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Critical thinking, emotional intelligence, Consultative Selling Skills

737_ Critical thinking, emotional intelligence,
and consultative selling skills 
Building Leaders and redefining Sales was the focus of an interview with Colleen Stanley, CEO and Founder of Sales Leadership, Inc. Colleen points out on her website, "The perfect storm…the recession, impact of the Internet and a global economy has created a new selling environment. The profile for successful sales professionals is changing. The sales force of the future must be equipped with critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence skills, and consultative selling skills." She shares a great deal of helpful information including: How to create high performance sales cultures/ high performance cultures; Learn the reason some sales producers can’t make the leap to sales management/leadership; The leadership qualities of great sales managers. In addition she answered some tough questions from Larry. "What are some things a sales manager can do to insure consistent growth year after year? Sales managers often complain about poor forecasting from the sales team? Is there any fix?" There is so much more...When you listen to Colleen's interview you'll, Learn the value of having a sales process/methodology/systems; Reinforce the importance of hiring the right people – getting the right people on the sales bus!; Learn the real reason some sales producers can’t make the leap to leadership; be ready to take notes. Colleen has a great book out, "Growing Great Sales Teams - Lessons from the Cornfield." Larry recommends you read it if you really want to grow and improve your sales team.
Related Links: Sales Leadership || Sales Webinar || Growing Great Sales Teams || Economy Builders || ACG Denver || Keywords: Colleen Stanley, Sales Leadership, Development, Critical Thinking Skills, Emotional Intelligence Skills, Consultative Selling Skills, Association for Corporate Growth, ACG > Channel: ACG 9474355 bytes - 11/9/09 LISTEN

Build an 'A' team, a vision, culture

730_ Build an 'A' team, create a vision, build a culture for the long haul
 Larry coralled Paul Jerde, CU-Boulder, Robert H. & Beverly A. Deming Center and Larry Jones the CEO of StarTek and Chairman of the Deming Board and asked them to share the three biggest strategies that they would recommend for entrepreneurs. Larry Jones said, "The first and foremost is picking your team. Picking the 'A' team, people you know well, who you think have the expertise whether it be technical, people, marketing & sales - but building the right team, and don't compromise. Second is create a vision and a passion. Yes, you have an idea, yes you have a view of whose going to buy your product, but turn that into a vision with a very big passion. And your life is going to be surrounded by this and therefore you're going to be singing this song over and over again to your employees, to your investors and to your customers. Make sure that that is a passionate message. " Listen for more great advice. Paul Jerde recommended, "I think the starting point is always for someone to do the best job they can of finding a passion, something that just personally they are very excited about, that they feel is important and worthwhile doing, and looking for opportunities based around that area of passion. Secondly, coupling that, wherever possible to emerging areas of opportunity. The great title waves of technology advancement and IT built a lot of wonderful careers. We talked in previous interviews about areas of energy, organics, healthy food, healthcare, bioscience, biomedical; as great examples, some of the world's greatest challenges. Clearly areas of great opportunity going forward." Paul also had more to offer. Listen for more and be ready to take notes...
Related Links: Deming Center || Technology Transfer Office || StarTek || Entrepreneur Channel || Mastering Change || Deming Center Event Photos 9/30/09 || Keywords: Paul Jerde, Larry Jones, CU TTO, Robert H. & Beverly Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, StarTek, Entrepreneurs, University of Colorado > Channel: Entrepreneurs > 5934083 bytes - 11/2/09 LISTEN

Using innovation for social good - NCWIT

Using innovation for social good - NCWIT Entrepreneurial Tool Box
 732_ Lucy Sanders, the CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT and Lee Kennedy, NCWIT Director, serial entrepreneur and founder of Boldersearch, along with Larry Nelson, from w3w3.com interviewed Yoky Matsuoka for the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Tool Box series. Yoky is a Torode Family Endowed Career Development Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. She received her Ph.D. at MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Computational Neuroscience in 1998. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT and in Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University. Today Yoky is an associate professor at the University of Washington focusing on neurobotics. In 2007 Her work in Robotics gained the MacArthur’s Foundation "Genius Award". The MacArthur Foundation characterizes her work as transforming our understanding of how the central nervous system coordinates musculoskeletal action and of how robotic technology can enhance the mobility of people with manipulation disabilities. In addition, Yoky started the YokyWorks Ffoundation – a non-profit to be recognized as a premier provider of practical engineering solutions for people seeking to improve their life experience. Their mission is to enable people to experience life beyond their physical or sensory capabilities. "Also I want to help my volunteers. Many have raised families and now want to have a way to contribute to society and I feel just having them exposed to this effort is giving them pleasure, and that also is extremely rewarding." Listen for more exciting details...
Related Links: Yoky Works || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Practice || NCWIT Blog || Heroes Channel || Keywords: NCWIT, Yoky Matsuoka, Yoky Works, Lucy Sanders, NCWIT, Lee Kennedy, Boldersearch, Entrepreneurial Tool Box, Neurobotics, Channel: NCWIT > 24587183 bytes - 11/2/09 LISTEN

CID4: Colorado Institute for Drug, Device & Diagnostic Development

728_ CID4: Colorado Institute for Drug, Device & Diagnostic Development
 "CID4 is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that's been formed to create jobs in the State of Colorado specifically in the life science industry. The institute was created to meet a need, the so called 'valley of death' between discovery of a promising technology and its actual application with people. That is a funding gap that has occurred over the last few years that makes it difficult to get companies started on technologies that are going to lead to new cures and/or medical devices," said Richard Duke, President and CEO of CID4. Larry interviewed Richard along with Kevin Smith, Exec VP and COO along with Rick Silva, Director of Technology Transfer, Anschutz Medical Campuses (Fitzsimons) about this exciting new venture. Larry asked what can we expect to see in the future? "Some of the activities we envision ourselves being involved in are essentially looking at technology across the state both from the research institutions as well as from individual entrepreneurs that have the greatest potential to lead to cures in a reasonable amount of time. The real critical part to understand is that the average drug takes 12 years and $200 million to develop. Everyone wants to know how we can be more successful in terms of bringing those products along. So the major goal of the Institute is to identify the most promising technologies in Colorado that are available for further development and then to guide that development process in a more cost efficient and time efficient manner.' Listen for more details...
Related Links: CID4 Home || CU Tech Transfer Office || CU Tech Transfer Channel || Mastering Change || Keywords: CID4, Colorado Institute for Drug Device & Diagnostic Development, Richard Duke, Kevin Smith, Rick Silva, CU TTO, Change > Channel: CU TTO > 11442720 bytes - 10/26/09 LISTEN

Computing Awards - High School Girls, Grades 9-12

726_ Computing Awards - Designed for High School Girls, Grades 9-12
ATTENTION: Employers, parents, teachers, grandparents, aunts & uncles; It's time for the 2009 NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Awards - Designed for girls in High School, grades 9 -12. Girls all around the country are submitting their applications - Due: November 15th, 2009! Larry talked with Ruthe Farmer, Director of Strategic Initiatives, NCWIT about this fascinating program. Ruthe said, "The awards program was designed to recognize and encourage girls who are interested and active in technology at the high school level (grades 9 through 12) and keep them in the pipeline so they can work for you one day. The program is open to any girl in the United States (so any girl with a U.S. Zip Code) is eligible." Larry asked what are the awards? "At the national level, the girls win $500 cash; a laptop which is a gift from Bank of America our National Sponsor; a trip with a parent to the gala "Technology of the Future Showcase" at Bank of America's Headquarters in Charlotte, NC; So it's a pretty big prize package. At the event they'll receive a 'Goodie bag' with a beautiful Crystal/glass Trophy for both them and their school because we really want them displayed in the trophy case right along with the football trophies, creating a tradition that girls at that school apply and win this award. Essentially the girls apply on line and they provide a name and address for their teacher and parent, who also get to view and endorse the application. The application asks questions about the kind of computing they've done..." Listen for more...
Related Links: Applications for Aspirations in Computing & Info for Parents || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Practice || NCWIT Blog || Heroes Channel || Keywords: NCWIT, Aspirations in Computing Award, Ruthe Farmer, High School Girls, Bank of America, Technology Channel: NCWIT > 6477012 bytes - 10/26/09 LISTEN

Servicing constituents by going global with rapidly changing markets

712_ Servicing your constituents by going global with rapidly changing markets 
Larry sat down with Hunt Lambert, Associate Provost, Colorado State University Continuing, Education, CEO, CSU Global Campus to talk about CSU's new project. Hunt explained, "The global campus idea started about 3 or 4 years ago when a bunch of us said, 'Is CSU, as the states land grant, still serving all of the students we were designed to serve?' Well we did some research and discovered about 500,000 people in the state who aspired to complete their undergraduate degree or earn a Master's degree, and the reason they aren't is not about tuition - it's about location, their geography and their schedule keeps them from going back to school. So we took a hard look at what the privates have done on online education; We took a hard look at our mission; and we said, We ought to find a way to serve this market in Colorado. And that was the genesis of the CSU Global Campus. It's amazing how the students have responded. We now exist as a third campus within the Colorado State System. In the first 11 months from funding, we went from nothing at all - no employees, no students, no courses, to having a fully functional online public university. Nine months after we taught the first course, we had a thousand students! Hunt has been part of 40 startups in 12 countries - he has a very broad entrepreneurial experience. Envirofit.org is one of many he is very proud of. Hunt is also on a panel at a RVC program on 9/8/09, Social Entrepreneurship: A Giant Step for Mankind and Profits.
Related Links: CSU Global || CSU Continuing Education || Envirofit || Mastering Change || Social Entrepreneurship || Keywords: Hunt Lambert, CSU Global Campus, Colorado State University, Continuing Education, Social Entrepreneurship .. Channel: Entrepreneurs/Soc.Enterprise >> Bytes= 7311258 > 8.31.09 LISTEN

Delivering value to its primary internal and external constituents and stakeholders

708_ Delivering value to its primary internal and external constituents and stakeholders
The mission of the CU Technology Transfer Office is to aggressively pursue, protect, package, and license to business the intellectual property generated from the research enterprise and to serve faculty, staff, and students seeking to create such intellectual property. The entire CU TTO team has done a very excellent job in in light of the tough economy. Larry Nelson stopped in the CU Technology Transfer Office in Boulder to get a fiscal year end update from David Allen, Associate VP for Technology Transfer and Tom Smerdon, Director Of Licensing & New Business Development. Start-up Company Sustainability: In the last five years, 51 companies have been formed based on CU intellectual property. Of the 51 companies from the last five years, 44 are operational as either stand alone or subsidiary/merged companies. Here's a dashboard look at what was reported for fiscal year 2008 -09: invention disclosures (best year yet); patent applications (preformed well, even with slight downward pressure on the speculative patent budget); exclusive licensing transactions (best year yet) nonexclusive licenses (only one software product producing multiple licenses); start-ups (continued performance at nationally prominent level)Proof of Concept (POC) program (considerable investment in start-ups and maturation of individual technologies); overall revenue (expected low revenue, worsened by recession); business community engagement (great support from Colorado’s technology-centric, entrepreneurial community) support from the CU Administration (strategic importance maintained); Net-net: in a challenging fiscal environment, TTO managed well, and focused on continuing to deliver value to its primary internal and external constituents and stakeholders. There's more...
Related Links: CU Tech Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || CU TTO Annual Report || Mastering Change || Keywords: David Allen, Tom Smerdon, CU Tech Transfer Office, Licensing, New Business Development, Start-up Company Sustainability, Business Development >> Channel: CU TTO >> Bytes= 14238305 > - 8/24/09 LISTEN

Fabulous teachers, a keen interest in math and science lead to an IT career

673_ Fabulous teachers, a keen interest in math and science lead to an IT career 
Terry Morreale introduces us to yet another Woman in IT. We're talking to Professor Elizabeth Jessup, Computer Sciences Department at CU. For some, their career path is pretty straightforward. Terry asked, "How did you get to Professor in the Computer Sciences Dept at CU?" "It was a long and convoluted route. In high school I became interested in math and science, I had fabulous teachers. I went on to college where I was a math major, but I also took a lot of physics." Today she teaches numerical computing. When asked what type of research she did, Liz explained that computers in general can't represent numbers exactly. Larry was very surprised. "The first main issue is how to get the right answer on a computer. There are standards in place so you don't have to worry... but scientists do. The second issue is how to get the right answer in a reasonable amount of time. We're always interested in speeding up the process." Terry asked if Liz noticed a difference in student enrollments for computer sciences. As suspected they're down but much worse for women. "It's cyclical, but at the high point women represented 35% down to single digits today." Liz thinks working on the curriculum can help - she's had success in the past. Listen now for more insights...
Related Links: Barking Seal Blog || Applied Trust || Women in IT || Liz Jessup || Keywords: Elizabeth Jessup, Terry Morreale, Applied Trust Engineering, ATE, Barking Seal, CU, Computer Sciences > Channels: WiIT Bytes: 13526834 LISTEN 6/8/09 LISTEN

Entrepreneurs are people who would just be dreadful employees

668_ Entrepreneurs are people who would just be dreadful employees 
When Ellen Siminoff was asked, "What is it about you that makes the entrepreneur part tick?" Ellen, who was a founding executive at Yahoo said, "When I started Yahoo, we were a small group of folks and thought we were changing the world! For me, it's about the idea and the people and the excitement of creating it." Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT founding board member, along with Larry Nelson interviewed Ellen, CEO and president - their mission,. "Shmoop wants to make you a better lover (of literature, history, poetry and writing)." About 18 years ago, Ellen and her husband started a different company, they were distributing television programming in Eastern Europe and she fell in love with the media industry. In 1994, at the Los Angeles Times, Ellen started running their online classifieds (this was really early), and she realized technology could be used to deliver media in a really interesting way. Today she's a great fan of the Kindle. Lucy asked what's next for Shmoop? Ellen's reply, "Well, I think we've done a really great job on Lit, history and poetry. We're going to do more in Civics, and get some of the maths and sciences up there because I think it's really important to be able to read, write and do arithmetic." There's more...
Related Links: NCWIT Home || Shmoop University || NCWIT Blog || Heroes Channel || PodCast Directory || Keywords: Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop University, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes 6/1/09 > Bytes: 18852679 - 6/1/09 LISTEN

Only 12% of graduates are women - we need a huge segment of the population to be involved

 667_ Only 12% of graduates are women - we need a huge segment of the population to be involved.
The first annual NCWIT Symons Innovator Award was presented to Anousheh Ansari this past Monday, May 11th, and it was a remarkable event. We stood 100 strong in the foyer of Heidi Roizen's home as Jennie Symons, the orphaned 9 year old daughter of Jeanette Symons presented the award to Anousheh Ansari, the first woman private explorer in space, the first astronaut of Iranian descent and with her family, title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize. She is Chair, CEO and Co-founder of Prodea Systems, and formerly Chair, CEO and Co-Founder of Telecom Technologies, Inc. a technology company sold for $750 million. These men and women, gathered here, are outstanding examples of the promise and the future for 'women and information technology'. We begin this story in Atherton, CA, to celebrate one woman's success and to work on preparing the road for future young women and for the competitive advantage of our country... Statistics show that better than 50% of new entrepreneurs are female. They receive 3% of the VC investments and only 5% of the Federal funds set aside for new businesses. It is a gender issue to be sure. While many women of varying ages and interests are taking the entrepreneurial plunge, Lucy Sanders points out another big issue, not so readily recognized, is the Global competitiveness of our country so adversely affected by a subtle gender bias. Today the numbers of students going into computer science studies are plummeting. As this workforce dwindles, the best job opportunities grow. While attending the NCWIT Conference hosted by Google, Jeff Huber, Sr. VP of Engineering at Google said, "It's a critical problem! A crisis for the industry, for Google." Only 12% of graduates are women at a time when we need a huge segment of the population to be involved. Is the study of math and science important to our collective future? We certainly believe so and the National Center for Women and Information Technology is making the difference.
Related Links: NCWIT Heroes || NCWIT Blog || CO Coalition for Gender and IT || NCWIT Practice|| NCWIT Channel || PHOTOS Reception || Google Campus || Keywords: NCWIT, Lucy Sanders, Women in IT, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes, NCWIT Toolbox Series, Google, Jeff Huber, Anousheh Ansari, Jeanette Symons, First NCWIT Symons Innovator Award > Channels: NCWIT Bytes: 6525913 > 5/18/09 LISTEN