Group items tagged

post by Brian Hurley in Technology Innovation Management Review on how business ecosystems are led by keystone organizations in networks that provide opportunities for suppliers, customers, partners, and competitors. August 2009.

from Business Insider, March 3, 2015 by Drake Baer. Baer quotes the biographer of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson, as having a conversation with Jobs about "follow your passion". Jobs thought that following your passion was on a higher context - giving back to society and the community - than a lower context - individualistic, career-focused. To Jobs, following your passion had to include making society better. Baer uses the stat " there are 1,300 business books about "passion" on Amazon.

Great blog on social enterprises and social entrepreneurs at the 7 Graces, Lynn Serafinn, June 13, 2014 Sounds like the WLS to me! "there are many more social entrepreneurs on the planet than there are those who own or operate 'official' social enterprises. Many independent business owners approach their enterprises in what I would call a new-paradigm way. Their mission is to use their businesses as vehicles to serve the public as well as make a living. They have clearly defined missions and sets of values by which they operate. They aim to address the specific needs of particular communities. They are passionate, value-driven business people who are dedicated to increasing happiness and wellbeing in the world and are able to see a 'meta-view' of the world and their places within it."

A thoughtful slide program on how to use Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn in your business, Donston-Miller, June 20, 2012. One finding, only use as many platforms as you can manage well. You have to have a "there" (i.e., relevant, timely content) in order to send people there for it to have value.

For many small businesses, open source software represents an unexplored gold mine. When you run a small business, budgets are always tight. While you need many of the same kinds of software that larger businesses need, you don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars to spend on that software like bigger companies do.

"Neil Rhule, from the Caribbean's Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship..."Ive heard it said that entrepreneurs are born, not raised. This may or may not be true but I take some issue with this statement and the context in which it is used. First of all, what is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is defined as one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. This basically means that you have a great idea or initiative and are willing to take the bold step to make it happen while considering the risks. To some, being an entrepreneur is just another word for being unemployed! Everyone is born with a talent and has the ability to learn a skill. I would like to share my three steps to becoming an entrepreneur that I believe is applicable to anyone. These three steps are: Step 1 - Have a talent or skill (be creative!) Step 2 - Offer a service based on that talent or skill Step 3 - Start a business from the service you offer

by Seth Kahan, April 12, 2013, Fast company 1. fundamental model of membership is in question ...What is membership turning into? Too early to tell. Engaged action is one candidate. This is the anticipated, intentional, collective behavior of a group. 2. Adoption of private sector business practices ...Pursuing the bottomline in tough market conditions seems like a no-brainer, but the overall impact is not necessarily what is desired for a mission driven organization, shifting priorities away from impact and member value. 3. Talent ...continuous, aggressive professional development is an organizational asset only in some associations. This is changing. It means less certainty for employees while it opens up new territory for innovation and expansion of the organization. 4. Competitive intelligence ...many associations are doing negligible work on behalf of their mission. Prices for gathering intelligence are plummeting. Often it is only the CEO who actively searches for new information and connects the dots for organizational strategy. Expect this to change 5. Disruption of members' business Savvy associations leaders are looking around the curve, putting the puzzle together for members. This means going beyond providing information and ata. Instead it means compiling, analyzing, distilling and communicating useful knowledge that impacts members' lives. ???It is not uncommon to see associations beefing up their subject matter experts these days because members need it in a disruptive economy. 6. Driving uptake in a competitive world ...each association owned a small monopoly, providing the single best resource to everyone in their field. No more. With the advent of 24/7 interconnectivity, anyone can set up shop and begin serving your members.

interview with Lynne Doughtie on new study of why more women aren't moving into C-suite roles. "Mornings with Maria on Fox Business News. 6 minutes long

ten challenges faced by nonprofits that businesses don't get

Boston Club report, 2013, of Boston area women and nonprofit organization representation "For over 20 years, The Boston Club has worked collaboratively with local and regional nonprofit organizations of all sizes to identify and recruit qualified women for positions as directors, trustees, and overseers. During that period, we have placed over 175 women on nonprofit boards. We also have conducted over 30 programs about nonprofit board service, with topics ranging from the basic questions a board candidate needs to ask, to the latest issues of governance affecting nonprofits. Through these initiatives, we have met hundreds of nonprofit executives, board and nominating chairs, and women who serve on their boards. We are continually amazed and energized by the missions and breadth of work conducted by nonprofits, their contributions to the economy of Massachusetts, the vital services and programs provided to our citizens, and the dedication their boards exhibit. But even we could not answer the question: how many women serve on nonprofit boards in Massachusetts? Until now. Why is this information important? Nonprofit organizations play a major role in the economies of many towns and cities in the state, generating $234 billion in revenues in 2010. In 2010, nonprofit jobs represented 16.7% of the total employment in Massachusetts 1 . We are known worldwide for our universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions, most of which are nonprofit organizations. Fifty-seven percent of women in Massachusetts are in the workforce. For The Boston Club, which has long tracked the number of women in leadership positions in publically owned companies, the question of gender diversity in the leadership of nonprofit organizations is part of our mission. We believe that the advancement of women to significant and visible leadership roles in all types of businesses will have lasting and meaningful impact on business performance and the economic health of our communities."

"Small businesses are eager to find valuable tools that take a lot of the time and trouble out of social media marketing and that do so without costing an arm and a leg. I think we'd all want tools like that, right? Well, I went searching for just this kind of simple, easy, cost-effective tool, and I came up with 61 that made the cut. I tried out more than 100 in total, and I'm sure I missed a few along the way (please tell me in the comments or on Twitter which ones deserve a look)."

Harold Jarche's lament, January 12, 2015. "Salaried workers and consultants use what I give away in order to earn their livelihood. For the most part, I am fine with this, as it raises my profile and the level of engagement. But it seems we are entering a time when people expect to get whatever information they need for free and feel no obligation to support the people who create it. I am beginning to question my current business model. Last week I was twice asked to work for free. In each case the person asking me to work for 'exposure' was a salaried employee. My bank has yet to accept exposure as a form of payment." Jarche goes onto say that he is changing his business model because this isn't working.

Op ed piece by David L. Kirp, a Berkley professor. The business models that are proliferating in educational thinking and assessment does not work, and the greatest determiner of success are the interpersonal relationships of students and teachers, students and students, and teachers and teachers. Adding more and new technology has not been successful because of this. Rewarding "good" schools with merit pay while closing and punishing those in areas of poverty because they are "failing" schools without instituting known programs that engender success is a crime in his view.

interview by J. D. Harrison on 2/6/2015 with with Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora. Their business model--"a series of lily pads to keep them afloat"--took them about four years to develop to finally point it toward individual consumers to start using Pandora. The rest is history and a lot of money!

Interesting blog post bu Elizabeth MacBride, April 5, 2013, on virtual partnerships, 5 secrets 1. must have the same agenda 2. you actually like the person 3. complementary skill sets or traits 4. open lines of communications 5. good legal underpinnings Excerpt "Our number-one rule - and the glue that holds our partnership together - is keeping the workload manageable. We don't take on too many clients, and we don't hold ourselves to unrealistic standards for production. "Our business is focused on helping people navigate a big, ongoing trend-the shift from traditional jobs to an economy built around freelance, contract and temporary work. Pulling all-nighters at the business and cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world, as we might at a venture-capital backed startup, doesn't seem like the right way for us," Pofeldt says. "Why not enjoy one of the best parts of freelancing: the freedom to have an active life outside of work without apologizing for it?" Barry "CB" Martin and Larry Gaian are food writers and marketers-for-hire who met via their common networks. "This year I started several new ventures," Martin wrote via email. "I asked him to be a sounding board. On one of the ideas, he was thinking along the same lines so we decided to combine forces." They're working together under the moniker Guys In Aprons, asking food companies to hire them to write recipe posts and interview expert chefs."

Rachel Sklar is holding networking events for women who work in the tech industry. She is about to make it a business, where women pay to be connected with other women like them. Interesting business design.

Women to women networking in a specific industry: tech

#change11, blog post by Bon Stewart, May 2, 2012 And here's the rub... "The original MOOCs - the connectivist MOOCs a la Siemens & Downes, and the work of David Wiley and Alec Couros and others - have been, for the most part, about harnessing the capacity of participatory media to connect people and ideas. They've been built around lateral, distributed structures, encouraging blog posts and extensive peer-to-peer discussion formats. Even in live sessions showcasing facilitator's expertise, these ur-MOOCs have tended towards lively backchannel chats, exploring participants' knowledge and experiences and ideas. They've been, in short, actively modelled on the Internet itself. They've been experiential and user-driven. Their openness hasn't stopped at registration capacity, but extended to curricular tangents and participatory contributions and above all, to connections: they've given learners not just access to information but to networks. They've been messy, sometimes, but they have definitely not been business as usual. The problem with EdX is that, scale and cost aside, it IS essentially a traditional learning model revamped for a new business era. It puts decision-making power, agency, and the right to determine what counts as knowledge pretty much straight back into the hands of gatekeeping institutions."

Great talk on the new management, putting employees first so they can do the best job they can for customers. This includes employees rating their managers up to their CEO's, being able to outsource the boring aspects of their work, make decisions about how to do better. Knowledge technology and the web has changed the competitive nature of business, and a new model of competition is developing and will develop. The web has democratized and made management structures obsolete.

Great talk on the new management, putting employees first so they can do the best job they can for customers. This includes employees rating their managers up to their CEO's, being able to outsource the boring aspects of their work, make decisions about how to do better. Knowledge technology and the web has changed the competitive nature of business, and a new model of competition is developing and will develop. The web has democratized and made management structures obsolete.

From Sept 2013 - how to use instagram to build a brand and reach out to new customers. These are tips specific to business.

good tips on S.O.C.I.A.L which stands for Sincere, Open, Collaborative, Interested, Authentic, and Likeable. Blog post written by Vala Afshar, July 9, 2013, for Information Week Social Business