From Greg's Head

Note: Running most Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

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Another big event is coming to Houston. America’s Energy Future: Houston’s Presidential Summit will take place Thursday February 28, 2008 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. NBC and MSNBC will be broadcasting portions of the summit live.

12 candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties have been invited to participate. Check out the website for the most up to date list.  

By hosting the Houston Presidential Summit, Houston is further establishing itself as an Opportunity City. The spotlight will be on Houston and our role in the energy industry in the U.S. and around the globe.

It will be interesting to see what topics will be discussed and what information emerges. 

Do you see Houston as an Opportunity City? What do you think about Houston hosting events like the Presidential Summit? What other speakers/events would you like to see Houston host?

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Note: Running most Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

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I’ve got several newsy items for you today.

Voting for Houston’s Greatest People’s Choice Award closes on Monday November 26^th. If you haven’t done so visit the website, www.houstonsgreatest.net and vote!  The award ceremony is on November 28^th. I’ll let you know who the People’s Choice winners when we find out.

The blog was mentions in an article on Microsoft’s People Ready website. The article has a lot of great ideas about how professional service firms can use the web to their advantage.

My team and I attended the Microsoft Directions 2007 Conference November 8-11^th. I’ll have news and thoughts for you next week.

The FastTech 50 event was a great success! Thanks to all who attended.

Finally, have a happy Thanksgiving!

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Congratulations to all of the FastTech 50 winners!  Here is the official 2007 FastTech 50 list:

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As we prepare our program for the seventh year of the Fast Tech 50 Awards Luncheon, I again have a chance to reflect and comment on an outstanding group of entrepreneurs and business leaders that make the Houston Metropolitan area one of the best places to live and work in the country. The Class of 2007 will be known as “The Youngsters”. In comparing this year’s group of winners, it’s clear that they represent a much younger and still developing group of early stage companies. They will have an impact on our local and national economy for many years to come, and they will add to the legacy of what makes Houston the top city in the country to start a business. The youth of many of our new emerging companies is evident with the threshold to make the list holding steady at 29% for 2007! The average growth rate for this year’s group is a staggering 149%. You always know that you have arrived on the scene when several “national entrepreneurial magazines” are now mentioning many of our Fast Tech 50 companies as organizations to invest in, or watch. Thanks for the publicity guys, but the Houston Business Journal and our Fast Tech 50 program, already scooped you! We’ve been blowing the horn of these entrepreneurs for over 7 years!

During this past year we had 354 companies express an interest in becoming a member of this exclusive club. The Fast Tech 50 class of 2007 continues Houston’s tradition of technology excellence. And they also bring to the forefront new and different stories of entrepreneurial success. This year’s list of honorees includes; 19 first-time honorees, 15 two-time honorees, 6 three-time honorees, 6 four-time, and 4 five-time honoree. Our five time honorees include: Knowledge Systems, Merrick Systems, Salvage Sale, and Triad Resources. What staying power!

During the past year we saw many successful technology events throughout the city. The Houston Technology Center, the Rice Alliance (including the highly success Rice Business Plan competition), held many forums for the start up community.   The Houston based Gulf Coast Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization (RCIC) is doing very well in its second year. We continue to hear from the State’s oversight group is that the plans submitted from the Houston area are some of the most well received.

Qualifications

Let’s review the nomination and listing process. To qualify for the Fast Tech 50, a company’s headquarters, or a foreign company’s US headquarters must be located in Houston SMSA region. A minimum of 51% of the company’s consolidated net revenues must be involved in the original manufacture, design or development of technology products or delivery of services. A nominee must have minimum net revenues of more than $200,000 in both years. Rankings were determined on the revenue growth percentage from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2006.

The nominees were asked to submit the following information: nomination form; audited, reviewed or compiled financial statements or tax returns for 2005 and 2006; an overview letter; and background information on the company, its products and/or services. Representatives from PKF Texas validated the information on the nomination form from the information packet. The percentage of revenue growth was computed by comparing net revenues from 2005 to 2006. During the past year we received 354 nominations for the Fast Tech 50.   The organizations that made the top 50 places were then listed. 

Overview of the 2007 Fast Tech 50

Our Fast Tech 50 represents a wide variety of industries. The industries represented by our award winners, and the number of entries by their area are as follows: Medical Devices 3, Software 25, Hardware 1, Technical/Consulting Services 8, eCommerce/Business Portals 8, Technology Products 3, and Communications 2. 

One honoree was started in the 1970s. Six of our honorees were started in the 1980s. Fourteen honorees were started in the 1990s. Finally, twenty nine honorees were started since 2000.   This group of honorees is by far, our youngest group of companies ever. Hang on Houston; we’ve got some growing to do!

This year’s Number 1 ranked Fast Tech 50 honoree is Vuico, LLC. You will find a profile on this company later inside this special section of the Houston Business Journal. They grew a remarkable 267% during the past year! Congratulations to Vui Lee and his team. It’s a great story of entrepreneur collaboration. In addition, three companies started in 2004 made the Fast Tech 50 2007 Top 10. They are: eCardio Diagnostics, Quantum Solutions for Business, and Techcess Group. Talk about fast starts! The single largest revenue contributor from the Fast Tech 50 to our local economy is PreCash at $30.1 million. As we noted earlier, the cutoff this year to make the Fast Tech 50 was approximately 29% year over year growth.  

The local economic impact made by this year’s Fast Tech 50 is phenomenal! When reviewing the entire 50 companies, an impressive overview quickly emerges. These organizations are responsible for creating almost 3,250 jobs and over $387 million in revenues to our local economy. No one industry dominates the Houston business climate anymore. Our businesses are as diverse as our people and our cultures.

Nominations will be accepted for next year’s Fast Tech 50 listing by contacting the Houston Business Journal, PKF Texas, or any of the additional sponsors. Organizations that are nominated will receive additional information and application packets during the spring of 2008. Congratulations to all of our honorees! We look forward to seeing you in next year’s listing.

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Note: Running most Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

The people who work for your organization and the partners they work with are the driving force behind your business's success. In today's marketplace, success depends on quick and intelligent responses to problems. To help ensure business success, you need to equip your people with the right tools to respond quickly to change, access the information they need to make critical decisions, and focus on strengthening and expanding profitable business relationships.

The days are long past when you could store information about each business partner on an index card.

As innovation becomes more of a preoccupation, its focus is changing. Gone are the days when an innovation was acquired from experts outside the company and then installed like a new piece of equipment.

While it's possible that a shotgun approach to innovation spending will lead to a positive outcome, it's highly probable that it also will result in wasted resources. Better to precisely target the effort.

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The numbers have been crunched, the envelope has been sealed and the final preparations for the FastTech 50 luncheon are being taken care of as you read this!

If you are in the tech community here in Houston, then you better be at the Hilton Americas Hotel downtown on Friday for the 7^th Annual FastTech 50 Awards.  It’s the can’t miss event of November!

This is the seventh year of our participation as the presenting sponsor and it will be the best event yet!  This is the first year we will be awarding one company the Paul Frison Accelerator Award. 

If you don't have a seat you will miss out on the premier event for emerging and tech based companies in Houston. To register visit http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/event/3613 or contact Lee Ann Semmel at lasemmel@bizjournals.com or 713-688-8811.

I look forward to seeing many of our friends at the luncheon.  A huge thanks to our sponsor group the Houston Business Journal, FOX 26, Frost Bank, the Houston Technology Center, Oracle Software, Pierpont Communications, the Rice Alliance, and Winstead.

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The annual Aggie 100 Winners Nuggets of Wisdom has been posted to the Aggie 100 website. The advice these entrepreneurs have chosen to share is invaluable both on a professional and a personal level. Here are a few highlights:

Find something you love to do. Develop a positive attitude and respect others. Uphold your ethical standards. Learn from difficult situations and never ever ever give up. Most importantly keep your family and your faith at the forefront. -Catherine Landeck Sliva –

Never underestimate the value of hard work. -Bill E. Carter

If you are going to dream, dream big! Be passionate, remain focused, surround yourself with talented individuals, look out for mentors and you will find success.
-Juan Manuel Lamparero

Treat people right! Your co-workers, your employees, your vendors, your customers, everyone you come in contact with. Be fair, be honest and treat people with respect. That strategy never fails and it's what being an Aggie is all about. -David Lipscomb

How will you take the wisdom offered by our 2007 honorees and apply it to your business? Or your personal life for that matter? 

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Note: Running most Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

Businesses don’t garner insights or make decisions. Businesses don’t close deals, invent new products, or find new efficiencies. People do. Strategies, organization, motivation, and leadership all set the stage for business success. But to see results, you also have to give your people the right tools, information, and opportunities—because success ultimately comes down to your people. We call businesses that foster a winning environment a “people-ready business.”

One of the key ways that people drive business change is through impacting their organization’s business processes. The ability to rapidly and continuously design, develop, and adapt your business processes in an agile fashion is a huge business advantage. 

Nevertheless, all organizations, irrespective of industry, share a need to improve processes in a number of key areas, including:

• Customer satisfaction and retention
• Faster time to delivery
• Improving employee productivity
• Trading partner interactions
• Administrative efficiencies and costs
• Flexibility, adaptability and streamlining of the disparate technologies that support business activities

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I just found out about a conference for entrepreneurs that will be held in San Antonio, April 23-25, 2008.

Called Envision08, the conference will feature the following speakers:

• Marcus Buckingham
• Guy Kawasaki
• Ray Rothrock
• Peter Schultz
• Stephen Covey

What a great line up! This will be an excellent learning and networking experience for entrepreneurs with businesses of all sizes.

The break out sessions are scheduled to be:

• Hiring/Selection
• Funding
• Culture
• Marketing
• Sales
• Innovation

There are still a few sponsorship opportunities available. For more information contact Don Newell at 832-746-7650 or d.newell@adec-solutions.com.

Right now pre-registration is availible on the website, www.envision08.com. More details to come soon!

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I sat next to a very interesting couple, David and Kelly Mebane, at the Aggie 100 luncheon 2 weeks ago. They are Aggie 100 winners (#11 on the list) and own Fat Tire Bike Tours and City Segway Tours. It seems like a really great company.

The company runs bike and Segway tours in several cities across Europe including Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Budapest, and Vienna. The run tours in the U.S. as well, in cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans and Washington D.C.

If you’re ever in any of these cities and have the time, be sure to check them out. If you want more information about the company or the tours here are the websites:

www.FatTireBikeToursParis.com

http://www.citysegwaytours.com/

www.ClassicWalksParis.com

David and Kelly, when are you going to expand to Houston?

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Note: Running most Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

This is the last in our series on Information Management from Microsoft and PKF Texas. The challenge most companies face is separating business software and processes from the people who make the business successful. Every business must expand its customer base, create new practices and products, devise efficiencies, and identify and adapt to change. Business situations that require effective business information management are numerous. Imagine if your company were able to:

• Reduce product development cycles and remove collaboration and process blocks among teams.
• Provide informed responses to rushed Request for Proposals from customers and prospects.
• Make more effective sales and marketing decisions, and respond faster than your competition to marketplace changes.
• Provide customer representatives with information they need to respond quickly to customers' questions at call centers and in stores.
• Use customer data from the company's CRM and other systems more effectively, to provide the right information to customers at the right time.

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