August 29, 2008

An Evening with Bill Kurtis

Last night I have the pleasure of meeting Bill Kurtis (A&E Investigative Reports, Cold Case Files, and for the younger set, Mr. Kurtis is the narrator for the movie “The Legend of Ron Burgundy”) at the Rice Alliance Kick Off meeting. PKF Texas was the primary sponsor of the event and as in the past, it was a wonderful evening.

Mr. Kurtis’s background started in Broadcast Journalism with a CBS affiliate in Kansas and he was quickly moved to Chicago where he became the local anchor. After a few years there, he took a job with CBS News and hosted several news broadcasts for several years until he recently moved to the A&E network, History Channel, etc. 

Mr. Kurtis has a current venture with an operation called Tallgrass Beef.  During his presentation he reviewed the history of agribusiness in the US from the Depression era to today and the impact on the cattle industry. Some new and very interesting research is suggesting the impact of grain fed beef to our bodies and how grass fed beef is much better for us. One additional thing I learned is that only the US raises feedlot cattle for consumption. Other nations only raise grass feed beef.

You can check out the website and gain some more information into his company and the impact of tall grass beef versus the alternative options.

Thanks, Mr. Kurtis, for a great evening.

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August 29, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook™: Succession Planning

Note: Running 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.

Succession plans seem to be the hot topic amongst entrepreneurs lately. Several CEOs of major corporations have announced their retirement plans. As this crop of Baby Boomers grows older and begins to retire, it’s only natural that succession planning would be top of mind.

It takes time to groom a successor so identify and create a pool of junior team members with high leadership potential. With proper mentoring, training and appropriate job rotations, junior team members will develop into effective senior managers.

Key things to think about when putting a succession plan into place:

1.      Your company’s long-term goals and objectives

2.      The developmental needs of your workforce

3.      Trends and predictions in your industry

Succession planning is about bringing forward the inevitable transfer of leadership to a time when it can be undertaken in a more controlled environment. With the proper preparation, the transition should be smooth and beneficial to the company.

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August 27, 2008

NASDAQ OMX Presentation at PKF Texas

We welcomed Tim Golomb, Managing Director – New Listings Corporate Client Group, Bill Shaw, Senior Managing Director – Global Capital Markets and Demitrios Skalkotos, Regional Vice President – Global Corporate Client Group from NASDAQ OMX in our office on Monday the 11th. We partnered with Hart Energy to bring them in to speak to a group of Houston executives. They discussed:

  • The role and future of stock exchanges
  • A review of global exchange markets
  • The merger of NASDAQ and OMX
    • Created the world’s largest exchange company
    • Trading, technology and public company service capabilities reach six continents
  • NASDAQ lists more IPOs than any other U.S. Exchange
  • NASDAQ has 168 listed companies in Texas with a total market cap of $122.8 billion

All very enlightening information. If you'd like to see the presentation, feel free to email me.  Thanks to Hart Energy for co-hosting! 

 

On a side note, have a great and safe Labor Day weekend. Next week’s blog entry will publish on Tuesday.

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August 25, 2008

State of the City Technology Report to be Held Sept. 15th

The National Space and Technology Association (NSTA) is hosting the first annual State-of-the-City report featuring Mayor Bill White as the keynote speaker. 

The luncheon will be held on September 15th at the Houston J.W. Marriott. Mayor White will be speaking about a number of City of Houston IT initiatives implemented during his administration. A brief question and answer session will be held after his presentation.

 

With the leadership of Houston’s goal to make Houston a destination workplace, I’ll be interested to hear what he has to say and will report back to you in September. The Mayor is an important figure to become involved with the future of technology aligning with Houston’s future.

 

For more information about the event, visit the NSTA website at www.nstaworld.org.

 

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August 22, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook™:Spreadsheets Love'em or Hate'em

Note: Running 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.

One of the most common business tools used today is the spreadsheet. Originally conceived and designed to be an individual productivity tool, most business people use them collaboratively, to pull information together or help manage processes. They are easy to use, versatile, low cost and millions office workers, clerks, accountants, and executives use them every day.

A recent survey by Ventana Research confirmed that while the benefits of this tool of the modern age are tremendous, a large amount of risks and hidden costs come into play as their use expands within an organization.  

If you find yourself saying: “Spreadsheets, I love’em and I have’em” at the same time, then you need to take charge of the situation.   Here is an easy three step plan to begin addressing the problem:

  1. Take an inventory of the spreadsheets used by your company every day. Assign ownership to each spreadsheet.
  2. Develop a series of internal controls for the creation and use of spreadsheets and assign accountability to the owners.
  3. And finally, look for alternatives to the spreadsheet, including use of additional applications or resources within your own ERP system.
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August 20, 2008

9th Annual Rice Kick-Off Celebration

As Gold sponsors of the Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship, PKF Texas is proud to share Rice Alliance events with our friends in the marketplace. Join us as we celebrate the success of the Houston and Texas technology entrepreneurship community and kick off a new program year for the Rice Alliance with keynote speaker, Bill Kurtis.

9th Annual Rice Alliance Kick-Off Celebration
"A Very Special Evening with Bill Kurtis"

Thursday, August 28, 2008
Rice University
McNair Hall, Jesse H Jones Graduate School of Management

  • 5:30pm - Registration & Reception
  • 6:30pm - Keynote
  • 7:30pm - Networking Reception

Keynote Speaker:
Bill Kurtis
Emmy Winning T.V. Journalist & Entrepreneur

An Emmy-winning, acclaimed documentary host and producer, network and major market news anchor, multimedia production company president, and grass-fed cattle rancher, Bill Kurtis is celebrating his 40th anniversary in the field of broadcasting.

In 2005, Bill founded Tallgrass Beef Company to champion the environmental and health benefits of grass-fed cattle ranching and to coordinate the efforts of small grass-fed ranchers across the country. Tallgrass Beef can be found in the finest restaurants, retailers, across the country.

In his home state of Kansas, Bill Kurtis has become a leader in the grass-fed beef industry. Grassfed beef are raised on his 10,000 acre ranch without hormones, are not fed antibiotics, are lower in fat, and are higher in omega-3.

Hear Bill's story of his career from TV journalist to grass-fed cattle entrepreneur.

To register and for more information contact Yanette Jimenez at 713-348-3164 or yanette@rice.edu. We hope to see you there!

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August 18, 2008

Fishing & Business

My good friend Richard Scruggs, Director of the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Texas A&M, wrote an excellent article for the CNVE newsletter that I would like to share with you.

Here is an excerpt from his article. 

“Ever seen a situation where there is a disconnect between management and the field? Can you imagine a situation where leadership thinks they have made a simple change but the people charged with implementing the change think direction just changed 180 degrees – again?

During a recent trip, my fishing buddy and I were discussing why a client’s team seemed dysfunctional. We knew management was frustrated that employees didn’t grasp the vision and know what to do next. From talking to people in the field we knew they wanted to do the right thing but they felt like direction was changing so often that they couldn’t keep up.

We knew the answer involved setting a vision, articulating it and sticking to it. It included setting clear expectations and giving people the resources they needed to do their job. It also meant trying to bring management and team members closer together so that there is clear communication, mutual understanding and freely flowing information.”

To read the whole article click here.

He makes several good points. My team and I recently took the proactive approach of taking The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team training class.  I wanted to make sure my team and have an open line of communication.  It was a good way to strengthen an already great team.

Have you faced the same issues as the company he describes? What did you do to overcome them? How were the channels of communication opened?

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August 15, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook™:SWOT Analysis

Note: Running 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.

There are many tools you can use to aid in the strategy development for your company. One of the most effective is to evaluate your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats referred to as a SWOT analysis.

You can use SWOT to analyze your company, a business opportunity or even as competitive intelligence. 

Take the time to write out your Strengths - What's great, or what you do well?;  Weaknesses - What you do badly, or are lacking?; Opportunities – Where, and what are they?; and Threats - What are your hurdles?

The value of SWOT is dependent on the quality of what you list. It must reflect the competitive strengths and weaknesses and be based on a real understanding of market opportunities and threats. Try to work it out from all viewpoints.

New opportunities may be uncovered, problems put into perspective, nasty threats revealed, real strengths you can cash in on, and weaknesses you can address.

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August 11, 2008

FastTech 50 Update

Things are rolling forward with the FastTech 50 nominations. Like the Aggie 100 this year we received a record number of submissions. 

We also had a record number of companies fill out the Enterprise Champion questionnaire. The Enterprise Champion leadership award is given to the business leaders whose exceptional companies demonstrate growth, industry leadership and above average company culture.

Thanks to all those who submitted a nomination packet. We have begun to analyze the data, and I’m impressed with the growth the companies have seen. I’m eager to see the final list. Good luck to everyone!

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August 8, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook™: Scorecards and Other Tools

Note: Running 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.

With the advent of improved financial reporting, and several management, self-help books outlining the benefits of Scorecards and other tools, the past few years have seen a surge in their creation and use.

The three main areas as defined by Ventana Research include:

  1. Scorecards. They show progress towards strategies, goals, and objectives by using key performance indicators. Scorecards can appear inside dashboards, but differ from dashboards because: a) they can have multiple perspectives or points of view and b) they apply a management methodology that maps a strategy.
  2. Dashboards. These are reporting tools that arrange measurements, metrics, etc. as compared to a goal on a single screen to be monitored at a glance. They differ from scorecards in that they are concerned with a specific role, or metric, and do not confirm to a management methodology.
  3. Performance alerts. These are notifications in various forms, email, portal, wireless device, etc. of a key trend or business alert associated with a goal.

We will revisit this area in the future to review the results of the Ventana Research. It offers some interesting feedback on these tools. In the meantime, how effective is your use of these tools?

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August 6, 2008

Guest Spotlight: Barbara Hayley - Use Net-Weaving to Your Advantage

At PKF Texas we often meet people in the marketplace who have advice that is beneficial to the blog audience .  Barbara Hayley of Hayley Ranch Consulting, Inc. is one of those people and she wrote the below guest blog for our readers.

I am often asked at my presentations to give advice to entrepreneurs about growing their business. I believe if you give more of your time, your efforts, your resources and your contacts to others generously, many good things will come to you. I founded my company, Hayley Ranch Consulting, Inc. based on the business theology of net-weaving. Net-weaving is a way to help others, being generous with your resources and contacts and find out who people are deep inside and share what you have with them.  

Do you have customer evangelists for your company? They are customers that believe in your company, your people and your products or services. They want you to succeed and want to share in your dreams and are willing to spread the word of your business. In order for your customers to believe in your business, you must start with a great team, talent and the right culture. It is important to know where you are, survey your people, find out where the gaps are and do something about it, don’t just let the dirt build up until it is too late. Your customers will not believe in your dream and vision unless the heart of the company is in the right place. So we net weave-become a connector and evangelist for others.

Another piece of advices I can share is to cross sell your customers to each other. Host “lunch and learns” for your customers. Have a speaker outside your industry teach them something; allow your customers an opportunity and drive the conversation for them to do business with one another.

Below are some action points and questions to ask yourself when analyzing your business:

  1. Visit with your customers
  2. Is your company focused on creating memorable experiences?
  3. Do your customers feel like a part of your family?
  4. Do you spend money and time on training your employees and is there a commitment for growth & development?
  5. Is employee compensation tied directly to customer ratings?
  6. Are employees empowered to do the right thing?

If you have thoughts, comments or questions, feel free to contact me at bhayley@hayleyranch.com.

Barbara Hayley is a 5th generation Texan and a 13th generation American and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Barbara formed Hayley Ranch Consulting, Inc. to provide exciting and innovative ideas for companies to market and serve their customers though a technique called Net Weaving. In 2008 Hayley Ranch Inc. was a finalist in a city-wide Star Awards Recognition. Barbara was recently named to the Board of Directors for the Houston West Chamber of Commerce and serves as a Director for Mind Technologies, Inc. Barbara can be reached at bhayley@hayleyranch.com.

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August 5, 2008

Identifying Fraud in a Company

PKF Texas has just launched a survey, www.pkftexas.com/fraudsurvey by our director of Internal Audit, Dan Ramey, CPA, CFE, which identifies a company’s potential for fraud. This survey can serve as a catalyst to begin a dialogue about the potential of fraud in an organization.

In addition to being a CPA, I am also a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). I think it’s important that companies identify the potential for fraud in their company. According to the latest Report to the Nation from the Association for Certified Fraud Examiners as much as 7% of top line revenue can be lost due to internal/occupational fraud.

Given the regulatory changes that have taken place, and more public awareness on improving internal controls and reducing fraud, do you feel your organization has made progress in improving internal control?  Or do you think little has changed since the increased oversight? 

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August 1, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook™: Recruitment

Note: Running 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.

Your business is growing and it’s now time to add more employees. The expense involved in hiring the wrong person, especially at a senior level, can be large. Hiring the right talent should not be an intimidating process. 

A key element is the defining the skills, attributes and traits that the ideal applicant should have.

It is important that the position description for the job be well understood and documented. It should contain responsibilities, duties and specific objectives of the position, not the person. Know what you’re looking for, before you start looking.

The interview itself should be structured in a way that brings out all the key traits and attributes of the candidate. It should also provide an opportunity for the candidate to gain the information they need to make their employment decision. 

Consider having the candidate interview with several members of your team. They have a good feel for the culture of your company, and you will have several additional internal opinions to help the decision process.

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