to open and succeed.

Patria passed away one month after the bank opened at the young age of 98. Her elegance and soulful message carried me through, and laser targeted my sights on dedicating a career to the cultivation and advancement of U.S. Diversity Markets. The difference? I now understand that to authenticate my approach to these markets requires community activation, subtlety, cultural sensitivity and patience. The reward? The earned loyalty of a client as they evolve through the maturation of business and personal net worth growth.

While the banks’ founding certainly serves a regional good, it is only one example of many who deem the U.S. Hispanic market not only a viable one, but a powerful one. It is the group that is 50 million strong and now represents 53 percent of all births in the U.S. economy. With more than one-third of the nations Hispanics being under the age of 18 years old, it is an exceptionally young demographic that will come to shape and influence the future of retail, finance and politics. This segment of “future decision-makers” provides an opportunity for financial companies to court, cultivate and educate this young segment market into loyal, long-term customers.

Diversity Capital Markets seeks to embrace the differences, not the similarities in Hispanic-owned businesses, and correlates a culturally relevant courtship to this virtually untapped market. The viability of the U.S. Hispanic market will continue to evolve and impact the consumption demand and purchasing behaviors of America’s largest ethnic population and one that is growing five times faster than the general market, according to the US Census Bureau. And, with Hispanic consumers demanding more authentic ethnic services and product in more locations, corporate America is rushing to high-density Hispanic neighborhoods to comprehend and ultimately access the markets’ cultural nuances and trends. Companies are revamping conventional marketing approaches and tailoring delivery systems to a market that at its core, may only share the Spanish language in common.

The U.S. Hispanic markets’ composition constitutes members from the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain, yet the market’s domestic diversity includes variations and differences; nationalistically, linguistically, religiously and most importantly, culturally. According to the book, Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective by Felipe and Betty Ann Korzenny, “The glue that binds Hispanics together is a shared background of beliefs, values, perceptions, and orientations derived from a common experience harkening back to the Spanish colonization of Latin America.” This demographic market, with its unprecedented growth has certainly caught the attention of conventional capital sources like regional and community banks, and has now caught the eye of unconventional capital sources like private equity and venture capital. Capitalists embrace the magnitude of the demographic trend and continue to seek investment and approach strategies to court the often misunderstood, and highly segmented U.S. Hispanic market. Hispanics now represent one of the fastest small-to-midsize business growth sectors in the U.S. in industries including media, pharmaceuticals, oil & gas, retail, financial, and food services. Each industry has complex capital and growth requirements but it is the underlying approach of capital markets to earn and maintain the most profitable, long-term relationships.

Understanding that small businesses are a catalyst to necessary job creation, financial services giant, Goldman Sachs and its 10,000 Small Business Program is a noble example of bridging the gap between Wall Street and Main Street. The nascent program exemplifies the importance of community education for unlocking the potential of small businesses. The $500M program launched in 2009 deploys a rigorous educational process through community partnerships with Babson College and LaGuardia Community College. Integrating financial deployment partners such as Seedco Financial Services, Goldman’s program is sending a strong message to its industry counterparts that when small businesses and their owners are given the right tool sets, coupled with time-invested financial guidance, the scalability of today’s small business owners is exponential. The 10,000 Small Businesses Program is expanding its educational incubation programs into other key national markets including New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston.

With so many small business growth markets, we also find the genuine efforts of other for-profit and nonprofit organizations inspiring and educating the next wave of entrepreneurial leadership. The effectiveness of microfinance organizations has long been touted by its most visible spokesperson, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus, economist and founder of Grameen Bank. Also known as the “Father of Microcredit,” Yunus and Grameen Bank became an early template for issuing small financial credits to low-income entrepreneurs to help clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency.

Today, the microfinance industry has blossomed with thousands of registered Micro Finance Institutes (MFIs). In Denver, Colorado under the stewardship of an exemplary founding team and supportive board of directors, the Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute (RMMFI) provides lending, education, and ongoing coaching to grow Denver Metropolitan entrepreneurs and their businesses onto a pathway of sustainability and self sufficiency. The success of RMMFIs nonprofit business model beholds the importance of not only the acumen and passion of those behind it, but a city and its diverse communities that has rallied behind the entity in the form of pledged gifts and volunteerism. While some conventional lending institutions are doing a better job than others, the flow of capital to existing, cash-flowing companies has been contracted substantially. Small businesses now look to non-conventional sources of capital like private equity and venture capital to fund complex growth and operating capital needs. Within the current economic contraction, varied capital providers are playing an increasingly larger and more meaningful role in stimulating business growth within diverse industry sectors as well. Whether the passion of a single entrepreneur who solely sought to make a small difference, or the collective will of a community to provide the incubation tailwind of our nation’s diverse small business markets, the opportunity is not only vast, it is paramount. Serving as a critical stepping-stone for the nation’s economic recovery and job creation stimulus, diversity ownership of our country’s small business segment must be addressed with cultural specificity and consistency.

James Pérez Foster is Head of Capital Markets for touchPoint Partners, based in Boulder, Colorado. In his current capacity, Pérez Foster heads research and capital & donor fundraising initiatives for global clients including Geneva Global (Social Impact Fund), National Geographic and StarShine Academy. The firm, specializes in fundraising, cause marketing awareness campaigns and corporate social responsibility (CSR) program design and implementation for socially purposed enterprises.

Manufacturing Is The Cornerstone of American Competitiveness

By: Bill Groh & Kelly de la Torre Issue: Vision Section: Business

An Interview with Deborah L. Wince-Smith

Deborah L. Wince-Smith, president and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness (the Council) is a true advocate working to create the necessary market conditions for America’s industry to regain its position as a leader in global markets. The Council was founded in 1986 to address the reasons why America was losing industrial market share to other countries. The Council identified that advances in technology, globalization and challenges to energy sustainability created a different playing field for America’s industry and that American companies needed to make changes to remain competitive. These issues are critical to America’s competitiveness and “we must not surrender,” urges Wince-Smith. “America’s economic portfolio requires a healthy and growing manufacturing sector to tackle the grand macroeconomic problems facing the country, like job creation, debt reduction and infrastructure investments.”

Wince-Smith spearheads a national strategic initiative to promote continued U.S. economic growth in an increasingly competitive global economy. In spite of today’s troubling crisis of economic confidence, and the uneasy notion that American business and industry will soon be outmaneuvered by those in countries such as India and China, it is her position that America can meet these challenges head-on through a national collaborative effort to draw upon America’s unique and greatest resource — innovation.

The Council’s initiatives focus on the premise that American industry must innovate to stay competitive in a global economy. Instead of attempting to slug it out with low labor cost factories overseas that produce basic goods, American industry should refocus on creating cutting-edge products that satisfy the consumer’s needs and wants in new and innovative ways. In 2004, Wince-Smith spearheaded the groundbreaking National Innovation Initiative (NII), which played a pivotal role in creating a reinvigorated U.S. competitiveness movement. The NII brought together private and public sector leaders at all levels of business and government to develop a private-sector driven innovation agenda, helping to shape the bipartisan America COMPETES Act, creating state and regional innovation initiatives, and bringing a global focus to innovation.

The Council has recently published Make: An American Manufacturing Movement, a call to action to unleash America’s manufacturing potential. “Manufacturing transcends political ties and ideological boundaries. It is a cornerstone of American independence, economic prosperity, and national security that we must not surrender,” advocates Wince-Smith and the Council. The report outlines a strategy that focuses on four key factors: talent, technology, investment and infrastructure. As these factors interconnect to drive renewed American competitiveness, a key part of the Council’s mission has been to recognize the ripple-effect that energy efficiency and innovation can have.

“Energy, really, is everything. It’s the lifeblood of the economy. It cuts across every activity, it also has a huge impact on how we make things, how we transport things, how we use things, and, quite frankly, that has been true since the beginning of human civilization. So the innovation machine that we need to stimulate, grow, and maintain in this country is more important than ever, given the challenges of climate change, environmental stewardship, and scarcity as well,” says Wince-Smith.

The manufacturing sector uses approximately one-third of the energy consumed in the United States. It is critical to competitiveness that manufacturing firms have access to low-cost, dependable energy supply. According to Wince-Smith and the Council, “The United States needs a system that develops domestic energy resources—renewable, traditional or otherwise—along with efficiency efforts, to achieve energy security. The transmission grid currently wastes a third of energy produced.” To achieve energy security for our manufacturing sector we need to invest in infrastructure and we need to diversify our energy portfolio. “The Council does not believe there is a single solution to providing abundant, secure, clean and reasonably priced energy.”

Natural gas, however, has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing in the United States. Natural gas is playing an increasingly important role in addressing the needs of manufacturing in the United States. Technological advances to extract natural gas are creating increased opportunities for production, job creation, and to address our energy security. “We use natural gas not only as a source of electricity, but as a feedstock for products such as plastics, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals. Affordable natural gas provides manufacturers with the ability to expand their facilities, increase production and create even more jobs,” says Wince-Smith and the Council.

Access to low cost and reliable energy is critical to the manufacturing sector and to our success as a nation. According to the Council, abundant supply and low prices for gas have allowed some energy intensive manufacturers to expand facilities and have even allowed companies to substitute coal for gas and save millions of dollars a year. “In order to fully capture the economic benefits of shale gas production, a balanced regulatory regime and enforcement capability needs to be established that ensures best practices to protect water supplies, while not hampering development,” advocates Wince-Smith and the Council. Cleaner energy supplies of this magnitude could be a game changer, but a comprehensive approach is still necessary. One energy source alone is not enough to address industry’s energy challenges or to reverse the trade deficit.

The Council’s comprehensive approach to the energy question starts with promoting a regulatory scheme designed to promote energy efficiency. “Energy competitiveness begins with energy efficiency and the creation of legal and regulatory environments that reward it. The way our utilities are structured, they do not reward consumer or end-use efficiency.” Beyond efficiency, developing smart, sustainable, and resilient energy supply is about cultivating multiple energy sources and helping to break down artificial cost barriers by pursuing a national transmission superhighway. “We were very, very purposeful in not picking winners and losers in energy sources, but what we argue and continue to argue is we have to use a portfolio of energy sources in a way that meets demand, rewards efficiency, and provides competitive cost advantage for U.S. industry and U.S. consumers.”

Wince-Smith contends that America must address state and regional regulatory barriers that prevent the national use of regional energy resources. In fact, with the implementation of a national transmission superhighway, regional power sources such as wind energy could be used nationally, distributing surplus energy from one region to another where such power is not available. Innovation itself, however, requires greater capital investment not just in the development of new technologies, but in the infrastructure necessary to implement them. Wince-Smith argues that the United States can encourage much of this investment by modifying its corporate tax structure. “By eliminating double-taxation and allowing the repatriation of foreign earnings, we can take the trillions of dollars in profits that are sitting outside of the United States produced by U.S. enterprises, and get some of that money back into this country to invest in our own infrastructure.” Without such domestic investment, cutting-edge technology innovations are implemented overseas where greater capital investment is available.

Development of domestic energy technology is also tied to job growth, including not just research and development, but highly technical jobs which do not necessarily require a four year college degree. Training the next generation of highly skilled workers involves harmonizing the curriculums of high schools, vocational schools, and four-year colleges with the specific needs of emerging high-tech industries, through programs that emphasize problem-solving, mentoring, partnering with local industry, and initiatives that can provide students with hands-on experience. With such training and opportunities, American industry and manufacturing can recruit and develop the workforce necessary to implement the technology and infrastructure capable of leading the way to renewed American competitiveness in the 21st century.

Wince-Smith notes that while the Council’s work is at the forefront of President Obama’s agenda as noted in the recent State of the Union Address. She urges, “We must aggressively pursue policies that ensure America remains a global manufacturing destination. We support the President’s intentions, but stress that some of his proposals need to more fully recognize the realities of the global marketplace. The Council stands ready, and we are well-positioned to work with the Administration, Congress, and other key stakeholders to ensure America’s enduring leadership in global manufacturing.”

The Council on Competitiveness’ latest publication, Make. An American Manufacturing Movement, is available on the Council’s website at http://www.compete.org/about-us/initiatives/manufacturing.

ALG | Attorneys understand the solutions that advanced energy can bring to the military, the U.S. government and our nation. Bill Groh, Kelly de la Torre and the ALG team are working to bring together partners from various industry sectors and government to identify barriers to implementation and encourage dialogue and consensus on industry solutions. To find out about ALG | Attorneys and how ALG can help bring your company’s energy solutions to these discussions contact or Kelly de la Torre at 720-536-4600 or please go to www.antonlaw.com.

Lockwood International

By: Michael Connors Issue: Vision Section: Business

Vision In Motion

Recently having the pleasure of interviewing Tom Lockwood, son of the late founder Frank Lockwood, I came to understand very quickly that his vision for Lockwood International is firmly rooted in simple, yet timeless truths. Do what you say you will do and maintain your integrity—simple as that.

From these professional and personal tenants, Lockwood International has grown from a small family valve business into an international force to be reckoned with. What’s more, Lockwood International is positioned to maintain visibility across a multitude of industries especially with larger companies. All the while, the company has invested in its operations and is aggressively reaching out to smaller and mid-sized organizations as well. As a result of growing with their customers, Lockwood has become a powerful player in the industry.

Houston-based Lockwood International exemplifies that staying true to your vision and being consistent in your practices will lead to professional and personal triumph. What’s special and noteworthy is that they have maintained their core belief: If you treat your customers well and provide an honest value, your size won’t matter and you will continue to be successful. And, at the heart of their achievement is the culture of a small family business whose vision is based on a simple and sustainable contract between customers and employees promoting family values and community investment. From the beginning, founder Frank Lockwood had a dream, and his sons Tom and Mike have perpetuated and nurtured that dream. In fact, Frank Lockwood opened the doors in 1977 and their customers soon realized the value of a reliable one-stop shop for valves. Mike and Tom Lockwood took over the reins in 1987 and have led the company to become one of the most respected and reliable valve resources to all industrial sectors. Through customer loyalty and the dedication of well over 250 forward-thinking employees worldwide, Lockwood International has become the global leader in valve distribution and now offers machining and automation services.

It may sound simplistic but to build and maintain a reputation of respectability and reliability is not an easy feat and is due in large part to the fact that they remain a privately-held family business. Tom Lockwood, speaking of his father, told the story of how his father was working for a company that was bought out and he remembers his father saying, “I don’t want to go to another big corporation with a bunch of accountants running your business.” So he started his own company in 1977. In 1987 Frank Lockwood passed away. But Tom and Mike took the reigns and continued to build a monument to visionary leadership.

One of their first large contracts was awarded in 2001 by Exxon Mobil. Owner Tom Lockwood describes their visionary approach to corporate growth from when they won the historic contract. “When we won the North American valve contract with Exxon Mobil we had to open a series of branches to support the business. Today we operate in Baytown, Houston, Beaumont, Chicago, and Los Angeles, Alberta, Sarnia, and Baton Rouge. But, the growth didn’t stop there. We then took on projects in South Africa, Singapore, Italy, and Brazil. And then the next contracts with INVISTA and Koch enabled us to grow even more.”

The future at Lockwood International is looking bright. Tom Lockwood declares, “I think we can double our size in the next 10 years. We’re going into new markets. We’re pushing to get into the pipeline business. We have inventory and we’re chasing pipeline companies. The U.S. is full of natural gas, so now everyone agrees we have to use more natural gas. It’s cleaner and abundant so let’s use more of it. That is one area we are trying to grow.” Having vision means that you never rest on your laurels and the Lockwood brothers are certainly looking forward trying to build on their success, while maintaining what’s special about the company.

Lockwood International is a family run valve company that respects and values those that work for them. Tom Lockwood knows that achievement is based on collaboration and when those around you share their core values—it becomes a force of nature. Always to the point, Tom Lockwood describes the underlying “magic” at the company. “First, do what you say. Next, although things can go awry—always keep your integrity. The one thing you can never lose is your integrity. It may not be the most profitable thing, but always do the right thing and do what you say,” he says. The Lockwood leadership can be described as those that walk the walk and talk the talk. Tom Lockwood says, “We have a lot of people that really work hard. And, I think we try to treat everyone fairly. Being a private company without the pressure from accounts and stock prices and things like that we can be more flexible with the way we operate. Another thing, I try not to ask someone to do something I am not willing to do. I want to see us all succeed.”

The approach undertaken at Lockwood International is certainly visionary, especially in an industry that is often characterized by greed and industrial corruption. We see Lockwood International as a case study of vision in motion.

ITC Holdings Corporation

By: Kelly de la Torre Issue: Vision Section: Business

Investing in Electricity Transmission Infrastructure

For Americans, electricity is both pervasive and essential. We love it and our appetite for it keeps growing. The average household today owns 26 electronic gadgets. Electricity consumption doubled since 1980 and is expected to grow by another 25 percent by 2030. We take for granted that when we flip a switch a light will come on and when we plug in those gadgets they will recharge. Can our existing grid continue to support this kind of growth?

The majority of the existing transmission system was built more than 30 years ago and has received only minimal incremental investment since. This underinvestment and the lack of proper maintenance has led to brownouts and chronic inefficiencies. According to the Department of Energy, transmission and distribution losses in 1970 were about five percent. Today, they have increased by 90 percent. In total, outages and power quality disturbances cost the American economy $100 billion every year. Ask Linda Blair and she will agree that we are asking our grid to do things that it was not designed to do.

Linda Blair is executive vice president and chief business officer for ITC Holdings Corp., the largest independent electric transmission company in the United States. ITCs sole focus is to invest in electricity transmission infrastructure to increase reliability, reduce constraints, increase access to competitive energy markets, and lower the total cost of delivered energy. “Since its inception in 2003, ITC has had a vision to become a leader in the build-out of a more reliable and robust transmission system capable of meeting the needs of a 21st century, energy-intensive economy,” said Blair. “Although progress has been made, there is much more work that needs to be done.”

America is at a transition point and a robust transmission infrastructure is critical to the country’s ability to grow our economy and remain competitive on a global scale. To explain, we can look to another visionary known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison. It was Edison’s vision to create a system to deliver electric light into private homes in the late 1800’s and ultimately, his vision revolutionized our way of life.

During the postwar era of the 1950s and 1960s, the power industry’s growth transformed America and the American way of life. The opportunities provided by electricity seemed endless. Remarkably, in 1956, to keep demand high and increase public awareness, General Electric launched its “Live Better Electrically” campaign. The campaign, supported by 300 power utilities and 180 electrical manufacturers across the nation, was designed to extol the benefits of “better living by living electrically!” The result was a revolution in the quality and ease of domestic life. Consumers now had electric-powered vacuum cleaners, clothes dryers, toasters, refrigerators, televisions, radio and even air conditioned movie theaters.

Today, a campaign to encourage use is unnecessary. Today’s electric grid is a 164,000 mile, highly-integrated network of transmission lines and control facilities, interconnecting over 750,000 MW (megawatts) of generating capacity to millions of customers and 3,000 utilities in all regions. Recent blackouts have highlighted how vital this infrastructure is to our nation’s economy. According to reports, during the blackout of 2003, 50 million people lost power for up to two days, and the economic impact of the event was estimated at a staggering $6 billion. But that’s not all. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that unreliable power adds a 44 percent surcharge to the cost of U.S. electricity. Adding to the mix, new EPA air regulations could alter the U.S. generation fleet and accelerate the shutdown of older generation facilities leading to more stress on our power grid. The current environment prevents the grid from meeting these challenges in a timely fashion.

As Congress debates the idea of a federal Clean Energy Standard, 33 states have already enacted laws to drive the growth of renewable energy sources. In many cases, these resources are far from population centers and require new infrastructure to reach consumers. Furthermore, the progressive integration of intermittent natural resources—such as wind—necessitates a robust transmission grid that will support this type of generation for those times of day when the wind is not blowing. What is needed is an extra-high voltage transmission grid designed to bolster the existing infrastructure and efficiently move power to the consumer.

However, the grid system is governed by a combination of state, regional and federal agencies to deal with mostly local-level incremental changes. This archaic and outdated regulatory structure is fractured across multiple jurisdictions on the local, state and federal levels. This fragmented regulatory structure is ill-suited to manage the transformational changes to the national electric system expected in the coming decades.

The good news is that with leadership of companies like ITC, progress is slowly being made to change these outdated rules and drive investment in the grid. “A number of regions have identified ways to pay for updates to the grid by more closely associating the costs with benefits that consumers will receive,” said Blair. “These new cost allocation formulas allow for smarter planning across regions—planning that more precisely defines how much transmission should be built, for what purpose and where.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also finalized a new rule in July 2011 that is anticipated to define a new era in transmission development that reflects the evolution of our power grid and our energy future as a whole. The rule should significantly increase regional planning of transmission systems instead of utility footprint only process, and put in place a process for allocating costs to those who benefit from new transmission facilities—even for those systems that cross state boundaries and rationalize the allocation of those costs.

We’ve come a long way from the days of the “Live Better Electrically” campaign. Electricity is integral to our way of life and our way of life is vastly different than in the 1950s. We need new solutions to our energy challenges and new leaders to guide us. Edison’s vision got us to where we stand today and taking us to the next level begins with a comprehensive national energy policy. “Having a national energy policy in place will set the standard for our nation’s utilities generation portfolio and provide regulatory certainty that will facilitate the building of a new transmission network and bring new generation resources online—whether it is wind, nuclear or clean coal technologies,” said Blair. “A national energy policy should include independent planning of the grid, federal backstop siting authority and regional cost recovery processes across a wider geography to recognize the broad-based benefits of regional infrastructure. A single, cohesive plan for America’s transmission system that begins with a national energy policy will support energy markets and benefit the entire nation,” said Blair.

Just as important, these infrastructure improvements will require a skilled workforce. However, in addition to reliability challenges and outdated regulatory structure, the energy industry is facing a significant impending challenge—an aging workforce. Now is the time to begin educating the next generation of engineers, scientists, and utility workers who will rebuild our nation’s energy grid. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics indicates that 30+ percent of the existing utility workforce nationwide is or will be eligible for retirement in the next five years. There is significant job creation potential for skilled workers in this sector, assuming that the appropriate political framework and regulatory environment is provided for growth. We must immediately begin developing tomorrow’s energy industry workforce to be prepared for future demands. Partnering with community leaders and educational institutions can provide a significant step forward and is just another area where Blair and ITC continue to lead. ITC has already taken steps to address this issue by making focused investments in the workforce of tomorrow by offering apprenticeship programs and partnering with community colleges and unions to educate and train utility workers.

“We have received an overwhelmingly positive response to our education partnership initiatives,” said Blair. “We will continue our emphasis on developing the energy industry workforce of tomorrow.” Just as ITC has been recognized for its leadership, including ranking on Fortune’s Fastest Growing Companies for several years, Blair continues to be recognized for her contributions to the community, which include serving on various community boards and being honored as one of Michigan’s Women Who Lead by the nationally-known WJR-AM 760 morning show host Paul W. Smith. Blair’s leadership in this area is underscored by ITC’s ongoing commitment to the communities it serves, a cornerstone of its business and its mission to be a best-in-class transmission provider.

About ITC Holdings Corp.

ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ITC) is the nation’s largest independent electricity transmission company. Based in Novi, Michigan, ITC invests in the electric transmission grid to improve system reliability, expand access to markets, lower the overall cost of delivered energy and allow new generating resources to interconnect to its transmission systems. ITC’s regulated operating subsidiaries include ITCTransmission, Michigan Electric Transmission Company, ITC Midwest and ITC Great Plains. Through these subsidiaries, ITC owns and operates high-voltage transmission facilities in Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas, serving a combined peak load exceeding 25,000 megawatts along 15,000 circuit miles of transmission line. Through ITC Grid Development and its subsidiaries, the company also focuses on expansion in areas where significant transmission system improvements are needed. For more information, please visit: http://www.itctransco.com.

Building Vision Around Technology

By: Lisa Jasper Issue: Vision Section: Business In the “old days” or even as recently as the last decade, large companies had a scale advantage in the area of technology that helped them compete. We call the large, old, slow organizations “Goliath” companies and their young, nimble competitors “David” companies. Goliath companies are often constrained by their own scale with aging, rigid technology infrastructures, whereas the David organizations are enabled by a combination of readily available technologies that help them move faster and compete more effectively than the big firms.

Goliath companies have struggled with strategic technology challenges for years, and the challenges are only increasing as the technologies that enable their David competitors are becoming more threatening. Most Goliath organizations spawned a second head to try to think about and work on this problem. They have “the IT (information technology) head” and “the business head.” These two heads have been so focused on trying to work with each other that they are losing sight of their real competitor.

The “IT head” has focused over the last couple of decades on vague statements like “aligning business and IT,” “serving the internal customer,” “running IT like a business,” or “being a trusted advisor.” These were all well-intentioned messages, but they are distractions from real IT strategy—strategy that can make or break a business. We propose a simpler way to build vision around technology.

Focus Strategies Externally

When organizations think about IT strategy, they often focus first on cost optimization within the department. New leaders—CIOs, CEOs and CFOs—often identify opportunities to save money by making improvements in the IT organization, which ultimately boil down to a mission statement similar to, “We will deliver high quality, cost-effective solutions to meet business needs.” Yes, there are real opportunities to cut costs or improve quality within many IT organizations using process improvements, organizational improvements, and technology consolidations. However, an IT strategy that centers primarily on optimization of IT itself is leaving real opportunity on the table.

The strategy must establish a vision that expands beyond the boundaries of the organization—one focused on what the business can really DO with technology. Take a for-profit company, which by its definition, is in business to make money. Profit is a derivative of revenues and costs. A technology strategy for a for-profit company needs to clearly articulate a vision for how technology will reduce costs and/or increase revenues.

But wait! Didn’t we just say that focusing on cost optimization is not sufficient? Yes, but the IT strategies we spoke of before focused primarily on reducing IT costs, which are often insignificant compared to the costs of other business processes around the company. The further IT can push its strategies beyond the boundaries of its organization, the higher its impact will be. In fact, many companies have found ways to reduce costs through the application of technology, but few have pushed cost reduction as externally as they can. Walmart, on the other hand, has. They have applied technology innovatively to reduce costs of integration with their vendors and suppliers.

Still, the biggest opportunities to apply technology often relate to increasing revenue and this is where many technology strategies fall short. These investments often require a leap of faith and more experimentation, and are often harder to measure. But as we’ve seen with start-ups and big companies alike, technology can be a game changer in attracting and retaining customers and getting the right products to them.

Amazon, for example, has locked me in. Their mobile app is so easy to use; the majority of my purchases are done through my iPhone. To crystalize this concept, let’s take a few strategic goals that could be employed at a large online retail provider like Amazon. First, decrease IT costs by 10 percent through virtualization, while reducing HR headcount by half using self-service features. Another goal, move 90 percent of vendors to automated ordering and payment by 2013, while growing average order value over the next two years by 20 percent through website personalization. All of these goals are fine, and they might be employed in some combination. Note, though, that as they grow more externally focused, they also grow in their impact to profitability.

Externally-focused strategy thinking is intuitive. It may even seem so obvious that you wonder why more organizations haven’t figured it out. While many companies do have objectives like this, they are buried. And as we mentioned in the introduction, the focus on “aligning” the two heads of Goliath has really complicated things within most large companies. As we will discuss in the next section, the simplicity of this kind of externally facing technology strategy is what helps the whole organization really get aligned.

Rally Around the Common Goals

Most large companies think about business strategy and IT strategy as separate endeavors, and many actually have two distinct processes for developing these strategies. IT often waits for the larger organization to hand over its business strategy and then develops a strategy to support it.

Instead, companies need to develop and agree to strategies cohesively. Everyone in the IT organization needs to understand how technology is going to help achieve the overall business’s objectives. And, business leadership must understand how technology will drive business results. This joint focus has several distinct benefits to the organization as a whole. First, it gets teams collaborating on common objectives. No longer are IT people trying to serve the needs of business people. By honing the focus to business outcomes that can be achieved through technology, teams can work together to make good decisions.

Second, this focus helps develop IT managers into business leaders. One of the biggest development needs for most IT managers is for them to understand and focus on the business as a whole. The most successful IT leaders are those who drive business outcomes through technology innovations. CIOs sometimes get it, but they haven’t trained their team to do the same. Spreading this focus through the IT leadership team will help get those leaders in the right conversation, while training them about what is really important to the entire business.

Finally, this focus helps inspire the IT organization as a whole. Technology workers are a unique breed. Most knowledge workers want to feel like their work has a purpose, but IT workers in particular are really motivated by the meaningfulness of their work. The number of IT organizations who have low morale because projects aren’t valued by the business as a whole is disheartening. Communicating a strategy about how technology changes the business as a whole, and tying individual work to it, will increase employee engagement.

Keep Score Based on Business Outcomes

A typical IT scorecard, whether explicit or implicit, tends to have measures that say, deliver 90 percent of projects on-time and on-budget; follow technology standards and use approved vendor lists; and gain a high rating on (internal) customer satisfaction surveys.

Does this sound familiar?

Take the on-time, on-budget delivery measure—one that exists in practically every organization, whether on a scorecard or as part of other reporting. It is good to be on-time and on-budget, but achieving that objective alone does not mean technology will positively impact the company. People could be working on the wrong projects or delivering the wrong outcome, causing inevitable failure. So an elevated focus on this measure is risky.

What if we took a different view? What if we measured our technology strategy on its more direct impact to business objectives? This is where the objections often really get strong. We often hear, “I don’t have the ability to influence those measures!” or “My business leadership doesn’t really care about that!”

It is a mind-shift, for sure. But if the technology strategy and the scorecard that measures its success doesn’t expand its view, there is no way to expand its impact. Take the externally focused strategy above: “Grow average order value by 20 percent over the next two years through website personalization.” We all know objectives need to be SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time-bound) and externally focused. When goals are constructed this way, it is something professionals really could rally around. It is a strategy that could help drive decisions.

When executive teams are focused together on making decisions and implementing changes that drive business results, it shifts the whole energy of the company to one that works together versus one that points fingers. That’s when IT and the business are aligned and when the CIO is seen as the trusted advisor.

Internally focused measures around costs, quality, or timeliness may still be necessary to ensure the IT organization is optimized, but they are not sufficient as a technology strategy alone. To summarize, thinking strategically in the technology world requires a joint push to an external perspective. It requires starting with what technology can really do for an organization, knowing that the specifics may change based on the type of organization you have. But, external-based thinking is the way to start.

A Visionary Career

By: Judith B. Taylor with Jan Mazotti Issue: Vision Section: Business

An Interview With Cathey McClain Finlon

With insight, determination and perspective spanning over a four decade career, Cathey McClain Finlon is a commanding and luminary force in the Denver area and beyond. Her belief in the constant path of learning, combined with her belief that growth leads to change, are hallmarks of a stellar career, where she currently serves as president of the Denver Art Museum and chair of the Board of Trustees of The Children’s Hospital.

THE BACKSTORY

The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, McClain Finlon decided at an early age that work was a path to meeting her goals. Self-described as rebellious and strong willed, Finlon had the desire to branch out and be adventurous as a young woman. She was encouraged to leave the nest with the “you can be anything” attitude.

After receiving her Masters degree, Finlon headed to Philadelphia with little cash and lots of desire. Her first position was with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and involved development. Her next stop was the Denver Art Museum when it was the Gio Ponti Building.

Moving on from the art world, Finlon took up marketing and advertising. Under her ownership of McLain Finlon Advertising, beginning in 1985, she built her company to one of the top 50 agencies in the U.S., as ranked by both Ad Age and Ad Week. Her company also consistently ranked in the top five Colorado-based, woman-owned businesses. INC. recognized McLain Finlon with a Top 100 Inner City Award and hundreds of creative awards including 5 Clios. She was a founder of Linhart McClain Public Relations as well.

An avid sportswoman, Finlon has cycled all over the world and climbed almost half of Colorado’s 14ers. She is also active in her community and her board work is extensive. She is past chair of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and of the Junior Achievement board. Her board service also includes the Denver Art Museum, Denver Public Schools Foundation, Advisory board of the University of Denver - Daniels College of Business and the Center for Colorado’s Economic Future at the University of Denver. She has also served on the boards of the Colorado Outward Bound, National Repertory Orchestra, Alliance for Contemporary Art, World Trade Center and is past chair of the Denver Advertising Federation. Finlon served on the board of the American Association of Advertising Agencies which represents the top agencies in the U.S., as well.

VISIONARY IDEAS INTO ACTION

Finlon has several themes underscoring her career and many lessons learned that she willingly shares. She knows that realizing one’s vision in a business environment generates challenges and she has likely dealt with them throughout her career. “The way to grow is to change,” Finlon says. “It is important to look for shared values because it is not perfect in business.” Her journey through the years carried career lessons including the need for change and teamwork. “Connecting to common values sets the stage for continued growth. Being part of a team is essential with constant nurturing and hatching,” she said. “For things to change, I have to change.”

In growing the advertising agency to an Ad Age Top 100 U.S. agency, responsibilities had to be shared. Finlon could no longer do it all—she had to let go a little bit. She said, “When you are part of a team, you give up some things. You need someone who knows more than you, and that can be scary.” To allow herself to let go, Finlon says that she had to “revise” herself quite a bit. “Constant revising allows for striving to be the best,” Finlon declared.

Working with industry and community boards to build skills was paramount to the success of her endeavors as well. She credits her active board participation in helping her take newly learned skills into her company. She is committed to connecting and collaborating. In fact, she has spent up to 30 percent of her time on boards. She says, “It is important to participate in our community in any way we can.”

LESSONS LEARNED DURING A FORTY YEAR CAREER

There are five key lessons—themes—if you will, that Finlon believes are important to positive personal and professional endeavors. She frames each in personal anecdotes of challenge and success. Theme One: Opportunity and serendipity are spectacular friends.

With $500 in her pocket, Finlon left home to work for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The thing was, she didn’t have a job there yet and they were not interested in her professional skills (or lack thereof). She worked tirelessly to get someone there to notice her, to no avail. With her last dollar in her pocket, she interviewed with a fundraising firm and got the job—as a contracted fundraiser for the museum. In a suit bought on layaway, Finlon walked into the interview looking and feeling great, but a bit intimidated by the Degas ballerinas on the wall. Passing the first interview, she proceeded to meet with a member of the executive committee, Elizabeth M. Greenfield, who was well-known in the art community and “had a Jackson Pollack over her fireplace.” She got the job and came to realize that had it not been for the last ditch effort with her resume her career could have gone in a completely different direction. After performing well in her role as a fundraiser, she asked for a small raise and was told by her boss, “I can go out on the street today and find any other girl to do this”….and click, I knew I had to get out of there. Which leads to theme two.

Theme Two: Run, don’t walk away from unacceptable situations. See them. Know them. Respond to them. Have a plan. She said, “I had outstanding mentors, respectful references, and a way to grow, but there is no substitute for a bad boss. I couldn’t change this person’s mind about my value, so on to the next job—The Denver Art Museum. Theme Three: Mentors Matter. They make a real difference. They pick you. You earn your way with them.

Through her early career, Finlon found herself in the midst of some of the best minds in the art community. And, as the youngest development director in any U.S. art museum, and one of only a few women, Finlon says, “I had a plan for how to revolutionize fundraising. I was young, assertive, and full of myself.”

She launched a fundraising campaign and Fred Mayer, a quiet, brainy, savvy businessman who was a serious art collector, picked her to mentor. Finlon recounts how Mayer worked with her over the years. “I asked him to endorse a campaign. Instead of endorsing the campaign, he asked me what he should do—what should he give. In that moment, he touched me. In that gesture, in asking my opinion, at my young age, he gave me trust and respect, and would give me that trust in years to come. And he laid on me the deep responsibility to perform for him. It was a breathtaking moment. He would go on to advise me off and on for many, many years. And, these relationships from the Denver Art Museum have formed a family of connections—never for business—but always for spirit that has sustained me.” Theme Four: Hard work can be the difference between success and failure.

After several years at the museum, Finlon was recruited by a Boulder-based advertising firm and she said, “My life changed!” She expounded on how, with no business experience, she took her entire $10,000 savings and put it into the agency, how she bought it completely less than three years later, and how she learned that breaking even wasn’t a great thing—the company needed to grow. So she began to read and learn more. “I read every book I could find about how to be a better leader, how to work with teams, how to build business, soak up learning wherever it would come,” she said. It was the mid-1980s—times were tough and business was pressure-filled. She was afraid for her business and reputation. But her father, a modest man who never made more than $13,000 a year called one day and told her he had set aside $10,000 for her in case she got in trouble. At that point, Finlon knew she, “Had to stay the course.” Theme Five: Work must have meaning and value every day!

“It troubles me that today that many women feel that they cannot find meaning in their work—except if they move into the nonprofit world. I don’t understand that, considering that both nonprofit and for-profit worlds are stimulating and motivating,” declared Finlon. She talked about her advertising agency and how as they added new people and capabilities to the business that they had to look for, “Meaning in their work—beyond the ads.” As a result, they created the McClain Finlon Global Do Good Grant which was a competition for employees to get an all expense paid trip anywhere in the world to do some good. The catch—they had to make the rest of the organization understand the need before the trip, and then share their learnings with the agency upon return. She said, “We sent emissaries to a Romanian orphanage and Tanzania and heard stunning presentations of first hand experiences of these Global Do Gooders.” She recounted a story of an employee that went to Rwanda. To raise funds, one of their employees grew an enormous head of hair and the receptionist’s partner, a hairstylist, shaved it all off. As the stylist cut, the other employees threw dollars into the stairwell where they were working. This haircut raised an additional $3000, which was used in Rwanda to buy clothing for children, 10 female goats, school materials and a huge water tank. “The presentation upon their return about the terrible destruction in Rwanda and the impact of these small gifts was unforgettable,” she said.

It was not just traveling abroad that brought meaning to employees at the agency. Together they created the McQuick, the world’s shortest St. Patrick’s Day for Busy Corporate Executives. It was a 10 foot parade complete with floats, motorcades, and horse patrols.

Finlon proclaimed, “Creating meaning in work is about doing work professionally and with satisfaction—about striving to do it different and better than ever—by seeking new ways to replace the old—and it is also about finding the way to personally give to others. It’s only in our heads to realize.”

GOING FORWARD

As Finlon looks back at her career, she emphasizes the connection between art and ideas—the importance of people engaging in an art experience. Creativity at every level is paramount. “We all have options. Our vision comes from a world of inclusion. It embraces all kinds of people and skill sets across many diverse audiences.” Finlon also loves her work in the nonprofit arena. “It is a heart thing,” she says.

She goes on, “I love women in the workplace. I want for them to achieve balance—to perform and receive recognition and reward. To be respected completely. To entrepreneur as I did with belief in a positive outcome.” “Collaboration is vital,” she says. “Being part of a community and being a participant are very important.”

“Today, I am on a mission at the Denver Art Museum,” she says. “I have skills that are useful to it. We have new and dynamic programs. We have an extraordinary team, unbelievable board, an incredible facility. I for one will take these moments in time to use what I have to move it upward. I have not really come full circle. I am continuing to climb the stairs.”

Energy Battles and Market Barriers

By: Kelly de la Torre and Jan MazottiIssue: Vision Section: Business

An Interview With Jigar Shah and The Carbon War Room

Scientists are more confident than ever that climate change is causing negative effects such as sea level rise, stronger storms, and drought—to name just a few. These extremes can and have already had devastating effects on society and the global environment. The good news according to Jigar Shah, CEO of The Carbon War Room, is that we can mitigate the effects of climate change by deploying existing and cost effective technologies and create wealth at the same time. The target is huge—business and consumers alike must reduce emissions by 17 gigatons by 2020 is paramount. However, our opportunity to do well by doing good is even bigger.

Shah and The Carbon War Room have their eyes on this target. To launch the attack, The Carbon War Room has identified seven theaters that are material to winning the war against climate change. Each battle represents over 1 billion tons, or more than 2 percent, of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions annually. To be clear, the question is not whether we have the technology. In fact, we already do. The Carbon War Room focuses on failures in the marketplace and how to remove these barriers in order to scale cost-effective solutions. “To identify these failures, we simply need to open our eyes. It’s Business 101,” says Shah. Fifty percent of the climate challenge can be tackled with existing technology, market, and policy conditions, advocates the War Room.

The process is simple. To identify market barriers The Carbon War Room first takes a top-down global look. For example, the potential for commercial energy efficiency is 1 gigaton of carbon savings through the use of energy efficiency retrofits. The next step is to identify the costs for achieving that 1 gigaton of carbon emission reductions. Once the numbers are generated, the strategy switches to a bottom-up approach. Specifically, what is preventing achievement of these numbers and what is the solution? From this analysis, The Carbon War Room creates a hypothesis for change, and ultimately, direct capital to the sector in order to take new solutions to scale. “This approach allows us to combine knowledge, enthusiasm, energy and finance to unlock the potential of the technologies and businesses of the future,” declares Shah.

This isn’t theory; this is a call to action. The Carbon War Room is mobilizing entrepreneurial and business forces to target market failures. Inherent and fundamental to this strategy, however, are the economic opportunities that transcend carbon reduction.  “In the face of great stagnation we need to build, so people are doing something,” says Shah. “This is the greatest wealth-generating opportunity of our generation.”

A visionary devoted to gigaton-scale reduction of carbon emissions, Shah refers to himself as a capitalist who firmly believes that we can “do well by doing good.” He believes it because he’s done it. Shah is a long-time advocate of solar power and founder of SunEdison, a solar services provider that now has more solar energy systems and megawatts under management than any other company. At the start of his career, however, investment in solar required huge up-front installation costs, a model that was effectively killing industry growth. It is this type of market failure that frustrates him. He says, “This is a classic example of a failure to align interests.” Shah identified the fundamental problem—how the energy industry operated was out of alignment with the means of producing solar. It was upon this premise that he launched SunEdison.

For Shah, it was a matter of going back to basics. As he started SunEdison, Shah figured out that the high cost of owning and operating a rooftop solar array posed a real barrier to development. By implementing market mechanisms for the solar industry that already existed in the conventional energy industry, like power purchase agreements which guaranteed a return for investors, he was able to repackage solar as a low risk investment and propel the industry forward.

The SunEdison business model created by Shah stimulated significant growth for the solar industry, but he was just warming up. Shah has since moved on to lead The Carbon War Room, an independent nonprofit, founded by Sir Richard Branson, to harness the power of entrepreneurs to unlock gigaton solutions to climate change. Aptly named, The Carbon War Room is actively coordinating teams of entrepreneurs, business leaders, policy experts, researchers, and thought leaders to focus on market-driven solutions and drive implementation in the war against carbon emissions. “It’s not enough to come up with the idea,” says Shah. It is the job of The Carbon War Room to slog through the details and implement new mechanisms, and it is working.

The Battle for Renewable Jet Fuel

One of the major battles identified by Shah is jet fuel emissions. The Carbon War Room reports that the aviation sector currently accounts for two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the sector will grow to account for over five percent of global emissions by 2020. And, argues Shah, providing viable renewable alternatives to jet fuel is the most permanent way to reduce the sector’s carbon impact. The War Room found that although tests have demonstrated the efficacy of renewable fuels for years, and while renewable fuels’ potential impact on the industry and on emissions is great, use of renewable fuels in aviation is not scaling in proportion to its market potential.

The Carbon War Room identified an information gap—the market barrier—between the aviation sector and renewable fuel manufacturers regarding the quality and sustainability of renewable fuels. This lack of information prevented the aviation sector from identifying opportunities to support promising solutions through investment. To address the information gap, The Carbon War Room partnered with Elsevier to launch RenewableJetFuels.org, a database designed to provide information relating to viable jet fuel opportunities by providing in-depth scrutiny of the renewable jet fuel supply chain companies. The launch of the website on December 4, 2011, provided an assessment of the top five renewable jet fuel supply chain companies in terms of economic viability, scalability and sustainability. “By keeping the site in beta format, producers can continually update and re-submit data. This is then reviewed by experts, enabling RenewableJetFuels.org to be the independent gold standard for investors and airlines in the market,” said Suzanne Hunt, Operations Lead at The Carbon War Room.

Shah’s true vision is to create the market conditions to scale technology by identifying and fleshing out common sense solutions that can cause change to occur. In fact, the more you talk to Shah, the more “V-8” moments you have—moments where you want to smack your hand on your forehead because something he’s said is suddenly so obvious that you wonder why you didn’t see it before. One example he gives is related to shipping. He explains it this way, “If you were moving from Denver to New York and someone told you that one moving truck costs $39.95 a day and the other costs $42.95 a day which one would you choose?” “The $39.95 truck,” I respond. “Even if it costs more in fuel costs to get from Denver to New York,” asks Shah? Oh, another smack to my forehead – I needed the right information. It’s the second battle targeted by The Carbon War Room.

The War on Shipping Inefficiency

The Carbon War Room reports that shipping as a stand-alone nation would be the sixth largest CO2 emitter, with sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and related particulates among the worst globally. Surprisingly, the top 16 ships produce as much SOx as the global auto fleet. And notably, just 15 percent of the ocean vessel fleet accounts for 50 percent of emissions. The Carbon War Room reports that just a 30 percent efficiency savings through the uptake of technologies and operational measures at current bunker fuel market prices would equate to a $70 billion saving across the industry.

Remarkably, however, even with proven technologies identified to provide tremendous fuel and emissions savings, coupled with short payback periods, the technologies have not been embraced and systematically introduced.  Technologies like satellite weather routing, rudder propeller technology, waste heat recovery technology, and friction reducing hull coatings, present huge economic efficiency and carbon reduction opportunities, yet few fleet owners have begun implementation.

To address this, The Carbon War Room gathered the sector’s key experts and asked them why the shipping companies weren’t addressing efficiency and why their customers weren’t demanding it. The simple answer—and another “V-8” moment—was that no one had asked for fuel economy. The Carbon War Room once again identified an information gap as the market failure. The shipping customer pays the price for fuel, but the information about which ships were more fuel efficient wasn’t available. With appropriate information available to the shipping customers, the incentive to retrofit could then be driven by the market and by the decision of the shipping customers to use the ships that were most efficient.

As a result, The Carbon War Room launched ShippingEfficiency.org for the purpose of increasing information flows around international shipping's energy efficiency. What’s more, it did not take long for the shipping companies to recognize that with informed consumers, they could quickly gain market share through simple energy efficiency upgrades and basic communications.  Shah argues, “It is critical to align the economic and environmental interests in order to facilitate crucial capital flows. The transformations we seek will be self-financeable by the industry and will lead to decreased operating expenses. The 2020 fleet could save CO2 emissions by over 0.5 billion tons annually, putting it on a path to reductions of over one billion tons a year by 2050.” In addition to increasing information flows and communication, The Carbon War Room is targeting legal and policy innovation to help accelerate the adoption and enforcement of international regulations on shipping efficiency and permanently embed efficiency as a crucial metric.

The Green Capital Global Challenge

Another battle identified by The Carbon War Room is commercial energy inefficiency. It is well known that deep energy retrofits can achieve significant emission reductions and energy savings. According to Shah, the solar industry is about a $70 billion market annually, but we spend only about $10 billion each year on energy efficiency measures that would reduce the amount of energy we need. So the question is, why would we not be investing in technologies that can be paid for immediately through energy savings?

Again, this is another example of something that makes sound financial sense but it isn’t scaling like it should. An identified barrier limiting investment in beneficial retrofits for solar included high up-front costs and the widespread difficulty in securing capital.  Therefore, the solution was to address the barrier of capital flow to the market.

To mobilize an attack in this battle, The Carbon War Room brokered the launch of the PACE Commercial Consortium (PCC) to focus on how to unlock billions of dollars of private investment money for energy efficiency measures in commercial real estate by using a mechanism that already existed—the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program. The problem with the existing mechanism, however, was that municipalities were required to pay large, up-front payments that they didn’t have.  And, there were not adequate mechanisms in place to unlock private investment for the work. So, key to the PCC strategy was the critical collaboration of its members, each providing an important piece of the puzzle in terms of experience in engineering, risk management, program design, administration, and capital.

Through PACE, private capital has the opportunity to provide millions of dollars in stimulus monies to cities in crisis while the cities bear minimal risk. In Miami and Sacramento alone, more than $650 million of private investment is available, and the potential stimulus for other states is also staggering. According to PCC, for every $1 million invested in commercial real estate energy efficiency retrofits there would be on average, $4 million in tax revenues at all levels, $10 million in economic activity, and 60 jobs created.

What you realize talking to Shah is that it doesn’t take but a few “V-8” moments to see a pattern. He tells it is like it is. The Carbon War Room is trying to solve real problems and by doing so, move things forward. They are doing things that make economic sense, and it just so happens that a side benefit is that their work is saving the planet.

Clearly, the other aspect is that Shah’s strategy is not to urge reform through education about the positive benefits. Instead, it is a strategy to demonstrate the successes of what they’ve done and urge businesses and consumers to pay attention and care, while making positive change faster.

To explain, Shah tells a story about the role of cell phones in rural poverty reduction and how advances in information and communication technologies have opened a range of opportunities for rural areas in underdeveloped parts of the world. In his example, he tells of how people would historically walk six or more hours and wait for a bus that may or may not be there. Now buses can text with the arrival time so an all day walk is not wasted. While cell phones provide access to necessary information, however, these rural areas don’t have the means to charge them. “People would pay for more minutes if they could use them,” said Shah. So, to address the charging issue, one company has deployed a 20-watt solar unit for homes in exchange for an incremental extra charge on the cell phone bill. It simply makes market sense. People were paying $3 for diesel to run a generator and that diesel is subsidized by the government, so now the government is also saving. The financer of the solar makes a 40 percent rate of return.

Shah asked what is stopping this model from being rolled out everywhere, and what they found were some transaction and robustness issues, for example, technology to prevent reverse engineering to circumvent payment, but nothing insurmountable or even terribly difficult. These solutions are simple and are the types of solutions that Shah and The Carbon War Room are using to change the world and make our lives better. It’s about economic opportunity with environmental benefits.

Shah is very clear that we need to stop talking and start doing. Countries like China and India have agreed to emissions regulation, not because it’s good for the environment, but because they recognize that this is the largest wealth creation opportunity for this generation. Shah advocates that we have the technology, the passion, and the knowledge. We need to mobilize and facilitate necessary capital flows and to do this we need to wake up and focus on these opportunities. If something is not working, we need to take another look and examine why. Our generation has the opportunity to write a new story; a story that will benefit our society, the global economy and the next generations. What comes next for Shah after The Carbon War Room? I was surprised to hear him say he doesn’t know. However, it does not seem to matter. Whatever comes next for Jigar Shah, we can be certain that it will propel us forward so that we can all "do well by doing good."

Embracing New Capabilities

By: Manish Sharma and Dave Guevara Issue: Vision Section: Business

Traditional Technology Strategies Will Fail to Execute Your Vision

Beware! Your traditional technology strategies are or will soon be obsolete. How can that be when the executive team already understands that vision defines the long-term view of the company to investors, customers and employees?

Executives have strategies they believe translate corporate vision into achievable, high-level goals. Technology is a part of all of those strategies. It is important to know, the convergence of mobile, social media and cloud technologies will disrupt traditional corporate information technology (IT) strategies. Walmart provides an example of how to adapt technology tactics to enable your vision and strategies.

Walmart describes themselves as a global retailer who is committed to saving people money so they can live better. Their customer vision is “to earn the trust of their customers everyday by providing a broad assortment of quality merchandise and services at everyday low prices (EDLP).”

This global low-cost retailer is also known for being a technology leader, not just in IT but also across their operations. In 2008, Walmart demanded that a supply chain strategy become standard practice for their 700-store Sam’s Club line. They mandated that all Sam’s Club suppliers comply with Walmart’s three-year radio frequency identification (RFID) inventory technology requirement or pay penalty fees.

In 2011, Walmart acquired Kosmix to form @Walmartlabs to further their digital strategy around marrying internal customer store transaction data with information patterns mined from social networks. What they are building is the “Social Genome” based on millions of tweets, Facebook messages, blog postings, YouTube videos, and community posts. As reported by Olaf De Senerpont Domis in “The Deal Magazine” (Nov. 28), @Walmartlabs continued to build their technology strategy by acquiring OneRiot, a Boulder, Colorado-based company developing target ads using social media data, and in November 2011, Walmart bought Grabble, which develops point-of-sale technology for cellphones.

So you are probably wondering what this means to everyone and the executive team. Or, how can the team find the appropriate technologies, where to apply them in terms of business outcomes, and what it means for competitive differentiation? There are three criteria to understand and apply, no matter which method or best practice you use for strategic planning when it comes to technology strategies. 1. Determine how customers, employees and supply chains use social media and mobile technologies; 2. Use an outside-in perspective throughout execution of the vision and strategies; and 3. Become flexible and adaptive to test new ideas and to respond to unforeseeable events like a global recession and slow recovery.

Use of Social Media and Mobile Technologies

Over the last five years there have been a few trends that have heavily impacted the IT capabilities landscape. The first is the growth in consumer-based IT with the advent of smartphones and smart devices that provide the user with ubiquitous access to information. The second trend is social collaboration based on social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter, blogs and community sites like OneWorldTV.

Gartner, Inc., the world’s leading IT research and advisory company, suggests that cloud, social media and mobility technologies will disrupt companies’ strategies in many industries. “Many industry business models will be challenged through 2015, as customers continue to adopt an always-connected digital lifestyle and market competitors exploit emerging technologies to achieve business growth and success,” says vice president and distinguished analyst Kimberly Harris-Ferrante in a January 4, 2012 “TechJournal” article. She adds, “Cloud computing and social media will continue to provide industries with new avenues for effective customer communication and engagement, facilitating increased revenue and sustainable interaction with key customers. New technologies such as media tablets and advances in mobile will have a disruptive impact on many industries, requiring changes to existing processes and propelling business transformation.”

In fact, technological mobility has untethered the workforce from the PC and made information access a part of consumers’ and employees’ lifestyles. Social media outlets have allowed people to collaborate in a medium that is most desirable to them without having to seek approval or wait for internal IT capabilities to be available. Although these trends do not directly affect the way IT capabilities are delivered to run a corporation, they have a direct impact on how to create a vision for IT.

These trends represent a new way of envisioning access, reach, and channels for services used by internal and external stakeholder groups. Instead of having a vision that talks about IT services and capabilities, the corporate vision and strategies must address what will please the end user. Hence, the new order is to have a vision that is derived from looking from the outside-in and not inside-out, as has traditionally been the case.

Outside-In Perspective

An outside-in vision strategy describes how a company engages the perspective of customers, as in the Walmart example. And while corporate vision may already be stated from the customers’ perspective, it is important to ask how many of the strategies translate that outside-in perspective into implementation plans. A key question is how well the outside-in perspective aligns with certain initiatives and programs to help execute the stated vision? Or, how many initiatives got derailed when technologies were deployed? Every executive has been cautioned to never allow vendor or technology strategies dictate business strategies. It is imperative to stop guessing and define business and technical capabilities so that the customer’s experiences are consistent with the corporate vision. When working on internal business functions, the same capabilities mapping approach will assure that your employees’ and business partner’s experiences are also aligned. But, this is so much easier said than done. It requires a shift in mindset throughout management and technology implementation leaders—both business and technical.

With regard to information systems, the outside-in approach means mapping business capabilities—functional capabilities with the required performance or quality level—to the systems capabilities delivered through IT systems. This approach considers end user satisfaction with IT capabilities, not with the “why’s” of what can’t be done. Aligning business and IT capabilities in this manner leads to an unbiased view of required IT capabilities, no preconceived notion of fulfillment, and an opportunity for reassigning ownership where it belongs.

Historically the vision for IT was internally focused on improvements that would provide bigger, better and faster services for the enterprise. This worked well when IT mostly delivered a set of enterprise services that required large investments, thus leading to an emphasis on optimizing utilization of the assets created by these investments. However, with the self-learn, self-govern and self-directed nature of social media, and the ubiquitous access to information from mobility makes these corporate assets likely to be only a part of the needed capabilities to support communities of customers, employees and business partners—like Sam’s Club suppliers. Any technology strategies must now look at the internal and external ecosystem that will provide the ability to validate, adapt and respond to customers and markets in a durable, competitive and profitable manner.

Moreover, the outside-in view needs governance, with emphasis on the speed in validating new ideas before committing to full-scale investments. Organizations should allocate budget for business units to explore their ideas using IT capabilities that can be implemented rapidly, and not necessarily using internal IT capabilities. This helps in the validation of newer technology options without the enterprise rigor that can delay realization of the expected business performance levels called for by outlined strategies. However for this approach to be successful, companies must have previously created the ability to be flexible and adaptive in testing new ideas followed by a structured migration plan to move new capabilities into full-scale production.

Become Flexible and Adaptive

Business and technical capabilities that are derived from an outside-in perspective produce the behaviors in systems and people, which create the desired experiences for customers, employees and business partners—like supply chains—both upstream and downstream. One can’t assume that traditional strategies will show how to apply the technologies described by Gartner analyst Harris-Ferrante—cloud computing, social media, and mobility. Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald, authors of the 2011 article “The Social Organization” state, “Businesses must embrace new capabilities that allow them to test and validate ideas, adoption rates, and to tap the collective genius of customers and employees.”

Your business and technical leaders need the ability to quickly prototype and validate their ideas without the traditional timeframes and disruptions to production systems. However, a common failure is to use one-off solutions that cannot grow to full-scale production. Validating ideas on a small sample of customers—hundreds to a few thousand—is valuable, but there must be a migration path to transition to a full-scale solution for hundreds of thousands to millions of consumers. This is where the required IT capabilities need to be evaluated for the scenarios where the pilot validation programs have succeeded.

These solutions are likely to be derived from a mix of internal IT and consumer-based technologies. And because the components of these solutions are available from outside internal IT, businesses have the option to procure them directly. This helps the speed of validation and deployment, but it may not be fully scalable and the total lifecycle costs may not fit the economic model across a full-scale rollout. Thus, it is necessary to look across the lifecycle to full-scale operations early on, especially when new ideas are being validated with customers or the intended audience. Lastly, do not make the mistake of demanding this flexibility and adaptability from the business operations that are critical to sustaining your revenue base at the current profitability levels. Charter teams within, or better across, business units who are knowledgeable about your business model(s) and their economics. These teams can then explore new ideas using business and technical capabilities that are not constrained by the governance and demands of your critical business functions. Their charter should include the accountability to define a path to full-scale deployment.

Summon The New Belgium Dream

By: Michael Connors Issue: Vision Section: Business

A Profile of CEO Kim Jordan

Beer. How I love to opine about the virtues of the Valhalla of hops and I am fortunate to be able to touch on the topic for ICOSA a second time. For those who are interested in such matters, there is an entire culture built around beer and it is one of unity, community and compassion. Here in Colorado we have many smaller breweries—not to knock Coors and Budweiser—that have passionately pursued the niche of craft beer. And I believe there is no microbrew finer than my personal favorite Fat Tire.

I had the opportunity to talk with Kim Jordan, CEO of New Belgium Brewing, during a recent ACG Denver event. She is a compelling public speaker who has a genuine passion for what she does and who she works with, thus when she speaks about New Belgium she is simply telling the story of the brewery which is entwined with the story of Jordan herself.

ICOSA featured New Belgium in its 2009 issue on conscious capitalism because of its remarkable culture and approach to the environment and community. What they have there is truly special and unique. But because of the theme of this issue—vision—I want to focus on how Jordan’s leadership and vision have helped shape, foster, and perpetuate the culture of sharing and compassion that permeates their business.

Jordan noted in her talk that beer is a culmination of art, science and food. It is from this perspective that she tells the story of herself and her then husband, Jeff Lebesch, envisioning a future for their craft beers. She explained that before they ever sold any beer, they went on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park and we talked about what they wanted this baby company of theirs to be. She said, “We wanted to produce world-class beers; we wanted to promote beer culture and the responsible enjoyment of beer; we wanted to be environmental stewards; and to have fun. . . . But one of the things I learned from this is that codifying what you want to be really helps focus energy in a core direction. We still live by this today—more than 20 years later.”

So while he created the beer, she was involved in everything else—and today the organization and its character speaks for itself. In fact, she was New Belgium’s first bottler, sales rep, distributor, marketer and financial planner. And, it is only from a foundation rooted in practicality that a vision can arise and thus be sustained. In many ways the sustainability of a vision can only be brought about by sound fundamentals that help guide, shape and perpetuate the identity of an organization.

Jordan comes from a Quaker family and was raised in the 1960’s so the drive and desire to compassionately change the world were embedded in her DNA. It is from this background that her influence and vision for New Belgium is heavily focused on sustainable practices, both environmental and social.

I believe that a good barometer into someone’s professional and personal world view is really enveloped in their mentors. When I asked Jordan about hers, she pointed to the work of Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard—whose thoughtful work was woven throughout her speech. Both share similar corporate structures and business philosophies, but one is a brewer and one is a sporting goods company. Patagonia started when, as a young rock climber, Chouinard started developing equipment that was effective, yet kind to the environment. A standing saying at Patagonia echoes the sentiments of New Belgium, “We can't bring ourselves to knowingly make a mediocre product. And we cannot avert our eyes from the harm done, by all of us, to our one and only home.”

These values seem to mesh almost identically with the culture that Jordan has encouraged and worked hard to instill. “We had to picture what collaboration looks like here because we’re so immersed in this reality, that for us, it’s as natural as breathing,” said Jordan. She went on, “Our employees never have to hide behind their true personalities. No matter what they do or who they are, they are New Belgium.” It’s a company steeped in leadership and vision to sustain and promote the growth of a corporate culture, while nourishing its people, and inspiring them to make a difference.

A visionary leader is much like a prism—a confluence of angles that helps focus the varied and disparate rays of their organization into the compact beams of color that help guide their people into the future, while maintaining the essential characteristics of the company that made them great to begin with. Jordan clearly understands the vital necessity of running a successful organization based on best practices in order to carry out her vision and this is what helps make her a successful leader and visionary. I asked her where she sees her organization decades from now and her answer was illuminating. She said, “It’s one of the interesting things about having a vision like ours; the purpose is to be a profitable brewery that makes our love and talent manifest; in some ways it’s so essential to be enduring always. And so, if 100 years from now if that essence is still core to how New Belgium shows up in the world—that will be fabulous.”

The final and key component to building a successful dream is finding people who share in that dream and are passionate about its success. The people that give her the most inspiration are those around her on a daily basis. New Belgium has a culture of collaboration at its core. “I get a lot of my inspiration from my coworkers… They’ll say ‘hey we should do this,’ and it will be about being better than we currently are. I have many pinch me moments with them and they often bring me to tears because I am so inspired by them.” When all levels of a company have access to such invested and truly interested ownership/leadership, there arises an openness where ideas can flourish and innovation can thrive. It is at this nexus where visionaries are born.

Personally, I am intrigued how beer becomes the emollient that brings festivities to life, when enjoyed responsibly. And, there is certainly a beer culture and beer people, as demonstrated by what New Belgium has accomplished, at its core.

Moving forward, Jordan’s greatest challenge may be to keep that sense of a small community brewery, as their success forces them to grow in order to fill the needs of an expanding and global marketplace. All I have to say is, ‘Good Luck Kim! You have my support. Oh yeah, one more pint of Fat Tire please.’

U.S. Senator Tom Daschle’s Vision on Energy

By: Martha Young Issue: Vision Section: Business Senator Tom Daschle has led a life of public service—one instilled by his parents—who believed that public service was an honorable profession. After finishing college in 1969, he entered the United States Air Force as an intelligence officer with the Strategic Air Command. He left the Air Force in 1972 to sow the seeds of what would become a 26 year career on the national political stage.

Laying the Groundwork for Bipartisan Consensus Building

In 1978, Tom Daschle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from South Dakota. He ran as a conservative Democrat, putting some ideological space between himself and the socially liberal platform of the party. His vision for the country during this time was steeped in the foundation of national security and quality of life. Throughout his tenure, Daschle repeatedly voted his constituents’ values over party lines.

While serving in the House, Daschle worked on the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs Committees and the Select Committee on Hunger, and was elected to the House Steering and Policy Committee in 1983. His House Committee work clearly reflected his values and vision for the country. Through the Agriculture Committee, Daschle stood by the country’s farmers through the farm crisis in 1985, writing the Emergency Farm Credit Act. He also contributed major provisions of the Disaster Relief Acts of 1988, 1989 and 1993 to assist with farm recovery after devastating natural disasters. Through the Veterans Affairs Committee, he advocated for his fellow veterans harmed in the line of duty. Successful legislation included compensation to veterans who were cancer victims due to exposure to Agent Orange, and passage of the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 1994, which authorized payment of disability compensation to Gulf War veterans.

Daschle was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and served as minority leader and majority leader, twice in each role, over the course of his tenure. As a senator, Daschle strengthened his vision for the country, emphasizing compromise and bipartisanship. In 2001 the Senate was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans—an unusual circumstance at the time. He worked with Trent Lott, the Republican Leader, to develop new rules to share power and the agreement passed the Senate unanimously.

Daschle’s Vision for the Country Expands

Over the course of time, Daschle’s vision for the country has expanded beyond the halls of Congress. He said, “It is up to all of us to forge consensus. The people of the country need to share their thoughts and ideas with their representatives. It is easy to do with a phone call or an email. The people need to pay attention to political issues and put pressure on their representatives with a tone of urgency.”

Energy, the environment, sustainability and health are interrelated issues, and the country cannot legislate on one aspect without impacting the others. These are complex issues, but if we are to develop a national energy policy, citizens can no longer remain complacent. Citizens must challenge the status quo. Many government and business players are advantaged by maintaining the status quo—and many of them are outside of the country’s borders—causing undue influence on the ability to move forward.

Daschle notes, “We are not lacking information on each of the factors that compose the country’s energy challenge and suite of solutions. We are in need of firm decisions and setting a direction that is backed by the people.”

Vision for the Future

Daschle is bullish on America saying, “We are the most innovative society the world has ever known. There is a growing realization—an awareness—throughout the country that to create better policies requires involvement. We are seeing the seeds of engagement beginning to sprout across the country. I am very optimistic that the country will come together to build a strong energy solution portfolio that is sustainable for our country’s future.”

Tom Daschle has moved off the congressional stage into a role that is well suited to his consensus building skills. He is a senior policy advisor at DLA Piper’s Government Affairs practice. He also serves as a member of DLA Piper’s Global Board. His work has enabled him to emerge as a thought leader on climate change and renewable energy policy. Daschle is a keynote speaker at the Global New Energy Summit (GNES) being held at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 9-11. The Senator said, “GNES is one of the premier energy conferences. It brings together all of the energy stakeholders to discuss and share ideas specific to policies and issues. It draws a wide array of participants.” To learn more about the Summit, and to register to hear Senator Daschle’s address visit www.globalnewenergysummit.org.

Martha Young is principal at NovaAmber, LLC, a business strategy company based in Golden. Young has held positions as industry analyst, director of market research, competitive intelligence analyst, and sales associate. She has written books, articles, and papers regarding the intersection of technology and business for over 15 years. She has co-authored four books on the topics of virtual business processes, virtual business implementations, and project management for IT. Young can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @myoung_vbiz.

The Wonder of Wikipedia

By: Jan Mazotti and Annette Perez Issue: Vision Section: Business

An Interview with Jimmy Wales

Recently, ICOSA sat down with Jimmy Wales, founder of the nonprofit encyclopedia giant Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as Wikia, to discuss his strategic vision, entrepreneurship, and the importance of Wikis in modern life.

WIKIPEDIA

Wikipedia exists to give a free encyclopedia to every single person on the planet in their own language—and it does. It is also a charity. Wikipedia is entering its 11th year and currently ranks the sixth most visited website on the Internet, with 365 million worldwide leaders. In fact, it is estimated that Wikipedia receives 2.7 billion monthly page views from the United States alone, but is growing as the Internet becomes more prevalent in developing countries. And while English accounts for only 22 percent of content, the English edition of Wikipedia has nearly 3X more articles than its closest competitors. As of January 2012, there were 283 different language editions of the free and collaborative encyclopedia, with nearly 100,000 active contributors.

They arguably have the largest collection of knowledge and information ever publicly assembled—an amazing feat considering that the expansion of information on the Internet is nearly unfathomable. While it might be difficult to understand the technical aspects of its growth, it is important to understand how this shift in organizational thinking is going to fundamentally change the way we learn and share information. It is expected that the Internet collectively produced 1.8 zetabytes of information in 2011, whether it be through Internet articles or text messages. A zetabyte is 1021 or one sextillion bytes. In fact, if all of that information were songs on an mp3 player, it would take 3.1 billion years to listen to all.

Furthermore, the organization is focused on creating a neutral point of view—a core policy considering its strong support by and for the community. “Obviously having a policy of neutrality and a community committed to neutrality doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Humans are humans, a group of people can share a set of biases without even noticing it,” contends Wales. “The open democratic process always allows someone to come in and thoughtfully challenge the group and include feedback in the article.”

When asked about how Wikipedia has played a role in expanding informal education, Wales smiled and excitedly said, “While the total amount of formal education is not declining the amount of informal education has absolutely exploded!” He used the example of traditional media to make his point. “Thirty years ago if you turned on the radio and heard that something was happening in Azerbaijan—you kinda knew where it was and you might know what was going on. But, you had to go to the library and look the information up to learn more, and no one had the time. Today, people will immediately check it on their phone.” he said.

Wikipedia has also become a “go to” resource for students, as well as a learning source. “People go to Wikipedia to find out about one topic and then get sucked into reading about other topics. For example, someone could end up reading about the King of Spain when the original search was about World War II. It’s a fabulous thing, especially for young students who just have that sheer joy of learning—of following their passion, following whatever is interesting at the moment,” Wales said proudly.

Early in its history, Wikipedia was not favored as a research resource by many in the education arena. However, the perception by educators is shifting quickly, in part because of its popularity with students. “To tell them not to is like saying don’t listen to rock and roll music. What we say is ‘yes you should be careful using Wikipedia as it can contain errors.’ We believe that in this era, we should be teaching students how to use Wikipedia, how to approach the Internet, and how to approach information and knowledge,” said Wales.

He went on, “Wikipedia may inspire you to go deeper—maybe start reading about space or physics—and want to study that topic. I think this accessibility makes us a well-rounded people and supports new innovation.” Innovation comes from cross-disciplinary understanding in science, business and technology. And, to be on the forefront of innovation, a person has got to dig deep and stay on the cutting edge. Wales contends, “To be on the forefront you don’t want to be repeating what the last four researchers did—you must bring in influences and ideas from other fields. By necessity, you can’t go really deep unless you are able to grasp the basic insights and be able to collaborate and reach out to people. Wiki’s are all about connection and collaboration. They really are the defining technology of bringing people together—very diverse people from all around the world—to build something.”

Although an entrepreneur, Wales says he knows he made the right decision by making Wikipedia a nonprofit organization. “Encyclopedic knowledge has a distinctly noncommercial role of information on the Internet,” he says. “It makes more sense to be a charity and to be in that framework.”

WIKIA

Because there is a growing market for wiki style pages for non-encyclopedic knowledge Jimmy Wales founded, Wikia, a 100-employee collaborative publishing platform that enables people to discover, create and share content on any topic globally. Wales says, “We’re building the rest of the library. It’s the kind of work that doesn’t belong in the encyclopedia or the dictionary.” Although relatively new, Wikia is ranked as about 50th in terms of popularity. This for-profit business is growing and currently has over 275,000 articles on topics such as video games, television shows, movies, food, and current events. Wikia provides value to those who want to share their expert knowledge with users who want to learn about a topic. “For example there is LOSTpedia, which is about the TV show LOST. There have been thousands of articles on this one TV show and has every detail you would ever want to know,” said Wales. With a vision for growth, Wikia will open its new sports vertical market, as the world approaches the Olympic Games in London later this year.

THOUGHTS ON CONSUMER-GENERATED MEDIA

When we think about social media we need to think far beyond a little bit of hype on Twitter and Facebook. “It’s really about connecting with your consumer—your most passionate fans—so they become evangelists. But, you can also learn things from them. You can actually modify what your making based on the feedback from these passionate users,” declares Wales. Coming back to the LOST example, Wales describes how the writers for the show took note of the fan feedback and how it became a huge collaboration between the fans and the creators, and how they worked to design something that appealed to people on a broad basis. “You’re not going to get this from Facebook comments,” said Wales.

In the new information economy where ideas are commodities, Wikipedia is an invaluable public good and it’s an ever expanding platform. Wikipedia is by far one of the most popular information sources in the world—and those that are part of the organizational team would not have it any other way. They are committed to the movement of free, Internet-based knowledge, believing that access to information empowers people to make rational decisions about their lives. They believe access to information is a basic human right. The team also strives to share information with every human being—no matter their race, color, creed, religious affiliation, or socio-economic status. They want to provide the venue for all people to share their knowledge. Moreover, they believe that mass collaboration among a diverse set of contributors, combined with consensus building are powerful tools in creating accurate and unbiased content. Every day they strive to provide accurate, neutral, verifiable, comprehensive, and unbiased information so that every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

Going forward, Wikipedia hopes to have served over 1 billion people and increase the number of online articles to at least 50 million. They continue to encourage their avid readers to become contributors and hope that there will be a substantial increase in content generation from female and foreign sources. It is a big goal. But if there is anyone who can pull it off it is Jimmy Wales. And, although he spent his early career as a futures and options trader, he says, “I’m not particularly money motivated. It’s perfectly fine to be prosperous but for me it’s not the most interesting thing in the world. My job now is so interesting and amazing—I wouldn’t exchange it for all the money in the world. What motivates me is interestingness—doing something interesting!” And, what he is doing is certainly interesting.

A Vision For How Investing Could Be

By: Beth Parish Issue: Vision Section: Business

And Why It Will Help Society

Nor-profit organizations in the United States make money providing goods and services needed and wanted by the consumer (Madura, 2007), with the publicly traded company traditionally focused on using the profits to increase stockholder wealth. While a company has fiduciary responsibilities to the holders of its stock, companies are also frequently pressured by the stock analysts, public, television talking heads, financial journalists, and boards of directors to meet quarterly earnings goals, where the complex profit equation comes down to the simple concepts of income minus expenses. Potential investors may also use this simplified look at profits to evaluate the success of a company, choosing where to place their money based largely on the bottom line numbers.

With this singular bottom line focus, a greater reduction of company expenses leads to more profits being delivered to the bottom line, and greater potential to increase shareholder wealth, or at least so goes the argument. While reducing expenses sounds smart theoretically, in practice, expense reduction can happen in ways that have a significant human and profit impact. Derek Scarth, Managing Director of Inspire Capital Partners (Inspire) says that oftentimes when a large, stable, corporation announces a layoff or reduction in employee benefits or training, the company’s stock price often rises as the market anticipates the salary savings moving to the firm’s bottom line. Noting this trend, Scarth openly wondered, “As an investor looking to increase personal wealth, are we encouraging companies to fire people? As an investor, as a participant in the U.S. Free Market economy, is our vision of the world one that centers on maximizing shareholder wealth through collateral damage that includes layoffs and a view that employees are merely expenses of a firm, and not key resources that should be invested in?”

Long before the spread of the Occupy Wall Street movement started, where consumers and the general population challenged the greedy behaviors of traditional investment firms and corporate America, Inspire Capital founder Rick Wynn and his partner Derek Scarth knew that a traditional approach to investing failed to consider many of the of the profit-enhancing attributes of for-profit corporations. Focusing on the simple equation of income minus expenses and centering solely on the shareholder and his or her wealth, leaves out some of the most important aspects of what makes a business financially stable and successful. Wynn and Scarth—two renegades who have 30+ years of combined investment experience—have a vision of how they can positively impact the investment industry, and how investors and consumers can build and support businesses that are looking beyond the shareholder towards all of a firm’s key stakeholders, including the greater community.

Not ones to sit and complain about the greed of Wall Street, Wynn and Scarth went searching for businesses that delivered financial success, but did so through a systems-thinking approach where the firm itself was committed to creating wealth for all stakeholders—including customers, employees, and suppliers, investors, and the community—not just shareholders. Inspire’s investment strategy is supported by academic research from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as empirical research from the Great Place to Work Institute and Bentley University.

A New *Inspired* Vision

Prior to founding Inspire Capital in September, 2008, Wynn had worked for over 12 years with large investment managers Putnam, Berger Associates (now Janus Funds), and Eagle Asset Management (now Raymond James Financial), where he managed both public and private equity portfolios. Unlike many of his investing peers, prior to working as an advisor, Wynn spent five years in the environmental and process instrumentation business with a venture-funded start-up. Wynn’s unique combination of corporate, public, and private equity experience gave him a unique perspective on firms’ success factors. He got tired of the market’s obsession with short-term earnings and drew on his experiences to develop an investment strategy that actually could enhance financial returns, while investing in more purposeful companies. After successfully liquidating the private equity portfolio he was managing for TH Lee, Putnam Capital, Wynn immediately founded Inspire Capital Partners.

Early on, he found important academic and empirical support for his new investment approach and made connections with thought leaders from around the world in various industries. Studies from these institutions provided the quantitative support for Inspire’s new investment mandate—those that have high employee engagement and satisfaction rankings and consistently generate superior risk-adjusted returns for investors. Sadly, Wynn’s timing could not have been worse. During Inspire’s first six months of existence, the market was down 40 percent and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme had just hit the press. Undeterred, Wynn forged ahead, attracting additional thought leaders to support Inspire’s fundamental strategy. Wharton’s Alex Edmans and Amy Lyman, co-founder of the Great Place to Work Institute eagerly joined Inspire’s advisory board.

Wynn also became a regular attendee at the “Conscious Capitalism” conferences and was a participant in the 2009 Summit on the Future of the Corporation, as well as the 2010 Aspen Institute Summit, where he met with industry leaders to discuss the problems and possible solutions for investor short-termism. Wynn approached friend and former colleague, Derek Scarth to consider joining him at the company. Scarth accepted, and in August, 2010 they invested their own money to create an investment performance track record for Inspire. Now in early 2012, Inspire’s top-tier performance is proving out the theory—investors can earn superior risk-adjusted returns by owning purposeful, employee-centric firms.

Before joining at Inspire, Scarth spent over 12 years as an equity analyst and portfolio manager for several Denver-based investment management firms, most recently as a partner and portfolio manager for Denver Investment Advisors (DIA). Prior to that, he was the manager of investor relations for Newmont Mining, a large, publicly traded company in the S&P 500. In early 2010, Scarth left DIA, frustrated with the traditional investment industry model and longing to find more purpose in his career. Wynn asked Scarth to read Firms of Endearment and other research pieces that formed the basis for their investment strategy. And, in July, 2010 Wynn and Scarth began the process of taking Inspire from an investment concept to an operating investment firm. Eighteen months later, the company has fulfilled Scarth’s hopes—enabling him to find purpose through investing in and supporting purposeful, stakeholder-driven firms while simultaneously leading the investment management industry in much-needed change.

Companies That Have The Vision

Any consumer who has walked into a Whole Foods Market (NYSE - WFM) knows the store feels different from a traditional grocery store. This different feel may be a result of the stakeholder approach advocated by Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey. Mackey advocates that corporations should “create value for all of its constituencies” not just the stockholder. Focused on all stakeholders—the employee, the consumer, the community, suppliers, and the stockholder—Mackey grew Whole Foods from $290,000 in sales during the first year of operations to over $9 billion in sales during fiscal year 2010 (Datamonitor, 2011; Hamel & Breen, 2007). While total sales are certainly a measure of success, Whole Foods also topped the competition when measuring profit per square foot (Hamel & Breen, 2007).

Although the Whole Foods stakeholder approach may be familiar to both consumers and investors, there are several other examples of companies who are investing in employees, involved with the community, and considering suppliers as they take a systems approach to doing business and delivering a profitable bottom line. For example, looking at retailer Costco (NASDAQ - COST), Richard Galanti, the company’s CFO shared with Scarth and Wynn that investing in employees contributes to the bottom line. In the case of the warehouse giant, healthcare is just one example. Costco pays a higher percentage of employee healthcare costs than peers, but overall, pays lower healthcare costs per employee and experiences less sick time. Interestingly, Wall Street analysts have criticized Costco for years, saying that they are too generous with their employee benefits packages, based on traditional analysis of financial ratios. Costco executives, however, understand that this analysis misses the mark. Inspire does too—chuckling at the mentality of Wall Street’s short-sided research—but loving that it creates an opportunity for Inspire investors.

Inspire’s target companies, those that look beyond the shareholder and the bottom line, expand beyond U.S. consumer and retail firms. Another long-term Inspire holding is pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk (Novo) of Denmark (NYSE - NVO). Discussions with Novo, the global leader in treatments for diabetes and hemophilia, have shown the link between purpose and profits. Novo integrates a stakeholder approach to their patient-centric business model, especially in their commitment to making diabetes care available globally, at prices that are affordable in every market. Novo incorporates a low-priced insulin strategy to those low and middle-income regions where resources are limited. This differentiated pricing model allows greater access to life-saving treatments around the world, and incorporates a pricing structure that slides. For example, Novo can offer insulin in underdeveloped markets at or below 20 percent of the average price of insulin in developed areas. This strategy is highly motivating to employees, as they experience a deep sense of belonging and purpose by working for the firm. From 2009 to 2012, Novo has been on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For in America listing, and the company, or its global divisions, have appeared on the Great Place to Work annual country listings an astonishing 89 times.

Vision For The Investor

Individuals have a moral code by which they live their lives. This code can be influenced by family, community, schooling, religion, and associations. For many, this code has not influenced their investment choices. As Scarth says, “Often the investor has separated their money decisions from how he or she chooses to spend their life.” They may be a teacher, who invested in Enron, because the profits were great, or a police officer who has his or her pension money invested in a private equity strategy that is inherently not supportive towards employees. The work of Inspire is enabling investors to align their investment choices with their values in ways that can be profitable personally, and to the larger community. The investor who wants their values to align with investments, should not sacrifice on financial return. In fact, over the long run, financial returns should actually be better. Prevailing wisdom is that investors pay a feel-good premium, in the form of sacrificed returns, to invest in companies that do well for employees and society. Inspire is trying to change that perception and educate investors that they can have their cake and eat it too. According to Wynn, “Investors that ignore key company attributes, such as employee satisfaction, are likely leaving money on the table.”

Wynn and Scarth note that while their research and investments consider environmental, social, and governance criteria, they do not consider themselves socially-responsible investors (SRI). According to Wynn, there is a key difference between Inspire’s approach and many SRI firms. “SRI firms often seek to avoid negatives whereas Inspire focuses on positive identification of firm behaviors.” For example, many SRI firms will merely avoid companies with human rights violations, assuming that all remaining firms are “good.” By contrast, Inspire proactively identifies firms that are explicitly committed to creating great workplaces for employees. “The mere avoidance of a problem is not a compelling reason to invest at Inspire. We are looking for true greatness on a global basis,” says Wynn.

Proof That The Vision Works

The investor saving for the future will be the first to admit that he or she cannot sacrifice in order to support the stakeholder approach, if the stakeholder approach does not deliver. Wynn and Scarth agree, and state emphatically that the academic support for their strategy strongly suggests that investors can, and should, earn a higher risk-adjusted return by employing a stakeholder approach. They draw their academic and empirical support from several sources including a well researched article from Alex Edmans of the Wharton School of Business. Dr. Edmans article, “Does The Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction And Equity Prices” in the Journal of Financial Economics (2011), details the positive relationship between employee satisfaction and stock performance. And, in their book Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, authors Rajendra Sisodia, David Wolfe, and Jag Sheth highlight numerous companies that have delivered financial success by focusing on a shareholder approach to business.

Investors wishing to do their own homework on this strategy can access these resources to learn more. Edmans concluded that, over the 25-year period from 1984 to 2009, investors would have earned a 3.5 percent annual risk-adjusted return premium over the market by investing in the list of publicly traded companies on the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. While Wynn and Scarth agree that an employee focused company is a wise investment, Inspire does not just invest passively in the complete Best Companies list. The Inspire strategy is to actively select employee-centric firms around the globe who trade at significant discounts to their estimate of fair value.

Moreover, Wynn and Scarth’s investments align with their personal beliefs and support a new vision for what the market can be. In fact, their first 18 months of results support the premise that the investor does not need to sacrifice profits in order to support the community, the employee and the stakeholder. As seen in the chart below, the financial returns are impressive: Although these results come with the standard disclaimer found below, the hope is that investors will see that personal values do not need to be misaligned from investment strategies. Investing does not need to follow the bottom line focused status quo, there is value to the investor, the community, and the greater society of a stakeholder approach to business that values the employee, the consumer, the supplier, the environment, society and the shareholder.

This article was assembled by Beth Parish, a candidate for an Ed.D in Organizational Leadership; her research is focusing on how social mission impacts consumer purchase behavior.

Derek Scarth and Rick Wynn from Inspire contributed their research, stories, and personal missions to this work. Inspire can be reached at [email protected] and Beth can be reached at [email protected] Datamonitor, (2011, May 13). Whole Foods Market. Retrieved from www.Datamonitor.com through ebscohost. Edmans, A. (2011), Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial Economics, doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2011.03.021. Friedman, M., & Mackey, J. (2009, March). Two views on the social responsibility of business. Excerpts from 'The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits' and 'Rethinking the social responsibility of business: Putting customers ahead of investors'. Social Education, 73 (2), 89-91. Hamel, G., & Breen, B. (2007). The future of management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Retrieved from http://common.books24x7.com.dml.regis.edu/book/id_23568/book.aspx. Madura, J. (2007). Introduction to business (4th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western. Sisodia, R., Wolfe, D., & Sheth, J. (2007). Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose. Prentice Hall. Performance Disclaimer: Inspire Capital Partners, LLC is an Investment Advisor registered with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Colorado. The performance data quoted represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Current year-to-date performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. The performance presented here is that of a representative account. The performance of the account is presented gross of fees. Gross of fees performance returns are presented before management, custodial fees, but after trading expenses. A return in this investment would have been reduced by the advisory fees and other expenses it may incur. A fee schedule for Inspire Capital Partners, LLC’s services is available in Part 2A of Form ADV. Fees are collected quarterly, which produces a compounding effect on the total rate of return net of management fees. Risk is inherent in this type of investment, and future performance may involve the possibility of loss. The U.S. dollar is the currency used to express performance. All performance data were calculated using Fact Set Research Systems’ Portfolio Analytics.